I jacked the trailer and yacht up with x 2 small car jacks and blocked each side with timber till the trailer was well of the ground, 600/700mm. Next I positioned two 2.5 ton truck tie down strops under the yacht and attached these to the 8x2 rafters, I attached x2 smaller strops between the truck strops underneath the yacht to prevent these sliding apart.  I then tightened the ratchets and lifted the yacht up approximately 25mm.

I lowered and removed the trailer away for the yacht and then lowered the yacht down onto wooden blocks but left the strops in place. I also braced the sides with timber to prevent sideways movement, you don’t get a second chance if it drops on top of you.

I made up a 200mm long u shape channel out of a piece of timber that fitted along the bottom of the keel, placed a jack under the wooden channel and lifted the weight of the keel,   I had to punch the keel bolt out has it would not turn itself out on its own thread with a socket and ratchet [ when out the bolt was found to be bent about 5 thou].

I lowered the keel, it’s a very heavy piece of metal even with two men. Used a grinder to remove the rust scale and reshaped the curved edges a little due to the amount of corrosion on the face edges. There was only 2mm of steel left on the keel where the winch wire/shackle attaches to, so this area was reshaped with a drill mill bit in a hand held electric drill which left a large thick flat area of metal for the winch shackle to attach to again.

Unfortunately the keel bolt was removed from its hole during sand blasting; this left me with an oversized hole! So I used a set of engineering reamers and formed a new 25mm diameter hole, turned up a brush out of 316 stainless steel  one thou oversize and pressed this in between the jaws of a 8 inch vice after drilling out a centre hole in the brush for the keel bolt.

The purchase of two pot paint was going to cost $300+ but after making enquires at a local engineering firm, they painted it with two pot marine paint Altex Depthane 307 for $100 cash.

Refitting the keel presented its own set of problems, twice I tried to refit the keel bolt by turning it in with a socket and ratchet and twice it damaged the threads. Had a rethink about the situation and remembered that I actually had to drive the keel bolt out. So I made up a dummy shaft with a tapered end on it, drove this though followed by the newly turned and threaded  half inch bolt slightly smaller diameter than the metric shaft I had used] and this solved the problem , keel bolt in position and no damaged threads.

I believe the trouble with the  removal and refit of the keel bolt was created when the keel bolt hole was initially drilled or precast at production. The reason for this train of thought was prior to removal of the keel, I noticed that the keel touched the port side of the inner keel box housing towards the rear when in the winched up position, therefore I assume the angle of the keel bolt hole was incorrect.

I fitted x2 polyethylene  nylon packers, one on either side of the keel, starboard packer 3mm thick and port packer 5mm thick, hopefully this will prevent any clonking from the keel when tacking or when stationary [ see diagram below ]. It also moved the keel off the inner keel box housing side.

Using a internal micrometer I was able to determine that the inner keel box remained parallel from the top of the keel bolt hole upwards for 80mm before it started to taper inwards, also of note is that the inner keel box around the keel bolt hole is flared inwards probably due to the bolt tension over the years.

I fitted a 50x50x3mm 316 stainless steel washer on either side of the keel bolt to disperse the keel bolt pressure evenly when tightened. A new keel kick back nylon rope was also fitted when the keel was out and the stainless steel winch wire had recently been replaced.

Once the new kick back nylon rope has been threaded up the tube, keep it tensioned to prevent it from falling out of its groove in the top of the keel and ending up down the side of the keel, I achieved this by adding a length of rope to the end of the keel kick back rope and hanging a weight to this over the side of the boat.

Worth mentioning is the ability to be able to visualize the winch wire and kick back rope brass pulley wheels on the underside of the  winch wire tube housing with a bright light in the top rear of the keel box, when the keel is out. Its interesting to see just how much silicone sealer ends up on these pulley wheels and stops them turning after the tube housing has been sealed and refitted again.

I was able to cut the excess sealer away from the pulley wheels with a sharp knife taped to a piece of timber. I felt that I had not applied that much sealer on the winch wire tube housing rubber gasket when reassembling it however I found that both of these pulley wheels had seized up when I had the tube housing off. It’s important that these wheels turn freely to prevent wear and tear on the winch wire and kick back rope. As brass is a soft metal, it will not take long to damage these pulley wheels with  flat spots etc and then cause wear and tear on the wire/rope.

Unfortunately someone had removed a portion of the outer fibreglass keel housing to access the winch wire tube housing, as shown in the photos.

To cover this up and make the area functional again, I had a friend cut and fold a 2mm stainless steel sheet to the required angle. I then cut and shaped it to fit over the keel winch wire tube housing and then secured it there.

Next I cut and shaped  two pieces of rimu timber to fit over the entire length of the fiberglass keel box outer housing and the winch/rope tube, this timber can be lifted up easily to access the top of the inner keel box. This job took some thought and time but was well worth the outcome and it’s strengthened up the whole area.