Centerboard and Daysailer II

[Guest]

I finally finished my 1977 DS II centerboard saga yesterday. Thanks to this forum, I saved myself a lot of time, aggravatiion and expense.

I started down this road because the centerboard would not go all the way down no matter how hard we tugged on the lowering rig. So I read all the form entries about

centerboards and got started. For once in my life I looked before I leaped. My wife was amazed.

My name is Rowe, pronounced row, so it seemed natural to name the boat "The Rowe Boat." Especially since I have a fondness for puns.

So I trailered The Rowe Boat into the back yard and tied a yoke around the stern cleats. This I attached to a handy tree and then gently pulled the trailer out from under

the old girl. Using the crowbar-tiedown method (thanks, forum attendees) I careened her over until the mast was pretty much horizontal. Now, I tried the method someone

outlined of constructing a sawhorse type brace to cradle the bow, and that worked for a while. But the lines I was using to keep the bow up high enough to get her back on

the trailer eventually slipped off. Bummer, that.

From there I was able to get the pivot bolt out by contorting myself a lot. I unrigged the board and pulled it out to see what was up. It was pretty scuzzy all around.

A previous owner had made some repairs to the centeroard trunk/hull joint with some kind of auto body filler putty without sanding any of it down. He or she obviously had

done this without removing the centerboard because the lousy repairs made it tough to get the board all the way out. And tough to get all the way down in the water! When I

did get the board free, I saw that someone had drilled a neat hole in it about 3/4 of the way to the aft or lower end, obviously to let water in. Itg was still wet. Perhaps

that someone thought the board was too light. But the hole was about 1/4 inch across, so it would take a while to fill the hollows of the centerboard with water.

After cleaning the scuzz off the board and sanding it smooth, I considered what to do next. Since I don't have any intention of racing The Rowe Boat, so I wasn't worried

about the board's weight--except for letting it down gracefully and bringing it back up. So I usd a hole saw to cut out a 1-1/4 inch plug over the existing small hole and

filled that hollow with number 8 lead shot set in unthickened epoxy. I added about eight pounds of lead to bring the board's weight up to about 29 pounds. Should I ever

decide to get back within class limits, I might buy a new centerboard.

Then I patched my hole with its cutout and some 'glass tape set in thickened epoxy. I also filled some deep scratches and a couple of significant dings. Finally, I sanded it

again and blessed it with a rolled and tipped coat of unthickened epoxy. I had thought about covering it with some light fiberglass, but I didn't want to increase its width

much at all.

Now, time to do something about all that body filler in the hull! I scraped it out not only from around the centerboard trunk, but from the keel forward as well. I couldn't

see anything that looked like cracks, but I decided not to take a chance. So I reinforced the centerboard trunk's joint at the hull and the keel forward up to the waterline

with 3-inch tape set in thickened epoxy. It doesn't look so wonderful as-is, but gel-coat should hide these sins. Right now, it's time to get into the water.

Yesterday, I got the centerboard back into the hull and bolted without help. With the boat careened, the board did not try to fall out, so no one was needed to struggle

under the boat to position the board and hold it just so. I marked the location of the pivot from the outside/lower edge of the board with a try-square and a marker, set a

white piece of dowel in the pivot hole so it rested through the (careened) upper side of the trunk on the centerboard itself, then used a powerful flashlight to see where

things were. I only had to move the board a bit of an inch this way or that, several times, before the dowel fell through.

Right, I should have put something on it to keep it from doing that. Oh, well, I'll see if I can hear it rattling around when I tack.

Much to my surprise, the pivot bolt went right through. So I bedded both washers and began the lengthy process of tightening the bolt. That was frustrating, so I made

absolutely sure the nut was on well enough not to fall off at any time during any jostling and decided to finish tightening it when everything was upright on the trailer.

Getting the boat back on a non-tilting, rather inexpensive trailer alone was an exercise in levers and fulcrums, winches and lubricants. But I managed.

My wife isn't thrilled about the trampled grass (read: pretty dead, really) in the back yard, but I think I will try to design something a little more permanent and

hull-friendly. Like a couple of 4x4's 12 feet long covered on their upper surfaces with carpeting and set in a sturdy, steadying frame. I have a scissors jack I could

stabilize and use to lift the front of such a rig up to trailer bunk height when all my under-hull work was done. Careening would be simple and the careened hull would rest

on supports that would keep the "rub rails" off the ground.

We shall see.

Thank you, forum denizens! This is a great place for information and I hope I have offered some help and hope as well.


Bob Rowe (rowerw-at-comcast.net)

[psness]

You are a braver man than I. I recently bought a '79 DSII and am doing various refurbishing before getting it in the water. I don't know if the cb works properly and I was "thinking" about doing exactly what you described. My biggest fear was getting the boat back on the trailer. So, instead, last night I drove it to a local marina that has a hoist and will be allowing them the joy of checking out the condition and operation of the cb. I appreciate your hard work, but I was just too chicken.

[Guest]

When we had a DSII, we repaired the centerboard by launching the boat at a nearby lake and then bringing the boat up a little ways on the sandy shore. By pulling on the main halyard, we brought the boat up on its side. To make it easier, you can have one person lift the side of the boat while another pulls down on the halyard. You can use boat cushions to protect the side from scratches. When the boat was on its side, we held the mast down on the ground with some line tied to a cement block. With the boat on its side, it's easy to work on the centerboard or remove it and work on it at home. The centerboard bolt can be taken out before or after the boat is raised on its side.

As for the hole near the lower end of some centerboards, we were told they were made that way, to drain any water from hollow spots in the centerboard.

After we repaired the centerboard, it went up and down smoothly. During a previous repair job, someone had left out the bushings that go around the bolt in the centerboard well. As a result, the well would put pressure on the board when the nuts were tightened on the pivot bolt. That was the main problem with the centerboard when we first got the boat.



Brooke (brookelise-at-comcast.net)

[Guest]

I should have said bushing, not bushings, on the pivot bolt. There's only one, around the bolt, and it goes through the hole in the centerboard. If you don't have it in there, the well will tighten down on the board.

Brooke (brookelise-at-comcast.net)

[Roger]

do you remember the year of that ds II? I have a 1974 and have not had the opportunity to take off the board, but this is the first time I have heard of the bushing as well.

My impression in talking to others is that this boat changed slightly during its manufacturing years, likely depending on who was building it. I note that some have a rear traveller, others have a mid boom cb trunk set up for the main.

[psness]

Well, I just got back from the marina where they hoisted the boat up in the air and we checked out the cb. It works freely up and down and the cb itself is in good shape (dodged a $300 expense there). All they will do is replace the line and put it all back in place. One line (wire) attaches to a metal tab and the other end of the line goes into the cb and was knotted in a cut-out that was filled over with putty. One more step closer to getting her in the water!

[Guest]

I think it was was a 1977 DSII. The plastic bushing goes around the pivot bolt, in the hole in the centerboard. Without the bushing, which is slighly wider than the centerboard, the centerboard well would tighten down on the centerboard when you tightened the nuts on the pivot bolt, making it difficult to raise and lower the centerboard. With the bushing, the nuts tighten down on the bushing, not the centerboard. Rudy at D& R Marine (drmarine.com) sells the bushings. Anyway, good sailing to you!

Brooke (Brookelise-at-comcast.net)