Centerboard Padeye Maintenance

felizcortez · **Joined:** 25 Apr 2016 10:25 **Posts:** 185

After reviewing my photos and some of the other ones I'm pretty sure the pin goes towards the front of the boat.

felizcortez · **Joined:** 25 Apr 2016 10:25 **Posts:** 185

Here are some pics of the centerboard repair.

I epoxied some G10 into the gap to fill the hole in the board on the metal plate.

I redrilled and tapped the holes for the padeye about a half inch further up the board. Both holes were angled and one was just in the corner of the metal plate and didn't have much thread engagement.

I put glass in some other damaged areas around the bottom of the board and along the top as well.

For fairing in the final repair I used TotalFair and then barrier coated and then applied two coats of bottom paint. I hope to install in the next day or so.

Maineiac · **Posted:** 01 Jan 2021 13:59

Again, (first picture) stbd side of the board, threads to port, but the hinge plate is oriented upside down. Once it is oriented correctly, the pin will favor forward in the plates. This just makes me think to drop my board and try reversing everything and maybe solve the binding problem.

felizcortez · **Joined:** 25 Apr 2016 10:25 **Posts:** 185

I installed the board two days ago and things went smoothly. It took 4 of us to muscle it in. Two lifting and one person to screw in the bolts. The fourth person was in the cockpit on a winch helping to take up slack. I sealed everything up with some 4000UV under the hinge and also the bolts.

I also replaced the hose with a new 22 inch long one. (the one installed was only 16 inches).
I also replaced the line since it wasn't to the 3/8 specification (it was larger).

I'm leaving the hinge exposed vs fairing it back in so that I can drop the board more easily if needed in the future.

Maineiac · **Posted:** 05 Jan 2021 08:09

I got mine back in alone, but it was a frickin' bear. She binds to port for some reason. I'll have to drop it again this spring and correct whatever the problem might be.

madmike · **Joined:** 06 Sep 2020 10:08 **Posts:** 113

We removed our centerboard on Thursday. From everything we've seen on this site and the Facebook group, we feel pretty good about winning the prize for Most Corroded Hinge Bolts. Most of the ones that snapped off had a little bit of stainless holding the board in place, but it wasn't much. Only one bolt made it out of the keel. I'm guessing these are the original 1979 3/8 machine bolts. Our plan here is to replace the bolts with 1/2 lag screws as others have done.

The 1" bore in the board for the hinge pin has a visible crack. We're planning to dremel out some of that material and fill it with thickened epoxy. I'm nervous about making a more extensive repair that might leave us with a misaligned board, so I'm hoping we can keep most of the hole unaltered.

Most of the hinge itself looks OK, except for some nasty pitting in the hinge pin. We're planning to replace the hinge assembly since there's no telling how deep that cave in the pin goes.

Like jvoelxen, the padeye bolts had corroded and allowed water to enter the board, causing it to swell and crack. Following the posts on this thread, we started cutting open the board and chiseling out the solid resin looking for the infamous steel plate. There was a void behind the padeye, but we didn't find anything that looked like the residue of an aluminum backing plate. We also never found the steel plate: just resin with some water-filled cracks. We're planning to fill the board back up with West System epoxy (with a lot of 404 filler) then seal it up with glass (epoxy resin) and repaint the whole board with epoxy paint.

Instead of the padeye bolted into the board, we're going with Tortuga's method of external tangs and a shackle.

Tartan37.com

Centerboard Padeye Maintenance

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