My keel cable snapped on US made RL24 causing a large leak / near sinking at keel bolt.I will be switching to synthetic keel rope if I need to. I have repaired keel bolt on san juan 21 before and assume it will be similar. my san juan 21 still dripped / leaked a little after the repair. Now the question. 1) Drop fair and repair the swing keel as it was original. 2) convert swing keel to drop keel 3) build an entire new keel from wood epoxy and lead ( I have no need to adhere to class rules if there are any regarding keels) 4) make a bracket that supports the keel bolt inside of the trunk but bolts together above the water line.
Help me decide what to do. I love this little boat and need to get it back in the water before the first club race at the end of march.
Thanks for any input,
Rick Bernardi
Knoxville Tennessee
I guess it largely depends where you sail, I sail in Morton bay QLD Australia and it is quite shallow in places so a swing keel is very handy when you find bits of Australia you shouldn't. Wind up the keel and off you go again.
Cheers Martyn
( I now have an RL 28 and find the same useful arrangement)
Without seeing your actual set up I'd guess that it would be easier to re-instate what you already have.
Certainly go synthetic rope but you still need to check it annually, and most replace every couple of years anyway. As you know, not worth the grief if it breaks.
I've dropped the keel quite easily once I picked up some real boat stands. Replacing chainplates,shrouds,adding twin/running backstay,and going to use 1/4 inch aluminum 6 by 6in backer plates when I reinstall the keel. I was lazy with keel itself it is being sandblasted and powder coated. Just trying something different, as I had plenty of projects without trying to fair the perfect shape.
I also need to add block for Spinnaker I think. I currently have 2 shivs built into mast below the forestay one for jib I assume I couldn't use a haltard just below the forestay for Spinnaker as gybing would be tough.
