Good centerboard uphaul?

[DavidF]

I'm at a loss for the right name. I am looking for ideas for a good way to pull up the centerboard on the Hylan Chesapeake skiff. The drawings appear to show a metal plate through bolted in four places, holding a metal rod or line that goes through the centerboard cap.

Do you have a good design suggestion? Going from the drawings, I am wondering how robust the connection between the line/rod and the CB. Wouldn't a thin stainless strap doubled over (like a large pipe clamp) and screwed in with stainless 1/2 inch screws on both sides be enough? I can't imagine a metal rod is best on a boat this size (15-8) but I have seen it before.

Your suggestions are greatly appreciated.
David

[Thorne]

Gardner's The Dory Book shows a number of CB's with this metal bar design, but also some alternatives with the a cable or line attached to the back and run through a block on the top of the CB case.

One of his Swampscott dory plans shows the cable/line design most clearly -- can't remember if it is in the Dory Book or Building Classic Small Craft. He shows a small strap attaching the cable/line to the back of the CB.

How heavy is the CB?

[ 09-27-2005, 07:08 PM: Message edited by: Thorne ]

[Bob Smalser]

Depends on how much the board weighs.

Heavy boards like the hundred+ pound steel plate below generally need a sheave mounted atop the CB case rigged to a double-fetch tackle running forward.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/3075025/37657562.jpg

Special-purpose blocks for this purpose are made for CB case tops...I see them occasionally in salvage hardware lots on Ebay....but a sheave from Jamestown or Fisheries Supply and a length of bronze rod let into a reinforced area on case or cap will serve just as well.

Boards of, say 30lbs or less can use Gardner's rod.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/6583947/84843568.jpg

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/7711190/101687782.jpg

[DavidF]

The board weighs 20# and is 48 inches long. One problem I have is I can't think forward on this project and buy all the bits and bobs at once, which makes purchasing from a mail order house expensive. So I try to make do with what I can find at a landlocked hardware store.
David

[Brian Palmer]

For a board that size, you can attach a rope lanyard through a hole drilled into the edge of the board that intersects with a larger hole drilled across the board. A stopper-knot inside the larger hole holds the lanyard in place. Cheap. Strong.