My boat is a 1986 model with the Triad single axle trailer. Question:
Can the centerboard be removed from the boat while the boat is on the
trailer or will it need to be jacked up?
Bill Sparhawk
Spokane, WA
It can be removed any place except in the water. You have to remove
the board that supports the cushion on the port side (the entry step
back to the v-berth), then the little access plate, then the board
that covers the centerboard well. Remove about 50 or so screws and
remove the cap (what I carried around Annapolis that night). Once
the cap is removed, you can remove the centerboard (up into the
cabin). Be careful, it is heavy. Also, support it in the up
position before you start. It is not an easy task. There is a line
that runs from outside the hatch through a tube and a block to the
centerboard.
Cam Whetstone
If your boat is like mine (‘87) you take the centerboard out through
the cabin, and do not have to jack anything. It requires removal of
the seating area, drawer, vertical supports for the floor, carpeting
and the floorboard filler around the centerboard trunk. Then you
remove something like 2,500 screws around the trunk to allow removal
of the cap. Remove cap by prying and carefully separating cap from
rubber gasket. There is also the centerboard control line to contend
with, so you have to remove the drain hose from the cap and pull it
through.
Once cap is out of the way, the centerboard is ready to pull out. You
should be able to pull it up using the control line through the
pulley on the centerboard. Of course the centerboard is weighted at
the lower end.
I removed mine this spring, and I could find no easier way to
accomplish it. I found that the self-tapping screws used would strip
out when reassembling, so I used a combination of more screws and
nuts and bolts. I may have overdone it, but then that's my standard
procedure. If a little is good, a lot must be better.
Alex Bell
