|
|
WWW.RLYACHTS.NET
|
RL24, RL28, and RL34 Trailable Yachts
from Rob Legg Yachts
|
RL Yacht Owner's Discussion Forum
|
Return to the Forum List Soooo my keel cable snapped and I sprung a nice leak at the keel bolt. | I was camping and tried to nose my boat up to shore as I cranked on the winch I heard snap. I assumed that was my keel cable. Oh well easy fix.
The next time I sailed I used GPS to track my sailing for the first time and I wasn't going to windward very well. After some investigating I found that my keel was part way up anD the cable was still intact despite the snapping sound.
Now preparing for a club race I was lowering my keel back down and planning to replace the keel cable with dyneema after the race. I had experienced crew and good wind and hoped to surprise some club members who were expecting moderate windward progress from me.
The I heard the dreaded snap again as I was lowering keel. No worries as we motored out of the marina, I planned on fixing that today anyway.
Then I check the cabin and somebody must have spilled a glass of ... damnit I've got water spewing in from my keel bolt.with a swift application of pressure from my index finger the leak was slowed and we turned back into the marina. Luckily my trailer was here even though I keep her in a slip all year.
Now a new task. I am borrowing a j 24 trailer to raise boat up in the air and will be taking the keel out to survey the damage and epoxying a repair I hope to be stronger than the original.
I will probably have keel sandblasted and I will reglass and fair it( I have never done these things before)
I considered altering in some way to a lifting keel instead of swing keel.
I considered having a whole new keel fabricated from aluminum.
Bought boat for 800 dollars but want it to become the best it can be.
I also would like to stiffen the hull a little someday and replace the roof core that was done poorly by somebody else before I got it.
Any suggestions I'm missing out on fantastic fall sailing here in Tennessee every week starting with this past weekend.
Any projects have to account for the fact I work as RN full-time and am finishing up school .
| |
| | Re: Soooo my keel cable snapped and I sprung a nice leak at the keel bolt. | I'm guessing you may have a problem with the keel bolt being froze/rusted up in the keel. It is likely when you lowered the keel, the bolt turned, rather than the keel pivoting on the boat. The pop noise what the bolt breaking loose and turning in the hull. I would suggest before you commit to borrowing someone else's trailer, you make sure you can rotated the bolt with a wrench. It may need to PB Blaster or Kroil to loosen it up first.
I worked on my keel while it was on the trailer. I was able to slide the boat forward enough to get the keel to drop between the crossmembers. I dug a hole in the ground for the keel to swing down into. I backed the trailer up on ramps to get it higher off the ground.
| |
| | Re: Soooo my keel cable snapped and I sprung a nice leak at the keel bolt. |  Removing RL24 keels, once the bolt is free are not too hard to remove with a bit of muscle to help. Keel will need blasting and the pivot hole enlarged to the correct size. I will again add the drawings of my pivot bot setup in the next post, this is what I do to remove keel which I have done about 4 times.
| |
| | | From drawings the keel bolt looks more substantial than my San Juan 21 keel bolt was | I would love to have email of drawings. bernardirichard@gmail.com so I assume refinishing this keel is easier than fabricating another and making a drop Keel if you've done it 4 times. One other question I can use a club mates j24 trailer to put the boat 5 feet up to drop the keel. Do you think this is just as easy as dropping the boat in the grass and turning it like you did?
Thanks for input
Rick Bernardi
| |
| | Re: Soooo my keel cable snapped and I sprung a nice leak at the keel bolt. |  Hi Rick, I will email you a clearer copy of the swing keel pivot pin assembly, along with some other information that maybe handy.
I would say yes to it being easier to refurbish the old keel than make a new one or convert to a drop keel, providing that you are happy with your current set up when it was working properly.
The keel will really need blasting and recoating, depending on how fussy you wish to be with the surface, you could leave it just blasted and coated, or if you have enough room in the centre case width wise to increase the thickness of the keel, you could wrap it in fibreglass fair it and achieve a nice smooth surface which will go through the water easier (faster). However this may need a little more maintenance to maintain a smooth surface, especially if you hit something hard.
The question about the J24 trailer! I think the best way of going about removing the keel depends on what resources are available to you at the time. If your boat will sit on the J24 trailer with good support to the hull, I would think to achieve this the hull pads would need to be adjustable, then this would probably work quite well and it could possibly stay there until you have the keel refurbished which would be handy.
I haven’t ever had a trailer like that available. But have always had access to some open space to be able to put the mast up roll the boat off the trailer onto rolls of carpet underlay ( my friend is a carpet layer) and then by using the spinnaker halyard (near the hounds) hooked to the back of a car slowly pull it over ensuring that you maintain good support for the hull. Once the boat is over far enough for the keel to come out care needs to be taken while removing the keel to support the mast (someone holding it or wrest it on a step ladder) as the keel is removed the boat will want to tip further, mast to the ground. I have also seen other sling/block and tackle arrangements that work well, just depends on what you have on hand.
See photo of this excellent Jig, fully adjustable, I believe from NSW that I have been sent photos of. Be great if every club had one of these.
| |
|
Return to the Forum List Add a message to this discussion |
|
