Swing Keel rope replacement

[Starscream]

I got my CB out relatively simple (it just needed a little extra persuasion). I should be finished sanding the bottom of my boat today. I might have good temps by the end of this week for paint. Will post photos later.

Sounds like you and I are at about the same point. Are you using a barrier coat? What Anti-foul did you choose?

The interprotect 2000E seems to be doing a very good job filling the scratches and dings. I had one deep scratch that penetrated the old barrier coat and dug deeply into the gel coat below. I mix up small batches of 2000E and put a couple of extra layers on with a small paintbrush, and most of them are almost gone. I used the small paintbrush technique to do the edge of the centerboard trunk but I didn't touch whatever was up inside there.

First coat done:


The old 2000E barrier coat is still mostly intact, only sanded it off in a few places, so most of the bottom will end up with a very thick coating. I think I am going to do three coats: two grey and the top one white. It takes just under a gallon of 2000E to do one coat.



Here is the scratch, sanded level. I think it will be completely gone after the next coat.

[Dougiestyle]

I am about ready to put the CB back in and I'm not sure which knot to use. I had a cable on the old CB but a non stretch rope is recommended.
Here are 2 possible examples. any recommendations

Figure 8 type knot




or bowline type knot

[Tomfoolery]

Figure 8, aka 'stopper' knot, is all you need. At least, it's all my boat needed as I discovered when I replace the antique line on mine, so that's what I used again.

[Dougiestyle]

Thanks Tom I wasn't sure, I had a cable on my old CB.

Almost finished the bottom paint. Will post photos, etc. soon

[Starscream]

Here's a photo of the original knot. I took it to make absolutely sure that the new one was excatly the same. I melted the end just a tiny bit to be sure.

[Starscream]

Well, I did it again, meaning running full throttle with the board down at 20 mph. For quite some time. A total miscommunication between me and the admiral had me thinking she put it up, and her thinking that I put it up.

With full ballast and full family on board, there was zero hint of instability. Not like when I tried it with no ballast and it rolled over immediately.

The red tape on the up and down positions caught my eye, but I had to see it a few of times to realize that their positions meant the board was down. I was convinced that it was up, and my brain read the tape positions as up just so that I would agree with myself, it seems.

[DaveC426913]

Am I the first one to point out that calling any line on a boat a "rope" will get you keelhauled?


(Definition of a "line": a rope with a job. )

[DaveC426913]

The red tape on the up and down positions caught my eye, but I had to see it a few of times to realize that their positions meant the board was down. I was convinced that it was up, and my brain read the tape positions as up just so that I would agree with myself, it seems.

Odd. My board line is only just long enough to do its job. When board is down, it's right up against the cleat.
Thus, if there is any line dangling at all, the board is not down.

Is yours longer than necessary?

[Starscream]

Nope, it was clearly in the down position. But my brain overrode the obvious visual a couple of times because I was sure it was up. Plus, new markings, new line.

Lol I didn't start this rope thread I just hijacked it somewhere down the line.

[OverEasy]

We would like to say THANK-YOU to those on this thread about changing the rope (actually it’s a line because it’s got a purpose ) on the swing keel for a Mac26X.

It got us to thinking and then to mulling and the to looking and then to doing. It wasn’t in our plans but we are very glad we did before getting on the water!

The keel line had worn through the jacket and well into the core in two places within the keel trunk! Afew more pulls and we would have been all messed up!!



The pivot pin was another surprise! It had been chewing in to the hull on either side. Once we had dropped the keel we could see that the pin was sharply pitted on the ends. It appears that the pin was made from something like 304 instead of 316L. The through hole of the keel is just fiberglass and pitting on the side of the pin had been working on this as well. Mind you it’s not all that dramatic but it definitely was not expected. The edges of the pin appear were sharp edged rather than radiused or beveled.











Do to this thread we took it to heart and checked, found what we found and have the chance to fix it in the driveway rather than on the water.

We couldn’t get 316L locally on short order so we deliberately chose to make an interim replacement pin from a long shank 304 SST bolt we cut back and radiused the ends.
We will get a proper 316L stock later and make a proper one later this fall. We will also make a captured lube sleeve for the keel pivot. Some resin with fiber strand fixes the side wear.





A new Dynema “line” goes in tomorrow’s work activity and everything goes back up in place.

While this is expected as normal wear and tear we do appreciate the contributors to this thread for getting us to check our Over Easy!

Again, THANK YOU!

[svscott]

I was curious about the state of my own centerboard so I removed it this afternoon. I was a bit surprised how big the centerboard actually is.

