Well here it is the end of the season for us 
. We went over yesterday to get the boat ready to pull out of the water Sunday (tomorrow). Got the jib off and the boom with the main. Pulled the rudder off so we could attach our mast crutch. Everything was going so nicely. Then started to crank the swing keel up. It was coming up and almost home when the cable came loose and pulled out while the keel swung back down. We tried to use a line looped underneath the hull and try to pull it up but no way would it stay low enough on the keel to do so, even with some weights added to it. So we came home and thought about it. Came up with an idea to use a long pole 10' with a hook taped to the end with a braided line fed down thru the cable tube that we would then fish from underneath and tie to the hook. Then tape the hook onto the pole and try and fish the hook into the hole in the keel where the cable would normally make its loop. Well sas tried for about an hour and a half and almost got it 3 or 4 times but the hook kept slipping out. I tried for awhile with the same results. Finally I decided to get into my shorts and brave the water and swim down under and place the hook into the hole. After my forth attempt at that and slicing my fingers on the barnicles that had attached themselves to the keel I decided to at least get back on the boat and have a little break before giving it another go. In the mean time while I'm resting and getting dry sas has another go at it and managed to get the hook into the hole but also managed to pull the pole loose of the hook. I grabbed the line and gently pulled it upward until the slack was gone and could feel the keel weight on it. We took the line made a loop in it and wrapped that loop around the winch drum 4 times and I began to crank while she held the line coming off the drum. Low and behold we were able to crank it up almost all the way. We had to have it up as when down we draw 5 feet of water and could not get the trailer out deep enough even with the extender we have use of. I didn't like the idea of motoring over to the trailer with the keel dragging along the bottom and then finding out that I was positioned badly to get winched up onto the trailer, and not being able to back up due to the keel wedging itself into the bottom on the rocks etc. I think we were very lucky . For the life of me I can not figure out how 3 cable clamps managed to loosen themselves enough for the cable to come undone though . Perhaps vibration on the cable while sailing or perhaps something more sinister. The bottom seemed pretty clean from what I saw but we do have some slime that has accumulated at the water line on the bow, so I guess the anti-fouling we used worked well enough. The swingger will come off this winter and also get painted with anti-fouling so hopefully no more barnicles growing on it. I now know were the water line is lol so will be doing the boot stripe this fall or next spring. The weathers been awful since I broke the mainsheet so haven't been out sailing since then and now the season is over sob,sob.
c_witch
. We went over yesterday to get the boat ready to pull out of the water Sunday (tomorrow). Got the jib off and the boom with the main. Pulled the rudder off so we could attach our mast crutch. Everything was going so nicely. Then started to crank the swing keel up. It was coming up and almost home when the cable came loose and pulled out while the keel swung back down. We tried to use a line looped underneath the hull and try to pull it up but no way would it stay low enough on the keel to do so, even with some weights added to it. So we came home and thought about it. Came up with an idea to use a long pole 10' with a hook taped to the end with a braided line fed down thru the cable tube that we would then fish from underneath and tie to the hook. Then tape the hook onto the pole and try and fish the hook into the hole in the keel where the cable would normally make its loop. Well sas tried for about an hour and a half and almost got it 3 or 4 times but the hook kept slipping out. I tried for awhile with the same results. Finally I decided to get into my shorts and brave the water and swim down under and place the hook into the hole. After my forth attempt at that and slicing my fingers on the barnicles that had attached themselves to the keel I decided to at least get back on the boat and have a little break before giving it another go. In the mean time while I'm resting and getting dry sas has another go at it and managed to get the hook into the hole but also managed to pull the pole loose of the hook. I grabbed the line and gently pulled it upward until the slack was gone and could feel the keel weight on it. We took the line made a loop in it and wrapped that loop around the winch drum 4 times and I began to crank while she held the line coming off the drum. Low and behold we were able to crank it up almost all the way. We had to have it up as when down we draw 5 feet of water and could not get the trailer out deep enough even with the extender we have use of. I didn't like the idea of motoring over to the trailer with the keel dragging along the bottom and then finding out that I was positioned badly to get winched up onto the trailer, and not being able to back up due to the keel wedging itself into the bottom on the rocks etc. I think we were very lucky . For the life of me I can not figure out how 3 cable clamps managed to loosen themselves enough for the cable to come undone though . Perhaps vibration on the cable while sailing or perhaps something more sinister. The bottom seemed pretty clean from what I saw but we do have some slime that has accumulated at the water line on the bow, so I guess the anti-fouling we used worked well enough. The swingger will come off this winter and also get painted with anti-fouling so hopefully no more barnicles growing on it. I now know were the water line is lol so will be doing the boot stripe this fall or next spring. The weathers been awful since I broke the mainsheet so haven't been out sailing since then and now the season is over sob,sob.c_witch
