Michael, I am not removing my center board until the fall. I am going to wire wheel, coat, fill and paint in place so that I do not miss the spring season. My keel board setup has a bolt for the hinge point that is not covered at all. And a stop pin that is rather a large flat head screw that was installed by the boat yard that pulled and worked on the board prior to my purchasing the boat. The screw is accessible from the starboard side but I do not see any access to it from the port. I know that with my M-15 that did have a stop pin that had to be driven out I had to drill out the material on each side and drive it out with a center punch and I am sure other tools. Any damage seemed easy to correct with some epoxy. I made sure the leave obvious signs when I filled in the pin locations. I know that others have made jigs and tooling to lower the M-17 center board but I will continue to let the yard pull the board when I do it in the fall. It is large and heavy and it seems worth the money to me to have the yard lift the boat and lower out the board. I will take it from there but will have them put it back in as well with my help. Robbin PS I tried to send a reply with a picture of the keel but it was too large for the list. Michael Ray Wisely wrote:

On 4/26/08 7:20 PM, "montgomery_boats-request@mailman.xmission.com" <montgomery_boats-request@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:

...

robbin roddewig

Thanks for the advice Robbin,

I will take all of the advice I've been given and put it to the test so I can possibly give out my experience at some future date. This is really a great list with many generous people on it.

It isn't too late btw, I have not even touched the boat as I've been too busy with work. I'm afraid by the time I do, it will be the summer wind season on the SF Bay and that limits the days you can go out because of tide timing and such. Now if I just had a flexible furler with a genoa I might be able to tackle it single handed. My family will not go out in a blow. (and I don't blame them really, it can get really nasty out there for a small boat on a summer afternoon.)

I read somewhere on the list about painting inside the centerboard trunk with some of the thin rollers they sell. I've seen them at Home Depot.

If you have pictures of your process, send me a link.

And let me ask you a couple of CB questions since you are in the middle of it.

1. Which way to the CB pins drive out and what is the process?

2. What do you use to secure them back in?

3. Are there any trouble spots in these two task to keep in mind?

Thanks for your message. It is much appreciated.

_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats