International Telstar Owners Association

Has anyone ever had to replace a pivoting centreboard for a telstar. Mine is a mk 1 and the centreboard broke off, getting caught by my anchor chain an a choppy sea. I would like any tips you might have and more importantly any drawings of the centreboard as I have nothing left to use as a template.

Hi Johnco,

Welcome to the 26 and 8M section of the Telstar Owners Association. There are several folks working on centerboards now, whether they are near their computers I don't know and there is at least one person who has replaced their's, I need to do that myself. I have attached the only drawing I have, I am not sure if it will help you.



MK2 Centerboard.JPG (54.63 KiB) Viewed 172 times





There is more information at this link, you must be a Member to access the info. Perhaps something there will help you as well:

http://www.telstarowners.org/cms/viewforum.php?f=24

Best of luck to you,

Pat

Many thnks Pat. Mine is a mk 1 and I think its much simpler than this.... more a variation on a plank of wood with a hole in it!!! Nevertheless the main dimensions seem to be about the same. Mine broke off in the fully vertical position leaving me with a rather useless piece of curved plywood inside the casing flush with the bottom of the hull. The pivot hole being the only undamaged bit left.

Good reminder to pull up the centreboard before setting anchor in a choppy sea..Still time was not on my side as my engine had stalled and I was drifting into another boat...the pleasures of sailing eh?

That is the only drawing I have. Mine is partially damaged as well, broken and rotted length ways. I hope to get her off her trailer shortly and then I can get a better look. There are several MKI owners and they are usually monitoring this site. They must be having fun sailing. I am sure at some point they will join in. Where are you sailing out of ?

Pat

Thank you Pat, that drawing has been very useful I made my own drawing based upon the one you posted. I had to make some amendments because it is slightly higher than the casing in the MK1 will allow but it has given me enough info to produce a drawing for the boatyard without the need for a template. I guess it helps being an architect, I can usually design my way out of trouble but this has been a little tricky.

I am based in the UK on the East coast in a place called Burnham on Crouch. Its quite a well known sailing place in the UK.

I have owned my boat for a couple of years but have spent most of that time refitting her and now she has strengthened amas, a new paint job on her topsides and a new suite of sails and various bits of new deck hardware such as single line slab reefing and towable genoa cars.

I have sailed her twice since getting her in the water. The only thing I didn't check was the centreboard as the previous owner told me it had just been renewed!! I also had to make a new tiller as part of the refit so I am gradually getting everything replaced. If anyone wants to know how I made the tiller let me know I am more than willing to share my experiences.

I have found this site very useful as my boat does not have the double berth arrangement nor the folding table/chart table and I saw from the brochures posted how the interior was originally designed so that will be my next project.
I decided to apply for membership and paid my donation via Paypal. Do you know what happens next?
Regards,

I have a Mark I and have rebuilt my centerboard from the old one. I have not reinstalled it yet. Nor have I drilled the hole. I'm waiting until I reinstall it to do that. I'm finishing the cabin first. I made it out of 2 pieces of marine ply sandwiched over a piece of woven Kevlar. The kevlar should provide lateral strength and remove any flex from the CB when sailing upwind. I am planning to shape it to an airfoil shape and finish it again with a glass/epxoy layer. I have a picture of someone else's Mark 1 centerboard which was done like that. Let me know if I can get you anything like measurements, etc.

Lou

Hi Lou,
Any measurements would be very useful as I have only a small section with the pivot hole left. I made some measurements for the shipwright to make a new one but have no idea if it will fit properly. The lower section is probably ok but the part that sits in the centreboard casing is a bit of a mystery especially where it fits around that internal blocking piece. This is a drawing I made does this look about right to you?

johnco,

I may be able to help but it will have to be in a week or two when I get back to my boat. It is "on the hard" and blocked fairly high with the board lowered. I will measure what protrudes from the hull if that is of any help. My boat is an 8 M (made in 1979 in the UK but was shipped to the U.S.A.) The center board pivots in the middle of a semi circular upper section and has an almost rectangular lower section that protrudes below the hull. The cross section below the hull has a foil shape. I think it was made from several thick pieces of plywood glued together. It looks a lot like the centerboard in the video of how to replace a Telstar 28 centerboard.

Geoffrey

johnco wrote:Hi Lou,
Any measurements would be very useful as I have only a small section with the pivot hole left. I made some measurements for the shipwright to make a new one but have no idea if it will fit properly. The lower section is probably ok but the part that sits in the centreboard casing is a bit of a mystery especially where it fits around that internal blocking piece. This is a drawing I made does this look about right to you?

Yea, it looks close. The round part that controls the rotation looks a bit thin. I could make some measurements if you would like and post them for you. I could probably given you a fairly accurate measurement. (I wonder if I have a metric tape ?)

I could also make you a tracing for the shipwright to work from? My new one is traced from the original board that was rotted. It's sitting in my garage. I can get some brown kraft paper this weekend and trace it out for you. I'll take some pictures as well if you like. Post to the UK might take some time but I would be happy to fedex it or UPS it if you prefer. I think the Kevlar roving in the center is going to make the CB bullet proof. I really like the way it turned out, you might think about putting some kind of reinforcement in the middle of the sandwich.

My understanding was that the CB tended to flex a lot in these old boats. I have Hull # 52, so it is one of the earlier production boats, I think it was made in 1973. Tony was changing things from boat to boat at that time. But the CB should be similar in all the MK1 models because he did not change the retracting mechanism until the MK2. Yours is hand retracted and locked in with notches on the top of the CB case right?

I'll post some photos of my CB later so you can look at it. If you want me to simply measure it, I can do that Tomorrow or Friday. If you want a tracing, I can do that on Saturday.

Lou

Many thanks Lou, Dimensions of the curved part that fits into the casing would be very handy. Does your centreboard have a groove for the ropes? Mine has two ropes connected by a loop one feeding forward through a hole in the casing and the other aft with cleats to tie them off but I'm not sure how or exactly where they connect to the centreboard.
Best wishes,
Cliff