Keel Saver

[bluepearl]

I just read a post on Jim Hubbards site about a guy trying to get repair advice because his keel came free (not sure exactly how) and did the typical free-fall to sudden stop trunk damage. This is a a fairly common story on the SJ and can seriously ruin your boat. These boats are now around 30-40 years old and are getting pretty fragile. How come no one in that time has come up with a good remedy for the free-falling keel problem? The class recommends a rubber bumper on the keel stop bolt, but this hardly provides adequate protection. The reality is that if you keel sheave come off or breaks, if your keel cable breaks, if your keel horn breaks off, or off your winch free-wheels, you are going to get massive trunk damage. Even if you are careful and take precautions, its pretty likely that this will eventually happen to your boat.

I'm trying to come up with a way to fix this flaw but its going to be pretty tricky. A large bumper would be nice, but there isn't much room for one. I'm also considering something like an air spring located near the stop bolt or a large shock cord. Anyone else have ideas?

On the flip side of this coin, how come we don't have a good way to tell if your keel is all the way up to keep us for over stressing the keel horn?

[San Juan Sailboats]

The fix is allready been found. The keel winch should be a crank up/crank down type. These winches will not allow a free fall.
To lower the keel you have to crank the winch down. Let go of the handle and it just stops.
As to the Sheeve comming off, that won't happen if you inspect it once a year.
The cable should last a very long time. One boat in our fleet still has the original cable.
What breaks the cable, or the horn is over cranking the winch. So how do you know if your keel is up all the way? I put a window in the inspection hatch. This way I can see when the keel stops lifting and stop cranking.

[Mark Sailmaker]

I marked the cable with a magic marker with the keel all the way up and all the way down. Its lasted for 5-6 years. This is on a Mk3 where the cable exits straight out of the top of the case to the winch on the back side of the compression post. Also - even if you have the keel winched up very tight, it shouldn't be for long - just long enough to get the boat on the trailer and away from the ramp, then let the keel down onto the trailer to take the load off the wire. If the equipment is in good shape, this should not be any more load than the horn takes while sailing. We use Harken blocks and sheave and 3/16" 7x19 SS wire.

[San Juan Sailboats]

The marking of the keel cable may work but I question whether if the cable rides over each loop will it will change the effective length of the cable.

[Ben G]

Mark Sailmaker,
Does the Mk-III keep the horn loaded under sail? For the Mk-II, the keel is held with a lock pin and the cable relaxed so the horn is not loaded underway. (Of course, not all skippers use the lock pin.)

bluepearl,
The incident you mention resulted from the free end of the cable not being secured to the mast support post. The effect was essentially the same as for a broken cable. The cause was unfamiliartity with the winch/keel system and not knowing what to inspect. As these boat change hands to new owners, the new owners sometimes "learn" the SJ21 without benefit of resources such as owners manual or fellow owners and don't google for these resources until there is a need -- which can be too late. Even if a remedy for free-fall

I've seen posts elsewhere (do not remember details) on this keel free-fall topic that have offered:
1. A visual indicator thru the cockpit drain to determine when keel is fully raised.
2. Attaching the keel lock bolt to the winch handle with a tether to assure that it is not forgotten and gets used properly.

FWIW, recently I was given a spare mast support post with winch and broken cable attached. I noticed that this winch has a smaller diameter winding drum (less than 1"). Thus the cable is flexed considerably more during wind/unwind, perhaps work hardending the cable and shortening its life.

[bluepearl]

I like the idea of adding the mark on the keel cable. It shouldn't really matter how it winds in the cable drum because the position of the cable with the keel up shouldn't ever change where it comes out of the keel housing.

[TomD]

The top of my keel box has had the wooden cover removed. With a piece of clear Plexiglas in its place I can see the position of the keel and have marked it while on a lift so I know when its exactly right.

[San Juan Sailboats]

Another item that happens to me a lot was starting to crank the winch before removing the lock bolt. This can also put lots of stress on the cable. To fix this I drilled a small hole through the bolt head, ran a thin cable through, then a line from that to the winch handle. Now I can't crank until I remember to pull the bolt

[The Duck #889]

You could just get a fixed keel...

It seems that the cable should be slightly longer than strictly necessary to get the keel down, like just enough to go take the tension off when the lock pin is in. That way, if the winch free-wheels, it can only go so far.

[Ben G]

According to the manufacturer, the keel cable should have at least 3 full turns of cable around the reel when any load is on the cable. So "just enough" extra cable is actually not enough to safely operate the winch. Here's a link to the owner's manual for the winch.

http://www.dutton-lainson.com/206306.pdf