Centerboard Cable

While I had the boat hauled in Nov-Dec 03, I choose to inspect and possibly replace the centerboard cable if need be. The yard lifted the boat over the lift dock in order to get the necessary height to lower the board. I worked from a boat at the bottom.

Inspecting and Cleaning the Old Cable

I slackened the centerboard pull rope in the cockpit in order to fully lower the board. The original cable had a thimble with a woven/wrapped end at the cb. I had heard this was the case from the Pearson News Group. When I started pulling and inspecting the cable I noticed that the thimble was worn in-two. It had to be replaced now. Sooner or later the weight of the board (est 280 LBS) would snap the cable eye. The other end of the cable was wrapped around the take up pulley. When I unwrapped it there were several "meat hooks," that also indicated that the cable needed to be replaced. Notice in the picture above, Pearson crimped a "copper stop," on the end of the cable.

The original cable was about 5/32" SS and 12'-3 1/2" long. The new centerboard cable is a 3/16" SS cable with a crimped SS tumble providing a total length of 15'. You can get by with less than 15' however it was nice to know that I had more than I needed when it came time to secure the take up real.

I slackened and pulled the old cable down enough to cut off the woven eye at the cb connection.
I unraveled the end of the old cable just enough to insert the NEW cable in between the wire stands and rewrapped.
I cleaned both ends of the wire good with alcohol and used duck tape (you knew there had to be some in here somewhere) and made a long taped connection.
With a friend up top, he pulled from the counter top while I fed the cable from below. WORKED GREAT! That was a sweet sound when he said OK!
The end of the cable was inserted into the hole of the take-up-real and pulled out the side. I hand cranked up the board then first time thinking that I would have to cut some length off but it all wound up nicely. I dropped it down and cranked it up two more times to fully check it out.
I installed a make-shift "copper stop," on the cable end. Will crimp this off later.

The Centerboard Trunk

The cb Truck measured 3" wide x 7.0' long x 2' deep. The first three pictures above are forward views of the trunk with centerboard withdrawn. The forth picture is an aft view of the truck. The fifth picture shows a view forward with the centerboard down.

The Measurements

Drawing of Centerboard with measurements HERE, powerpoint, TBD

A Hull profile not often seen.
Center board down 60 degrees.

Well my cable broke about two days before trip to Bahamas. I did not have time to pull boat out of water. I did try a lot of things to fish the cable thru. Finally I used old outer shield from shifting cable which looks exactly like plumber's snake about 1/4 dia. I kind of stretched the end to make it looks like spring and actually screwed it in to the pipe. While rotating, it went in like hot knife thru the butter. Than I jumped in, tied twine to the snake and pulled it thru. I nearest friendly West Marine store I made up new cable and pulled it thru with the twine. I did not use scuba gear, although I am a diver, I used just snorkel. I think thin plumber snake from Home Depot would work same way . Actually I have one in the house and it looks like my device. Only cut the end off and stretch it little bit. Well maybe I was just lucky but this is the way I done it.

Peter the Caper man

You'll have to do this when the boats in the sling. Raise the boat so the centerboard drops down and fish from the top while someone reaches in the trunk to catch. Then pull the real cable through from below. You won't have access when the boats on the hard, even with the board out. I have found that it is usually
the cable that breaks from corrosion not the connection. I think the crimp on the cable is the weak link. I just had an eye ring installed in the end and it went though a nut and bolt on the centerboard. Working on the boat in the sling and under the boat on the sling takes some trust.

Mine had broke right after I bought the boat and tried numerous time while in the water, all unsuccessful. Unfortunately I pulled it out too far before I knew what I was doing. I separated the union in the bilge and fished string trimmer (weed whacker) line up to the spool and down into the trunk where I reached my hand up to grab it. Watch those barnacles in the trunk or use a scraper before reaching in. From there it's pretty straight forward. I don't remember the length exactly, I just bought more that I needed and cut off the access. I did see the cable length spiced somewhere on your site or Dans. And I used some sort of electrical splice inside of the spool to keep it from coming loose.
Mark Scheyer