Probably the main Achilles heel of the Ranger 26 is the centerboard design. What is great about it is that you can pull it up when in 28″ of water, lower it part way when reaching, and put it all the way down to assist when pointing. This humble little swing board turns the ranger from a wallowing sow into a reasonable performer when sailing or even close quarters maneuvering. It also has been know to fall out and disappear. Not many, but a couple times Ranger skippers have found themselves dragging their board, or even losing it altogether. Not fun, but not insurmountable to repair or replace. Here age drawings that will help you do so if you ever find your self up the creek without a centerboard.

Just a reminder and shameless under the water line “plug” for a Stanchion Sheave. If you are pulling your center board or repairing/replacing your centerboard, this be be the perfect time to replace the other Ranger 26 weak point. The Stanchion Sheave. To find out what it is and why you might need to replace it… Click Here!

Removing/Installing

When removing or installing the centerboard you will need to let the board swing down, in order to get it to position so that there is enough room above it in the trunk so that you can lift it up and back and then down out of the slots. I can’t remember if we let it down until it was hanging completely vertical or not… it’s not hard to figure out once you are doing it though, especially if you are on land with the boat on blocks or hoisted up in a sling.

I’ve also done it under water with scuba gear on… in very murky water… that was harder because you can’t see, you don’t have any leverage to lift the board up and back along the slots… but it can be done. Just don’t do it! 😉

Shop & Architect’s Drawings

Center board Rebuild by Erica Liepelt (Stargazer)

I’ve just sent along some photos of Stargazers centerboard rebuild. When getting the center board in and out, I believe we had to block Stargazer high enough to go straight in. Maybe the photos of the trunk will help? 

There is also a closeup illustrating the little rubber stops that were installed as keepers, and of her cable subluxed out of its groove, explaining why it was so hard to raise and lower when I bought her! She must have bumped bottom along the way somewhere. I’m super grateful for those keepers!

Best, Erica

Centerboard Replacement by Lynn & Steve Keota

Most of the following photos are from Lynn & Steve Keota. They replaced their center board after some years ago after the original one took a deep dive! Here is a current note from Lynn.

My husband, Steve, and I had a Kent ranger for about 10 years. I sold the boat in late 2016 about 6 months after he passed away from cancer. I sent all of his original “paperwork” on the boat with the new owners. I did keep a lot of the things he had in his computer regarding the boat.

Our boat was missing the center board entirely it was somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. We purchased her at Friday Harbor in Washington State and brought her back to Georgia. Steve built a new centerboard and created new fiberglass keepers that the inspectors for the boat buyer said was the best solution he’d seen. I remember him taking 2 pieces of very thick marine plywood and sandwiching them together, melting lead weights for it and then carefully sanding it to get the exact shape, edges, etc and then repeating that process when he wrapped it in fiberglass. It was a beautiful piece of workmanship. He was an engineer by trade.

I miss him terribly and our boat, but just couldn’t justify keeping a sailboat when he was the captain and I was just a darn good first mate. LOL

I’m sharing some items I found that might be of some use. I hope this is helpful.

NOTE: Below is part of another owners solution to the centerboard drop out problem in case anyone finds it useful. There might be more information and photos on the Yahoo Groups thread.

UPDATE: I think that the below conversation is describing what the above photos show – maybe?

From: KentRanger26Boats@yahoogroups.com [mailto:KentRanger26Boats@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of pantybuncher
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 3:07 PM
To: KentRanger26Boats@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [KentRanger26Boats] Re: Another Question – Stuck Centerboard

My board has one other modification that may be of interest. It is permanently pinned in place. A half inch stainless pin has been drilled through keel and board at the pivot point, and sealed in place. At first I worried about this modification (done 7 or more years ago by a previous owner). Would it allow water into the hull or board? Would bottom painting be more difficult? But I have found it easy to live with, noticed no problems arising from it, and the sense of security, that the board simply is not going to be lost, is very nice. I recommend it.>>

looks like i need to make some repairs to my swing keel as well. the pivot points on the keel are worn/broken. i have not managed to look up the keel-slot yet. it seems that a pin as above is a potential option…or in my case, perhaps not pinning the entire centerboard, only use a pin to replace the fiberglass pivot points. if I did go with a complete pin all the way through….it does seem somewhat attractive(and secure), I wonder how they centered the drill location.

I also need to order a swing keel cable. is there someone you could recommend that can easily sell me the exact part I need, or will i have to make a detailed drawing to get it exactly right ?

thx

Andy

My Response on the thread…

Hi Andy,

Wow! I’ve never heard of that modification! I do remember hearing of people who have lost their center boards though, which would not be a good thing, but not a danger to the boat. Sounds like that would fix that… I wonder how they figured out exactly where to drill the hole… I guess you could create some sort of jig to line things up.

I can imagine a full day of futzing to figure that out! 😉

Personally, I think I would pin the board with a bronze pipe filled with marine text or epoxy… drilling through the keel sounds like more work than it’s worth with lots of opportunity to screw up where you put the hole! Plus, you’ll lose a good 25 lbs. or more of lead down low in your keel with down there will affect your boats stiffness so then you’ll have to add some sacks of shot in the bilge to help compensate, probably 100 or more lbs. (guessing) We added 200lbs of shot to our bilge area (before it gets deep) and it helped stiffen the boat nicely. Note: Eventually, that shot bags got wet often enough that they deteriorated and all the shot pellets spread out all over the upper bilge floor. It would be better to buy some lead blacks and encase them in a layer of epoxy and then bolt them down to the floor of the upper bilge, then epoxy a bead around the line where they meet the floor for easy cleaning (you don’t want gunk collecting under your lead blocks that you can’t get to and clean out, no one wants that! ;-).

The cable is just a standard stainless steel cable with a swaged loop on one end, any rigging shop can look at the one you take out and make one up for you just like it.

Its best to have it either swaged on the house top after installation so you can attach a line to it, for going through the jam cleat on the house top back my the cockpit, along with your pull handle. Or, you could maybe have someone do that cool braid/weave together of the SS cable into the rope… with no SS lope on the upper end…

In any case, you can’t have them put the loops on both ends because they you’ll never get the cable through the pipe, around the pulley in the sheave, and up the ¾” CPVC pile that goes up to the house top and out from under the mast step.

If you drill through the keel… take a lot of pictures and do a video explaining your process to post on youtube! It will get at least 2 views (one by you and one by me! 😉

Bruce

I think this boat is now owned by David & Carole Derrer

A previous owner installed this pin after loss of the centerboard and obtaining a replacement, about two decades ago, we think.

After disassembly and inspecting, we replaced the stainless hardware with new, but otherwise left things as they were.

If you are working on your centerboard, this may be worth considering. Some challenges are getting the hole drilled straight and centered, and drilling into lead.

Our centerboard has a stainless pivot pin installed which prevents its loss from rough seas, grounding, etc. We just overhauled that as well, and will post some pictures of that too.

New Gudgeons & Pintles

David Derrer also had some stainless rudder gudgeons custom made a few years back to replace our deteriorating originals.