The past three seasons I've owned my 23, due to scheduling, the marina (where I both berth and store my boat) has launched and retrieved her each season. I never really gave a second thought to it all as everything seemed fine -- that is, up until recently when a fellow CPYOA member shared his story with me about how the keelboard on his 23's trailer had broken. He shared some pictures with me. This all got me thinking about how, in the past, I remembered how the keelboard on my 23's trailer always seemed a bit funny-looking to me. In other words, it appeared almost curled up, like a giant ski (the way that they used to make them "back in the day" with the tip curled upwards).
The more my CPYOA friend told me about his situation, the more I started to worry something was wrong with the keelboard on my boat's trailer. I started sifting through pictures of each season of when the boat was either just launched or hauled out. However, the first picture I really wanted to see is what the trailer looked like just after my boat had been delivered to me from Keith Scott's "The Sailboat Company," in North Carolina, where I had purchased her back in June 2023. The keelboard on the trailer was as flat as a pancake. Then, I looked at a picture of when the boat was hauled out after her first season with me, and yup, the front of the keelboard was bent upwards, curving up around the fore of the leading edge of the keel.
Upon figuring all of this out, I called the marina owner and explained the situation and sent him "before" and "after" pictures of the keelboard on my trailer. He did not seem alarmed at all. I didn't do this as a matter of accusing him (or his staff) of any wrong-doing of course -- I just wanted him to know that I had just become aware of this issue which concerned me re: the safety of my boat and other boats stored around my boat while on the hard.
Long story shorter, he and his staff are going to rectify the situation, thankfully. I thought I'd share this story as, evidently, from what I've heard, it seems this can be a common sort of issue. My CPYOA friend -- hopefully, he'll chime in here and share his story further -- is working on the repair for his boat's trailer as well.
I've shared some "before" and "after" pics of my boat on her trailer. Pictures when the keelboard is flat is delivery day to me; the other two pics, haul-out after her first season with me.
Hi Michelle, thanks for posting this here, as well as the photos. Yes, as you described, I had problems with the keel board on my 23. The front of the board curled up just as you described, but because there was a knot in the wood it actually broke the 2x6 board. Upon doing further research, I determined that because the trailer was originally designed for the Horizon Cat (it's actually the name of the trailer model used on the 23), the post for the bow support and winch will not go forward enough to get the front of the keel over the first of three cross members on the Magic Tilt trailer. I am going to end up putting metal C channels on my Trailers to support the 2 x 6 board, but I'm also moving the post forward and welding it in the position that will allow better keel placement over the first cross members for support. I believe this placement will actually have two benefits: first it will now have the keel supported by two cross members versus one crossmember of the three. Secondly, It actually increases the tongue weight by about 250 pounds which is better for my towing situation because it was only 5% tongue weight, and this will increase it to 10% to 12% tongue weight. I hope this helps and I'm happy to answer any questions.