[Rhodes22-list] center board pivot pin

[BARRY RUEHLEN]

A friend and I bought an 87 Rhodes about a year ago. I've been lurking on the site and following emails ever sense. It needed what we thought was a cabin makeover and a few other cosmetic repairs. Well a case of termites and a hurricane later we have gutted the cabin down to stringer repair, and now thanks to hurricane Ian, we have attacked top and bottom side gouges, re-faired her and are well on the way through repaint (vivid red). I'll get to interior rebuild later, but right now we have an issue with the center board that snaped in half when she floated off the trailer and came to an awkward grounding in the neighbor's yard. I found a used one from a guy in Quincy Ma. Hope it fits. The problem is our pin is broken. I have the stainless sleeve from our old board, and two pieces of the old pin. The centerboard we just got has the stainless sleeve fixed in the board, but he did not include the pin he said he had. Our trunk looks to be fine, but we are in a bad way for a new pin so we can get the center board and trunk back together. ( after bottom painting the trunk and board as she will mostly be in a slip in my canal in Florida). Our broken pin seems to be made of some kind of wood, which is hard to believe.
Todays question is where can I get one or how to make one? Question two is, the diagrams I have seen show the pennant terminating at the hole in the centerboard. Our boat has the line terminating to a pad eye screwed to the trunk. Then it goes around the double block system on the centerboard, and trunk cap, and on out. I guess there is more than one way to skin a cat, but it seems like terminating at the centerboard would be stronger then to a screwed in pad eye. Thoughts on that please. Lastly for now is that our original centerboard hung proud of the keel bottom about an inch as I remember. Maybe the pin was already broken in there. The problem is, if the board normally protrudes below the keel, I'm going to have a hell of a time as the keel now sits hard on the rollers of the trailer she is on. I could send some pics of the board and broken pin, but I'm not sure how that goes in this email system. I'll just go with the note for now.
Best,
Barry