I'm well past 50 now and my winding arm is running out of elastic. I would be very interested to hear from anybody who has converted their 28 lifting keel to 12v power - or anybody else who has thought about it. I seem to spend a lot of time winding the keel up and down, so I suppose this shows that I'm using the boat as intended but the 160 odd turns from top to bottom are getting to be a bit of a drag and I can't seem to get the teenagers off their backsides to do it! My 28 is also one of the Mk 1's with the heavy drop keel. I have thought of one of those little electric winches you can buy to fit on the front of a Chelsea tractor. They start at about 1000Kg rating - but I have heard that there is no safety factor required with these units, since they're supposed only to drag and not lift. The difficult bit is finding a set-up where the winch doesn't protrude into the accommodation and a manual back-up is possible. I have spent too much money fixing up the rotten old Bukh this winter to go ahead immediately with this project, but a good think over the Summer should put me in a good position to tackle it next lay-up. Any comments gratefully received!

Cheers! Neil

neil sinclair

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Hello Neil,

If you raise your keel by running a line back to a cockpit winch, read on. If not, please ignore.

On our Parker 275, yours truly had the pleasure of cranking 100 turns on the winch to get the keep up each time we returned to our berth. It took me three burst of 33, with rests inbetween. For ultimate convenience, we eventually fitted an electic motor in the forepeak, getting the kit from Parker's.

Before this, we managed to find the very last widget in the country that may help you. It is a compact gearbox that sits on top of your winch and accepts a portable electric drill in one of two hex spindles, according to the ratio you choose. It sounds a bit strange but the whoe assembly is a work of art, with highest quality construction. It cost a pretty penny but I have just remembered that it is sitting idle in our garage.

If you want to give it a try, please let me know. If it does what you want, it is for sale. If you are not interested, no problem but thank you for reminding me to put it on the for sale pages of our web site 🙂.

Cheers-Ken
Ken Surplice

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Many thanks for the offer, Ken, but I have a winder assembly that fits on top of the keel box, just under the saloon table - and it needs 150 turns! The lift keel in the early 28 weighs 1000 lb. I am investigating the possibility of converting a 12v portable trailer winch to do the job. I have considered a battery drill adaptor, but that would still require jumping down the hatch and I have the idea of up/down buttons in the cockpit firmly in my mind!

Cheers! Neil

Neil Sinclair

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