Hi Ron,

Last off season we made some upgrades to the centerboard and winch system.We replaced our 38lb aluminium board wrapped in fiberglass (3/8” thickness) with a solid stainless steel board (1/2” thickness). The board weight is 128 lbs!

With the added weight I decided to change the pulley system out to a 5:1 winch and kept the pulley system as well. Raising the new board is actually easier than raising the old 38lb board. I also upgraded the pin for the board to 1/2” 17-4 stainless rod. The original pin was also 1/2” dia. I really wanted to upgrade to something thicker but we were intimidated by trying to drill a perfectly alined hole in the lead keel so I just upgraded the pin hardness... I will be removing the pin this off season to look for any damage. But it seemed to work just fine.

Below I have attached some photos of the new board and winch.

Max

The new centerboard is #304 stainless. The machining was done by a friend. I believe the total cost was around $400 but this area is known for having tons of metal fabricators so it might cost more in labor somewhere else.

New centerboard's attachment load reducing pulley (watching this)

The 1/2" diameter pin hole

The winch - so far I have not had any problems with the rope jamming - everything runs very smoothly. I imagine you could run into more problems in the salt water. The sheave on the board will probably fail first.

The winch close up - The sheaves I used in the system are: HARKEN, 38mm Sheave Wire Block

The rope I used is: NEW ENGLAND ROPES STS-WR2 5mm Synthetic Lifeline, Gray

Mechanical advantage - pull the red line!!

load carrying attachment

Stay tuned