In a flat-bottomed sailing-boat, a movable board or plate of iron, which can be lowered through the keel in deep water to prevent lee-way and increase the stability under canvas, and in shallow water can be lifted up within the boat; often attrib. as in centre-board boat, cutter. b. Short for centre-board boat.
1867. J. Macgregor, Voy. Alone Rob Roy (1868), 93. All rigs and all sizes there were even to a great centre board cutter.
1881. Times, 19 Jan., 8/2. Mr. Young went … to cross the bay in a centre-board boat.
1883. J. D. Jerrold Kelly, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 443/2. Two keels are being laid down to every centre-board designed. Ibid., 449/1. As the centre-board is generally lowered, there is greater actual draught than with keel boats.
1886. Times, 25 Oct., 13/1. (Article) A week in a Centreboard.
