DickG,
I'm looking at 6:1 as I don't want to winch but rather pull by hand.I weighed the keel on edge on bathroom scales and I couldn't get it over 120Kg.

I believe the top blocks are size 3 - Harken also do a nice ball bearing version but you need to park the keel with a pin supporting it to prevent deforming the balls.
My keel fitted blocks are 1/ an original Maine - tufnol and 2/ home-made to the same pattern as the Maine using a nylon wheel bought from the local chandlery. I am sure yours would clean up and be perfectly usable. I cannot emphasise enough that the main sources of friction in my set up were:
Oversize keel rope
Rope binding against the holes in the keel box top
Poor alignment of rope into organiser blocks on the route back to the clutch
Friction caused on the winch drum as the rope 'slides' up the drum to the self-tail mechanism

These are the system sources - of course on top of that there is the possibility of mud in the keel box!
I believe the original spec weight for the keel was 'approx 350lbs'

BW
Chris

Mark Weeks had now written an article in the Modifications/Maintenance section  which gives detailed information about changing to a 6:1 lift system.

Thanks, Mark!

HI Mark,
great article on you keel hoist rebuild - very impressive. Just one thing to watch, check the angle of the rope from the keel box top to the deck organiser block - I note your lead out block is mounted on the eyeplate provided originally. On my boat I found it caused the rope to rub on the bottom of the deck organiser so I have mounted the lead out block around 150mm up the mast on an eyeplate and swivel.
Best wishes
Chris