26x centerboard

[Brian-Up-North]

Hi

Can anyone provide guidance how I remove the centerboard (mine is cracked)?

When it is on the trailer is their enough room between the street and the boat to drop it?

Thanks

[Mike Ford]

From memory. There is a nut inside cabin that holds the hanger in. Hanger bolt will probable be sealed in with 5200 adhesive and may need to hammer bolt end (screw nut to end and hit that to beak free). I think manual shows the hanger details well. Yes you can replace centerboard on the trailer.

[Tomfoolery]

Put something soft under it, as it will fall when it pops free. Both ends. To put it back, it helps to block up under the bottom (which is closer to the stern) unless you have another pair of hands under the boat, plus a third person inside to start the nut.

[sunshinecoasting]

Maybe a little more detail.

Yes it is very easy to remove, and while on the original trailer. If your trailer is not original then you are on your own as we have no idea how it may be obstructed.

So, as mentioned, put cushion under pivot end of centreboard on ground.
Release centreboard rope, leave loose.
In cabin, under forward starboard seat remove foam flotation to expose I single SS bolt which holds centreboard in, undo bolt. As mentioned, this bolt and
thread may be buried in sealant, you have to push that long thread down through that sealant, this may require some firm but gentle force, do not hammer directly on thread, use a wooden or hard rubber drift.
At this point the centreboard will fall and hit the ground at the pivot end, landing on your cushion. The other end stays on trailer cross member until you drag board forward to clear it from underneath. NOTE: at this point untie the raising rope, do not drag board out from under boat until you do as you will pull rope out of compression tube and I understand it can be a bugger to get back in, if replacing this rope use old rope as pull through.

The pivot fork that you just undid looks something like a large tuning fork, the centreboard hangs from it.

Easy done, needs one person but is probably easier with two.

Cheers, Dennis.

[Tomfoolery]

I forgot to mention that I removed and reinstalled mine without help. A jackstand at the bottom end, and a floor jack at the pivot end, mostly as an adjustable support (don't jack against it - it weighs nothing, and you'll break something). So while it's easier with help, it can be done without help.

[Snowdancer]

If your swing Keel does not easily remove snd down like mine didn't from excessive sealant from po. A 15 minute job became 3 hours of cussing. Besides profanity which did not work here is my story.
I just removed my 98 26x swing Keel. It was very very difficult due to po putting excessive sealant that was between the yoke and hull and nut. The nut was not easy to remove because of the sealant and a metric socket fit much better than my 11./16 mm. A long socket would have been nice to remove the nut from the long stud. But once the nut was gone the yoke did not drop out. I left the nut partially on and hit it with a hammer and tire wrench unsuccessfully. I used the double nut technique turning against each other with an 18 inch long strong arm to no avail and was sincerely worried about breaking the stud, ( wouldn't mind learning tensile or sheer strength or max torque). Using a hammer on the strong arm also only got loud clangs. Tried heating stud with a BBQ lighter to no avail and more hammering and more sailor talk.
Eventually I drilled a hole through the seat large enough for my 18 inch strong arm to serve as a punch. A hammer did not work eventually a 20 pound sledge hammer was used with two hands and it didn't come loose for many increasingly larger blows. Until hallayuah.
Ensure Threading the nut onto the stud so you don't damage the threads.
Suggest leaving the swing Keel cable on and having and having two Jack stands to support the keel. I took my cable thinking it was somehow binding. I know it didn't make sense.
Putting it back on was no easy task either, as the stud could have been a 1/2 inch longer to allow the pin to be inserted through the yoke and Keel after the stud was through the hull, not trying to blindly find the hole.

FYI the sealant was not hard like epoxy. We attribute the difficult removal due to a vacuum requiring at least 60 pounds of force which was somewhat contradictory to the many hammer blow metallic clangs interspersed with prerequisite cussing. I hope the admiral was impressed with my determination more than my cussing.
The admiral felt much safer using vice grips to hold the punch. Safety glasses should have been used besides just gloves.
I epoxied the hulls exposed fiber glass around the swing Keel pin, a good yearly inspection, and at the Keel pull up cable but have not replaced the 18 inches of missing swing Keel yet as waiting for advice from an auto body repairman friend a a look at my buddies. Besides its winter work now.
the admiral wanted to see it rigged
Good news is we managed to rig and sail the Genoa the next day but the admiral won't feel safe until we both take a sailing course, that's why she is the admiral.
Easily removed the keel the next day and now the winter fiber glass repair. Should be easy. Lol. At least it won't have to be pretty, a passing scuba diver might find it interesting.
If I was worried about drag I would install some flaps on the hull Keel slot like on my dagger board slot like my old windsurfers had.