Hi Tom: My centerboard was in a somewhat similar condition, though possibly not quite as bad (5yrs in freshwater). CB was stuck tight. While you can free it up without removing it, unless you take it out of the boat and do a proper restoration it'll just rust up again and get stuck. Unfortunately, you'll have to clear the slot before you can do anything. This means either lifting the boat itself up, or sliding the boat back on the trailer. I did the sliding thing, but be sure the roller on the bottom of the trailer is in good shape... you need it's support. On my boat, there was enough of the keel showing that I could whack it with a bar. I had a piece of 3/4" round steel that was about five feet long. I touched one end to the side of the keel, and whacked the other end with a hammer while standing beside the boat (it's too much of a pain to whack the keel while lying under the boat.) when I did this, it loosened up LOTS of rust flakes, which fell out of the slot. After a while, and after hammering both sides, the keel started to drop slightly (you DID remember to free up the pennant on the winch, didn't you?) Eventually it dropped all the way. After I removed the stop pin and pivot bolt, and dug a shallow hole in the ground (I only jacked the trailer up about a foot) I got the keel out. You can do this job yourself, just take it slow and be careful. Hope this helps BG -- Brian Gilbert Marine Media Author, Fix It and Sail (423)876-9990 3404 Hartford Drive Chattanooga, TN 37415 www.sailingsmall.com on 11/2/05 2:28 PM, montgomery_boats-request@mailman.xmission.com at montgomery_boats-request@mailman.xmission.com wrote:
Any suggestions would be appreciated, especially some way to free it without removing it completely from the keel cavity.