Question: replacing the 26 or 260 centerboard with a stainless steel one for more ballast?

[MikeH]

When I sailed smaller boats, Lightnings and Rebels, we sometimes replaced the center boards with stainless steel ones, which lowered the center of gravity of the boat, gave us a little less heeling, and let us remove weight elsewhere in the boat. Has anyone tried replacing the center board in 26 or 260 with a stainless steel one? I would think that, in the water, it wouldn't add that much weight to the hinge point, and of course it's expensive, but I think it might be worth it. Thoughts?

 

[dlochner]

The effect would probably minimal. The extra weight in a very light boat such as a Lightning or Rebel would make a difference, however, on a boat that weighs in at 4800 lbs (H26), the additional few pounds would not amount to much as a percentage of total weight. If you are racing there are other things to do to improve standing, good sails, clean bottom, skilled crew, and learning tactics, especially at the starting line.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

The dry weight of the Hunter 26/260 is 3,000 pounds. Add a 1,000 pounds of water ballast, the displacement is 4,000. It was designed to be a pleasure style sailboat easy to handle. The centerboard was designed control sideways movement. Adding a stainless steel keel would be defeating the purpose of the centerboard. There are other issues as well trying to use steel but my typing and arthritis do not help me.

 

[MikeH]

Thank you both! I was thinking a SS centerboard (not a keel) would allow me to eliminate the water ballast which has a tendency to slosh around, and drain to the low side when heeling. A SS centerboard would replace that 1,000 lbs but put more of that weight laterally when heeling. I'm not disagreeing, just adding commentary.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Check the bottom of the water ballast water inlet to see if the neoprene gasket is still working. If not , it will need replacing. Is it still sloshing when walking inside on teak and holly sole?

 

[MikeH]

Check the bottom of the water ballast water inlet to see if the neoprene gasket is still working. If not , it will need replacing. Is it still sloshing when walking inside on teak and holly sole?

Great suggestion. We will check it out.

 

[caverun]

Not to mention the difficulty raising a much heavier steel centerboard with the existing mechanism. The factory design does not provide much mechanical advantage and even the stock centerboard requires using the winch to raise on my H260. I don't think the deck fittings could handle much more.

 

[MikeH]

Another great point, thanks Caverun

 

[Johann]

When I had my 23.5 I had the same issue. It turned out that the gasket was not sealing because the valve assembly was misaligned. The metal plate had about a 1/4” gap on one side when closed. I had to remove the assembly and drill a new hole for the threaded rod (at the base of the companionway) to get the alignment correct. A big clue that your valve isn’t sealing is if you launch with the valve closed, but water enters the tank anyway. After aligning the valve in my case water wouldn’t enter the tank even with the valve “open” as the water pressure pushed the valve closed. I would need to push the threaded rod down until the tank was full.

 

[rgranger]

What @Crazy Dave Condon said about sloshing.... Sounds like you really need to get that ballast tank water/air tight.

I had to replace the gasket on my water ballast tank ... on a long heel the water was draining out and causing problems. The original gasket was neoprene but I made my own out of rubber.....I lowered the ballast tank plate onto the trailer... then made a "dam" around the edge of the tank plate with masking tape, then squeezed an entire tube of marine grade goop onto the plate and let it set up. I also replaced the valve plug at the top of the tank (inside the boat). You need a good seal on both ends of the tank to keep the water from "sloshing".... then you want to make sure the tank is full.

Your idea of a heavier dagger board makes sense but there are easier ways to get the same result. You could lower weight aloft by changing to dynema rigging.... or you could $pend $ome mony on a carbon fiber mast.. You could also add ballast to the tank itself by dissolving salt in the tank. That would increase the density of the water in addition to actually adding mass to the tank. Over the years there have been a few people on here that added cement to the ballast tank... that seemed to end badly with damage to the tank when trailering. So don't do anything permanent.

And if you really want to add mass down low... you could chisel out a 6" x 6" x 4" block in the lower end of your dagger board and epoxy in a lead block. Do a little fiber glass work to get it looking nice again and....that is just shy of 57 pounds down low. An easier way to get lead into your keel would be to use a hole cutting bit like this..

And cut a bunch of holes then fill in the holes with lead shot and epoxy...

Of course if this were my boat, I'd learn to sail it flat (different way of sailing) OR I would find a scrapped H26 and experiment on that boats keel before I tried it on my own...