(how would a sailor get gravel in a centerboard slot? Well...)
Likely by beaching, centerboard up,?or running up onto a shoal?area where the
lake bed is gravelly.? On my 15, I've also had dropped items (bolts, screws,
Cheetos, marital accord) make it to the scuppers and down into the CB trunk
before I?moved to retrieve them.
That said, I fortunately haven't had the "stuck centerboard" problem in 24
seasons, on all kinds of bottoms, but then I'm averse to beaching and letting
wave action or the boat party up on deck grind my shoal keel down into the lake
or river bed.? Nonetheless I just bottom-coated the hull, including the
centerboard, and found more than a few chips and gouges.? Apparently I haven't
stayed off the bottom as religiously as I had thought.? I wondered how much
material I could paint onto the centerboard without creating a clearance
problem or at least getting much of it scraped off with the raising and
lowering of the CB, but there was a good deal, still, of "wiggle room," so I
may be one of the lucky ones who don't have to deal with the balky board.
I used a 5/16 pennant replacement.? The stop knot in the CB hole was a tight
fit, "persuaded" by some tapping with the end of a 1" dowel.? Hope I don't have
to do that again for a couple of decades, by which time I'll probably have
taken up shuffleboard.
-----Original Message-----
From: David C. Patterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35 am
Subject: M_Boats: CB connection shackle
Thanks, Arnold, for the info re: the CB shackle. That adds to the list of
considerations I have collected, namely 1) line size, 2) knot size, 3) trunk
swelling, 4) CB rusting, 5) stop tang breakage, 6) foreign items, like
gravel (how would a sailor get gravel in a centerboard slot? Well...) and
now from you 7) shackle width and length. As a side note someone mentioned
the reasonable habit of easing the board all the way down and then bringing
it up a little before cleating it. Doing that, I have found, decreases the
amount of water that squirts up out of the trunk in chop. Perhaps the trunk
isn't such a confined area with only that small opening, when the board is
slightly up. Anyway, it has worked for me.
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