What happened to the Centerboard?
We finally got the boat on the travel lift and out of the water. One of the first things the travel lift crew at the marina noticed was that the centerboard was missing. I later gave the former owner, Bud a call and asked him if he knew where it might be. He called back the next day and said after poking around with a long pole under the dock he thought he may have found it. I later went for a swim and pulled the centerboard out of the mud. After a brief cleaning and inspection we found that the pivot hole in the board was broken. I found a place that would carry out the repairs on the board.
I did a search on the internet and found some discussion sites telling similar stories of centerboard losses on Morgan boats. I also found a company in Florida that re-manufactures Morgan centerboards to the tune of $800.00 each!
Pennant with stainless cable and Stuffing Box
I removed the stainless steel pennant, stuffing box and hose from the boat. Removal of the cable from the pennant took up the better part of a Saturday afternoon. The cable was epoxyed inside the pennant, I used three propane burners and cooked the pennant until all of the epoxy oozed out.
Stainless steel pennant, stuffing box, centerboard winch and crank after cleaning.
I cleaned up most of the parts using a 6 inch wire brush on a bench grinder. I finally brought everything down to Fawcett Boat Supplies in Annapolis and George Moose the head rigger will install new stainless steel cables using the old cables as a reference.
Repaired centerboard with cables rigged to pennant and winch.
Bruce Gay owner of Long Beach Boat Company in St. Leonard, Maryland did a fantastic job repairing the broken centerboard. He reinforced the pivot hole with brass and fiberglass.
Bruce Gay working on a commissioned canoe for a local birdwatcher. To see the craftsmanship that went into this canoe was truly amazing.
George Moose used teak plugs epoxy into the ends of the pennant with holes drilled through them for the cable to pass through. He said he did this to keep the cable from rubbing against the end of the pennant tube possibly wearing through the cable and breaking it.
September 2006
I've started installing the centerboard pennant in preparation for the engine installation. I was able to match up and purchase all three centerboard pulleys through a supply place called McMaster-Carr www.mcmaster.com . I have since doubled up on the stuffing box clamps there are now 4 clamps with so far no leaks!
Centerboard waiting to be wrestled into the centerboard box under the boat. I had to have the boat re-blocked in order to fit the centerboard in under the keel.
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Brass pin and fasteners for centerboard before cleanup
Installing the centerboard was difficult to say the least. I'd say it must weigh close to 60 pounds and it is about 5 feet long, I wound up using wooden yard blocks to lift it into the centerboard box under the boat. Once I wrestled it in there I dry fitted everything together to see if it all worked and then dissembled everything and reassembled it using lots of 3M 5200. I didn't have time or an extra hand to get pictures of the procedure, sorry.