Dropping the Board

摘要

One warning often given about a sailboat's centerboard installation is to avoid overtightening the bolt that serves as a pivot pin. Doing so can not only cause the centerboard to bind in the trunk but also stress the trunk bedlogs and, potentially, the planking. Keeping this problem in mind, I used a different kind of installation for the centerboard of my 18'lapstrake boat. This is the one place in my traditionally built boat where I felt that a certain kind of plastic could play a valuable role-one that would be out of sight. Having heard long ago about a hard plastic called UHMW-ultra-high molecular weight-and its usefulness, I elected to make a bushing of this material for the centerboard. I used a holesaw to cut a 1 1/2 "-diameter piece of UHMW whose 1" thickness exactly matched the width of my centerboard slot. Then, I enlarged the through-hole to 3/8" to match the diameter of my centerboard's bronze pivot pin.