Centreboard | Reinstallation

It was time to put the centreboard back into the boat.

I made the original pendant from a length of Dyneema, as recommended in the drawings. It was difficult to seal the ends properly, and I was never happy with it. It is flat rather than round, and doesn't behave well.

So while the board was out of the boat I rove a new 6mm braid-on-braid pendant. It is low rather than zero stretch, at less than 5%. But I think that's fine.

I attached the new pendant to the centreboard, ready for installation. Here it is.

I sanded the primer around the pivot hole in the keel, like this.

There was quite a lot of debris in the centreboard case, so I used a length of plastic tubing taped to the vacuum cleaner hose to remove it. It worked well. Here it is.

I needed help to reinstall the centreboard, so MVLW (my very lovely wife) was recruited. I climbed up onto the hull and inserted the board while MVLW lined up the holes and pushed a 10mm bolt through the keel and the board.

I lowered the board into the keel.

That was a mistake.

My following attempt to knock the bolt through the keel with a hammer to insert the new pin revealed that it was solidly stuck in place, captive by the lowered board.

Here is the bolt and hammer.

We should have inserted the bolt while the board was still up in the air, allowing the latter to be manipulated to accept the bolt and then the pin.

But it was now impossible to lift the heavy board up out of the slot by hand. I needed mechanical assistance.

So I taped some plastic foam sheeting to a pair of long nosed pliers, to avoid damaging the board, and used them to haul the centreboard up so I could grab and lift it.

Here are the pliers.

MVLW helped again by inserting the bolt through the keel and a dowel under the board and across the keel to hold it upright, like this.

It was then very easy for me to tap the bolt through the keel and slide the new pin into place. Job done.

I dropped the board back into the keel, as here.

This is the new pin in its hole.

That's a relief. But the whole exercise went a lot more smoothly than the first time we did it.

Lastly I filled the keel holes with resin on both sides and used tape to hold it in place, like this.

That feels like a big step forward to finishing the bottom of the boat!