ProDave
Well-known member
Now that most of my jobs are done on the boat, I thought I would satisfy my curiosity and have a look at my lifting keel mechanism, so I took the table off to expose the top of the keel box to have a look. See picture.
When I bought the boat I was told it was a lead keel. Well it may be, but it looks to me more like steel or cast iron. But hard to tell, as the whole thing is encapsulated in GRP so the only bit of bare metal exposed is the tab the lifting wire shackles onto, and that's definitely steel or iron.
I can't lower the keel at present on the trailer, so with the keel up, as in the photo I can't inspect the pivot, but this summer I'll modify the trailer to allow the keel to lower on the trailer.
The way the keel on this boat works is there's a screw that you wind with a windlass handle (inside the black tube at the bottom of the photo) the "nut" that winds along this pays out the steel wire, that goes round 2 pulleys, into the end of the keel box, over a roller and onto the keel.
There's a rope also tied to the shackle. I can't immediately see it's function other than a tell tale. (I was wrong on another thread, the rope just does what the steel wire does, I thought it was the opposite) I see no point in retaining this. It's not strong enough as an auxilliary lifting cord, and you can confirm the keel is lowering okay just by looking at the steel rope (if the steel rope goes slack, the keel is stuck)
Having seen the keel mechanism, I have just 2 concerns:
Firstly, the tab the wire shackles to is somewhat coroded. I don't think it's in imminent danger of failure, but I want to treat it to stop further corrosion. So I'm planning to wire brush it clean, treat with some car type rust inhibitor, then a thick coat of paint. When re assembling, a liberal coating of something to keep moisture out, perhaps grease or Vaseline?
My only other concern is the roller in the centre of the keel box. The wire rope had jumped off this roller, and for some time has been rolling instead on one of the spacer blocks that look to be made of tufnell or similar. You will see that when fully raised the crimp that makes the end of the wire rope rides up onto the roller. Not a very clever design. If I can unbolt the fixings for this roller, I intend to make two metal cheek blocks to fit immediately either side of the roller to try and keep the wire rope on the roller.
I'm not too concerned at the crimp riding onto the roller. When afloat, I leave the keel ever so slightly down, so the crimp won't ride up onto the roller then, It will only be once a year to load the boat onto the trailer that I have to wind the keel all the way up and then the crimp will ride up onto the roller.
Any other comments?
As I said earlier, the whole keel is encapsulated in GRP and there's a hollow GRP box cast into the top of the keel that you can see on the left in the photo, it looks to me like that's just to locate the keel snugly in the keel box.
When I bought the boat I was told it was a lead keel. Well it may be, but it looks to me more like steel or cast iron. But hard to tell, as the whole thing is encapsulated in GRP so the only bit of bare metal exposed is the tab the lifting wire shackles onto, and that's definitely steel or iron.
I can't lower the keel at present on the trailer, so with the keel up, as in the photo I can't inspect the pivot, but this summer I'll modify the trailer to allow the keel to lower on the trailer.
The way the keel on this boat works is there's a screw that you wind with a windlass handle (inside the black tube at the bottom of the photo) the "nut" that winds along this pays out the steel wire, that goes round 2 pulleys, into the end of the keel box, over a roller and onto the keel.
There's a rope also tied to the shackle. I can't immediately see it's function other than a tell tale. (I was wrong on another thread, the rope just does what the steel wire does, I thought it was the opposite) I see no point in retaining this. It's not strong enough as an auxilliary lifting cord, and you can confirm the keel is lowering okay just by looking at the steel rope (if the steel rope goes slack, the keel is stuck)
Having seen the keel mechanism, I have just 2 concerns:
Firstly, the tab the wire shackles to is somewhat coroded. I don't think it's in imminent danger of failure, but I want to treat it to stop further corrosion. So I'm planning to wire brush it clean, treat with some car type rust inhibitor, then a thick coat of paint. When re assembling, a liberal coating of something to keep moisture out, perhaps grease or Vaseline?
My only other concern is the roller in the centre of the keel box. The wire rope had jumped off this roller, and for some time has been rolling instead on one of the spacer blocks that look to be made of tufnell or similar. You will see that when fully raised the crimp that makes the end of the wire rope rides up onto the roller. Not a very clever design. If I can unbolt the fixings for this roller, I intend to make two metal cheek blocks to fit immediately either side of the roller to try and keep the wire rope on the roller.
I'm not too concerned at the crimp riding onto the roller. When afloat, I leave the keel ever so slightly down, so the crimp won't ride up onto the roller then, It will only be once a year to load the boat onto the trailer that I have to wind the keel all the way up and then the crimp will ride up onto the roller.
Any other comments?
As I said earlier, the whole keel is encapsulated in GRP and there's a hollow GRP box cast into the top of the keel that you can see on the left in the photo, it looks to me like that's just to locate the keel snugly in the keel box.
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