Plenty of previous posts on this but nothing less than 2 years old so any new thinking?

I plan to remove old grease and replace with Ramonol (any other suggestions?)

Main question. To do this I really have to get the keel right down to the stops with no tension on the keel box cover, e.g with the lifting line completely slack and the support wire also completely slack, so I can lift the cover clear to get scrapers down and a brush on a pole to put the new grease on. I plan to do this afloat moored to a pontoon. What can go wrong?

Any advice, comments or warnings greatfully received.

Robin and Maggie Cooter 235 Ossie.

Robin,

Is your boat a 325 or a 235 as you are posting in the 235 forum but say you are a 325 ?! - we have 235/48 and in the past have greased it with waterproof grease but always have done it on land and in our cradle using pole with brush attached. Not sure if it makes much or any difference - however have never cleaned off the old grease before reapplying.

Chris Cobb
235/48

Many thanks Chris. Our boat is on a trailer so to have it lifted on shore would be quite expensive as we have no other work to do under the boat whereas if it can be done in the water it will not cost. We are based in Brightlingsea, Essex in Morgans Yard and they operate a "Park and Ride" scheme. You get onto your boat in the yard and are towed in and launched, on return you radio i and the trailer is on the slip, you sail on to it and are hauled out. It's not that simple on recovery as the keel takes a while to get up so we go alongside a jetty, bring the plate and rudder up and then the tractor driver manouvers us onto the trailer. Still we do not get our feet wet!

Robin and Maggie Cooter P235 Ossie.

My 275 sits on a drying mooring with a muddy seabed. I cleaned the grease out, and leave it un-greased as mud and grease make a very stiff mixture. The delrin pads seem to be quite slippy enough.

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Thanks for your reply. I can understand being on a muddy, drying mooring that mud and grease don't really like each other. We "drysail" the boat so mud is not going to be a concern but if we do dry out it is likely to be on sand. I will clean the old grease out as there must be some level of emulsification with the salt water. For us the answer might be to clean the existing grease out and see if it makes any difference to the lifting and if it seems to be more difficult then put grease on again. From previous posts, all at least two years old, there seems to be two clear camps - grease and don't grease!

Whatever else I think that we are going to have to bite the bullet and replace the single speed winch with the two speed option. WE are not getting any younger and the plate will only increase in weight as the years go by!

Many thanks,

Robin and Maggie Cooter 235/11 Ossie