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 Post subject: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 28 Apr 2011 12:04 
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Rail Meat

Joined: 28 Apr 2011 11:56
Posts: 2
Dear Crew:

We are looking at a T37 in Marina Del Rey, CA, and it is the standard model with a centerboard. As I have had keel boats before, there is no real issue with the keel (except for bolts, etc.) However, with a centerboard, there are fittings, engineering, and such like. Is the centerboard a problem? Any observations re the trunk, the swivel system, etc.

Regards,

Lee Wilson


 
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 Post subject: Re: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 29 Apr 2011 05:55 
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Skipper

Joined: 27 Oct 2006 10:32
Posts: 827
Lee,
Thanks for the question. The centerboards on the T-37 are designed very simply and with a little care and inspection from time to time, it shouldn't present any issues. Issues that do arrise primarily come by the board being stuck in the up position. This occurs either from barnacles growing inside the trunk or if the board itself swells and wedges itself, like mine did. I haven't heard of too many pendent failures, but I guess that happens ocasionally...just replace the line every 5 years or so and it should all be fine. The good news is that these boards are easy to drop. Once in the travel lift, support the board by chocks or a jack of some sort, un-bolt the hinge pin assembly and lower her down carefully after loosening up the pendent line. Easy. You may also take careful inspection of the bolts that hold the hinge pin assembly in place for these are subject to crevice corrosion. Rebuilding these boards is also pretty easy if you're basically a hands-on owner. The boards have just enough negative balast for it to drop and does not add much to stability. The tip of these things are weighted with lead pellets encapsulated in a resin slurry.
By the way, these boats sail perfectly well without the use of the centerboard and I have heard of some that have glassed over the slot to eliminate the worry. The function of these boards is to gain in the pointing ability and not for stability.
Don't fear the board!!!
Cheers,
Tom


 
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 Post subject: Re: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 03 May 2011 16:27 
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Skipper

Joined: 19 Mar 2007 16:40
Posts: 195
Hi Lee,

I've never removed my center board but it looks simple enough. What I have done is a significant amount of sailing in a C/B boat. My wife and I raced C/B dinghies for many years and I think we have a pretty good awareness of the effects of the C/B on boat performance because of that. Sooo I am going to respectfully disagree with Tom on the performance aspect of the C/B even if his boat does look better than mine. Bow In my experience without the board there is a noticable decrease in pointing ability and an increase in leeway especially as the wind builds. On our dinghies we used to tune the C/B to be gybing. That is the board was shimmed to cause it to angle towards windward at the forward edge to actually help the boat sail up into the wind reducing leeway as much as possible. The rules specified a maximum abount of C/B gybe but I suspect you could reach a point of diminishing return and create too much drag. I have often wondered if this could be done on the T-37 but for me the repeated haulouts to adjust the board would be cost prohibitive. The point of all this is that the board is there for a purpose in my opinion, and that is primarily to help the weatherly performance of the boat. In addition I find it impossible to back straight under power with the board up using a three blade Maxprop. Another advantage is that when you can't quite inch past that Catalina down wind you can raise the board and pick up about a 1/4 knot in speed. We call it Turbo Boost. Very Happy

I have one data point on the pendant. I use New England Ropes Stayset. I replaced it after 6 years and it looked like new so I don't really think that is much of an issue considering the things on a boat that don't last for that long.

In any case I wouldn't let the centerboard be a show stopper. They are great boats and a joy to sail.

-Jim


 
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 Post subject: Re: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 04 May 2011 06:22 
Offline
Skipper

Joined: 27 Oct 2006 10:32
Posts: 827
Jim,
We both agree that it adds to the pointing ability, I just said that it doesn't affect the stability and the boat only gains about 5 to 8 degrees in pointing with the board so if you are cruising and not racing, you can glass over the slot without too much sacrifice. In 16 years of sailing our T-37, I would say that we only use our board about 5% of the time.
I never thought about using the board when backing up.....of course the slip I am in only has 8 ft at high tide, so that would be tricky at best Very Happy
Cheers,
Tom


 
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 Post subject: Re: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 04 May 2011 12:03 
Offline
Skipper

Joined: 19 Mar 2007 16:40
Posts: 195
Wow. We always use the board unless sailing down wind. I'll take that 8 degrees. Wink


 
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 Post subject: Re: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 10 May 2011 21:25 
Offline
Skipper

Joined: 20 Oct 2006 16:10
Posts: 687
Location: Out of Waukegan, IL
Apparently there are lots of flavors of CB sailors. Here in the fresh water, our old T37 pier neighbors left it down all season. Only put it up for the cradle.

_________________
SMMO/First Mate aboard High Flight #299
1981 - Full Keel - Furling Main (A boat for the lazy crew...)


 
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 Post subject: Re: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 11 May 2011 05:52 
Offline
Skipper

Joined: 27 Oct 2006 10:32
Posts: 827
Down2TheC wrote:
Apparently there are lots of flavors of CB sailors. Here in the fresh water, our old T37 pier neighbors left it down all season. Only put it up for the cradle.


Ahhhh, Must be nice to sail in waters that exceed 8ft without worries Very Happy

Here on the Ol' Chesapeake Bay, things can go bump in the night if we were to leave our board down.....and forget about trying to get into the slip!


 
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 Post subject: Re: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 12 May 2011 14:39 
Offline
Skipper

Joined: 19 Mar 2007 16:40
Posts: 195
I had to run down to the marina and crank up the board for the tsunami. No one knew how low the water was going to get and we usually have 11 ft at low tide. Next tsunami I'll stay home.


 
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 Post subject: Re: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 13 May 2011 05:27 
Offline
Skipper

Joined: 27 Oct 2006 10:32
Posts: 827
Tsunami??? Where are you located? Hope all is well!


 
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 Post subject: Re: centerboard vulnerability
PostPosted: 16 May 2011 12:05 
Offline
Skipper

Joined: 19 Mar 2007 16:40
Posts: 195
We're on San Francisco Bay. The tsunami in Japan had a noticable affect here but very minor. There was some dock damage in Berkeley Marina and I watched the tide rise and fall about 2 feet in 20 minutes but that's about it. No one new how much of a tidal change we would get so I ran down and raised the board just in case. Santa Cruz harbor and Crecent City didn't fair as well suffering severe damage to their docks and and many boats sunk. Pretty amazing considering the event that caused it was 6000 miles away. Some friends on the west coast of Mexico watched the water level go down in their achorage 10 feet in a matter of minutes. That's what I was afraid would happen in our slip but we have the Golden Gate as a pressure restiction so the effect was small inside the Bay.


 
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