First post here!

Would love some advice please. I have a 275 (sail no 26) with two lifting keel bolt eyes. The aft bolt is being used as a safety to stop the keel dropping when completely raised, the forward eye is being used to lift and lower the keel. The keel lifting arrangement has been adapted by previous owner, would like some reassurance/advice on if lifting on a single bolt is adequate or should the load be shared between the two?

All advice gratefully received.

Many thanks

Andrew (Peerless)

We met last week in Emsworth.

Your eye bolt arrangement is quite normal and works well. Have you checked the condition of the eye bolts? I recommend you change them every 5 years or so as they do rust through quite quickly.

Some people use stainless steel eye bolts, but I worried about causing problems with the iron keel, so I didn't.

Mike

- dip the threads in a copper based grease. Any will make do. Halfords sell the stuff. This not only ensures you can easily remove the bolts, it eliminates corrosion on the threads. Don’t worry, the bolts will not twist and release.

- any corrosion that develops a) develops slowly b) will be on the eye itself, so you can see what is going on

- our PSSA member who is a surveyor suggests placing a line between the two eyes. In the very unlikely event of a bolt failure, which I’ve never heard of, the other bolt will prevent the keel falling all the way down

- my arrangement has a modified telltale strop. As well as the loop at the end, there is another loop halfway down the telltale stop. This means I can, as usual, pin the keel all the way up, taking the weight on the telltale wire and giving the main lifting rope a rest. The extra loop means I can have half keel, with the weight on the telltale and resting the main lifting rope. Alternatively, the keel is down and both eyebolts are resting.