Want to remove steel ctrbd, need advice

[JMAC]

My centerboard is a rusty old piece of 1/2" steel plate, roughly 2'x4'. I found a 5/16" Stainless steel bolt which runs through the lower fwd ctrbd trunk. That seems too light to be the only thing holding the board to the boat. The board has scaled to the point where you can't really see up into the slot to see a bolt. The boat is an A.R. True Rocket, built in 1957, sloop-rigged cedar on oak carvel planked.

I plan to (unless you tell me different)tie some rope under the boat to support the board and control the descent after I drive out the pin. Also I may need a bit of trickiness to get a new board back in.

[Nicholas Carey]

0. Wear steel-toed safety boots. The centerboard will neatly take off any of your various and sundry appendages that happen to be in the way if it falls. 1/2" steel plate weighs about 20-1/2 pounds per square foot. Your 24in. x 48in. centerboard weighs about 163 pounds.

1. You'll rope of sufficient strength to carry safely the weight of the board. You'll also need multiple-purchase block and tackle, as well as shackles to fasten to the centerboard.

2. Set up your block and tackle from a convenient place (e.g., a ceiling beam. Make sure you have enough room for the board to clear the hull.

1. Fasten a shackle through the hole to which the centerboard halyard attaches. Attach well the business end of the block and tackle to the shackle. Make really sure that the knot here aren't going to slip -- It's kind of exciting, and not in a good way, when the rope slips and a big chunk of sheet steel decides to drop on you :eek:

Don't ask me how I know this :rolleyes:

2. Relieve the load on the centerboard axle by taking up on the block and tackle. Make fast the lines.

3. Remove the centerboard axle.

4. Hoist away on your block and tackle. When the centerboard clears the hull, make fast your lines once more.

5. Move the hull out of the way.

6. Lower the board down onto your conveyance of choice.

That's about all there is to it.

Safety, Safety, Safety. Wear your steel-toed boots. Work carefully and safely. One slipup with a steel centerboard and it's extremely easy for someone to lose a hand or a foot or break a limb.

[ 09-13-2002, 07:59 PM: Message edited by: Nicholas Carey ]

[JMAC]

AH, but... the boat has a cabin and the board will have to go down not up, and the boat's big enough that I can't move it out of the way. I was thinking of holding the rear up with the pennant, cleated off, in the up position, and propping the forward end up with a brace to the ground to take the weight off the pin while driving it out, also having two ropes acting as slings to hold up the board while I remove the brace and uncleat the pennant. Then lower the ropes to remove the beast. This all sounds good on paper..er..cyber.

Any thoughts on this and also a coating for the new board?

[JimD]

I also have 1/2 steel plate centerboard, not quite the size of yours but about 125 lbs and also with a cabin over it, held in place with 7/16 inch bolt. The shape of the board and the trunk its in might make a difference. How easily do you think it might just drop out the bottom if you eased off on the pennant until the lower corner landed on the shop floor and then yanked out the bolt? That's what I'll be doing. I installed it last spring with not much more than the meagre muscle in my arm and I'm looking forward to having gravity working for me this time.

How rusty is it? Mine is hot dipped galvanized.
jimd

[Meerkat]

Hmmm... how hard would it be to dig a hole, move the boat over the hole and let it fall out into the hole?

[dale o]

If you have room to work underneath, think about one or two hydralic floor jacks. Lower one end of the board a little and support it front and back with a floor jack. Then slowly lower both ends after you drive out the pivot bolt. Be ready to support the plate from falling over when it clears the bottom. I hope this gives you another idea about how to do it. Be Safe. Don't get directly under it. Some cribbing or jack stands may help lower it in incriments. Best wishes

[dale o]

Hot dip galvanize the new board.

[Frank Wentzel]

JMAC

I suggest you check with the recycling/scrap metal yards in your area. I got a 3' x 5' piece of 1/4" thick stainless steel for 20 cents a pound. Stainless is expensive from a new metal dealer but scrap stainless is very low value (I don't understand why). In this case there will be little problem with corrosion since the metal will be exposed rather than buried in a joint. Stainless becomes a problem when it is denied access to oxygen. You will have surface corrosion (staining) but nothing like what you now have.

/// Frank ///

[ 09-14-2002, 12:33 AM: Message edited by: Frank Wentzel ]

[Dave Carnell]

I had one of those boats in 1954. While cruising with the family the pennant came loose from the centerboard. In the shallow water of the upper Chesapeake, I had to get it up to get home. Dove under the boat and after a lot of tries finally got the wire pennant tied in a knot to the hole in the board.

I'd get the boat elevated about a foot, lower the board till it touches the ground. Then knock out the pin inside the boat

[Dave Carnell]

I had one of those boats in 1954. While cruising with the family the pennant came loose from the centerboard. In the shallow water of the upper Chesapeake, I had to get it up to get home. Dove under the boat and after a lot of tries finally got the wire pennant tied in a knot to the hole in the board.

I'd get the boat elevated about a foot, lower the board till it touches the ground. Then knock out the pin inside the boat

[Dave Hadfield]

I went through this last fall (40ft ketch, 300lb steel centerboard).

The only way to hoist the boat high enough was to use a travelift.

The difficult part was getting the pivot-bolt out of the cast iron keel -- rusted together. It took 2 men all day and a welder half a day to get it out.

I got it reproduced by a local welding shop, hot-dipped galvanized (cheap, I think -- total cost about $400), and replaced it at spring launch, only this time I used a S.S. pin 1/16" dia less than the hole (for a sloppy fit).

I plan to remove it at haulout each fall, clean it, and give it a coat of paint-on zinc.

[Nicholas Carey]

Originally posted by JMAC:
...a coating for the new board?You could make the board of bronze smile.gif

Have it galvanised...then coat the thing in coal tar epoxy.