E25 centerboard repair
Dear Forum Members,
I recently purchased an E25 from an owner (non-forum member) near New Bern, North Carolina and discovered, upon having it hauled out two weeks ago in Oriental, NC, that it has a centerboard issue.
About a month ago, prior to the purchase, I paid not for a full survey, but for an in-water survey, as it would have been costly to have the boat hauled at the boatyard nearest to the owner's house in New Bern. To cover in some way for this lack of a haulout I instead paid a diver (independent of the surveyor) to inspect the bottom and confirm that there was a least a centerboard in place. The diver also confirmed that the bottom had been well cared for. The owner had apparently laid down quite a bit of money two years earlier when he opted to have the bottom painted with a heavy duty paint. This nice paint job had been worth the money for the bottom proved to be in excellent condition. The owner, at the time of the survey, reported that in the two years since he had had the bottom repainted he had never been able to drop the centerboard. He had not used the boat very much since that time, due to health issues. Both he and the diver speculated that the centerboard had in some way become stuck on account of a bond that had been made between uncured paint on the centerboard and uncured paint on the centerboard well. The diver banged and tugged on the centerboard to no avail. Despite the fact that the centerboard was never able to be freed during the survey I still went ahead with the purchase on account of the good price and good condition of the boat.
Having closed the deal a few weeks after the survey, a buddy and I sailed the boat from the owner's house near New Bern, down the Neuse River to the sailing town of Oriental near the Pamlico Sound. This proved to be a smart choice, for the people at Sailcraft Boatyard were very helpful with a number of things, including the adjusting of the new trailer that I had just purchased (see my posting E25 centerboard trailering weight). At any rate, upon having the boat hauled, the centerboard was discovered to split and swollen on its aft end. After much tugging on it with a crowbar, Allen, the owner of Sailcraft, suggested that the best thing for me to do would be to allow him to remove the pin so that he could extract the entire centerboard from the vessel. His argument was that a repair, or possibly a replacement, of the centerboard was necessary. I agreed to the extraction, and after quite a bit of tugging by a boatyard worker the centerboard at last broke free. Fortunately, Allen's assessment of the problem was that it would be unnecessary to replace the centerboard. He estimated that if his boatyard were to do the repair it would take about eight hours worth of labor and would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 to $600 total.
I opted to bring the centerboard back to Charleston and do the work myself. The only problem, or I should say challenge, is that I have not done any glasswork before. Given the curvature of the board I am wary of grinding it down to far and then not being able to build it back up properly. Likewise, I am wary of grinding it down not far enough and then having a problem with the layup becoming thicker than the original board. I'm thinking that maybe the best course of action is to grind it just enough to expose the rusted metal and then attempt to fill the void with epoxy. Here are explanations for the attached pictures:
001: Allen of Sailcraft Boatyard removes the pin
002: Boatyard worker tugs on centerboard with crowbard
003: Centerboard breaks free and hangs by pennant (needed replacing)
004: Centerboard with chunks of dried red paint visible (the culprit?)
005: The Crack
Thanks for any suggestions you may offer.
Best regards,
Roscoe Davis
Charleston, SC
E25, cb, Hull 226