Swift 18 Lifting Keel

[Guest]

Does anyone know what is the easiest way to stop the lifting keel coming off the end of the screw mechanism? It's happened to me once and I don't want it to happen again! I am hoping that it can be done without suspending the boat from a cradle. Can anyone help?

 

[Miker]

Also a problem with Beneteaus

Sounds like a too common problem. It happened repeatedly on my Beneteau 260 Spirit. If I forgot to count and unwound too much, the collar holding the worm unscrewed from its rod. The keel and collar then dropped out of reach from the winding rod. My solution has been to sink a rope in front of the keel weighed down with a chain. Take the rope ends back behind the boat to two blocks tied to the marina pontoon and back again to the jib winches. With the boat tied up rigidly I could then wind in the ropes and jack up the keel until the winding rod reached the collar.

In despair after another keel winding failure, I ordered another winding mechanism from Beneteau to find that it had been modified with the offending parts welded together. This was despite Beneteau saying that no modification had been made. Is it too much to expect boat manufacturers to behave like car manufacturers and call in boats to rectify design faults at no charge? The boat is now in for repair while I go off for a three week holiday.

Probably no help to you but it has got it off my chest.

 

[quinag]

I also have a Swift 18. The lifting screw has a hole drilled right at the end, into which is inserted a split pin which stops it unwinding any further. It seems to work OK without jamming. Presumably if the boat is on the trailer with the keel up, it should be too difficult to extract the screw and get a hole drilled at your local engineering workshop.