Lifting keel?

[ray4652]

I own a Beneteau 331 purchased new 3 years ago. The lifting keel failed when the boat was 1 year old due to electrolitic corrosion of the main nut. 2 years later it failed again, the jock screw unscrewed itself from the nut. The boat was lifted out and repaired, 2 weeks later the same happens! No undue force was used.Is this a common problem? Is there a design fault? Is there a permanent cure?

 

[larry w]

keel problems

one of the problems with moving parts underwater is they're prone to failure. Myself, I'd rather have a shallow draft keel than a swinging keel (I used to have a Catalina 22 with a swing keel that had its share of problems) I have a Bene 40 now. Make sure all threaded parts are assembled with Lock-Tite, moving parts are coated with waterproof grease, and that your marina is not an electrical hot one. You must have a lot of stray current about. I had to replace every thru-hull and seacock in the my boat to the tune of about 8G's because of a hot marina, that has since been rebuilt.