Hi - we purchased Northern Sky (No.55) last summer. I am having difficulty working out how to correctly rig the keel strop which, although the keel is raised, is currently within the deck housing. I have two issues: (1) having extracted the strop, there's meant to be a lock-up pin to hold the keel. I can't find one - is anyone able to suggest how best to improvise. (2) there's a line from the strop, presumably intended to be attached somewhere up the mast. At what point on the mast should the line be attached? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi David,

I don’t know how the keel should be ‘organised’; but I will try and explain what I have done on my slightly old boat.

The boat is in the yard at the moment and I still need to set this up for the season, so will share some pics (if possible) when I have rigged in a week or so time.

On the top of my keel I have 2 attachment points, the forward being the one used to haul the keel up. The second has a wire strop about 12 inches in length, looped at both ends, the loop at the top just pokes through the housing when the keel is up. To this I have attached about 3 ft of dyneema (5mm) which itself is attached to about 6 ft of elastic. The elastic then goes up the mast, about 3 ft through a small block on a metal loop, then down again and tied off at the bottom – still awake at the back of the class?

When I raise the keel, the elastic pulls up the dyneema and metal strop. I can then either raise the keel completely and put a metal bolt through the loop in the strop, release the halyard used to raise the keel so that the strain is taken by the strop. Alternatively, which I do more often – being a lazy sailor – I have tied loops in the dyneema so need only raise the keel as far as necessary, before using the bolt.

Although the mooring does not dry out as such it can get a little shallow on a Spring Tide so I raise accordingly.

A small piece of wood protects the fibreglass and the metal bolt.

I always release the bolt/strop before setting off.

I seem to have made it sound rather complicated but it is really very simple, at least when I can share a picture of the arrangement

Hope this helps for now

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Hi - John That is very helpful. The boat is due to be lifted in this Friday so I will replicate your system, I think. If you do have time to take some pics and post them, that would be great. However, the explanation in your post is pretty clear. Thanks again. Let's hope we all have some great weather this summer.

David

Hi David.
All I would add to John's reply is that the main purpose of the strop is when drying out. Originally there would have been a short length of 12mm aluminium tube which can be put through the loop in the strop to suspend the keel about 100mm below the hull. The keel box is rectangular but with an aerofoil slot in the bottom and by allowing the keel to project slightly when drying out the idea is to prevent mud and stones being forced up into the keel box. On hard sand the keel is pushed back as the boat settles whereas on mud the keel sinks in so keeping the slot closed.

I think that is the idea and what I have always done on my P235. The other thing is that when on a drying mooring it does lower the centre of ballast of the keel as well as taking the weight off the lifting gear.


Peter, Zephyr

Many thanks, Peter. I will get hold of some suitable tubing to put through the loop.

Best wishes

David

I agree with all the other posts about the keel strop. On mine the elastic simply ties off on a sheave on one of the spreaders. My 235 seems to have a fairly original setup with the 12mm aluminium tube as a keel pin, however there are two looped wire strops attached together on the sternmost eye such that the full length allows for the keel to sit proud of the hull as Peter has described and the other (shorter) strop allows for the the keel to raise almost entirely into the keelbox before the pin fits in to the loop which allows the keel to clear the road trailer more easily when recovering.

I attach a photograph of the keel blocks in situ as they came with the boat - the keel is resting on the road trailer and there is no load on the rope. You can see that one end ties a stopper knot into the mounting plate. Since this photo was taken I have replaced the line with Marlow Doublebraid 8mm as per the P235 handbook (instead of the 10mm shown here) and I think it helps the blocks run easier with less load on the winch. I have also re-rove the blocks to lie at 90 degrees to each other and the attached pencil drawing shows how the line runs. I drew this out at the time - 2 years ago - and the sketch appears to be labelled upside down: the stopper knot and 'winch' are both at the top! LR = left to right and BF = back to front, (and vice versa) each indicating the directions in which the line runs over the sheave.

The 90 degree lay was recommended by other Parker owners at my club and also helps ease the effort on the keel lifting line.

Sorry if all this is a bit abstruse. I may be able to get a photo of the new setup when I am next at the boat.

Adrian

Gemily 235/15

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Many thanks, Adrian. It's also interesting to find out how various owners have adapted the lifting keel arrangement to make it easier to haul up.

David

Hi David,

Here are a couple more photos taken today to show you (first image) the original aluminium tube pin arrangement, held in place by a couple of shock-cord loops, and the double strops (with keel hoisted to the highest setting). This picture also shows how I have fitted a large Wichard eye-nut (slightly obscured by the wiring) to the end of the tabernacle pivot to raise the block that carries the keel lifting line to the deck organiser. This gives a cleaner line from the sheave where the line emerges from the casing. The second photo shows the 90 degree lay of the keel lifting purchase. This arrangement of the purchase may give a little more room for the lower block to run up and down inside the casing. You can also see the double strops again.

Regards,

Adrian
Gemily 235/15

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Great help. Thanks, Adrian. Got the boat launched this morning!

David