Dear collective P325/335 I need your knowledge about the lifting keel.
My P335 Surprise is located in The Netherland on inland water. In spring the keel was greased with marine grease as well as can be reached from the inspection lid with a hooked brush mounted on a long tube. Lowering and lifting the keel worked fine so far. This year I have not dried out on the Waddenzee (yet), so sand of barnacles are not present.

Last weekend the keel would not lower immediately as it had the week before. I had to push the lift and lower button a few times before the keel lowered. It stuttered down more than I remember. The following days the sailed and I could partly lift and lower the keel.
When returned to my home marina I lifted the keel. It lifted with a lot of jerking/stuttering. When fully lifted the keel won't lower anymore.
I removed the inspection lid, but I don't see anything special ... except for a fully lift keel. The trick of pushing the lift and lowering buttons immediately after one another did not result in lowering the keel.

Of course I searched the PSSA 325/335 forum and the Technical reference, as I remembered John (and others) have experienced keel problems in the past. I hope the keel is not jammed in the keel case in some way.
I tried switching the lifting mechanism to manual and open the black release valve. This did not solve the problem; it did nothing. Has anyone tried this before? Should this lower the keel by bypassing the solenoid valve, or can this valve be stuck too because it is never used?

I tried to find a manual of the Fluidlink Hydrolic Powerpack, but I have been unsuccessful solar. Does anyone have more information. I know the company has merged with Hydraproducts, but I can't find any documentation on older models when searching by type numbers on the power pack.

What would be the best strategy to tackle this problem and lower the keel? Of course the cause has to be determined and solved.

Hi Dirk
It is very likely that you problem is due to the hydraulic cylinder needing to be serviced. I think it unlikely to be a problem with the hydraulic power pack.

I posted a thread here on "servicing the keel" about three years ago, after a very similar experience to yours. We serviced the entire keel system, including disconnecting the lead wing and partially lifting out the keel. Everything was fine apart from the cylinder.

What we discovered was that as the shiny bar of the ram goes down into the water, it collects material which is carried up into the seal at the end of the cylinder slowly making it too tight and jamming the ram.

The solution was to have the hydraulic cylinder serviced. This was done by a local hydraulics company, it took three or four days and cost then around 250 euro.

Good luck
Martin
P335/50

Thank you Martin!
Can you tell how you removed the ram when the keel is fully raised?
My thought was:
-remove the main sail,
-have the boat hoist onto a cradle with flexible support for the keel (I do have a 3,5 tonne hydraulic car jack)
-remove to hydraulic line and stopper both ends.
-remove the return hose
-Attach a line around the ram to the main halyard
-push the keel up and remove the fore/aft hanger pin. I previously used a two-jaw pulley puller. Hammering resulted in a nasty burr to the pin
-carefully lower the keel … or lift the boat until the bolt can be removed from the keel
-hoist the ram out
… and have it serviced

I think Dutch boatyard have no experience with Parker liftkeels, so I guess I need to be there to explain things.

Other ideas? Every advice is welcomed.

The first hurdle will be to reach the boatyard (900meter from the marina) without the keel out. I will try careful maneuvering with the rudder and bow truster.

We were lucky, the keel did not stop going up and down completely so we were able to lower the keel with the boat in the cradle and take out the lower bolt.

I don't think I can improve on your plan for getting the ram out.
If it is practical it might be worth trying once again to lower the keel with the boat out of the water first. You could even try pushing the keel from above, that might possibly be enough to help lower it. Just for information, the complete keel and ram weighs about 1200kg with 1000kg of that in the lead at the bottom.

I have found manoeuvring with the keel up almost impossible, I would probably try to arrange for the boatyard to help by towing the boat from the marina.

Martin
335/50