Although it had been a little harder than usual to raise the keel on our previous outing, but nothing extraordinary, I was surprised when the keel of Sparky (P21 93) wouldn't drop on Sunday. Has anyone had this problem and solved it?

She lies on a deepwater trot mooring and hasn't been grounded. On inspection there was a good deal of flotsam in the keel box. This consisted of finger sized twigs, cob nuts, seaweed etc. Everything I could see was removed and every part of the keel I could see looked normal.

Yesterday I returned to try again and set up a lowering mechanism to bypass the block to allow access (and avoid sudden lowering) and with the help of Peter White (Osiris P21 42) tried to encourage the keel down with a hammer and wood block placed on the top of the keel. The keel very gradually went down by about 2 inches in all, but I've become more anxious about the possibility of the keel being trapped within the hull. We've compared keel positions and the keel looks lower than Peter's boat when his is in the fully raised position.

Options of; underwater inspection, towing to a nearby jetty and pressure washing the inside of the keel box and even bringing her ashore are all possible and under consideration.

Thanks

Andy

I have noticed that when my keel is pulled right up to the stops it does leave a bigger gap than if it is a couple of inches down and therefore filling the slot better. When I had my new trailer made (RM of Arlesford) I got them to make it with a gap down the middle so I can drop the keel through. Not only can I now get at it to scrape and paint it but I get to see what's going on! When it's right up there's a gap that would let you get a (twig-sized) finger up an inch or two.

Even so I can't see how a twig can find its way up the hole even with the keel up to the stops.

I shall watch this thread with interest!

After diving repeatedly in order to spend a reasonable time working underwater and beneath the boat I'm peased to say the cause of the jamb is now obvious. By the way, I used a waterproof camera to capture underwaterimages of the hull which could be examined in comfort above water. A handy idea for other misadventurers.

The keel currently extends more than 2 inches below the hull but is still completely jambed by a 20mm diameter twig of unknown length. I've tried to pull on the twig and have a sample of it (see photos). Just how this can get up into the keel box is beyond me too! Not my lucky day last Sunday I guess.

I now plan to fashion a 'podger' with a serated edge which will allow me to carefully pry/saw the offending wood out.

Thanks to Peter White and David Williams for practical help and reassurance and Geoff Harwood for his reply. Hopefully my next entry will report full possession of the bothersome piece of wood.

Andy

[img]C:\Documents and Settings\San\Desktop\B Twig[/img]

[img]C:\Documents and Settings\San\Desktop\C Twig[/img]

Last evening I managed to dive again armed with a variety of tools I'd made using knowledge from the previous sub aqua outings.

Within fifteen minutes the keel was free, tried and tested. Joy!!!

The moral of the story is when raising your keel be sure to close the gap by leaving a couple of keel inches proud.

Best regards

Andy