Hi Jim, This may be one of the differences on how the same center board is fitted differently on the 17 versus the 15. Our 17 is a 1988 model. Our cb was damaged due to the weight of the 17 resting on the cb against the trailer's single keel roller. Because our cb does not fully retract up into the cavity the boats weight on the cb against the keel roller caused the cb to crack, twist, and mushroom. I suspect this happened over time as the trailer bunks sagged. When fully retracted the lower edge of our cb is visible below the cb cavity by approx 1 inch. Enough that you can get a pair of visegrips onto it. And enough that you don't want any of the boat's weight resting on the keel roller. Jerry's advise was to leverage against the aft end of the cb and the inside or bottom of the cb cavity. A small pry bar would do the trick, again being careful not the nick our gouge the fiberglass. In your case a long thin-nosed pair of Visegrips might also do the trick. You can wrap the visegrip jaws with masking tape to help avoid any damage from the pinch. With the pivot pin being at the opposite end from where you are prying, you can get a lot of leverage working against the aft end. I also tried looping wire up and over the cb from the bottom. It didn't work for me either. For me the key to getting a really stuck center board down when working from he bottom is the controlled leverage. Randy Graves M17 #410 N.S.D. ________________________________ From: Jim Sadler [mailto:jimsadler@jascopacific.com] Sent: Tue 8/16/2005 8:58 AM To: RandyG Subject: RE: M_Boats: M-15 Center Board Randy Thanks for the tips. What I can't quite figure out is how you were able to clamp a pair of vise grips over the CB. My CB is up into the well. I tried to get a strap of plumbers tape up over the CB and pull down but couldn't get enough leverage. Jim Sadler -----Original Message----- From: RandyG [mailto:RandyG@cite.nic.edu] Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 5:24 PM To: jimsadler@jascopacific.com; For and about Montgomery Sailboats Subject: RE: M_Boats: M-15 Center Board Jim, We had a stuck fiberglass center board on our 88 M17 (same cb as on your 15). I did want to drill an access hole in the cabin and I suspected our cb was damaged from the 17 sitting to low on the trailer. My first attempt was to try using a wood dowel, then a steel rod, working from the cockpit through the cb pendant hole. This didn't work and I would discourage anyone from trying it if the cb is anything other than lightly stuck. The cb is weak where the pendant attaches and could be easily damaged. If you do pound from the top keep in mind that the cb is a fiberglass-lead-fiberglass sandwich. So think in terms of how hard you would pound a dowel against your hull or deck. Instead, per Jerry's advise, we lifted the back end of our 17 up off the trailer and working from underneath clamped a pair of vise grips & rag over the aft end of cb. Then leveraged the vise grips against cb-trunk using a piece of wood as a buffer. This worked to free our really stuck cb without causing any additional damage. You can get quite a bit of controlled leverage this way. Randy Graves M17 #419 N.S.Dinky ________________________________ From: montgomery_boats-bounces+randyg=cite.nic.edu@mailman.xmission.com on behalf of Jim Sadler Sent: Mon 8/15/2005 8:52 AM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: M-15 Center Board Anyone ever had a problem with the center board being stuck retracted? How do you get it to come down? I have pulled real hard and it seems to be stuck solid. Thanks Jim Sadler _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats