Beneteau 311 Lifting Keel service

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hanbrowes

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Hi
I have a Beneteau 311 with a lifting keel. Having studied the forum, i see that it is possible to ground the boat and let the keel mechanism 'gently' lift up into the cabin through the table to service the mechanism. has anyone tried winding the keel down with the boat out on a hard standing to achieve the same?

thanks
howard
 
Hi, I've got a 323 with what will be the same or very similar mechanism as yours. The mechanism can be wound "down" on the hard standing and the mechanism will come up through the hole into the cabin. You will then be able to get to and grease the upper section of the thread and mechanism. You will not be able to remove the mechanism from the keel as it is obviously still attached to the lifting section of the keel. (please no arguments about whether this is a lifting, swinging or drop keel boat, it just gets boring and we've heard it all before). The only ways to get at that connection are to either lift out and disconnect it whilst still in the slings, support the boat at height in the yard to allow the keel to be lowered or do what I usually do and dive whilst the boat is in the water and disconnect it underwater, then lifting the mechanism out from inside the boat. None of this is difficult, it just takes a bit of fore thought and planning whichever way you decide on.
Greeny
 
Did my 311 about 2 months ago lifted boat in the hoist dug a hole below keel and lowered keel into hole.
There is a forked strap on bottom of the lifting mechanism that has a stainless bolt through the keel, on this strap there is an anode on both sides. The top of the strap connects to the threaded rod which runs up inside the outer tube through a captive threaded nut on the end of the tube.

The table slides up easily removing 4 nuts underneath and 2 into the mast support.
When my boat is on the trailer if you try to wind the keel down and the thread will screw up from the table.
As a diver myself I wondered if it would be possible to do this diving under the boat but the water I sail in usually has almost zero visibility and with the thread completely lowered the keel has to be physically lifted slightly to replace the bolt between the fork and the keel. so probably doable but difficult in my location.

View attachment 38395

pete
 
Not answering your Q. but adding a little knowledge. I have my 331 fin removed at the mo. The nylon side pads were worn out allowing the plate to 'boing boing' driving me mad. The upper bearing had collapsed. The stainless steel strap holes where they join the plate were elongated and weak. No anodes were left. The bronze nut will be replaced. The boat is 11 yrs old.

An engineer is making good all the necessaries. I'm sure the final bill will give me a heart-attack.

Contact me by pm if you want to know the final bill. Probably best for your health if you dont though.
 
I had an early 311, built in 1998, with a lifting keel. The early ones had a known fault in the lifting mechanism as the bronze "nut" linking the tube and the threaded rod sat underwater where it was prone to electrolytic corrosion in marinas with shore power. When the boat was only 8 years old we had an incident when the keel suddenly dropped with a frightening bang, leaving it swinging vertically below the boat. It seems this kind of occurrence was not uncommon. I got the lifting mechanism replaced with the newer type at the Beneteau yard in Cherbourg, which was very reasonable compared to Ancasta, Fox's etc. I wrote an article with lots of photos for the Beneteau UK Owners Association magazine in 2008. I had to swim under the boat on several occasions to reattach the lifting mechanism. The Medway in late October is not pleasant!
 
hi many thanks for this. i m just thinking again how to sort the keel! have you a copy of the article you wrote? mine is an old mechanism, i ve no idea whether there are any anodes left etc etc. it does boing boing a lot also. any help much appreciated. best wishes howard
 
I had a First 29, the lifting screw appears to be the same except it went straight onto the blade, no link plates. Didn't have any anodes either.
I replaced the side pads to stop the boing boing (I would have called it clank clank), if you think your pads are the same I can give you the drawing I did and had them made up from acetal for a fraction of the Bene price and much quicker.
 
Howard: better to use the private message system behind the forum - just click on the username you want to contact and all will be revealed? This is a very public place to put your email address - spam will follow!
 
Hi
My keel knocks,I would be very interested in info of how you changed your through keel pads. How are they fixed in ?Who made them for you.

Regards
 
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