Rhodes centerboard operation
Carl,It does indeed sound like a Rhodes. Congrats! They are wicked boats. I was actually shopping for a Rhodes when I accidentally bought my Catalina 25! (Its a long story involving the need for enclosed head). There is an active one design racing scene in several parts of the country, including Maryland and Del.At the point in O'day's building philosophy, the centerboard mechanism were very straight forward. The longer lever (bronze, probably?) has a square post that goes in to the CB trunk. The CB has a hole bored into with a square bronze insert that fits the lever. When you move the lever, you move the board, simple as that. The little lever locks the board in the up position for hauling, beaching etc. There are two things to deal with with these boards.1. The mechanism can leak. There is a neoprene gasket between the flange on the lever and the trunk. It gets old and doesn't seal well. Buy a new one from Stuart Marine in Rockland, ME., or cut a new one from a mouse pad you don't like anymore. The trickle of water into the boat is no big deal but can get annoying.2. The square insert in the board can get rounded out. If this happens the board can slop a litter fore and aft, and will not retract all the way into the boat to put it on the trailer. If so:a. buy a new one from Stuart Marine. (I eventually did this with my daysailer [from Cape Cod Shipbuilders, the current Daysailer builder])b. cut the board apart on jury rig (I did this on my daysailer with moderate sucess)c. live with the slop and pass a line under the hull to hold the board up when you want to get onto the trailer. (I did this for a good long time until a broke the board with a judicious combination of tidal flow, rock, dock, lobsterboat, harbormaster's launch, and sun induced stupidity.)Justin - O'day Owner's Web