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Keel stuck Ericson 25

CBessich

Junior Member
Has anyone experienced this? Any advice?DSCN9595.JPG We are not even sure exactly how this keel is designed... We have had a few "professional opinions" about the type of keel and how to handle the situation.

The only other owner be purchased it from said that it was a center board keel not a swing keel. Hard to find the information on online.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
The Oystercatcher blog addresses this immediately:


Olsenjohn rebuilt his 25CB and has a good blog. Maybe he'll see this.


You can send 25CB owners a private message by choosing "start conversation" after clicking on their user name.
 
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klb67pgh

Member III
Christian gave you a great start to existing resources. I have a 25CB. I just pulled my centerboard for the first time this spring as part of sanding and repainting my bottom. The stainless steel pin goes through the hull and through a bushing in the CB. My pin was fused to the bushing. My board lowered, but rotated around the outside of the bushing. I had to use a dremel with a cut off wheel (several wheels actually) to cut through the pin on either side of the centerboard to be able to extract the board. I can't see your pin in the picture, so someone may have used epoxy or fairing compound over that area - start with stripping the paint and rust off of that area. You may need to cut your pin if it's fused in that area - and it may be given the corrosion I see. Also, if centerboards get cracked, they can let water in and swell and get stuck up in the trunk. Good luck and don't hesitate to ask/PM if you have more questions.
 

gabriel

Live free or die hard
The centerboard is made of a carbon steel spine surrounded by foam and then glassed over. Carbon steel rust badly. Any water ingress will cause the steel inside to rust and make the board swell, or expand and get stuck. Water seems to come in through the pin area or the bottom when the foam is exposed due to groundings.

For this reason I baby the rudder and repair any cracks or nicks right away, though I suspect the rudder may use SS internals??

6C8AF852-FC56-4699-BFAD-BB93ACA4CF94.JPGF428E5C7-0676-4655-8F6F-D17C32C6BDB3.JPG

I bought a new centerboard from ruddercraft:


The centerboard is not really a direct replacment though, you'll need to do some minor work yourself.
 
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JohnJ

New Member
My Uncle just picked up a new centerboard from Rudder Craft. Pivot pin bushing looks the same but it doesn't have the stainless tang to attach the lift cable. We just looked at it for the first time this weekend and will contact Rudder Craft but I was just curious how you rigged yours. On the old board the stainless tang was welded internally to the steel core. The new board just has a hole about 3/4 of the way through from the side with a smaller hole intersecting it where the original attachment point would have been.
 

CBessich

Junior Member
Hi there! It has not been an easy task. Luckily we found someone who was really good at these kind of repairs. I'm going to attach some pictures and hope they are helpful.
 

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gabriel

Live free or die hard
My Uncle just picked up a new centerboard from Rudder Craft. Pivot pin bushing looks the same but it doesn't have the stainless tang to attach the lift cable. We just looked at it for the first time this weekend and will contact Rudder Craft but I was just curious how you rigged yours. On the old board the stainless tang was welded internally to the steel core. The new board just has a hole about 3/4 of the way through from the side with a smaller hole intersecting it where the original attachment point would have been.
I just did what rudder craft suggested: drilled a hole and spliced a loop of AM steel rope which they sent me. Has held up fine so far.
 
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JohnJ

New Member
Interesting that Rudder Craft didn't stay with the original design. Seems the simplest and strongest way being attached directly to the steel core. I was thinking a piece of stainless round stock that fits in the large hole in the side, drilled and threaded for an eyelet that could be screwed in from intersecting hole in the back. I appreciate both of your responses and the pics, sure does look like a lot of work to fit it to the hull. I will let you know what rudder craft tells us, Thank you both.
 

JohnJ

New Member
Don't laugh at my mechanical drawing skills. Just a quick sketch of what I was thinking.
 

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CBessich

Junior Member
Your ways sounds a lot easier... I'm going to have to run this by Peter who's helping us to see why we decided this design. We did not get our keel from Rudder Craft though. More to come.
 

gabriel

Live free or die hard
Interesting that Rudder Craft didn't stay with the original design. Seems the simplest and strongest way being attached directly to the steel core. I was thinking a piece of stainless round stock that fits in the large hole in the side, drilled and threaded for an eyelet that could be screwed in from intersecting hole in the back. I appreciate both of your responses and the pics, sure does look like a lot of work to fit it to the hull. I will let you know what rudder craft tells us, Thank you both.
My centerboard didn’t have any steel in it or any holes. I had to drill everything myself.

I thought about doing something like you describe at first but I finally decided on using the hole with a loop of dyneema for the following reasons:

-this centerboard is a lot lighter and it doesn’t need such a strong connection as the original to raise it.

-a steel insert still requires a hole thru the centerboard but with dyneema rope that hole can be made smaller, thus stronger.

-I generally don’t like metal imbedded in (or glued to)
composite

-ruddercraft suggested it

I did make sure to locate the hole were there was enough “meat”. Can also reinforce each side of the board with G10 before drilling the hole for even more strength

PS, your sketch looks pretty good to me!
 
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glenc0

Junior Member
My centerboard didn’t have any steel in it or any holes. I had to drill everything myself.

I thought about doing something like you describe at first but I finally decided on using the hole with a loop of dyneema for the following reasons:

-this centerboard is a lot lighter and it doesn’t need such a strong connection as the original to raise it.

-a steel insert still requires a hole thru the centerboard but with dyneema rope that hole can be made smaller, thus stronger.

-I generally don’t like metal imbedded in (or glued to)
composite

-ruddercraft suggested it

I did make sure to locate the hole were there was enough “meat”. Can also reinforce each side of the board with G10 before drilling the hole for even more strength

PS, your sketch looks pretty good to me!
ten years ago i replaced the board with a board made from hpdm? from a company in Idaho problem solved
 
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