Hi,
in the process of repainting a Mossie [yes I know I should be sailing it, but it has turned out a bigger job than first thought!!]. I have turned my attention to the centre board slots, and the packing is pretty knocked about..

What is the job of this packing, and what should I make replacements from ? Any help greatfully recieved..

Paul
Canberra

Can you just clarify what you mean.

Is it the filler around the bottom end of the case you are talking about or something inside the centreboard case between the deck and the keel?

Hi Paul,

some timber mossies had longer centreboard cases, which where then packed at one end with foam or timber is this the packing you are worried about? It was designed to fill space when boards used, where less than maximum width, most Mossies now use boards of less than maximum width. Also some cases where made with a long slot which allowed you to choose where you wanted to put the boards within the rules and then the rest of the case was filled in with packing. These days everybody seems to put centreboards at maximum distance back from bow.

Know all about rebuilds taking longer than anticipated, I am sure it will be worth it in the end, stick to it. Not literaly of course
Good to hear Mossies still alive or coming back in Canberra, we often meet alot of Canberra people at Eden Regatta, hope to see you some time. Or at Gippsland Lakes we are not that far away

Regards Gary.

Hi Tim and Gary, thanks for the reply's...

On the fore and aft faces of the centre board slot there is some padding which looks like styrene foam that is then covered [on the wearing faces]with a cloth tape. I thought it may be to stop the boards from jamming, or to help with raising/lowering.

However they are pretty beaten up, think I will need to make some new pieces, was reading in the old forum where Peter Foulsum mentioned "fitted the fibreglassed foam wedges" and "fitting rubber strips to the fore and aft faces of the new slots". I guess I am trying to get a better understanding of what they do and how to make some new ones.

The repaint started in mid October with strippng the boat back to bare timber, lots of work lots of time, anticipated to have it all done by the start of December, but you know the story..

Have some friends [monohull] that head to Eden each year, really seem to enjoy it, may head down there this year [with or without a boat !!].


Kind regards

Paul

I use some flowcoat mixed with micro ballons, pushed into the case and held in with formable tape, masking tape will do but aluminim tape is better. Put some extra in so you can sand/file it to suit the board afterwards. Take care when forming the tape into the "mold" as this can save alot of sanding/filing afterwards, also monitor the flowcoat going off, when it gels semi solid is a good time to carefully remove the tape you used as a mold.

Maybe Garry should change his user name to Thrice Bitten?


Darryn
1704

Hi Soggy,

The foam I used was a readily available high density blue modelling foam and proved to be very light, quite strong and effective for the task despite its regular abuse. As sugested by others already, use the rear face of the slot as the starting reference since you need the centreboards as far back as possible. If the rear case is already raked back at 5 degrees then you don't need a rear wedge; just a strip of rubber glued to the solid casing. This assumes that your centreboards are ancient and have square edges front and rear. If they have a uniform section over the whole length then you may need to hollow out a "Vee" section of foam at the rear.

If the rake is more than 5 degrees then use the bottom rear corner as your starting reference and make up wedges to suit.

Good luck with your calculations.