Message 1 of 8

Message 2 of 8

Message 3 of 8

Message 4 of 8

Hi Y'all..
Well, the 'Rude was not ready today, so no sailing this weekend Most of
the brightwork came back, and the Cetol looks great. The repair on the rudder
also looks like new...he only had a dark red bottom paint...no green.
I guess John Anastasio is no longer with us here, but I've had some interesting
questions about my M-17's iron centerboard.
Stargazer's a '79 model, been in salt water for about a year. I think the
previous owner had it painted, but not having a means of raising the boat and
dropping the board, can't say for sure. What measures have y'all done to keep
the centerboard from rusting and/or falling off ?? IOW, what _should_ I worry
about ?? Maybe a new fiberglass sheathed lead centerboard from Nor'Sea when
they start making the M-17??
Harvey/Atl
M17 Stargazer #294
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Message 5 of 8

Message 6 of 8

Message 7 of 8

I hoped that it wasn't providential that just before my wife and I left for
five days of sailing on Lake Tahoe the Montgomery List was filled with
information on stuck centerboards. My centerboard pennant was beginning
to fray and I knew (from an on-the-trailer inspection) that the centerboard
had some rust. I decided to press on with the vacation and do repairs on
the water, if necessary.
So three days into the trip we're pulling away from a shore-side anchorage
and as we get into deeper water I began to lower the centerboard... done by
slipping the line over the winch until the board hits bottom with a deep
"clunk." Except this time there was no clunk and the rope pennant just
kept going...and it was heavy. Only the knot at the end of the line kept
it from exiting the boat! With monumental effort we got a hold of the knot
and managed to pull the pennant enough to get it around the winch and then
cranked back into the boat.
We went to a marina the next day and took a look at the bottom of the boat.
The stainless pin upon which the centerboard pivots had worked it's way
almost all the way out of the keel; about one inch was still in. So we
attached a new pennant and, epoxied the pin back in place. The next
afternoon we were back on the water sailing from the south end of the lake
to the north shore. Several times we congratulated ourselves for being so
lucky. How we managed to winch up the pinless centerboard back into the
keel was a mystery. How we got so lucky as to not lose the stainless pin
must mean we've been living right (or something).
In the late afternoon we we approaching an anchorage which had come highly
recommended. Large boulders between the shore and the lake would shelter
us from any swell or wind; just lay a stern anchor and then tie off to a
tree on the shore. Now comes the embarrasing part: did I mention that the
wind was blowing about 25 from the south and that it was quite bumpy and
there was about a two foot wind swell. My wife suggested that we take a
pass on the anchorage and look somewhere else, but even with the wind it
looked too pretty to resist. That was probably a bad decision. As we
approached the shore all was well and then it wasn't. Even though the
underwater rocks appeared far beneath us, we began to run into something
and it was making the boat bang and shudder in a way that didn't seem very
safe. I grabbed the bow line, dove in and got on the shore and pulled the
boat down the beach ten yards or so and away from the rocks and tied off to
a tree. Christina on the boat yelled that it was still hitting something,
so she took in the stern anchor as I let out the bow line. Eventually we
got the boat to quit banging. I swam out and we tidied up the boat and
after sitting in the swell for a few minute decided that we'd rather not be
tied to the land and wanted to turn the boat around and have the anchor off
the bow. We were getting ready to leave; the anchorage was just too rolly.
I jumped in again to go untie the bow line on shore and decided to look
under the boat. The incredible clarity of Lake Tahoe made it easy for me
to see what I didn't want to. Now it all made sense. The reason we were
hitting bottom was because this giant piece of cast iron was hanging down
under the boat, below the level of the rudder at it's deepest, rocking from
side to side at the end of the pennant. This created an additional
challenge. We probably weren't going to have much success sailing away
from here with this heavy appendage acting like a wierd brake (or wrecking
bar). Just sitting in the anchorage it was banging against the bottom of
the boat; not like before when it was banging against the rocks, but a real
persistent thudding. Then suddenly it wasn't. I looked over the side and
sure enough, about ten feet down, plain as day, lying in the sand, was our
centerboard. Leaving was now out of the question.
Every morning while we were in the southern part of the lake it was
completely and totally still. No wind, no chop. I figured that in the
morning I could get a line on it and winch it up to where maybe I could tie
it alongside the boat. Maybe even get it hooked onto the winch, back the
boat up the the shore, get underneath the monster and lever it into the
cockpit. I figured some idea would present itself. We just had to wait
until morning, cause now it was quite dark. And windy. And really, really
bumpy. A regular M-17 kinda bobs like a cork. One without a centerboard
adding that extra stability bobs like a cork wearing a windvane. We were
bouncing all night long and it was NOISY. Yeah well, morning came but not
the calm. At 530 AM it was just as bouncy and windy as it had been at 4PM.
After a half hour search we found the centerboard and I dove down to
attempt to attach a line. I don't know if it was the elevation (6100 ft or
so), the depth of the water (maybe 10 ft) or the temperature (pretty darn
cold), but I was able to hold my breath for about 10 seconds and then I'd
have to burst for the surface. I did this several times but was never able
to get any kind of knot started, let alone tied. Eventually we had to let
go of the idea that I was going to be able to save the board and we sailed
off. What really surprised me was how well the boat still sailed to
weather without this appendage.
So anyway, the reason I query you folks is now what? Any ideas on how
to get a centerboard cast. Does anyone have engineering details about the
centerboard? Is it really necessary (i.e., could one just fill up the well
with lead shot encased in epoxy)? Any ideas cheerfully accepted;
criticisms might get ignored. Thanks, Stephen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Message 8 of 8