Centerboard control lines

 The fiberglass tubes shown in the last post will be bonded in the locations that are pictured here in the drawing as blue and red dots.  The RED line is the pull up line and the BLUE line will be the pull down line.   The lines are guided upwards through two sheaves that are mounted inside the upper portion of the centerboard case. From there, they will continue upwards through the deck, through rope clutches to be managed by the turn of a winch.

fiberglass tubes liners ????

Since the centerboards will be controlled with ropes that will terminate with a knots inside fiberglass lined holes in the boards......Now where the heck do you find 1 1/2 in ID fiberglass tubes to line the holes?.  I looked around the shop and noticed that a standard florescent bulb was the perfect diameter.

TIP:  If you need to make some fiberglass tubes, wrap a section of an old florescent bulb with several layers of fiberglass and epoxy then wrap with peel ply. Once cured, a few whacks on the shop floor will shatter the bulb and you'll have perfect 1 and a quarter ID fiberglass tubes.  I then used a chop saw to cut them into the basic lengths that I needed.

After cutting holes in the boards with a hole saw, these tubes will be bonded in place then the small rope holes will be drilled from the edges of the boards into the sides of these now fiberglass lined holes.