Centreboard | Remedial Action

Some time ago I noticed that the centreboard had dropped slightly out of its case. And the tip was just resting on the cross member of the stern build cradle, which was stopping it from falling to the floor.

I didn't pay too much attention to it at the time, thinking that I could simply haul the board back up into its case and cleat it in place for the move onto the trailer when the time came.

Then a few days days ago, while working inside the boat, there was a loud bang from somewhere underneath.

I initially thought something must have failed and broken, but thankfully on closer examination I found that the centreboard had simply dropped to the floor. With a crash.

I checked it for damage and although nothing disastrous had happened I did see that the very tip of the board was bent over slightly to port.

It seems that the epoxy resin extension to the trailing edge of the centreboard had been compressed by the build cradle, and bent over slightly.

Here is a pic - you can't see the damage too well, but it's there. It is slight, however.

I was initially worried that the board itself my have been affected, with my weight moving around inside the boat exerting pressure on the dropped board via the stern cradle and thereby perhaps on the pivot pin through the keel.

I needed to make sure that the centreboard could move freely inside the case, so I could check for distortion. To do this I used my pair of bottle jacks to raise the boat very slightly and pushed the build cradle forward a fraction, thereby giving the board plenty of room for movement.

This is the jack at the front of the keel.

And here is the other jack at the stern.

That worked and I was then able to easily move the board up and down inside the case by hauling on the pendant. And everything was fine.

So all that I had to do now was repair the tip of the board.

I sanded it back to shape and applied a first coat of primer.

So far so good, but when I washed the brush in thinners - as usual - the paint on the brush 'curdled' or 'split'. There was something badly wrong with it!

The Epifanes paint and thinners were above suspicion, so it must be the brush. But why? And how?

I remembered that I had touched up inside the companionway, using the household paint that I used to paint the interior. And I had used the same brush to do it, just to paint two or three feet of framing.

Incredibly, something from that household paint had transferred to the brush and contaminated it - and very probably the Epifanes primer that I had just applied.

Something similar had of course happened before on an epic scale, causing me to repaint the whole boat.

I probably should have known better... but it still seems amazing to me that marine paint is so extraordinarily sensitive to contamination by 'alien' substances.

Luckily this was a tiny area of paint, so I simply sanded it clean and started again.

Here is the tip of the board, sanded back.

Three coats of primer followed, sanded between coats with a fine grit.

And then three coats of gloss were applied, wet sanded between coats with a P400 grit.

Here is the port side of the board, repainted and ready to go.

It's not perfect, but it really doesn't matter because no one will ever see it again. The main thing is that the tip is flat and smooth.

Likewise, I was a bit surprised to find that the gloss on the centreboard had yellowed slightly while entombed in darkness for a couple of years.

Again, it is unimportant because it will never be seen again.

Bit it still bugs me. I think paint has been the single biggest cause of headache and rework in this whole build.

Thank the Lord it's nearly over...