Fairly new to the PSSA but have owned P275/17 Kekova since 2001. In 25 years she has only been in UK for one year, so most maintenance has been done by me and my ingenuity!

I've read here, and had a few chats, about quite a few keel problems and worries, so I thought I might share a few things hopefully to allay some fears.

The keel and its mechanism are not such a dark art as one might imagine. Perhaps a good start is to share some photos of the last time I inspected the upper part of my keel, last year. It is quite possible, from onboard the boat, to safely lift all the interesting part of the keel clear of the deck. By that I mean down to the bottom of the GRP covered cut-out.

To do this I use a hand ratchet winch with a 1 tonne SWL and 1m lift. The top end of the winch needs to be vertically above the lifting eye of the keel of course. This is arranged by a strong post, in my case the thicker half of my spinnaker pole, which carries the load safely in compression. The pole is held in position by temporary mast-style rigging. Done carefully there is very little side load. The foot on the pole presses on the deck between the keel aperture and the mast, with a wooden block to spread load and avoid damage.

The keel is first lifted to full hieght using the normal winch. Then secured there with the parking strop. Then the bridge gantry with pulley is removed. Bolts are easily accessible in heads and forward cabin. Then the hand winch is attached to the top of the rigged pole and its cable to the fitting for the parking strop. This gives a better angle than the normal lifting eye. And then crank away. Quite hard work but drama free. You should be able to get enough height to see everything.

Safety precautions. I rig a few lengths of rope tight across under the boat to stop the keel if it were to fall. I also attach a line to the lifting eye and adjust length as I lift. Also think carefully about what might break and where it might fly, and keep clear. Gloves and safety glasses.

Once up it is easy to inspect lubricate and replace as neccessary. Mysteries are dispelled and confidence built. It really is a robust and reliable system. This time I even scraped away paint at the corners of the cut-out to satisfy myself of no cracks.

And a final note, the boat was surveyed about six months after this, and the surveyor was most impressed and took away the photos for his report!

That'll do for now, but please ask any questions about keel operation. I beach very often and always lift when I leave the boat and I've never had a serious problem.

Thanks for reading!

https://drive.google.com...og3kLS8l2QopxyHXKbby2OA/ 

https://drive.google.com...szaAWrQKgAD29rGEaPMXWvV/ 

https://drive.google.com...cfOZ1FXX1aNvIg3L8VBiGr_/ 

https://drive.google.com...AvKjzMmnF1EbepYWxZQAlt8/ 

https://drive.google.com...q61Q665wz8OZeDC9RIuNPf9/ 

https://drive.google.com...gB9mkqdNS9snWZZDUKoidgd/