We own Annalise, a P 275 moored in Paimpol bay, close to our house. She dries out in soft mud 6 months out of 12 and is being kept ashore in Paimpol harbour for the rest of the time.

Annalise is in mint condition but we are having problems with our lift keel system for 2 years now. It never prevented us to sail and lift the keel although we had to remove the system and repair it in the past. Because of age and unstability of the system which move slightly, the teeth of the system are worn out. It is damaged now beyond repair possibility and we had to hastily reach yesterday the harbour as we could not totally lift the keel.

We will have to replace the whole system.

Before we look for a French solution I would like to ask the following question :

Is there a yard or a company in England that has in the past manufacture such a system?

Many thanks for any information on this topic

Paul Rapp

Mike

There is a basic design fault with the keel winch, the drum seizes on the axle, this causes the axle to turn and this chews up the casing allowing the drum to move. As a result of this the teeth on the drum no longer mesh with the drive gear and it slips, or worse.

If you look at my post from 3 years ago (titled 275 keel winch modification) you will see that I modified my winch to stop this happening. Three seasons on this has been a total success.

There should be enough details in the post to enable you to make this modification yourself, if not I'm happy to advise you on how to do it.

Alternatively I have modified two other winches in the same way and they are sat in my garage doing nothing, I'd be happy to let you have on of those.

I hope this helps.

Phill