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With the assumption that a single piece of 5/16 Polyester braided is the best way to rig a centerboard lift line, without any metal fittings, nor stainless steel wire, nor any kind of added hardware on the board, but just a line thru the board with a simple stop-knot if the best. Note also that I have a vertical turning block installed on the deck, beside and at the top of the compression post hole, to ease the line from vertical in the trunk to horizontal on the deck, then thru a flatwise turning block near the stanchion, and back to the cockpit thru a jam-cleat. It has always been easy to raise and lower the board smoothly , once the board is free to move ( without side-forces against it ) , just by hand with the line, and without any molding or kinking of the line across tight turns.

After alot of thought, measuring, and layout of the parts, and based on the prior thread a couple of weeks ago in this forum detailing the arrangement of the lift line and knot, It seems to me advisable to make a second hole in the centerboard lift lne depression area, to allow the knot to be tied on the depression side, and then the line exit and re-enter the other un-notched side to come out of the centerboard on the notched side thru the new hole and then up to the place in the trunk where it goes into the compression post and upwards.
In order to avoid the line rubbing across the knot when lifting and lowering, the knot has to be below / foreward of the last point of it's attachment to the board. And in other words, the line has to finally exit the board above / behind the knot, to avoid interference, because they are on the same side of the board, the knot and the lifting length of line. "Above" referring to the situation when the board is raised, retracted into the trunk, horizontal, and with the hole in the board nearer the top of the trunk, and "behind" referring to the board being lowered when the line is at a slight angle forward from vertical to its attachment on the board, and then behind (aft of) the original hole.
This means the new hole in the board ( 3/8 " or maybe 1/2" at most ) has to be drilled in a location of the depression above / behind the original hole, because the original hole is near the bottom of the depression ( near the center point of the board ) and centered in it so there would not be enough room in the depression for the second hole to be sufficiently far from the original to maintain strength and avoid a lump in the line from making a hair-pin turn exiting and entering the board on the off-side.
I think this is my plan, because it solves the interference question about the line and the knot, and because it can keep the holes thru the board sufficiently far apart, and because it actually should improve marginally the leverage of lifting the board from a point farther from the vertical of the pivot point, and and at a lesser angle from the compression post in the trunk, for the first several inches until the line starts pulling straighter up the compression post to finally an almost exact vertical from the deck to the lift hole in the board, when fully raised.

OK, if this made sense to anyone intimately familiar with this hull cavity and hardware and centerboard, the QUESTION is ;
Have I missed anything, assumed stuff that is not true, forgotten any potential considerations, or made any false or unfounded conclusions.

To recap, I am replacing the prior installed 5/16 " Polyester lifting line with a new one, the old previous line having frayed where it rubbed against the back edge of the board, going from the lift-point hole in the board across the back edge of the boardl. The line did not have significant wear along its length involved in passing across the exit point at the top of the trunk where it enters the compression post, the way some owners have observed. That turn is apparently smooth. The PO had run the lne from the knot in the depression, thru the board and out on the off-side, where the length of it that touched the trunk wall did not have the relief of the notched area. I want to run the line on the notched side, so it does not rub as much as it could on the back edge of the board coming from the off-side, and also have the knot in the line where it would rub the least on the trunk wall. On the off-side away from the notch, the line would have only its single thickness appear for an inch or so, and in an area where the board is thinner from its hydrofoil shape, so its contact with the trunk wall on that side would be minimal also.

Go for it, you understand correctly, however, I like others had a rough entry at the compression post and the alignment was wrong. When I converted from cable to line, I re-aligned the exit hole for the line on the depression side, also cut part of the non-depression side out so the line would lay in close to the surface, my purpose was to avoid binding in the trunk and stay out of the water stream as much as possible. Also faired out the compression post entry with a long shaft and emory cloth.

Has had lots of use and no problems.

Newell
Fast Sunday 96X, Windancer 89D

Good suggestion, .... with that very thought in mind, I had determined that the hanger is precisely perpendicular to the bottom of the hull at the trunk, and measuring with a tape reaching up inside the empty trunk from below the boat, found the distance between the bolt-hole and the lift-line hole in the trunk was 14 and a half inches, and then arranged the board on sawhorses with the hanger and pin in place on the board, with the hanger stabilized parallel to the edge of the sawhorse, ( the board being removed from the boat ) and after pivoting the board into the 90-degree horizontal retracted position relative to the hanger, found that the exit hole was (would be) lined up exactly below and in line with the compression post, so that it did not have to rub against the exit edge of the hole except a little at the fully extended postion where the lne has to angle slightly forward to the hole in the board where it's attached. But in the fully extended position, the line does not need to be very tight, and in the partially retracted positions, it only takes a slight angle there, and fully retracted, as it is when the boat is just at the dock and not in use, the line is lifting directly and straight up from the board into the compression post, so not to have continual rubbing against the exit hole edge in the trunk.

