Tragedy a tale of drop keel woe

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2011venator 2011venator
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Tragedy a tale of drop keel woe

This post was updated on .
Took my seahawk lil dee down to a local river to take my grandson for a tootle , must have caught the drop keel on the trailer as I launched her and pulled the chain I had attached to the keel eye all the way through the keel box jamming the keel down !!!
Tried to load it onto the trailer hoping it might force it up ended up getting the keel stuck in the trailer had to push the trailer by hand into the river completely submerged to free it (very shallow river more like a canal really)
So boat is now leaking I presume the keel twisted and opened up the keel box somehow and it is stuck in the river
I am exhausted (too old for this) will go down tomorrow and remove the keel bolt and hope I can drop the keel into the river so I can load it onto the trailer may have to lose the keel plate , hope to recover it ,I put so much work into removing it and getting it working properly shame I did not leave it jammed !!!
wish me luck.
Day 2:
Stripped the boat out completely this morning to save the local youth the trouble so it is more or less an empty shell even took the doors away so no homeless can use it (how cruel I am )

Removed the keel bolt , which let plenty of water flood in and hopefully let the keel plate drop difficult to tell as it is still jammed at the swinging end.
Put bolt back in after tugging boat backwards and forwards a bit to try to get it to drop out completely.
Baled some water out and came home.
Will go down later with my neighbor and attempt pull her up onto the ramp hopefully this will dislodge the keel plate and allow easy loading.
Sadly finances have dipped into the minus part of the scale now for quite some time so local farmers are probably not an option a chap down the road has a small boat business and he has a telehandler so if I am unable to load it he will come and take it away for me for free (bless him) he will no doubt seal the keel up and sell it on but I have all the rig sails and trailer to sell so a little consolation.
Will keep you posted.
Oh and no my bad luck has not yet finished on the way home the roll bar on my car broke
Finally managed to get her on the trailer dropped the keel out into the river and she glided onto the trailer as good as gold... 15 minutes searching around in the foul river mud and I even recovered the keel plate...
Now the fun starts seeing if any damage has been done, must say it all looks ok so maybe my luck has finally changed all that praying must have worked lol

GregSeaHawk GregSeaHawk
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Re: Tragedy a tale of drop keel woe

Ouch!

I really do hope you do manage to recover boat and keel and put all to rights again.

You must have used up all your bad luck by now. things can only get better!
Greg Chapman
GregAfloat - My Boating Biography
2011venator 2011venator
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Re: Tragedy a tale of drop keel woe

Well if not there may well be a free Seahawk to someone who has a flatbed trailer and a good winch as it will sit on a flatbed and is only 10ft from the concrete ramp
brian johnson brian johnson
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Re: Tragedy a tale of drop keel woe

Where is the boat?  There may be others on the forum who can help.  I'm in Devon so too far away I'm afraid.  Might be worth fishing for the chain with a long piece of fencing wire bent into a hook at the end?  It's unlikely that the keel has bent or twisted - more likely the bolt has moved by cracking the keel box moulding.  
Robin Boyes Robin Boyes
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Re: Tragedy a tale of drop keel woe

grab a farmer who has a telehandler,it will lift even a flooded seahawk.How do I know that!