[Rhodes22-list] Exit to Eden(ton)

[Bob Keller]

Last weekend I made another trip to Edenton (my fifth visit in five years, 
but who's counting?).  This trip was to fix the centerboard which would not 
deploy, but instead would jam in the trunk after about six inches.  I've 
been living with the problem for over a year and Rummy and I tried 
unsuccessfully to fix it about a month ago.  Problem was that you really 
need a hoist to diagnose and fix the problem, which is why GB was the best 
place to go, despite the 8.5 hour drive in each direction!  Left Savannah at 
4AM on Friday and arrived at Midway Drive around 12:30-1PM.  Since I had 
already removed the CB cap, we only had to get the boat up on the hoist to 
see the problem with the board getting stuck in the trunk.  Stan's guys 
sprung into action and began to grind the board where it was making contact. 
  When this board was installed (4 yrs ago) it worked fine and then 
gradually began to rub and then get held up until it finally would jam in 
the trunk.  There is a noticeable bow in the trunk on the port side that has 
always been there, and it must have gotten worse, although you can"t tell 
from looking at it. Stan's theory is that the trunk, being fiberglass over 
the resin/ballast mixture is somehow changing shape over time.  The rest of 
his theory is that these changes will likely not continue, but have 
hopefully stopped because there is only so much movement that the design 
would allow.  Hopefully he is correct because I continually sent his guys 
back to grind more and more off the board so that it was not contacting the 
trunk on the way down.  The attached pictures give a view of what it looked 
like before and also where the grinding took place.  You can see that half 
the grinding is up high on the board in an area that does not even come out 
of the trunk when the board is down, but this is where it was catching.  The 
bow in the trunk is very high up-about six inches from the top of the trunk. 
  So, Stan's guys ground, reground and ground the board again and even 
sanded the inside of the trunk.  Then they replaced the pendant, repainted 
everything and replaced the cap.  This sounds simple, but took two guys 
about 8-10 hours to do, including water testing the boat the next day.

Stan has found some really great workers - strong work ethic, honest, 
reliable - nice to see this for Stan's business.  There was a lot of 
activity with many recyled boats in various stages and a couple of new ones 
as well.  Stan is doing some roof work - saw him climbing up and down the 
ladder to the roof a couple of times - the guy acts like he's 60!  Also he 
is enclosing one side of the building that was outside storage before.  I 
stayed in the guest quarters and it was very nice!  I highly recommend 
it-clean, comfortable, large, warm and a great selection of sailing 
magazines everywhere.  I was so exhausted from the 4am departure, drive and 
working on the boat that I collapsed and was out by 10pm.  Had to because 
the guys were back at 6am the next day (Sat) to finish the job.  By 11:30AM 
I was done with the water test and was on my way back to Savannah with a 
repaired boat on a new trailer.  I used this trip as an opportunity to 
upgrade to a new, galvanized single axle Triad trailer.  My old painted 
trailer was rusting out from under me and I noticed that the rusting had 
accelerated since moving to salt water.  Rather than continuing to get it 
repaired, I upgraded and this new trailer is a beauty!  I went with single 
axle because of maneuverability and simplicity.  I've never had brakes 
before and it makes a huge difference.  Everything on the new trailers is 
"super-sized" compared to the old ones.  Most notably the axle is a heavy 
duty 5,000 lb rated axle with 6 lug tires (instead of 5).  Bottom line is 
that it was easy to launch and retrieve the boat and the trip home was very 
relaxed.  I was able to comfortably drive with the cruise control at 68 mph 
with no problems.  Stopping was much easier with the surge brakes.  It was a 
huge improvement and I'm glad I made the upgrade.  When I got home I took 
the boat to a welder and he welded the mast holder on a stainless steel 
plate to the bow rail, just like the last picture that I attached.  Just one 
more small item to make trailering easier-it turned out very well.

Launched Yankee Clipper yesterday, cleaned it up and brought her back to the 
Shrimp Docks in Sunbury, GA where I keep her.  The board raises and lowers 
perfectly and I am in love with my boat again!  My wife and I will be going 
out this afternoon since we are expecting 68 degrees and 10 knots!  Gotta 
love South GA.

Stan, many thanks for fixing this problem.  If not, at least I have a good 
trailer to make my sixth visit to Edenton...

Bob K
Yankee Clipper

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