Dufour T7 damaged lifting keel

[southcoastuk]

Hi all

I am in need of some advice regarding the repair of a Dufour T7 lifting keel.

Firstly, I am a cyclist/tennis player who enjoys a bit of sailing and I know virutually nothing about sailing. My good lady is the skipper and I the ballast.

Very basically.... the keel got jammed in the 'down' postion during a 'grounding' - please note....I am just the ballast, lol.

Soon after when it was time to lift the keel and berth the yacht, I was unable to move the draw-string. That resulted in another grounding which freed the keel, but the drawstring/keel now appear to be separated.

Before we go to a yacht-fixer, can you give me any advice (no - I won't dump the skipper!) on steps I can take to fix the problem

The boat is now 'on the hard' on its trailer.

Your help will be gratefully received

Happy New Year to you, and happy sundowners

Southcoastlad

 

[sarabande]

there's an active T7 owners group here.

http://www.dufour.org.uk/html/dufour_t7.html

Worth having a chat with them ?

 

[Searush]

Drawstring is "apparently" seperated from keel.

You do need to know if it is or not I think. Can you actually see the loose end? Of course, if the keel is held up, or jammed part way, there will be no tension on the string anyway. If the keel is a plate, has it bent? Are there still stones/mud in keel box? Did the keel "rattle" in its box before? If it no longer rattles it may be still partially jammed with mud & stones.