It is true that the lne is exposed to the flow of water under the boat when the board is fully extended, but maybe in the notch it's profile will be reduced for the length exposed, and on the off-side only an inch or so will be in the full flow across the hydrofoil of the board.
For that, it might be a good idea, LIKE YOU MENTIONED, to embed the line in a routed out path between the holes, to some extent, although the board is probably not thick enough to bury the 5/16" line completely, without making it a slot from hole to hole, and losing the pull on the off-side, which would result in the line being attached only on the one side of the board, and tending to pull the the board apart. One advantage of the wire is the thinness.
How does the wire attach to the board ? Does the wire turn into a rope before it gets up to the deck ? ( I would not want to pull a wire back and forth across a right angle turn) How does the wire transition (hardware) into the rope line

I still have the original wire / line lift that came with my 1996 X, it is still in great shape. I bought a spare years ago but have had no reason to ever change it. The wire goes from the board all the way up inside the compression post out the hole in the deck making the turn to horizontal over a SS rod welded to the mast step. From there it goes to the starboard side of the hatch track where it makes a turn on a cheek block. Just past this in the full down position it has a eye crimped in it's end where it transitions to a line that goes back to the cam cleat for securing.

Duane, Thanks, and another question ....

what is the attachment of the wire to the board ? a swaged eye in the cable, with a bolt thru the eye and board, or an eye-bolt in the board, with swaged eye in the cable .... ?? It must be a real flexy wire, to go over that small bolt at the mast base in a 90-degree turn, under tension.

ALX357 wrote:Duane, Thanks, and another question ....

what is the attachment of the wire to the board ? a swaged eye in the cable, with a bolt thru the eye and board, or an eye-bolt in the board, with swaged eye in the cable .... ?? It must be a real flexy wire, to go over that small bolt at the mast base in a 90-degree turn, under tension.

From what I could see when I replaced mine - bolt, washer, eye-splice and all - there was a rubbed notch in the gel-coat that corresponded to the Nicopress eye that I put in my new cable - so I figure that the factory used a Nicopress eye-splice in the original cable. The port side of the centerboard had a depression or cut-out for the cable and the nut end of the bolt; the starboard side was flush, with a hole countersunk to accept a 1/4" flat-head screw.

I made a Nicopress eye-splice in the centerboard end of the cable, with a fender washer to keep it in place, a Nylock nut, and a 1/4-20 x 1 1/4" screw. (The wrench-tightened style of Nicopress swaging tool is fairly inexpensive, and that's what I used. I fed the cable down from the deck eye, and tied the bitter end through the deck block to keep it up topsides; then I swaged the eye with the cable in place. I couldn't see pushing the cable up through the compression post!)

The cable is 5/32" 7x19 stainless cable - the most flexible type available.

Sorry to say, I didn't measure the exact length of the cable that I installed - but I asked for 12 feet to be sure I'd have enough, and the salesman cut at least 4 extra feet. I used the extra to put my top eye-splice about 12" from the cam-cleat, so I could use it as a marker to determine how much of the centerboard is down. (Some time when Bossa Nova is in clear-enough waters, I mean to calibrate that.)

Hope this helps -
Rick

I replaced my steel cable with a 5/16 braided line. I took the line to a rigger to make a eye splice big enough for the centerboard bolt to go thru ($10). I did this as I didn't want a knot on the other side.When I took the centerboard out I noticed the original steel cable had worn thru the gelcoat a couple of inches up from the bottom.
I also found my centerboard had split 10 inches around the head at the seam and had to reglass and gelcoat the Board, I also poured resin inside the holes in centerboard and moved the board all around to give the inside a coat.
You will need a snake line taped to the other end of eye splice and feed it up from the bottom.
I need to build in a roller at the top as the line has to much friction on the stainless rod makeing the 90degree turn.
Dave

I going the non-metallic route, with a CB raising line as discussed in the long prior posting, and resolved the issue of embedding the one inch of line on the off-side, where it exits and re-enters the board, by dremelling with a small sanding drum, a channel from hole to hole, only an inch long ditch in the board, and only a half rope thickness, (about an eighth-inch deep,) to partially bury the line in. 'Also slanted the upper hole, to favor the lifting direction and give the line a softer angle of lift on the board.

Amsteel is about 3 or 4 times the expense, for 5/16", but maybe it would be worth the extra abrasion resistance. I don't really want to do this again, at least not in the next 5 years.