Day boat centre board jammed

[Old Forum]

Adam Sinclair
Username: Adam_sinclair

Registered: 11-2008
   
Posted on Thursday, April 02, 2009 - 10:29 pm:      
The swinging centre board on my day boat seems to be well and truly jammed. Has anyone had a similar problem or have any ideas on how to free it? Any tips would be much appreciated!

[Old Forum]

David Cawston
Username: David_cawston

Registered: 03-2007
   
Posted on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 - 07:35 pm:      
Does the day boat have just one swinging centreboard or two dropping bilge plates and is it/are they controlled by a lanyard attached to the aft of the plate/s? Anyway on the cruisers with twin plates, when I have jammed the plates with weed, after some time on the trailer out of water, the weed dries out, contracts and the plates are released. If the operating mechanism is the same as a cruiser, it may be possible to poke a bamboo pole or similar down the flexi tube after removing the fitting at the top of the flexi tube. Hope you get it sorted.

[Old Forum]

Adam Sinclair
Username: Adam_sinclair

Registered: 11-2008
   
Posted on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 09:51 pm:      
Dayboats have a different set up to the cruiser with a single centre plate. I eventually freed it with a home made tool through a hole under the compass that led into the casing.

[Old Forum]

Mike_seller
Username: Mike_seller

Registered: 06-2012
   
Posted on Monday, August 27, 2012 - 04:36 pm:      
Hello to all sufferers with jammed bilge plates,

I recently purchased "Heligan" (sail No 95) and she came with the portside bilge plate well and truly stuck in the up position. At first I thought liberal coatings of antifouling might be the cause so using a kitchen knife and wallpaper scraper I worked along both sides of the casing gently tapping these tools up inside the casing. As a result I released two cupfulls of sand/silt but still the plate refused to drop. I tried tapping the top of the plate by introducing a pole down the flexi tube - no luck. I decided that rust had probably welded the plate to the casing and that brute force was the only option. Using "G" clamps I attached a piece of 2"x2" timber along the bottom of the exposed plate. I then put the end of a 75mm wide round timber post (6ft length) on the top of this timber and lifted it up until it met up with the hulls chine with a piece of ply between to protect the GRP. I then pulled the post upwards with a number of jerks and gradually the bilge plate started to drop - as it did so I placed more timber on top of the 2"x2" to help with the angle of fulcrum required. When the plate eventually dropped out the metal weight was indeed very rusty and had not taken any of the GRP with it! Had the "G" clamps failed I would have drilled the bilge plates so as to bolt the support timber on.

[Old Forum]

David Cawston
Username: David_cawston

Registered: 03-2007
   
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2012 - 09:37 am:      
Well done Mike on getting the board free. Although the later plates did allow you to remove them, the plywood and steel created their own problems. Apart from a bit of wear in the hole where the pin passes through, our plates, the original steel encapsulated in GRP have given no problems at all, bar the odd occasion when weed got trapped when raising them.

[Old Forum]

Mike_seller
Username: Mike_seller

Registered: 06-2012
   
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2012 - 07:31 pm:      
Whilst the boat sits on her trailer David I now leave the plates so that they rest on the trailers cross member which leaves the iron weights exposed and free of the casings. I thought this might be better than pulling them up all the way as dampness in the air may result in more rusting and getting the boards stuck again. Now when it comes to my first launching must remember to yank on the string first!
Have to say I was amazed at the amount of silt that came out so much so I will probably direct a hose into the casing from time to time after a sail in the hope it washes out foreign matter.

[Old Forum]

David_bone
Username: David_bone

Registered: 07-2012
   
Posted on Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - 06:30 pm:      
My boat lies on a mooring 7 months of the year and despite inserting 5 kg of lead into each board, they still tended to stick in the 'up' position. Not being able to rely on a compliant son to jump overboard and pull them out, I installed the following freeing rods.
Fully up, the 12mm stainless rods project about 60mm and if a board sticks, a sharp whack on the knob soon sends it down