Electric swing keel winch - Chrysler 26

rgranger · May 11, 2022

I can see why you would want that. When you kiss the bottom and the wind is blowing hard, you don't really want to leave the helm and spend 10 minutes in the cabin cranking a winch handle but....a concern I would have raising the keel from the cockpit is ...

How do you know when it is all the way up. If you overwinch, you will bust your keel trunk and sink your boat. You would need to engineer some sort of fail safe into your system so that the winch stops before the keel is fully raised. I'm not sure what type of sensor you could use for that purpose but I would consider it an essential element of the design.

Project_Mayhem · May 11, 2022

We have a couple of electric hoists in the shop. There's a lever/hoop that's attached to a switch. When something hits it, the motor shuts off. You could potentially put something on the line to trip a switch or buzzer. I'd imagine line with a bit of stretch would be beneficial to reduce the potential for damage in this application. Pics of your setup would definitely help

Benny17441 · May 11, 2022

If you raise the ballasted keel all the way, the boat will become unstable, if you do it with the sails up there is a good chance it could roll. They day when I would be physically unable to raise the anchor, trim the headsail or raise the keel in a 26' boat without power assistance it will be the day I quit sailing. It would be cooler, literally, to have the additional power to run the refrigerator.

rgranger · May 11, 2022

Benny17441 said:
If you raise the ballasted keel all the way, the boat will become unstable, if you do it with the sails up there is a good chance it could roll. They day when I would be physically unable to raise the anchor, trim the headsail or raise the keel in a 26' boat without power assistance it will be the day I quit sailing. It would be cooler, literally, to have the additional power to run the refrigerator.

this will seem glib but that sounds like you have never cruised in a swing keel… just sayin’

Timm R Oday25 · May 12, 2022

Our first boat was a Catalina 22 with a 550 keel . I'm familiar with what you are trying to accomplish .I'd consider an ATV winch from
Harbor Freight . They ahve 12 volt winches with wireless remotes . It wouldn't be that hard to figure out when the keel is fully raised .

LloydB · May 12, 2022

I have a hanger door that I lift with a harbor freight worm gear hand winch. It worked just fine but I got tired of lifting the door 10 feet off the ground and then cranking back down so I removed the hand crank from the axle that turns the worm gear and replaced it with a 7/8 hex nut. Then I got a cordless drill and a 7/8 socket to fit the nut. The drill is much faster than I am I didn't need to create some sort of limit switch to stop the quarter inch steel aircraft cable from breaking something. Just marked the cable so I know when to stop pulling the trigger. The original handle hangs right next to the winch assembly in case the battery gets discharged or the drill gets temporarily lost. When I do the same for the boat I will probably put a drill in a big baggy to avoid corrosion problems when it's not being used.

Project_Mayhem · May 17, 2022

Erbardy said:
I am trying to find a model with a clutch of sorts that will allow slip when the keel is all the way up

Use line with some stretch. You'll hear the RPMs of the motor drop when it's all the way up