This may be helpful to someone out there. My 23 rested on the bottom at low tide and forced a rope into the centerboad trunk. I tried to force it down with an iron rod but only managed to damage the hose connecetion in the centerboard rope tube. The leak was slow enough that I was able to save the boat from sinking by quick action. I replaced the connecting tube with a clear vinyl hose from the hardware store that is the exact size of the pipe that enters from the deck. It is a tight fit but with some white lithium grease it can be done. Then I put radiator hose clamps on it. This put me back where I was with a stuck centerboard. While this was going on I put in a lift. When I got it up out of the water, I found it was fully retracted and really stuck tight. I called a boat rigger that had worked on our boat before. He suggested a metal yardstick to clear out the barnacles but he didn't know about the rope. It was too far forward to get any leverage. There was no way to get ahold of the centerboard to pull it down. He said he would come out for $50 and hour, which was when I got innovative. I drilled a small pilot hole in the end of the centerboard, put in a large screw eye, tied a rope on it and with a 2X4 for leverage I easily brought it down. Of course, without the lift it could not have been done. What I don't understand is why so many people have trouble with stuck centerboards. After being in the water in the Alafia River for months in the up position there were hardly any barnacles on the centerboard or in the trunk and after I got the rope out I found that the centerboard is really loose in the trunk - at least a quarter inch of space on each side.