original pin was smaller than pin shown at WebCaptin site

Posted By: Seth Dabney, 2023-C, Oxford, MS
Date: 6/30/07 8:49a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Thanks. These are the dimensions on the WebCaptain site. (link) (Tom Cannon, 2023A, Coupeville, WA)

I bought the replacement pin shown on George's site from Schock in 2004. The original screws were #14 flat head; the replacements #12 pan head (that is 1/4" diameter). Both sets of screws were 2" long and did not reach the top of the hump in the tank. Original pin was 1" diameter, replacement sent from Schock was 1 1/8 inch diameter. The screw holes are 1/4" diameter and are spaced 3.5 inches apart. The pins are 5 inches long. The humps in my ballast tank are a little more than 2" above the bottom of the hull. From the bottom, this is made up of the thickness of pin it self (about 1"), then about 3/16" to 1/4" of glass and polyester resin filler, 1/2" of plywood, and about 5/16" to 3/8" of glass roving above the plywood. I think the pins fall out because the plywood gets wet and deteriorates, the screws get loose and fall out. Inspection of the centerboard trunk and the centerboard shows that the board has been contacting both the shims and the top of the trunk because there is blue bottom paint in arcs that mark the top of the board and the bottom paint has been rubbed off the board in these locations. I like the fact that the shims are taking load off the top of the trunk. I plan to reinstall them. Personally, I don't want to add a plate on the bottom, but I am not sure about what to do with the remnants of the plywood in my humps. Here is my current plan for a fix.... (0) mark the location of the centerboard pin on the trunk walls inside the ballast tank. (1) grind a "key" slot into the center layer of the remaining plywood. (2)clean the bottom and the outside of the trunk around the pin with acetone and roughen with 80 grit. (3)paint the wood with epoxy, line the bottom above the pin a layer of biaxial cloth, and fill any voids on the sidewall of the outside of the centerboard trunk with thickened epoxy. (4) while above is still tacky, lay up layers of matt and thichened epoxy to fill the voids in the plywood chunks and to the top of the humps and allow to cure. (5) drill a hole from the top on one side at just far enough from the trunk for a lock nut to spin on a 1/4" bolt. (6) Install the pin with that bolt from the bottom and drill the second hole from the bottom through the epoxy on the other side of the trunk. (7) remove the pin and drill down again from the top with a 5/8" boring bit to form a shoulder for a 1/4" SS washer. Install the washer and lock nut and glass these in place securely enough that the nut won't spin and the pin can be removed. (8) reattach thin polyethylene shims to either side above the pin with 5200, wedging them in place until cured (could take days). (9) reinistall the centerboard. This would leave the remaining wood in place (whats left seems solid), but completely isolate it from water since the bolts would pass through only glass and resin. See any problems with this approach?