Stephen

This may be off the wall in your circumstances, but have you thought of dropping a kedge anchor over the stern - or even setting up a second mooring buoy.

You could then secure the boat at bow and stern, lift the keel and rudder, and forget about swinging at all.

This is quite common in many places where boats are secured to two mooring buoys to stop them swinging about.

Regards
Don Harvey
Web Master
Parker 325 'Calypso'

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Don,
The short answer to access to the keel is - you can't.
I am just starting my fourth season and have not renewed the anti-fouling om the keel at all. I have this week taken the cover plate of from the coach roof to check the mechanism and shackles inside. I have also replaced the rope used to raise the keel (Recommended to be replaced every two years). I don't seam to be having any fouling on the keel or indeed under the hull, only about a foot or so around the water line. I do regularly raise and lower the keel during the season. So far it all seams quite clean and slides ok.
I think after this season I will either ask Parkers to extract the keel and give it a good sort out, or try to establish a way of lifting it out myself.
One problem is that the keel is housed at an angle, so although it should lift straight out, it is straight out at an angle of about 15 deg. It makes it a bit more of a tricky lift out. A sturdy 4x2 timber frame work may be the answer.
Parkers are almost on-route between Rutland Water and our home, only about half an hour detour, so it might be easier to just let them sort it.

Graham Ebb
235/25 Blue Jazz

Don,

Forgot to say, you can of course get at the keel in the normal way, with a travel hoist etc.

Graham Ebb
235/25 Blue Jazz

Don - that would do it, but will foul ground chains and adjacent boats will swing into me.

Graham - that is encouraging....do you "dry-sail" yours or is yours immersed on a swinging mooring all season?

Stephen Godber
235/51 "Exodus"

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Stephan, I keep it on a swinging mooring from April to December, but this is on Rutland Water which of course is fresh water. About midway through it comes of for a three week cruise around Solent area. It gets a quick scrub at this point, but not the keel.

Regards

Graham Ebb
235/25 Blue Jazz

My boat is going to be on a rather exposed swinging mooring so I have read this thread with interest. I am going to start by leaving the keel locked down and the rudder lifted.

On the fouling aspect, I have had my boat "coppercoated" in the hope that I will not need to remove the keel too often to clean it up. I will keep the forum advised of how I get on.

David Pocock
Parker 235/52 Arawa

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David (and everyone) - I've spoken to Bill Parker about this and he suggest leaving the rudder down too, loosely lashed (bungees?).

He says the rudder fixing are more than up to it.....


Stephen Godber
235/51 "Exodus"

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I leave my keel and rudder down whilst on the mooring. It reduces the swinging quite a lot. Being on none tidal water, the wind is the cause of swinging, so having the rudder in the air would contribute to making things worse. I pay close attention to the adjustment on the rudder pivot bolt. Make sure the bolt is tight enough to eliminate any side play between rudder and stainless steel stock, but not to tight to stop it being lifted. This will reduce the possibility of any ware.

Graham Ebb
235/25 Blue Jazz

We kept Miss Fidget on a between-piles deepwater mooring (ie. moored fore and aft) for the last two years, with both keel and rudder down, lifting the former occasionally to check it was free, and we didn't have any problems. This year we've moved to a deepwater swinging mooring and are expecting that we'll again keep both down. She had three or four days after launching with both up, and the boatyard was very concerned that she was lying so differently from the nearby boats (ie mainly to wind when it was strong, when other boats were lying to wind and tide) that there was a danger of interference. We always lash the tiller, since we had an experience lying at anchor, with keel and rudder down and the tiller free, when she kept swinging in a wide arc. We then lashed the tiller and she settled to be almost entirely steady.

It's very useful to hear of other people's experiences...

Best wishes

Gilliane


Miss Fidget, Super Seal 26, no. 69

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I was going to start a new thread on this group to bring the 235 "what do I attach my mooring to" thread back to general so 21 people see it, but I now see that there is already a suitable thread going - although it seems to have drifted off a bit.

I posted a pic of the back end of my boat near the top of this thread but this is what I do at the front!

The main strain is taken by the lower chain with a snap hook onto the trailer winch D ring. It does however take a cyclic side load when the boat is swinging about (as it still does a bit in spite of the "udder rudder") and I am now on my second one, the original having let go. When that happens (and it probably will again) the load goes on to the top chain till I get around to replacing it.

The top chain is slightly longer so it is slack normally but goes over the bow roller and a loop drops over the port cleat and is padlocked to it. I found that the cheeks of the bow roller were beginning to nibble at the chain before I transferred the load to the eye.

Geoff Harwood P21/30 Cygnus

Geoff - that's a very useful photo, thank you!

Two questions: When you say the original "let go" do you mean it ripped the towing eye out of the boat?

Second: Is there any benefit, I wonder, in linking from the towing eye to a mid point on the mooring chain, ie higher up than the actual buoy, so that the lower chain is shorter and horizontal? It might still reduce the swing but take less direct strain? I don't know.

Stephen Godber
235/51 "Exodus"

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Geoff

Thank you for this picture. I was trying to devise something on exactly these lines. My worry was that the winch eye might not be up to the strain but if it is easy to replace, and with the top chain as a fall back, then I am sold. Thanks again.

David Pocock
Parker 235/52 Arawa

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To answer - belatedly - Stephen's questions at the bottom of page 2 of this thread, the eye didn't tear out but gently let go at the top so I had a hook instead of an eye. It didn't even let go of the lower chain!

The angle I have it at now I think equally divides the load between the top and bottom fixings of the eye - at rightangles to the slope of the stem. 235s have a much more vertical stem so yes, it would be better more level in that case.

Geoff Harwood 21/30 Cygnus