Brian, Our situation was different than yours, but I thought I would share what I learned. We just changed the centerboard on our 1988 M17. The cb on our M17 is the thinner, lighter, fiberglass cb, but similar in principle to your cast iron cb. Our cb was also stuck up in the trunk, very stuck! In removing the old cb I learned that the ballast is all around the centerboard trunk/cavity of the keel. This makes the cb trunk are pretty tough! But if it was to be damaged, the cb trunk/cavity would be very hard to repair. Not a lot of room to work. The cb itself is relatively easy to remove, repair, replace. But if work needs to be done to the trunk area, that would be a pretty big job. I think the worst cb situation you could find on a 17 would be one where water has leaked into the keel and caused the trunk to swell narrow and pinch the cb. Other the the trunk swelling, I think most other cb problems are repairable. There are several trick on how best to remove the cb. I used the one detailed on Bill's funtigo site "Why Women Live Longer Than Men", where you slide the boat back on the trailer to allow the cb to swing full down. I think our 17 sits higher on the trailer than some as I did not need to raise the trailer as outlined in the "How To". M17's are great boats! I hope this one works out for you. I think it might be hard to tell why the cast iron cb is stuck up in the trunk with the 17 sitting on the trailer. On the fiberglass cb boats, both 15's and 17's, from my experience, the fiberglass cb is sloppy in the trunk and you can wiggle it from side to side and get a "clunk" sound. Randy Graves M17 #410 ________________________________ From: montgomery_boats-bounces+randyg=cite.nic.edu@mailman.xmission.com on behalf of Brian Gilbert Sent: Tue 5/17/2005 11:08 AM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: Re: Forcing a centerboard into the keel Hi Folks: OK, here's the story: I'm driving down to look at a Monty 17 this Thursday. 1979 model- The boat looks good from the photos, and sounds good from the description, except for one disturbing detail. She sat in the water for three years, and when the current owner went to get the boat out of the water, the center board wouldn't retract. So he forced the centerboard into the slot by driving the boat onto the trailer. I'm concerned that I'm facing a huge amount of work getting this keel unstuck, or in the worst case, the centerboard may have cracked or split the trunk. The current owner thinks this is a minor problem caused by weeds/slime/misc growth on the canterboard. He might be right, but if it's stuck for another reason... like corrosion... this'll be a huge and expensive repair. Were the 1979 keels cast iron? Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Thanks very much BG -- Brian Gilbert Marine Media Author, "Fix It And Sail" (423)876-9990 3404 Hartford Drive Chattanooga, TN 37415 www.sailingsmall.com _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats