The hacksaw blade is a good idea. It will tell you if everything is OK. But if it doesn't pass it doesn't tell you if the CB is swollen, the ballast is swollen or both are swollen. If the blade gets stuck and you can drop the CB and measure the thickness then you can determine the culpret. Captain Jim -----Original Message----- From: montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Don Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 12:04 PM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: Sticking Centerboard M-Boaters; This was the first part of my cb message. Sent it to the wrong address..... I have an '83 M15 with steel CB and ballast. We bought the boat in spring of 97. I think the previous owner was already having problems with the sticking cb since there was a 1/4 inch hole drilled through the bridge deck and a fiberglass rod came with the boat that you inserted thru the hole to push the cb down when necessary. I remember writing to this forum many years ago about sealing the gap between the cb trunk and the keel. As I recall, Jerry said that was not necessary. I did anyway but by then it was probably to late. I usually kept the boat in the water for 3 months during the summer. A couple of times after the first launch of the year I had to pull the boat and take it to a local boat yard, they dropped the cb and ground off the sides a bit. resealed it and we were good-to-go for a year or two. The problem got progressively worse, so finally last year I bought a new, lead based cb from Bob E. He had made several M15 cb's a little narrower then the original. I think the trunk opening was 1-1/4" and the new cb is about an inch. Installed the new board and it worked great. Have not put the boat in the water yet this year, so I have to assume that all is still well. The board was $180 + shipping ($$$). If anyone is interested I still have the original cb. It is in good condition except for being a little fat. Replacing the steel with lead in a cb would seem to be easier than the keel trunk I would think. I wouldn't hesitate buying a mid-80s M15 even knowing now what I didn't know then. If the boat is in otherwise good shape , go for it. After all it is a Montgomery. You can do a rough check for a swollen cb without having the boat in the water by trying to pass a hacksaw blade between the trunk liner and cb. It should pass freely the whole lenght. Another short term fix if the board is not to badly swollen is to mount a hacksaw blade in a recip. saw and make a pass on both sides. This can be accomplished while the boat is on the trailer. Being conservative I ground the kerf smooth on the side of the blade. Regards to all, Don M15- 248 M711 too PS Congrats to the Challenge X participants and winners. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!