DaySailer.org Forum

I recently bought a previously owned DS II and put it in the water to test out the outboard motor and the centerboard controls.
The centerboard took on water. I had to take it out to address a stuck cable and heard the water sloshing inside it. Is that the way they're supposed to be?
Thanks!!

Hi Butneramus,

Some of the boats were made with center board that had a cavity inside to hold water. These boards would have a hole drilled along the leading edge and somewhere near the bottom to allow the water in and to allow it to drain when you put the board up respectively. I've heard these boards can have issues with swelling.

Check out your board and see if it has any drilled holes or if maybe the hole(s) have been filled with water in the board. Really there being water inside probably won't hurt anything unless you're worried about weight. If you do want to do something about it you might want to drill a small hole to drain the board and then fill it with epoxy.

That is very helpful. I had the thought that water in the centerboard would make the boat sail a little stiffer, but wasn't sure it was deliberate. There seem to be holes as you describe. Thanks!!
David

Why should water in the board make the boat sail stiffer?

If you capsize and the board it out of the water, if it drains slowly, during that time the water would have some righting moment. Once the board is submerged, the water has neutral buoyancy.

It does need to be accelerated, so it would make the boat a tiny bit more sluggish.

Now, there's a possible indirect effect. If you have a weight limit for the CB, then if you make your CB from some really dense material, it's more effective, because less of the weight is countered by buoyancy. Presumably, having the CB hollow would allow you to use a really dense shell, while not giving up on the profile shape (which requires some thickness). Not sure that the best-case difference would be (short of building the shell from depleted Uranium . Wonder whether it's remote worthwhile. More likely, they found it impossible to build a thick, profiled CB without it being positively buoyant, or nearly so, which has its own issues. Just not sure.

Question: On a DS2, a bouyant CB could be counteracted by using the downhaul. Does the lever system on the DS1 allow the CB to be held in a partially down (up?) position?

Some people rig systems to pull on the lever.

On the DS1 you can position the centerboard in any up or down position. You can control the amount of friction on the lever.

I had one of those old boards, and it swelled so much it would not fit in the trunk. I replaced it with a new board from D&R.