DaySailer.org Forum

New owner of 78 DSII
The CB on my boat doesn't retract all the way.
With the retraction cable pulled as far as the raising rig permits, very close to mast step, I've got 4-5" of CB still exposed below the hull.
If this isn't normal could the cable have stretched and need to be slightly shortened?

Thanks in advance
Steve from NH

Steve,

I have a 1980 DS II. My CB does retract all the way into the trunk. Shortly after I bought the boat, the uphaul cable broke loose from the board and I had to drop the CB and re-attach the cable. It could be that your P.O. had the same problem and moved the attachment tang up on the board rather than reattaching it to the original location. It isn't a long cable so I doubt it would stretch.

Is there a way to check that without completely removing the CB? I suppose not unless a roto-zip an inspection port. Pretty soon my boat will be collection of inspection ports with sails!

ChrisB wrote:Steve,

I have a 1980 DS II. My CB does retract all the way into the trunk. Shortly after I bought the boat, the uphaul cable broke loose from the board and I had to drop the CB and re-attach the cable. It could be that your P.O. had the same problem and moved the attachment tang up on the board rather than reattaching it to the original location. It isn't a long cable so I doubt it would stretch.

Fatire, (is that a reference to mountainbiking?) Here is a drawing of my CB (sorry it's so fuzzy, I'm pretty fuzzy too).



There is a well known problem with the slack uphaul or downhaul falling to the side of the CB and jamming the operation of the CB. When this happened to me I could usually free the board by pulling hard on one of the control lines or pushing a metal rod in the downhaul hole to force the board down.

I fixed this problem by taking the board out, with the boat careened on it's side, and routing the uphaul and the downhaul lines through a circular cotter pin (such as used on a clevis pin) at the point where they cross paths. In this way the slack line was always supported and didn't fall to the side of the board. I can't think of any reason why you couldn't do this in the water! (The board is about 25 pounds).

Another solution would be to replace the wire rope control lines with 1/8" Dyneema. The line would be just as strong and stretchless but is less wide and should not get caught.

Now I have a 3 to 1 purchase on the downhaul, and a 4 to 1 purchase on the uphaul because the board occasionally sticks, perhaps the board's pivot hole is enlarging on the pivot pin and allowing misalignment.

But, I can't think of a way to work on the CB without releasing the pivot pin and pulling the board out...

Thanks for your reply.
Yeah you guessed it, my nick is a reference to another passion, mountain biking!
When I first tried to lower the CB on the trailer and released the up-haul it wouldn't budge until I yanked on the down-haul line.
Not sure if it's just sticky or really jammed.
But what conflicts me about it being jammed like your post suggests is the fact that the up-haul cable IS being drawn upward to it's full extent.
In a jamming situation wouldn't we expect that the UH would be stopped from reaching full raise position by the jam?
I'm going to get this boat in the water this wekend and tinker with the CB operation and also re-read the posts regarding CB bolt/pin refurbish.
Anyway I slice it, it looks like I'll need to cut a CB inspection port right?

Update: Reaching forward in through the bilge insp. port I was happy to find that my 78 in fact has a straight forward CB bolt versus a pin-plate-wedge arrangement and that in fact a CB insp. port may not be needed.

PS I don't suppose there's any chance of getting a larger version of that sketch?

Fatire, here's a better pic (from DS Technical Note from 'The Day Sailer' #100 Spring 1986).



NOTE: The uphaul exits a couple feet more forward than my drawing and boat. Also, the control line anchors on the CB are about 10 inches farther apart. Your mileage may vary.