Centerboard raising pendant repair?

[RichardB]

Re: Day Sailor, 16', 1980
I am having a great time in newly acquired Day Sailor.
Question 1: My c/b can be manually lifted and lowered from below when on the trailer, but c/b raising pendant (cable coming from front of trunk; Attachment A) will not raise the c/b. When I manually raise the c/b, someone can pull on pendant and cleat the c/b in up position. Also, on the boat bottom at the c/b attachment point is a plate (Attachment B). Should this plate be removed to lower the c/b to expose and repair cable problem? Can removing this plate be done with ease, or will I be causing a new problem? Raising and lowering pendants (rope and cable) seem in good shape.
Question 2: O'Day papers say "As of August 1975, 10 1/2" piece of shock chord added to keep forward pendant tight while c/b down." If I have shock chord would it be obvious in Attachment A? If I do not, do you have a photo of one so I can duplicate?
Question 3: If I need a new pendant system and shock chord, any suggestions on where to buy?
Thank you very much.

[GreenLake]

You should be able to attach images here instead of zip files containing PDFs. I've taken some screenshots of your documents and this is my attempt at uploading them as jpgs.

A-centerboard raising pendant.jpg (98.4 KiB) Viewed 5437 times

B-centerboard-pivot-plates.jpg (100.84 KiB) Viewed 5437 times

Moderator action: I've moved this to the DSII subforum, because the CB issues are DSII specific.

[GreenLake]

@RichardB, now that we have the preliminaries out of the way: Welcome to the forum!

You should be able to remove the pivot plates and be able to pull your CB out. The worst that can happen is that one of the machine screws is stripped and won't come out. (There was a very recent thread on that very issue).

However, assuming that you don't have that particular problem, you can pull your DS on its side (see "Careening") or lift it up, to be able to get at the CB.

The shock cord is designed to makes sure that the pennants are under (some) tension, so that there's no actual slack that can get between trunk and CB. I've sailed on a DSII but don't own one, so I don't keep track of whether this affects only one or both pennants, but anything you rig that keeps tension on the uphaul would be fine.

In your photo I seem to see some rotted shock cord between the eye strap and the block. Whatever you put in, it has to be long enough to not stretch more than the 50% limit for shock cord when the CB is all the way down.

Check where the uphaul exists and from the discussions I've read here, there seems to be a tendency for the uphaul to "saw" into the fiberglass of the opening. That would increase friction to the point that you can't overcome it by pulling on the uphaul. I think that is where the famous "pipe nipple" gets applied by DSII owners to provide protection from further damage and allow smooth raising.

If you don't have any other issues, I would not start with redoing everything. Try some focused fixes on the uphaul and see whether that fixes things. If you later, for any reason, decide to go for a full replacement, don't use factory parts, but use Dyneema (e.g. AmSteel) rope instead. That stuff is as strong as steel at like diameters, does not stretch and is and very slippery. In other words, a perfect replacement for wire. (Works for trailer winches as well, if you still have one that uses wire).

If you need parts that are original to the DS and are the kind where original parts are still a good if not the best solution, your go-to place is DR Marine.

[RichardB]

Thank you GreenLake for the site instructions and cb suggestions. You hit the nail on the head: friction in the pendants. I put some spray lubricant on the old cotton pendants as a test and uplift worked. I will now:
1. Replace cotton rope with Dyneema/HMPE.
2. Put in new shock chord per your suggestions.
Two questions:
1. In Attached picture "pipe nipple," are the plastic grommets in the photo, already installed at all holes, what you were talking about to prevent "sawing"?
2. I did remove pivot plates (Attachment B; screws were not striped). Should a sealing substance be applied to the plates as in seen in Attachment B? If yes, what substance would you suggest?

Thank you again. I am having fun with my DSII. Richard

[GreenLake]

Here's the thing. Bear in mind that my knowledge for the DSII is a bit second hand, and verify my assumptions.

