I had a relatively long list of items to attend to after our Outer Banks trip. The most important one being to resolve the issue of the leaking centerboard pivot bolt once and for all.
I hope all Sanibel owners are aware of the invaluable resource they have online with Chris Councill's Trailer Sailor Site - widgetsailor.com. Chris uses his site to track current owners of Sanibels as well as share project details and photos submitted to him by those owners.
I've 'borrowed' many ideas from that site since purchasing Guppy and it's the first place I went to find the answer to this problem.
Dropping the centerboard while the boat is on the trailer wasn't as hard as I had imagined. Since the centerboard is offset to the port side, all I had to do was to loosen the interior bunk board on that side and slide it away from the trunk opening. After removing the pivot bolt, I only had to jack the boat up a couple of inches for the board to clear the trailer frame.
I followed the instructions submitted by Ron, the previous owner of Adagio, a 1988 Sanibel.
The sidewalls of the centerboard trunk are very thin, making it easy for the bolt holes to become egg shaped. It may also promote an oil canning effect that creates leaks. Rather than build up the wall with fiberglass as Ron had done, I found a plastic clip board that was about 1/8" thick and cut four 3" squares from it. I glued 2 pieces together with 3M 5200 silicone adhesive. Tv That gave me two 3" squares 1/4" thick.
I drilled a hole in the center for the 1/2" diameter stainless steel pivot bolt and beveled the outside edges to seat the 1/16" thick 0-ring.
I glued the plastic squares to the outside of the centerboard trunk using the pivot bolt to hold them in place until the adhesive set.
I was afraid that it would be difficult to get the pivot bolt hole in the centerboard lined up properly with the trunk hole. But, as soon as I reattached the pennant rope to the bottom of the centerboard and pulled the bottom of the board into place, the front jumped right into position.
The old pivot bolt had been 3/8" diameter and carbon steel. I used 2" diameter stainless washers on each side with the O-rings between the washers and the trunk. I tightened the nut lightly and I was done.
This problem had been plaguing me since my first sail on Guppy. I crossed my fingers.
