I wanted to make a quick post, so that if anyone was actually reading this, they wouldn't think I was dead. Its been about 5 months since I've done anything with 1953.
Curiously, the start of that hiatus began the same week as our local Lido14 racing series, but I can't blame all my inaction on the Lido. Some blame goes to the kids, the two vacations we took, the LA heat wave, and life in general. Good news is, it was nice and cool tonight, the kids went to bed almost on time, so I ventured out and took the cover off the Snipe. Last time, I had removed the nut from the centerboard pin and just couldn't get it out.
I had had a few conversations with my neighbor Pete about what might be holding the pin in there. He has suggested I squirt some CLR on the joint to loosen up any corrosion that might be holding the pin in place; even loaned me some! So I sprayed with CLR and then put a ratchet on the bolt. After a few tough goes, it started to move freely; then a few blows with a smaller bolt pushing the pin out. I was pretty much home free. All I had to do was muscle it out, since it was sandwiched in pretty tight.
Two learnings tonight. 1) the centerboard is steel, not aluminum as I had thought. (duh, could have put a magnet to it the first night i had it out. 2) the king post doesn't look rotted as I thought, the leading edge is just damaged from some over-rotation of the centerboard forward, leaving a nice gouge. It's out, It's alive, but its not pretty.
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| The Centerboard is on my workbench. Floor so clean, you could eat off of it! |
