I beached my 1988 O'Day 192 for lunch forgetting to pull up my swing keel. Once I realized what I'd done I pull up the keel, tied it off, and enjoyed lunch. Once I set sail again, the keel wouldn't drop - presumably gunked up with the heavy clay on the the beach. I thought it would wear off soon enough but that never happened. I can't dive since the water is too murky. I could trailer it out and clean it but that's a separate trip to get the trailer to and back again. Any ideas short of the above? Thanks. -Z
Swing keel stuck with clay
- Thread starter Zorba
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you might try beaching the boat again and pulling it over with the halyard so you can get to the keel. You could tie a line from the halyard to a vehicle and pull it over that way or pull it over by hand, whatever works is the way to go.
Usually there is a way to access the centerboard from the inside of the boat. When you find it then you can push the keel down. I have done this on several different boats over the years. Some boats had the table over the keel housing (SJ's), some like the Catalina 22's could be reached through the cable port. With the blade down it should clean up by sailing or motoring if it is just clay or sand. The important thing is to do it soon. I have used a 1/4 inch thick rod or piece of 1/2" w by 1/8" thick by 4' long steel strip. These are very commonly sold at hardware stores.
Ray
Ray
If none of the above works.. see if gravity will help you out! Your swing keel is roughly 400 pounds of dead weight pivoting on a single bolt. Try letting out the slack on the keel winch and then go out to where there are lots of motor boats or rough water. Head into their wake and let the boat pound up and down on them until it breaks the keel free.
Cheers,
Brad
Cheers,
Brad
I like this idea best, I would go torment the PWC's by crossing their wakes for a change. I guess it could be clay but it sounds like you may have something a little more resilient to water like a piece of wood, or a rock.
I'm with Forest. I hope that wake crossing gets it down. I don't know your setup all that well but is it possible that your CABLE is stuck between the board and the trunk? If you have all the normal amount of cable visible then probably not. Just something else to think about while you work on it.
Yeah, too many "how to sink a boat ideas" here - you are right - not only could the cable snap - but the keel dropping could crack fiberglass with a lot of water coming in. And, on my boat, there is no access from the top that would not open a big hole in the boat below water line.
The Op should pull it and hopefully there is a hose available in the ramp area so the mast does not have to come down for a trip to the coin op wand-style car wash. Or dive it with the cable snugged up if clear water can be found.
OC
OC
On my 222 the centerboard was probably about 50-75 lbs. I would think your suggestion would still hold.
Dang.. what did you do, just let the winch free-wheel?!?!?
I don't think that a 1 or 2 inch drop would put that much more stress on the cable than what it normally gets when the boat is sailing hard and pounding the waves. Of course, YMMV, use at your own risk, don't staple, fold or mutilate, etc...
Cheers,
Brad
Our BI40 also has a CB ...almost 800# of bronze. Letting the board drop a few inches (as noted above) works just fine; but I would be very careful about allowing any board to build a momentum in a long free-fall. (Second law motion maybe?)
The OP said keel - so many of us thought in terms of a ballasted board. The board should be a lot easier to deal with since it is not heavy enough to damage the hull if it just drops. Without the safety issues of hundreds of pounds of metal it should be easier to find a way to just push it from above or pull it from below. Can a rod reach the board through the hole where the line pulls it up?
OC
Problem Solved! Really it came down to just one option and that was to dive and clean I out by hand. This wouldn't be a problem for those of you in warm waters but that's not the case for me. The lake was cold and murky water on top of that! So I just bit the bullet and went under the boat with a snorkel and cleaned out of much of the mud with my fingers but when that still didn't work I resorted to a long screwdriver. I should mention that I tied the the keel off with just a couple inches to move at a time. After 15 or so dives I got to a point where I could gently pry the keel out and I was back in business. It wasn't a bad solution or experience for that matter, but not one I'd want to repeat! Thanks, Zorba.
Same thing used to happen with my O23... usually you can just swim down and jiggle it side to side and it will come loose. Make sure not to let out all of the centerboard rope in the future, as was mentioned earlier it can also make it stick. Just let the board down and cleat it off with a little tension on it.
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