Well it's time for another chapter in the "Adventures of Papillon", "The never ending story........
Two wees ago I had a new outboad motor mount break and dump my new 8hp Nissan in the drink. I had just got everything form that mishap corrected and cast off the lines today for a nice day of sailing in the gulf.
To make a long story short, I went below to crank down the keel after clearing the outer marker of Gordan Pass and found that the bulkhead was bowed out like a it was about to explode. I was not able to crank down the keel because of the preasure on the winch handle was so strong. I had replaced the bulkhead with "King Starboard" and this stuff bends.
For the life of me I could not figure out what was going on. But after studying the problem for a while...about 15 minutes I came to the conclusion that the keel must have let go from the pivot bolt and was being suspended by the keel cable.
I checked the keel bolt and it was tight on both sides so I started to question my conclusions. The boat was very unstable and I decided to go over the side and take an upclose and personal look to see what was happing downunder.
I was not too surprised when I found the the keel was hanging from the winch cable and no longer attached midships.
Back onboard I tossed out the anchor and when she set I proceeded to remove the bulkhead and once it was out of the way I was able to crank down the keel to the end of the line. I loosen the cable clamp and down she went.
I did take the time to press the MOB button on the GPS before I let her go.
Tomarrow I will dive on the site and do an inspection of the keel to determine where it failed. Based on the results of that dive I will be able to see if it is going to be worth trying to recover 625 lbs of cast iron in 20 ft. of water or to go to plan " B "......" C "....and "D".
Stay Tuned...for further develoments.
Two wees ago I had a new outboad motor mount break and dump my new 8hp Nissan in the drink. I had just got everything form that mishap corrected and cast off the lines today for a nice day of sailing in the gulf.
To make a long story short, I went below to crank down the keel after clearing the outer marker of Gordan Pass and found that the bulkhead was bowed out like a it was about to explode. I was not able to crank down the keel because of the preasure on the winch handle was so strong. I had replaced the bulkhead with "King Starboard" and this stuff bends.
For the life of me I could not figure out what was going on. But after studying the problem for a while...about 15 minutes I came to the conclusion that the keel must have let go from the pivot bolt and was being suspended by the keel cable.
I checked the keel bolt and it was tight on both sides so I started to question my conclusions. The boat was very unstable and I decided to go over the side and take an upclose and personal look to see what was happing downunder.
I was not too surprised when I found the the keel was hanging from the winch cable and no longer attached midships.
Back onboard I tossed out the anchor and when she set I proceeded to remove the bulkhead and once it was out of the way I was able to crank down the keel to the end of the line. I loosen the cable clamp and down she went.
I did take the time to press the MOB button on the GPS before I let her go.
Tomarrow I will dive on the site and do an inspection of the keel to determine where it failed. Based on the results of that dive I will be able to see if it is going to be worth trying to recover 625 lbs of cast iron in 20 ft. of water or to go to plan " B "......" C "....and "D".
Stay Tuned...for further develoments.
