Rod Thompson Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Have recently completed installation of centre board case for CS 17 #144. Don't know what your wondering about but here are some pictures from my project. Quote
Randy C. Posted February 3, 2009 Author Posted February 3, 2009 Rod, Thanks for the pictures. I don't know why I was having so much trouble figuring this out. What is the purpose of the curve on the front of the CB trunk? Is it just for looks? Randy Quote
wkisting Posted February 5, 2009 Posted February 5, 2009 Randy, I suspect the curve is not just for looks... it seems to function like the gussets under the side decks, by giving the forward bench seat support in the middle. If you were to eliminate it, I suspect you would lose stiffness in the front cross-seat. I may be wrong. Wes Quote
Randy C. Posted February 6, 2009 Author Posted February 6, 2009 Wes, Sounds reasonable, I'll buy that. Thanks, Randy Quote
Randy C. Posted March 2, 2009 Author Posted March 2, 2009 I have finished building the centerboard. The plans say that it's best to fiberglass the inside of the trunk and the centerboard. Is it necessary to fiberglass the centerboard even if quarter sawn wood is used instead of plywood? Quote
Tom Lathrop Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 If after several years of use, there are no gashes or bad dings and the centerboard has not warped, then the answer is no, it is not necessary to fiberglass the CB. On the other hand, if it is badly dinged or warped, then it was necessary to fiberglass it. Trouble it, it's then too late. It's an insurance policy. You get to decide whether it's worth the premium. Quote
Charlie Jones Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 ;D I don't know what the bottom is like where you sail, but around here I'd certainly at least fiberglass the toe of the centerboard, just to keep it from being ground down as it scrapes bottom- which around here, it certainly would ;D Graham and Tom's trick of epoxying and glassing a poly rope around the leading edge is well worth the trouble by the way. Quote
Randy C. Posted March 3, 2009 Author Posted March 3, 2009 Tom, I don't have a crystal ball, and I do buy insurance, sooo...... Charlie, Most lakes around here the bottoms are mud with a few trees. Looks like I will be fiberglassing. What's this trick of a poly rope and how big is the rope? Randy Quote
Charlie Jones Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 Graham or Tom Lathrop can explain that far better than I can. I do it bit differently. What I do is cut a groove in the leading edge of the board, from about a foot up the leading edge, down around the toe, back to the trailing edge. Then I take strands picked from heavy roving, twist them together til they are a bit larger than a wooden pencil and stretch that around the toe, set in thickened epoxy. I then fill and glass over that, with tape and two ( at least) layers of glass. Quote
Tom Lathrop Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 Charlie's method will do a lot of good, but. Fiberglass is not nearly as abrasion resistant as the synthetics like Dacron or Nylon line and the line is much easier to use. Why make your own rope when there are all those scraps of the real stuff lying around? This is a way to protect the leading edge of foils that I worked up years ago when racing Windmills, which are daggerboard boats. Daggerboards get dinged much more often and worse than centerboards and you can always find the results as people are seen patching the forward edge before any big race. I make a small flat on the leading edge to match the diameter of the line I want to use. The size is selected to match the shape you want on the leading edge. Soak line in a cup of epoxy and stretch along the edge and around the foot, nailing it in place temporarily. Pull some nice unwrinkled plastic sheeting over the soaked line and tape or staple it down. After epoxy sets, finish by sanding and wrapping the whole thing with the epoxied cloth of choice. The cured epoxied line is so tough that I demonstrate it by laying it on a workbench and letting anyone bang away with their hammer of choice. I would not try that with the fiberglass solution. ;D There is a fuller explanation with photos somewhere on this forum but I did not find it. Lapwing thread I think. Quote
Joe Anderson Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 There is more information on protecting the leading edge of a centerboard in the following thread. The new EC22 design Quote
Charlie Jones Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 There is a fuller explanation with photos somewhere on this forum but I did not find it. Lapwing thread I think. I couldn't find it either Tom. It was a good write up if I recall correctly. And I intend to start using the rope idea myself. I had built the last board I did before I saw that or talked to Graham about it. Quote
Apteryx Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 That trick sure works well. I made a test piece of epoxy soaked double-braid and whanged on it with a 20 ounce hammer. My theory is the epoxy is flexible enough to deform a lot, and the line provides a lot of strength. Whatever, it's really tough armor for the leading edge of a foil. Quote
cdunc Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 Link to explanation on the EC22 thread: http://www.messing-about.com/forums/index.php?topic=5206.msg44185#msg44185 Quote
paul_stewart Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 The rope armor on the edge of the CB is worth doing. Very cool project as described by Tom and others. A few pics of the rope-epoxy work on the CB of CS20 #103 can be found here... http://picasaweb.google.com/alanosauras/Centerboard_CS20# and a few pics of the completed CB are here... http://picasaweb.google.com/alanosauras/CS20_christmas# Nylon rope soaks up epoxy very well and very quickly if you submerge a coil of it in a container of freshly mixed epoxy. Someone had suggested that airbubbles would emerge from the submerged rope if the container was placed in a vacuum. We actually did that and found it unnecessary; apparently there were no bubbles inside the submerged rope. No need for a vacuum. Have fun soaking your rope. ;D p.s. We had already glassed the sides of the CB when we learned about the rope-epoxy idea, so we cut a groove in the edge between the two glass layers. Cutting a groove should not be necessary if you put the glass cloth on -after- the rope. As Tom noted, you can put the rope on "a small flat on the leading edge to match the diameter of the line I want to use." --Paul Quote
Randy C. Posted March 4, 2009 Author Posted March 4, 2009 Thanks for all the suggestions on the rope trick. Sounds like it's the best way to go. I will get some double braided and give it a try. Randy Quote
Rod Thompson Posted March 8, 2009 Posted March 8, 2009 Having read the good reviews on epoxied rope for the CB edge I did the same for the tip of the oars I recently built. Seems to me it will be tougher than the usal spline inserted in paddle/oar tips. Like Charlie I cut out a bit of a groove. Added some additional filler on the end of the tip to round out the profile. Lots of rock in these parts. Quote
Randy C. Posted March 8, 2009 Author Posted March 8, 2009 Here are some pictures of the centerboard and the trunk sides. The centerboard is made from Ash and Walnut. The Ash is from a tree I cut down and the Walnut came from a tree my son cut down from his backyard. One of the members of the woodworkers guild I belong to has a sawmill and cut them into boards for me. It's been stacked and drying in my basement for @ a year. Rod, Good looking oars. A good idea with rocks. Hopefully I won't have to use oars too much, but you never know. Quote
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