I am going to clean my keelbox to remove old, dirty grease. But I am not sure if replacing it with new grease is the best way. Maybe I should use some dry "teflon spray" which don´t attract dirt? What is your experience?

On the topic of keels, I have seen in the forum posts about a wire stop and about rollers. As far as I can tell my P27 has got neither. Is this a difference between P27 and P275?

Regards,

Ola

P27 / 144

i always find vaseline does the trick, it does not oxidise in salt water like grease does, i use it on everything on the boat.

Shortly before Parker Lift Keel Yachts closed down, I took my 235 in to the factory for the keel servicing. I had it lifted out and cleaned and anti fouled, new eye bolts and replaced the Barton blocks with better quality Harken ones. When I collected the boat Bill told me they had not re-greased the keel as they have found that the grease goes hard after a time and makes it harder to lift. He suggested that the water would lubricate the keel. However having had chance to try it for a year with out grease I have now gone back to grease. I think that the best option is to use grease but clean it out every couple of years and put new in. I have not tried Vaseline.

Regards

Graham

235/25 Blue Jazz

I can't think of a handy P27 to check right now but I can tell you about the wire strop on the P275. In addition to the main lifting tackle on the keel, there a secondary eye bolt, nearer the mast. From this runs the wire strop. The first section is short and thick, with an eye at the end. When the keep is up, the eye protrudes just above the keel box lid, so you can push a short bar though it then lower the weight onto the wire strop. Attached to the eye on the thick strop, and continuing upwards, is a thin wire strop. It goes up the front of the mast and is used to indicate keel depth.

Med vanliga halsningar,

Ken

Ken Surplice

Commodore

I can confrim what Ken S says for 235s and 275s, The 27 keel is lighter and the wire strop at it front can be used as a depth indicater (put a 'flag' at the top of the wire and run it away with shock cord. The Keel of the 27 can be locked up using a bar or bolt through the two side holes in the keel box and the large hole in the top of the keel.

The wire strop can also be used to lift the keel (circa 375lbs/160kg) out of the slot if you have a crane/gantry or high strong point to lift from.

I have stopped using grease on my keel as it goes 'claggy'with sea water and mud. The teflon (McLube) works for a while but mud soon sees it off.

Another mod which works for me is to fit a second wheel in the top of the keel in the same way as the original and fit a second stand-up block on the top of the keel box which has two rope holes one each end of it. My lifting rope now runs as originally fitted, but then goes over the new keel box block, down to the second keel wheel and then back up to the keel box where it is dead-eyed with a knot.

This gives 3:1 purchase in the box so it is possible to lift the keel manually - just!

Only disadvantage is more rope in the halyard pockets.

Cheers

ChrisN

Thank you very much for your comments. I have taken down the mast for the winter and at the same time I used the crane to lift out the keel. I don´t know what grease has been used but now it is just a sticky mess. I will give the box a good cleaning. I think I will try with teflon, if it wears of then at least it will not become messy. I also discovered that one of the plastic sliders (made of Delrin or similar I guess) is cracked and a bit of it is missing. As you may have seen in a previous post I discovered some damage to the keel so I guess this might have happened at the same time. So another thing to fix during the winter.

Regards,

Ola

P27 / 144