Hello Andrei, I would make sure this gets fixed right, I have a 1977 M17. Shortly after I bought it and took her sailing last year I noticed we were getting water between the hull and hull liner. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out where I had a leak, it turns out the center board had been dropped one too many times and had deformed the stop pin which compromised the seal and was causing water to enter the keel and ultimately between the hull and hull liner. I had a local yard cut the side of the keel off to let everything dry out and when they did this they found a 6 inch long crack in the fiberglass under the stop pin that was also leaking. This crack we figured was caused by dropping the keel too hard against the stop pin and wouldn't have been something I saw just looking from the outside since the crack was up in the keel trunk. They took care of fixing the problem and also re- finished my centerboard for around $900 which I didn't think was too bad. I hope this information helps.
Regards, Chad On Sep 27, 2008, at 11:52 PM, Andrei Caldararu wrote: > Hello Monty sailors, > > after sailing my M-17 today, when I tried to raise the centerboard a > couple of times I lost hold of it and it dropped with a big "plunk". I > didn't have the knot in the centerboard line which some people > mentioned here, since I guess the previous owner never had it (stupid > of me, obviously). > > Anyway, when I pulled the boat out of the water afterwards I noticed > that a piece of fiberglass about 1in x 1/2in which is the very rear > bottom corner of the keel was almost completely broken off. I was able > to take it off the boat, by just pulling lightly on it. It is the area > behind and below the metal pin that I think is the stop for the > centerboard. I assume that when the cb banged down on it a couple of > times, the fiberglass around it cracked and broke. The actual metal > pin stop is still in place, but the bottom half of it is now naked > metal, and it feels rather wobbly. > > How do I fix this? I have little to no experience with fiberglass and > gelcoat, although I might be able to find either a shop who knows (but > would charge me an arm and a leg), or learn somehow how to do it > myself. Is this a delicate job that needs someone with experience, or > can the job be described in an e-mail? > > My first thought was to take some 5 minute epoxy and glue the piece I > have back on, but I guess there's more professional ways of doing > this. > > Any help will be appreciated. > > Thanks, > > Andrei. > > > _______________________________________________ > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
