I have this evening been reading through some old threads trying to find out what systems people have in place for actually holding the weight of the keel when retracted. I have seen what systems people have in place for raising/lowering but I'm interested to know how people are taking it's weight for longer periods of time. Currently my uphaul line is led aft and it's weight is held on the clutch, constantly. I'm not sure how comfortable I am going to be with this, and although I'll take a few turns on the cockpit cleat or something just as a precaution I'm just wondering what other set ups are being used by others? Perhaps I'm worrying needlessly, I'm not sure. Having had no previous experience with lifting keels I'm just trying to get my head around this aspect. Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Steven
(New P21 Owner)

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Hi Steven,
On my P275 there are two eye bolts in the keel. One is attached to the dynema lifting rope. The others is a wire attached as a depth telltale. On the external end of the wire is a loop. When the keel is fully up, I insert a metal bar through the wire loop then lower the lifting rope until the bar straddles the keel box and takes the weight off the lifting rope. I believe this is a standard arrangement. I used to have a P21 but can’t remember if the setup was the same. I think it was.

I have now modified my wire strop so that it contains two loops. The loop at the end holds the keel fully up. A second loop halfway up allows the wire strop to support the keel when it is halfway down. Now the keel is either supported all the way up on the wire strop, halfway up on the wire strop or fully down supported by the keel box. The lifting rope is only used to move between these positions so it has an easy life and does not need a clutch to take the weight.

If you’d like to chat more do give me a call. I am P275/25 in our handbook.

Cheers - Ken

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Thanks, Ken. That’s very much appreciated. What you said about the wire and how you use it is very interesting! It’s impressive that the wire takes that weight as well. I’ll be back down to the boatyard next week and I’ll have a closer look at this then. It would certainly be a bit of a relief if this would work for me - the weight being held on my clutch/keel line seems to be constantly on my mind (perhaps stupidly so) when I’m not there.

Thanks again, Ken.

Steven

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