Centerboard

“ A center-board is a plate of wood or metal, suspended, usually by a corner pivot, within a sheath or box in the waist, which can be let down through the keel into the water, so as to form an adjustable keel. It is the most convenient form of a very old device for preventing a boat’s drift to leeward, or tendency to capsize under the pressure of the wind. ”

“ Leeboards have many undoubted advantages over centreboards. To make a long hole through the bottom of a boat cannot but weaken her. The trunk of a centreboard is ever (p. 317) in the way in a small cabin. In rough water a centreboard must strain a boat more than a leeboard does. On a little vessel like the one in question the leeboards are not cumbersome, but can be readily unshipped and stowed on deck or below when there is a leading wind, or when one is hove-to in bad weather, or rolling about at anchor. ”

“ The Centre-Board.—In England the centre-board of a small boat is generally of galvanized iron; thus acting also, to some extent, as ballast. In America wooden centre-boards are more often used. If a boat has often to be beached or carried, lightness is an important object, and therefore the wooden centre-board is to be preferred. ”

“ The great and undeniable superiority of the centreboard lies in the fact that a yacht possessing it can essentially reduce her draught of water so as to work in depths that would be wholly impossible for the keel vessel. It would seem, therefore, that the advantage gained in the use of the centreboard is mainly not one of sailing qualities, but one of desirability for use in certain locations where shallow water prevails. ”

“ And the merits of a centreboard are many and obvious. It enables you to combine the advantages of deep and shallow draught. You can run your boat up on a beach, and be holding your own to windward against a deep-keeled yacht ten minutes afterwards. It makes the most ordinary boat weatherly, smart, and handy to steer. ”

“ In close windward work there seems little or no difference between the keel and centreboard as to speed; the latter has some advantage when sailing free by raising the board, thus lessening the wetted surface of the yacht. ”

“ Always have the centreboard down in coming alongside a ship. The boat will answer her helm better and steer more accurately with the centreboard down, as the wind and sea cannot push her about on the surface.
If it is ever necessary to leave your boat untended, take great care that she can neither damage herself nor get adrift when the tide rises. Nothing will make you feel so intolerably foolish as to come back and find your boat damaged or gone, perhaps still in sight bobbing away without you. ”

“ To sail in a straight line when close-hauled, without deviating to leeward.—To make short boards, is to tack frequently before the ship has run any great length of way.—To make a stern board, is when by a current, or any other accident, the vessel comes head to wind, the helm is shifted, and she has fallen back on the opposite tack, losing what she had gained, instead of having advanced beyond it. To make a stern board is frequently a very critical as well as seamanlike operation, as in very close channels. ”

“ She has greater draught and more rise of floor, with greater displacement. At first she was fitted with a centreboard, which, however, was found as useless as it generally is in a boat of comparatively deep draught. Its province is in shoal boats. I tried a centreboard in the 4-tonner 'Swan,' but discarded it after one season. None of the racing yachts over 3 tons have centreboards, and experience has shown that on these waters the centreboard is only of use for the smaller and flatter boats. ”

“ It has its peculiarity, which consists in the front board being unusually high and arched at top. Often may women be seen going to market in the waggons, crouching against this high board, which screens them from the wind. ”

“ Every one is out today, and as it is cold, the entire saloon deck is lined with a much-wrapped, many-rugged assembly, whose chairs are fastened to the house-side of the deck, while those who have their sea legs are marching to and fro in front of the line of chairs. The deck steward has the chairs placed for us each morning on the side free from the winds. Most of the time these past days I have been sitting in my chair looking at my feet, first with the sea and then with the sky, as a background. ”

“ The most prominent article in nearly every house is the deck chair, faithful and much travelled chair, which has accompanied its master over the sea from England, and wandered with him into many a dreary little out-of-the-way village, where perchance he sees for months no fellow white man, and where his chair and pipe alone receive his confidences, and solace his soul in the utter loneliness of the jungle. No wonder then that the deck chair wears an important air, and regards other pieces of furniture, which probably change owners every six months, with contemptuous scorn. ”

