@Crazy Dave Condon Thanks for the questions. The boat is in my buddies driveway on sawhorses. This is a DIY project. She was in salt water, trailered for we don't know how long, months or years, the cable is loose, have no idea regarding last cleaning but there are no barnacles on the hull, and we have worked for hours moving the keel up and down, removing rusty metal inside the space where the keel pivots inside the hinge (if that is the right term?) We have gotten the keel to swing down as far as it can until it comes in contact with the wooden support we built to hold the dropped keel. I guess there could still be rusted metal holding it in place but with the amount removed, the daylight we can now see on either side of the keel and the weight pulling down, it doesn't make sense this thing is not coming down.
@Granger I would like to better understand your idea, because we have done A LOT of sledge pounding to free this thing to no avail. We were wondering if we're missing something specific about this Santana 21 keel design where there is something we need to finesse to get it released? On the PDF instruction manual I have seen they talk about dropping the keep by removing the entire hinge that attaches to the hull. but we are hoping that we can not go that deep. We would prefer to drop the keel, inspect and replace cable and pulleys as needed, grind all the rust from all surfaces, repaint (keel and bottom), put together and get this boat in the water.