The guy who refurbished my 17's iron centerboard recruited the help of only one other, but it was a backbreaking messy job and he dropped the board when he tried to replace it: It was covered in fiberglass at that point and he had to touch up some damage. In case anyone is now curious, I wouldn't recommend the expense of having someone cover your old c-board in 'glass. I think it's probably more cost-effective to replace a heavily-deteriorated board with a less corrosion-prone (stainless steel?) copy. But when I came to that realization, I'd crossed the Rubicon and probably now have the only early Monty in existence with an iron-cored fiberglass board. ----- Original Message ----- From: "ron and cathryn goodspeed" <rcgoodspeed@mac.com> To: <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 5:38 PM Subject: Marking The Waterline Well, "hula pie" is hanging from the rafters in my shop [with extra supports under the keel] and she ain't going back in the water until that new bottom is on, so I'm glad to hear the various ideas on marking the waterline. The supports under the keel are exactly level and yet the old waterline was about one inch higher on the bow- should it be exactly level all the way around? Something I never noticed until stripping the old bottom-what a horrible job that is! -that the waterline port and starboard are about 2 inches different and not even on the same strake! I am thinking of adding a boot stripe- do they look good on a lapstrake boat? What type of paint should I use for the stripe? While she's up I will be removing the iron board for sandblasting, etc and repairing the area around the stop pin where a previous repair needs some more work. How heavy are the old iron c-boards and how many people are needed to safely remove it without getting crushed toes? Any clever ideas on how to paint up inside the trunk? Thanks for the great ideas and info, Ron Goodspeed M17 "hula pie" #025