Centerboard pin needs replacing

At the end of last season, I noticed that my centerboard pin needed repair.
I had just smeared some epoxy around the bolt head. I thought it would hold. However, the epoxy broke and the pin started to pull out of the plate.

original centerboard pin head

here you can see it broke

I had added some caulk. You can see a bit here

I decided to glue it better, so I cut a plate that fit the bolt head and glued it on there.

kinda messy but not going to move

I scraped away the caulk and put in a new red rubber seal.

I re-installed the pin but I'd like to test it by spraying some water up there with the hose before I call this one finished.

More maintenance work

Last weekend, I posted about my attempts at maintenance. Over the week, I've finished up quite a few of the projects.

Centerboard rigging

The simple 6mm standoffs I built are now done and attached. This seems to keep the rope & tackle away from the sides. It still bumps occasionally, but not nearly as bad as before.

In the pictures below, you can just see the standoffs.

See the standoffs under the cleat and under the padeye?

Another shot of the fully attached fairlead.

Skeg trailer hitches

I got this idea from Simeon. In this thread on the SCAMP message board, he talked about tying a rope through his skegs to his trailer. I thought that was a good idea as I've never liked the belly strap method where the straps go up & over and have the possibility of marring or breaking the coamings.

But I didn't like the idea of threading a rope through the skegs each time. I rather liked the idea of toggle bolts instead.

I ordered some 5/16" toggle bolts that were rated to like 900lbs on the pull through. If I were to do this over again, I'd use 3/8" or 1/2" toggle bolts instead. I also ordered some short webbing straps and stainless black 1 1/2" fender washers.

Then I got to work drilling holes in the skegs.

After piloting, I used a 1 1/2" paddle bit to chow a hole in the side of the skeg.

Hole in the skeg

Hole with washer inserted.

I over drilled with a 1/4" drill bit a guide for the toggle bolt. This will be filled to make sure no wood is exposed.
Then I filled the hole with thickened epoxy glue and glued the washer in. It's easiest to sink the washer in just a little bit so it is a mm or so below the surface. You can fair this later with thickened epoxy.

Washers glued in  and tape over them to hold

 When that was done, I drilled the 5/16" hole through the middle for the toggle bolt.

Toggle bolt and eye nut in place

And here it is with the strap in place

 I wasn't too happy with where the washers ended up and since glue doesn't stick very well to stainless steel, I then mixed up another thickened batch of epoxy and faired over the washers. This way they are unlikely to fall out.

Shot after fairing a bit.

toggle bolt though the hole

port side in place

and tied down.

shot of the interior with the toggle in place

I used it just today and it worked fine.

Downhaul rigging

I wanted to re-do my downhaul so that I could get more tension on the luff of the sail. I had been using a single block/v-cleat combo to pull it down, but it was hard to reach and hard to get leverage.

I decided to do something more like the plans. To do that, I wanted to have a fairlead and cleat on the cabin top. When I built the cabin top, I had placed a doubler under the cabin top  where I knew I might want a cam cleat.

I just needed to create a block of wood to raise the cleat up just a little bit. I cut that from some spare chunks of doubled up 6mm plywood and re-coated that with epoxy.

Then I had to sand it down to fit flush on the curved surface. I used a trick I learned from Dan bcbimmer. Just tape a piece of sandpaper on the curved cabin top and rub the piece back and forth.

Shaping the block to fit the surface

After it was shaped, I need to sand down the paint to get it to stick.

Just before gluing down the block

dry fitting the parts where they belong (oops, the cam cleat is upside down)

Pilot holes drilled and glued down. Fillet applied

dry fitting the parts

Finally, it's painted

I'll wait a few days for the paint to harden up before I mount the fairlead and cam cleat down. The fairlead is just screwed into the block, but the three #6 screws in the cam cleat go all the way through the block and have acorn nuts on the bottom.

