Enhancing the Centerboard Cap - RSA 7493
by Mark Biagio
Well since my rebuild of Rondar
7493, I've been regularly sailing and trying to get to grips with my 5, and coming from keelboats, this was no easy task. Although the speed improvements in the 5 have been slow, my keelboat has tripled in speed, especially in the heavy stuff. We've gone from the middle to regularly winning races
in an extremely competitive one design fleet - I credit all this to the 505.
Anyway, after buying a new mast, boom and adding as much purchase as I could where I could...... I still wasn't happy with some of my controls and I needed some changes.
They were;
- 1) Barber hauler cleats - crew worked them, previously as on Ali Meller's
7080.
- 2) Add Trapeze twings - mast is a Proctor Cumulus and this setup seems the way to
go.
- 3) Spinnaker Halyard cleat - old one was on the side of the centerboard
case, could be better.
All the above had to be fitted to the centerboard cap and preferably further back so that the crew doesn't get a painful rear end having to sit on cleats in the light stuff and so that the skipper could do some work too.
I saw that more modern boats all have wider centerboard caps all the way to the rear, and I decided mine just had to be wider!
So I tackled this over two weeks, pics courtesy of my cellphone (hence quality) and
what follows is the brief written overview.
Remove, measure and grind away.
Fittings etc in the immediate area were removed. I decided to keep the widest part of the CB cap and extend it downward past the mainsheet block and to the last bend on the CB case (before it turns to meet the floor). I then grinded all the original gel coat & glass away. Its amazing how quickly one can get to the point of no return!
Fill in any missing "holes"
I still had some "foam in a can" from my previous adventure. I then filled in the depressions, and once the foam had set it was shaped, square(ish).
Cut wood pieces for extended CB cap.
I then used 6mm marine ply and cut out approximate shapes that would fit over and onto the current cap. These parts were then epoxied onto the CB cap in stages. Some pieces had screws in to ensure a good bond to the existing structure and other were "G" clamped.
Reshape
Out came all the tools I have. Some sanding, filing, and even grinding in an effort to make this new piece look respectable, and more importantly - like it was supposed to be there! Slowly it took shape.
 |
 |
.........excuse the
dirt and rags! |
Fiber glass and pool coat
I then applied two lay ups of resin and fiber glass cloth for the parts of strength i.e. where CB extension joins the old. Then a few lay ups fiber glass matt, for the top sections, so that I could aggressively reshape this area to get it quite level and still have a glass layer over the wood when done. I then applied a pool coat layer and sanded, followed by more pool coat until I had a smooth flat and good looking finish.
Paint, touch up and refit.
Two part polyurethane white and gray were applied to the various areas, some more sanding followed by a second coat of paint. Fittings were added and I was quite happy.
Since.........
Well, not much to be honest. I removed a pulley from behind the spinnaker cleat after the first days outing, as I felt it slowed the drop back into the chute (and we'd sailed over the bag a couple of times!). With that gone we were fine again. I feel "Azzurri" (my 5) has all the controls/fittings/bell
and whistles a modern boat has, I'm still missing that elusive SPIRO (damn they're expensive) and a decent suit of sails, and all that seems to be left to tune is that damn skipper.
Thanks for reading,
ciao, Mark Biagio RSA 7493