“ Moreover, while a dome platform might be loosely spoken of as a running board, it does not appear that it falls within the technical definition of that term as used in the trade. A running board is a 'plane surface, made of boards or special metal structure, for trainmen to walk or run on.' [2] The platform involved here is used principally to stand on to give convenient access to the top of the dome. ”

“ He thought of the centre-board. "She drifts sideways, an' if the board's down it makes a point, kinder, an' she'd hang on it. If it's forrard o' the centre, it ud hold that end to the wind a little. I'll see."
The rubber boots gave him good sea-legs. He went to the centre-board winch, measured the distance forward and aft with his eye, and returned for the hatchet. As he took it from the hole in the cabin, he saw a curious, whirling disk inside, which, when it had ceased its gyrations, resembled the diagram on the chart. ”

“ When your boat is resting securely on the floor or level ground rig a temporary seat, then take an oar and by experiment find just where the rowlock will be most convenient and mark the spot. Also mark the spot best suited for the seat. On each side of the spot marked for the rowlock cut two notches in the side-boards two inches deep, one and a half inch wide, and three inches apart. Saw two more notches exactly like these upon the opposite side of your boat. These will make the rowlocks when the side-strips are nailed on (Fig. 216) . ”

“ Across, from side-plate to side-plate, lay some loose boards, for a platform; then, standing on these boards, let your assistant lift one end of the ridge-plank, while with one nail to each rafter you fasten the two end-rafters on to the ridge-plank, fit the jaws of the bird’s-mouth cuts (Fig. 71) over the ends of the side-plates, and hold them temporarily in place with a “stay-lath”—that is, a piece of board temporarily nailed to rafter and end-plate. ”

“ The extraordinary thing was that each one blew up so big that it simply obscured the person wearing it, ballooning out about them, above their heads, below their feet, and to a diameter of perhaps twelve feet—so that if they were in an open space, such as their cabins, the lounge, or on deck, they simply rolled or lolled about on the floor, quite hidden from view, whereas if they were in a corridor, they were hopelessly stuck. ”

“ The little card-box and the scoring-book of the players, the deck chair and rugs of the inveterate reader, the hurried tread and irascible eye of the carnivorous passenger, and the everlasting pipe of the ocean talker, who feels time before him and the world at his feet wherein to spin yarns—has any one not seen them? ”

“ There is the main deck, on which most of them are placed, and the upper deck, which is open to the sky, and where all the ropes lead, and where some guns are, and the lower deck, where we sleep in hammocks slung to the beams, and where our berth is; that is the place where we live—our drawing-room, and parlour, and study, and anything else you please. There is a table in the centre, and lockers all round, and if you want to move about you have to get behind the other fellows’ backs or over the table. Under it are cases and hampers of all sorts, which the caterer has not unpacked. ”

“ The diagonal boarding costs a trifle more in material and labor than the horizontal, but it is so much superior that the extra expense may well be incurred. Every board forms a double brace, one where nailed to the studding and one where the siding or “clap boards” are nailed to the rough boards and the studs. Nothing has yet been discovered which is so satisfactory, and which gives such strength and protection to the frame as does this preliminary diagonal boarding, covered with paper. ”

“ The whole front is exposed to view in the daytime, not by opening all the doors and windows, but by taking down much of the front siding, which consists of boards varying from ten to twelve inches in width, standing up endwise, and fitted into grooves above and below. These boards are slid out early every morning, one by one, and laid away out of sight under the floor, in a place reserved for them during the day. Early in the evening each board is put in its place for closing up the front of the shop, leaving not the least door or window by which one may have direct access to it. ”

“ The housings leave much to be desired, and the seats are much out of repair, and one is lucky to find the foot-board slung at a usable level and fairly horizontal, and if the protecting rail of the seat does not slip out. ”