AFAIK, there are no hull openings other than the screws under the plate. Instead of sealing around the entire plate, it should be enough to but some sealant around the holes. Here are things I believe I know:

1. Never use 3M 5200. It's a strong adhesive (read bombproof glue). You don't ever want to use it anywhere you may ever need to take things apart again. Likewise for any of the other adhesive sealants.
2. Don't use silicone-based sealers (silicone gets into the gelcoat and makes it tough to paint or repair later)
3. Widely recommended for bedding hardware like this is butyl tape. (claimed advantage is that it stays flexible, so it should be great for applications like this where its held in place between hardware and hull).
4. Alternatively, a poly-sulfide based caulk could be used. Let it cure first, before fully tightening the screws, so you don't squeeze it out.

Good luck.

PS: By the way, I don't know whether those 3-strand ropes are cotton. Cotton should have rotted away by now, so perhaps they are nylon, polyester or a blend. But yes, they are a good target to upgrade. For any rope that you need to pull on, you might like to get something with a cover (over a Dyneema core), for grip. While bare Dyneema (like AmSteel) is good for replacing wires.

[GreenLake]

Permit me a bit of being "pendantic":

A pendant is a piece of jewelry.

A pennant is a rope or strap to which a purchase is hooked.

They are entirely different terms, but I suspect most autocorrect systems would not have the second term in their dictionary, because it's used in specialized contexts.

[GreenLake]

Your second question about sawing. I was talking not about the place where the control lines go into the cuddy, but where the wire goes into the CB trunk. You may need to stick your head in the cuddy and look back.

[RichardB]

Wonderful info - thank you. I appreciate your accumulated knowledge and sharing it.
I also appreciate your attention to detail, and wit, regarding spelling (which is essential for communication). Attached is a photo of the O'Day brochure that came with the sailboat. Perhaps it was a typo, but they spelled it "pendant," if their paragraph is referring to the same thing we have been discussing.
Thanks again, have a great day. Richard

[GreenLake]

Wonderful info - thank you. I appreciate your accumulated knowledge and sharing it.
I also appreciate your attention to detail, and wit, regarding spelling (which is essential for communication). Attached is a photo of the O'Day brochure that came with the sailboat. Perhaps it was a typo, but they spelled it "pendant," if their paragraph is referring to the same thing we have been discussing.
Thanks again, have a great day. Richard

Thanks for digging up that bit of the manual. It proves that this particular pair of terms is one that is easily confused. Both are reasonably rare and according to at least one source always sound exactly the same. And the particular meaning here is more specialized than more general meanings.

Now, I dug a bit further, and you'll be surprised to learn that some of the online dictionaries want to have it both ways. If you look up "pennant" you get the following:

Usage notes
Not to be confused with pedant (one overly concerned with correctness), nor with pendant (a piece of jewellery).

This same entry gives a particular etymology for "pennant" that does not depend on the root word "pend" (as in "depend", "pendulum" etc.) which is otherwise given as the root for "pendant". Instead it traces "pennant" back to an old word for leather.

However, if you look up "pendant", you get:

4. (nautical) A short rope hanging down, used to attach hooks for tackles; a pennant. [from 15th c.]

And many other sources insist that pendant and pennant are alternate spellings for the same thing.

The problem is that pennant (the rope) in the old ships indeed attached to a purchase, but if the descriptions are correct, it would have been "hanging down" from something. In the case for the DS at least one of the ropes is horizontal, but that's the one actually part of a purchase.

I'm coming to the point where I'm wondering whether the etymology for "pennant" is mistaken and this is simply a case for phonetic spelling like "foc's'le" for "forecastle", with the possibility that this alternate spelling is or was common for the nautical use of the term, and still seems to be preferred for the flag, and non-preferred for the jewelry item.

I've just spent time re-reading the Patrick O'Brian novels, for which he drew heavily on original archive material from the time and where he consciously uses language in ways that are reminiscent of the 18th/early 19th century English spoken by the characters in his books. And he definitely uses "pennant", so that's why "pendant" looked wrong to me. But apparently, it's a legitimate case of spelling variation.

Learned something new. That's why I love having discussions here.

[RichardB]

Thank you for all your help, especially with my DSII, and with terminology. I look forward to trying the replacement rope. Richard