A line on the padeye on the boom will go down and through a double block mounted just next to the mast box. From there, it will go back up to a block mounted on the same padeye on the boom and back down through the double block. Then it goes after through the fairlead and cam cleat. This gives me a 2:1 purchase. Not as good as some others, but I can fix it later with more blocks if needed.

Rudder repair, centerboard rigging and skeg protector repair

In my last post, I discussed some of the changes I wanted to make. Today I did some work towards that.

Skeg work

The UHMW plastic guard that protect the bottom of the skegs had pulled the screws out on the port side. I think I messed it up once when I put it on the trailer a bit sideways.
I jacked up the boat with a racing jack and was able to get under the trailer to fill the holes with new thickened epoxy and screw them down again. While I was down there, I made a parts list for through-skeg tie downs like Simeon has. I'll post an article when I get those done.
No pictures for this one.

Traveler rigging

I had a rope traveler with a sliding shackle around it. The shackle slides along the rope and has abraded the rope a bit. I replaced the shackle with a real 12mm block. I then used a pair of shackles to make a flexible shackle to the sheet block. Works great.

New traveler rigging

I really like the adjustable traveler. I don't change it very often, but it's kind of nice when I need it.

Re-rigging the centerboard

The centerboard tackle was rubbing against the side of the seat and rubbing off the paint. I use centerboard tackle slightly modified from the plans. I've been told there is a better way to rig it, but /i like mostly like mine, except for the rubbing.

All I need to do is to build some 6mm standoffs to pull the tackle away from the seats. I've got the pieces epoxied, now they just need to be painted and installed.

Centerboard rigging as original

Harken 108 turning block. Note the scratch where it jumped the block

standoffs

standoffs with pieces attached

I also used a fairlead to guide the centerboard uphill. 

fairlead in place

I'll finish this later this week after I paint the blocks.

Re-rigging the boom downhaul

I spoke with Rick at the Small Craft Palooza. He encouraged me to redesign my downhaul to really be able to crank it down. The leading edge should be completely taut when not running in light air or downwind. I was using a combo block/cleat from Duckworks. It's okay, but it's hard to get it too tight and hard to reach when under sail. Today, I cut and epoxied blocks of wood to mount on the cabin top for a 2 factor downhaul that cleats near the cabin top. I'll need a tufnol double block and then I'll mount it all later. I'll post pictures when I get it all done.

Epoxied blocks: padeye, cleat, 2 different blocks for the downhaul rig

Bronze ring for centerboard cover removal

While in Port Townsend I stopped by the Chandlery and picked up a pull ring and a closed anchor chock.
The anchor chock will go on the bow.

The pull ring was an easy install, so I did that today.

Measured and knifed out before applying a chisel

The removal of material wasn't too bad. Forstner bits are great for hogging out material. I had to go deeper than I thought to get the entire pull ring in there.

Dry fit

Ugly shot of the removed material

I didn't get any pictures, but I coated that liberally with epoxy and filled the screw holes.
After it set up a bit, I installed the pull ring and the screws. It'll cure right in there.

Finished!

Center board installation

The centerboard is so heavy that it requires two people to install. My buddy Ken came over and we installed it together.

I got everything ready to install before hand so that we could get it done quickly. Here is a shot of the centerboard rigging. I chose to put the block up higher rather than lower like in the plans.

Rigging is ready.

I also rigged up a couple of packing tape straps. Here you can see one strap on the centerboard. This makes it really easy to hold with two hands, forklift style. The 22 lb lead weight is placed low, so it weighting feels abnormal if you just lift it.
Be sure to wrap the packing tape around the leading edge, both directions. Once everything is installed you can drop the centerboard down and the tape is easy to remove.

packing tape handles.

Note: make sure you can get the 1/4" line through the copper tube, mine was a bit bulbous at the end and didn't go through well.

We successfully installed it and the 3:1 rigging makes it go up and down easily.


Now I need some advice on trailering. How does one lock up the centerboard when traveling? That little cam cleat seems to be a bad idea when the boat is vibrating. I'm considering something to tie on the transom.