My hanger bracket and pivot pin look really good but I found a good size crack running up one side of the board and a shoddy fiberglass repair attempt by a previous owner. Also,
the lower leading edge profile was really fat and mishapen and there were a couple spots where the board has been obviously (missing gelcoat in the CB) rubbing inside the trunk.

I started grinding out the crack and reshaping the front edge and ended up going a little crazy following delamination and damage. There is for sure enough of the centerboard left to get it rebuilt, hopefully without too much difficulty.

I mixed up some thickened West System epoxy and started gluing and clamping the board back together. It'll be a few days before our daily high temperatures are over 50 degrees but I've got a good start and I'll get the repair done soon.

The existing centerboard line on my boat is half stainless steel cable and half rope. The cable is in fair overall condition but has a 3 broken strands. The 1" stainless steel bolt that attaches the cable to the board is bent and v the countersunk head was embedded about 1/4" into the fiberglass. I drilled out and oversized the control cable mounting hole then filled with epoxy and will redrill it later.

My centerboard has a depression on the port side, where the nylock nut and cable attach to the bolt. If I change the cable out for dyneema, what size line should I buy, and is there room to run the line through the centerboard from right to left without fouling and damaging the line on the trunk when it's raised? The hole in the fiberglass for the pivot pin is probably close to a quarter inch bigger diameter than the pin. Should I fill the hole with epoxy and redrill the hole closer to the 1/2" diameter pin? Maybe embed a bronze bushing?

[Dougiestyle]

I believe the pivot hole is supposed to large as seen in your photo, so the cb can flop over and contact the trunk. I know it is not a snug fit. I'm sure someone with more knowledge will chime in.

[Starscream]

Wow, SV, that is one beat-up centerboard.

To be honest, if mine were in that situation, I'd be going to BWY for a new one. Kudos to you for taking the challenge.

I'd check on BWY website for the line diameter. I can probably measure for you but I'm not near the boat today. I'll say one negative thing about the line that BWY provided as a replacement: it's slippery and compressible and doesn't hold well in a cam cleat. Better to have a dock cleat on the coachroof for that kind of line.

I found that the 2000E barrier coat really helped with abrasion. It's tough stuff, but not as tough as whatever your centerboard has lived through.

[svscott]

To be honest, if mine were in that situation, I'd be going to BWY for a new one. Kudos to you for taking the challenge.

I didn't know think the damage was as extensive as it was until I started grinding. The vertical crack running up only one side doesn't make much sense to me. I found a loose chunk of spray foam lodged at the lowest drain hole and a bunch of epoxy/glass running up the center of the board so my guess is water couldn't drain then froze and blew out a previous repair... I'll clear out the foam and add another weep hole. It looks like the initial repair was maybe to fix a hard grounding, just based on the wonky leading edge filler and what looks like crush damage to the lower edge of both sides.

I'll have a few more hours into laying fiberglass and shaping to get it where I'm happy. No doubt it won't be perfect but it'll be plenty strong and it will be far better than I found it. One nice thing is I don't need to worry much about adding extra weight to it and I can make it strong, unlike the daggerboard. This is a similar repair that I made to my daggerboard over ten years ago and it's held up just fine.

I'm trying to keep the overall cost down on this boat and since I already have the West System epoxy and fiberglass sheet on hand... why not improve my fiberglass skills? I've barely got over an hour into it so far, not including the hour it took me to remove it from the boat.

[svscott]

The repair is rapidly progressing... perhaps I should've started a separate thread just for this repair. Since I've gone this far, I'll just keep going with it.

This morning, I sanded the cured epoxy that was applied yesterday and wiped it clean with acetone then mixed up some U Pol Fibral epoxy filler paste and clamped everything to bring the long vertical split back closer together. I started first thing this morning with just getting the vertical split bonded back into shape... I inadvertently mixed the Fibral a bit hardener rich so it kicked off hard and fast but that allowed me to get another round of filler applied to fill the hole and begin fairing the split just now. It's only 45 degrees in the garage today so I left an electric oil radiator heater on under the centerboard to ensure a good cure. The forecast is calling for 1 to 3 inches of snow tonight. YUCK!

I should get the fiberglass laid up by the weekend, then will fair, sand, and apply barrier coat. I think I'll try the 2000E based off your recommendation.



Fibral and hardener ready for mixing. The local auto body shop recommended this waterproof long strand filler for my 26D rudder build out a couple years ago. I'll probably start a thread on that project once it's actually complete.


Gaping hole filled and roughly shaped


Split side bonded back together and partially faired.