"New" Mistral 16

[Mark]

Hi guys,

Just bought a Mistral 16 on Saturday. Went online to try to find out
about it (what it was, etc.) and lucked out with an amazingly quick
and helpful response from Leroy and an invitation to join this group.
Many thanks, Leroy.

I live in Ottawa, Canada, and will only be sailing at the cottage on a
freshwater lake. Have had a couple of boats in the past (actually
more my dad's when he was living), an old wooden boat from back before
they actually had brand names (we called it a Sailboat, nearest thing
I can think of now would be an Albacore) that I learned to sail on,
and then a little Mirror dinghy my dad built when he retired. Nice
enough little boat given its specs, but not high up on the styling
scale. Have sailed a friend's Laser II in pick-up races at a local
yacht club back before I got too old for that

This 20+ year-old Mistral 16 looks almost new so I have high hopes for
it come next spring. Only mishap so far was the centreboard dropped
down while I trailered it home and it looks like I wore an inch or two
off the bottom on the highway that I will now need to repair. Anyone
removed the centreboard from a Mistral 16? Someone guessed removing
of three screws on each side but, looking at photos and so on on this
site and elsewhere, I'm thinking that may be for the Mistral 12. The
16 has no obvious screws, but there are hatch covers in both sides of
the centreboard box so I assume they may be a clue. Everything in
there has been epoxyed over, though, by a previous owner so before I
start removing that epoxy, I thought I'd check and see if there is, in
fact, some kind of pivot bolt in there. Anyone?

Many thanks again, Leroy, for your help and for directing me to this
useful site.