“ For a sign-board an idea is suggested in Fig. 26. At one’s place of business, in front of a cottage, or on a mile-post, it may be displayed to good advantage.
It is only a board on which sheet-iron or lead letters have been fastened, and the edges bound with metal and large-headed nails. A rod set at right angles to a post supports the sign-board, and to ornament it some scroll-work is attached at the top. Scroll ornaments decorate the sides and bottom of the board. These are fastened on with steel-wire nails driven through holes made in the metal and into [99] the edges of the board. ”

“ In the other end of the table, where the like hole is made, another boy of the bigness of the known boy must be placed, having on his usual apparel: he must lean or lie upon the board, and must put his head under the board, through the side hole, so as the body shall seem to lie on the end of the board, and his head lie in a plate on the other end. ”

“ The sideboard should contain relays of knives, forks, and spoons, in rows; glasses, dinner plates, finger bowls standing on the fruit plates, as well as any other accessories that may be needed. At another sideboard, or table, the head waiter, or the butler, does the carving. If the room is small, this last may be relegated to hall or pantry.
In luxurious houses the sideboards are often devoted to bewildering displays of rare china, and cut glass, but in more modest domiciles they are used simply for the needs of the hour. ”

“ Illustration 86 shows the latest type of a Sheraton sideboard, owned by the Colonial Dames of Pennsylvania, and now in “Stenton,” the house built in 1727 by James Logan, William Penn’s secretary. [111] The sideboard stands where it was placed, about 1805, by George Logan, the great-great grandson of James. The wood is mahogany, and the large square knife-boxes were evidently made to fit the sideboard. The legs, with spade feet, are short, bringing the body of the sideboard close to the floor. The handles are brass knobs. ”

“ He called to one of the operators. “Here, let me at that switchboard.” He pushed the boy aside, and sat down in the vacated chair.
“Which trunk is it on? Oh, I see, the second. There Captain, take the fourth booth against the wall.” ”

“ The boards that compose the floor, and on which you have to sit, resting your back against the backboard, are about two feet long, and are fitted so that the knees just touch the combing, while the heels are against the footboard on the keel, thus obviating the discomfort that would follow on having to keep the legs stretched out straight at full length. ”

“ Presently a red light shone from the board and the man with the metal face rose, and with slow and halting steps, like one of great age, went to the board and transferred one of the loops from one hole to another ”

“ It is necessary to have a good brace across the boat for the back end of the springboard to catch on—a 2 by 4-in. timber being none too large. At the point where the springboard rests on the front seat there should be another good-sized crosspiece. The [107] board can be held in place by a cleat and a few short pieces of rope, the cleat being placed across the board back of the brace. A little diving platform is attached on the outer end of the springboard and a strip of old carpet or gunny sack placed on it to prevent slivers from running into the flesh. ”

“ When you are ready to go to work, place the board on a table and empty upon it your box of sand, which should be dampened until it can easily be molded by the hand. Raise the head of the board, until the children can see your work; if the sand is damp enough to keep its place, it can be inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees. ”

“ To lay the bricks on a board is not necessary. They can be laid on the floor equally well, except that when you have done playing you will have then to put them away again, whereas if placed on a board they can be left till next time. ”

“ Centreboard or sliding keel vessels shall always be allowed to compete in any race for this Cup, and no restriction nor limitation whatever shall be placed upon the use of such centreboard or sliding keel, nor shall the centre-board or sliding keel be considered a part of the vessel for any purposes of measurement. ”

“ For the large shelf choose a board about twelve inches wide or wider, if you have one, measure the space your dressing-table is to occupy, mark the size on the board with a pencil, using your try-square to make your line at right angles with the edge of your board, and saw off the board at the ruled line. If the room is neither plastered nor ceiled and the uprights are left uncovered, let the large shelf reach across from one upright to the next, and make the smaller shelf just long and wide enough to fit in between. Saw out your supporting braces after the pattern given in Fig. ”