First question on forum so apologies if I should append question to related thread.

End of last season, happily on day Oi Oi was due to be lifted out, I couldn’t raise keel (on Oi Oi – its manual though tend to use drill with high torque to raise/lower). Once lifted out had keel removed. A bolt on the frwd keel roller had failed and keel roller twisted jamming keel in place. So, took the opportunity to feather keel, refurbish winch, replaced dyneema and reset keel roller with new bolts. All good this season but slightly nervous so have only deployed keel 3’9/3’10. On reflection I think I deployed keel too vigorously. So, the question. Is there a natural ‘resting’ place for deployed keel i.e. I cant lower it beyond the allotted 4’? And, is the frwd keel roller fitting weight bearing once keel deployed? Thanks Paul.

Hi Paul, yes the keel when fully lowered rests on the bottom of the keel box and there will be no tension on your lifting gear. From memory, when fully down the keel does not touch the forward roller. If the rain stops tomorrow, I will take a look as my boat is now out of the water.

As mentioned previously on the forum, I have a tell tale wire with two loops on it. One loop holds the keel fully up on the pin inserted through the loop. The second loop holds the keel halfway down, via the pin. This means I can have the keel up, halfway down or fully down with no tension on the lifting rope, dyneema in my case. To me, it seems a good idea to give the lifting rope an easy life and let the wire strop or keel box take the strain whenever possible.

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I visited the boat today. The keel lowers about 2/3 before resting on the ground. In this state a can turn the forward keel roller by reaching up from below. The keel may sit differently when it is not resting on the ground so I can’t be sure. When the keel is fully up it doesn’t rest on the roller.

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