The Ingress and Regress of the Keel

It's looking shaky to me. One wag was putting even money that when she's lowered into the water the keel will drop of its own.  Another says it's jammed in the up position.  We shall see.  Here are the pieces I have and the photograph of the position each is in. Hopefully some of you more conversant in SeaHawks can tell me what I'm looking at here.

Hi Tom,

We seem to be looking at the very rusted keel of a Reedcraft boat with a sail number later than 150. (Earlier models had a wire handle, not the cast Aluminium one we see here.)

Examine the photographs on the Keel Description page:
http://www.seahawk17.org.uk/description/keel.htm
and you'll see how you have a very bent keel handle seating, with equally twisted and bent keel tip. This should have a short countersunk bolt through it that will hold the loop of cable at the end of the keel strop. Clearly the strop loop has rusted away too.

Had you had the earlier wire handle, then I would have expected some exposed concrete ballast visible under the forward keel hatch. That is known to fail sometimes, but I don't think that will be the problem here. See:
http://www.seahawk17.org.uk/description/issues.htm#sticking

If the top of the keel is that bent, then it is possible the bottom half is too somewhere within the casing. Maybe the tip and handle seat got damaged in an effort to release a stuck keel. Is there any trace of cracks at the bottom of the keel casing:
http://www.seahawk17.org.uk/description/issues.htm#keelhousing

On a coastal boat it is common for barnacles and the like to cause the keel to become stuck. It would be my guess that this is the problem here - made worse by prolonged exposure to the sea and rust, but possibly the boat has been on a swinging mud mooring and the keel got stuck in mud or sand as the tide went out only to get twisted as the boat attempts to swing on a rising tide. Either way, that keel has to come out and be treated before any serious sailing is done.

I intend to put her on a lift and see if the keel swings downward or falls of it's own accord.  If not, then what?  

Queries: 1)The previous owner said they just sailed her with the keel up. No problem.  You're not recommending that it would be ok do to so now?  2) That I should first resolve the keel problem before anything else. 3) What if because of age and rust it's not resolvable.  Could that happen?

Thanx!
Tom

Further query:  In my picture with the handle the end of the lift wire is looped.  Does this "loop" go through the hole in the end of the keel?

Tom

Hi Tom,

Surfed (Tom Altee) wrote

1)The previous owner said they just sailed her with the keel up. No problem.  You're not recommending that it would be ok do to so now?

It's true that earlier I said that the only thing you'd suffer in having the keel up is that she'd not go to windward as well as she might. My reservation now, having seen those photos, is that the keel appears in worse condition than I imagined.

2) That I should first resolve the keel problem before anything else.

There has been one report of the wire strop failing and the keel swinging so violently that it holed the boat and the crew were lucky to get her to shore before she sank. See:
http://www.seahawk17.org.uk/boatshed/keel.htm#strop
Mind you, that was on an early boat with exposed ballast and yours doesn't appear to be that old, so might behave differently. Secondly, The general condition casts doubt on the integrity of the main keel bolt and I'd want to inspect that before sailing, because the consequences of having a keel plate held by the strop alone are unknown and might prevent you from returning to your mooring, if it swings uncontrollably, with the aft end trapped in the keel slot.

3) What if because of age and rust it's not resolvable.  Could that happen?

I can't imagine that, with effort once out of the water it would not be possible to remove the keel as reported by the owners of Sea Holly and Core n' Grato. It has also been reported that one owner acquired a boat with a keel plate snapped in two. He had a new one fabricated. It's an uncomplicated piece of sheet steel, and it should be possible to find a local workshop capable of producing one.

Hi Tom,

Surfed (Tom Altee) wrote

Further query:  In my picture with the handle the end of the lift wire is looped.  Does this "loop" go through the hole in the end of the keel?

Yes. As explained in last night's message (Examine all the photos on the page: http://www.seahawk17.org.uk/description/keel.htm), there should be a short countersunk bolt that goes through the round hole in the in the tip of the keel plate. It is that that passes through the loop at the end of the strop.

It appears that your keel is so badly corroded that there is no thread left in the starboard side of that hole, and in any case the sides of the slot in the top so bent the bolt would be too short to reach the other side.