Centerboard sag

[Dan]

Hello All,

I've got a 1984 Spindrift Daysailer 1 and I've noticed that even when the centerboard lever is all the way forward and the boat is on the trailer, the centerboard sags slightly below the hull. On windy days this makes it especially difficult to get the boat back on the trailer perfectly centered because the board tends to be on one side or the other of the center roller.

Is there something I can do to rectify this problem and how difficult will it be if it's just me doing it? I do have experience restoring old boats but have not had to deal with this issue.

Thanks, Dan

[GreenLake]

Dan, this is not an uncommon problem. The DS is light enough that one can repositition it on the trailer by manually lifting the back end (if you can rest your elbows on your thighs while doing this, you'll escape potential back problems). This works best if the front is correctly placed and only the stern is off - that's the usual case.

To get the CB back on the roller requires a helper with a paddle (or simillar), the sole purpose of that is to push the CB up while the boat is being shifted sideways.

Mounting a really wide center roller might help, but not all trailers provide correctly spaced holes for mounting a wider roller.

Mine did allow that for the last roller, and that's now been upgraded to the widest (shallow) V shape I could find. It has a notch in the middle and I place the trailer so I can "capture" the front of the boat in that notch, which helps immensely and even allows some pivoting to align the boat.

With wind/wakes/waves the stern can still escape. I correct as described, but on some ramps the whole boat gets blown sideways very easily. I haven't found a solution short of mounting vertical positioning bars (which would make my trailer wider than I like, so I've ruled them out).

[kokko]

I suspect the sag is due to the shaft hole in the cb rounding out. THe lever has a square shaft that goes through a square hole in the bc. As this rounds out, it will lead to the sag you describe. Next haul out drop the cb and take a look.

[Dan]

To GreenLake and Kokko:

Thanks for your replies and suggestions. I will try them both.

Dan

[Jett]

Maybe there's some bad karma in reading some of the posts before heading to the water.

I went out today by myself (OK, Murphy was with me the whole way) in my '83 Spindrift. My centerboard sags some just as Dan describes. I've checked the square centerboard bolt and centerboard hole for any undue wear, but they look fine to me.

One important thing about watching out for a sagging centerboard is that it can hang up on the trailer when floating the boat off on a shallow boat ramp. Today I pushed the boat off just fine, but as the wind was coming directly at the ramp, it pushed the boat back onto the trailer at a weird angle before I could pull it out. So, I'm in the water wrestling with the boat, afraid to back down deeper with it hung up on the trailer. Got the boat off and the trailer out of the water just fine. Tied up boat to the floating dock, bow to wind, and parked car and trailer.

Back at boat, rigged sails, centerboard down, rudder down (I have kick up version), lifevest on, lines cast off and into the boat. Gusty. Sailed away from the dock...backwards! Wind just pushed the boat back as I was pulling in sheets to set sail. So, boat backs onto the ramp where the centerboard now sticks and behaves like any proper pivot should. Back in the water to push the boat forward and back toward the dock. (I've learned the hard way to put my cell ph. anywhere but my pocket!). Finally, I'm off, this time on a fast beat away from the dock.

Only one problem...the rudder is now flopping uselessly as the lower pintle came out when the stern of the boat backed onto the ramp. (I have a tab that springs against the top of the lower pintle to keep it in place, but it didn't work this time). I tried to head into the wind, sails loose, to see if I could spend a moment to wrestle the rudder back into place. No luck. I managed to sail over to another dock and somehow got the rudder back on after about 5 minutes of struggle. The upper pintle had bent a slight bit when the rudder was pushed loose against the boat ramp, so the two pintles were out of alignment with the gudgeons, so I had to bend the upper pintle back some so both would fall into place...lots of fun with the boat bobbing up and down against the dock.

Finally away again and this time got in some great sailing. But when I got back to the ramp and got the boat back on the trailer, the wind was so gusty I couldn't center the boat properly so I could be sure the centerboard was resting on the roller, and had to back the boat and trailer down 3 times before getting it centered. Finally got it, and Murphy finally got off my boat.

Hey, after 35+ years of sailing I've managed to perfect one thing...my comedy routine at the boat ramp is tops.

[GreenLake]

I know what you mean. There are certain ramps where I've not been able to retrieve the DS with fewer than three people, any attempts to do it with fewer doomed until I enlisted the necessary number of bystanders to come to the full complement.