To those of you who responded to my request for help with solving this problem, many thanks. Yesterday, my son in law and I proceded with a plan of attack. We decided to attempt to beach the boat, and careen her. We motored up to the selected sandy beach. We got up to fairly shallow and then grounded. Since I was concerned about putting so much pressure on the mast using the topping lift, we attached anchors from two locations on the starboard side of the boat and then carried them over the boat and hauled the boat over onto the port side. Unfortunately, this did not achieve what we had hoped in getting the keel to where we could access it to observe the centerboard slot. So, to plan B. I had purchased a long slim metal dowel-like thing, actually a sign holder available at Lowes. It had a ring at the top which made it easy to hang on to. So, we righted the boat and then moved it back out into the water to where the keel was no longer dragging. I boarded the boat, and passed the dowel into the rope hole and down into the centerboard slot. My son in law then took a long thin butcher knife and went under the boat and located the tip of the dowel on one side of the centerboard and would run the knife up the slot and attempt to get whatever was up there to drop out. This was done several times on both sides of the centerboard. Finally, he was able to jostle the board around and if finally came down. Then he took sand paper and went under again and sanded on both sides of the board in an attempt to remove any goo stuck to the board. Unfortunately, when I would raise the board again, it would stick and so we had to repeat the jostling procedure again. This is a temporary fix and in the fall when I take the boat out of the water we will need to work on a more permanent solution. I wanted to try to find blueboard foam to place on the trailer bunks so I can get the boat higher on the trailer so we can get under it. So far have not been successful locating it at Home Depot or Lowes. But at any rate I can now enjoy sailing for the rest of the summer and into the fall. Fair Winds, Smooth Sailing! Sandra(Seawitch #617)
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Seawitch