I'd also like some ideas about how to make sure that the centerboard does not hyperextend. I haven't been able to see the centerboard extended, so I don't even know if it can hyperextend, but it seems like a bad idea to have it smashing against the sapele trunk. Seems easy to put a rubber stopper on there, but how to mount it?

Centerboard overdrill and fill

I wasn't happy with the small hole that would hold the knot in the centerboard.

Filled a 3/4" hole with epoxy.

And drilled it back out to 11/16".

Then I put the rope through.

Figure 8 stopper knot

I did a similar thing for the rudder downhaul, but the hole was very small. I whipped the rope and inserted it into the hole. It won't come loose.

Folded and whipped end

The holes on the kit pieces are too small. I'd definitely use 5/16" holes for the lines and at least 3/4" holes for the stopper knots (after over drilling and filling).

I have to put in a plug for AnimatedKnots, if you need to tie a knot, he gives great instructions.

Slot strip installed

Today the slot strip arrived from the UK. I've had a 3" wide area masked off and sanded for about a week now in preparation for this.

Slot strip kit

I could have ordered raw slot strip material and used 3M VHB like WoodNMetalGuy, but the kit wasn't very much even with shipping from the UK and I've never minded working with rubber cement glue. I think the 3M VHB is good stuff, but it's thicker than I wanted.

The slot strip is weird stuff. Much more rigid that I thought it would be.

masked and sanded a 3" wide strip

Trim the slot strip to length

Acid brushes are just about the right width when turned sideways.

Testing the width

I didn't like the imprecision of just slapping the the glue on and hoping I covered the whole surface, so I used a 1/2" piece of plywood to draw a pencil line for the glue boundary.

You can just see the pencil lines.

The instructions said to apply the glue, then wait for it to dry. Just like regular rubber cement.

Glue applied

 The instructions also said to use a stick to burnish the glue down. I used the handle of a discarded foam brush. Worked fine.

Pressing down the edges.

I had planned on keeping the bottom of the boat glossy epoxy black, so I don't need to paint the bottom.

And I applied the last coat of paint on the interior of the cabin top this evening.

So that leaves nothing left to do on the bottom. This weekend, I'll flip her right side up and start to work on the cabin top and other areas.

Seat wells have new cleats

A comment from Simeon on my last posting prompted me to glue in some cleats against the hull to make sure the tops were well secured and didn't sag when people stood on them.

This is generally pretty easy. I just cut the cleats and mark them against the hull. Then I coat the backsides with unthickened epoxy. After they are all done, then I thicken up the rest of the epoxy and use it like a glue against the hull. I also pin the cleat to the hull with two nails. The 1" stainless nails are just perfect to go through the cleat and into the 9mm plywood without bursting out the back.

Two cleats behind the hatch cutout.

This looks lopsided, but it's straight. It's for the rear circular hatches.

I am starting to run out of yellow cedar and I will need more for various places in the top. I'l have to pick up some more and rip it to the right 20mm x 30mm size.

As long as I had the epoxy mixed up, I coated the centerboard cover. My trick in the previous posting worked pretty well, but there were some gaps that I wanted to fill. The tape hammock didn't work perfectly. It was easy to fill the gaps with thickened epoxy.

Long shot of the centerboard cap.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this weekend's accomplishments. I need to do some sanding to give the epoxy some tooth, then I can prime the seat well and then paint them. After that, I'm ready to glue on the seat tops.

Before I glue on the seat tops, I need to make sure there is nothing else I want to do inside there.

I considered adding 2 bilge pumps. I wanted to put the bilge pumps between B4 & B5 and then coil up a flexible hose and hang that on a hook under the seat. When there was water in the sump, I could open the hatch, throw the hose over the edge and flip a switch. I decided that running the wiring was going to be a real pain it'd be easier to buy a hand pump.

If anyone has any ideas about what to put under the seats, let me know.