Periodically one should drop the swing keel to inspect it, clean it up, re-fair it and seal it. There are several other reasons one would want to drop the keel. Possibly to paint the keel trunk and keel slot or to install zincs or spacers to keep the keel from vibrating. What ever the reason, I have seen several different techniques used to get the keel off.
Once, when I first was refinishing my boat, I had a crane operator lower the boat to the ground, drop the keel off and place the boat
back on the trailer. I then used a steel gallows frame and chain fall to work on the keel. When the work was complete I hired the operator to get the keel back on the boat. This worked fine, but proved expensive.
Another time I made use of 3/8″ threaded rods to lower the keel to the trailer. I had constructed two heavy duty wood “clamps” to hold the keel in place while I worked on the rest of the boat. This approach seemed smart, but is fairly tedious. If you do not have a need to take the keel completely off this works well, since the threaded rods act as a guide for the keel. If you must drop the keel down to work on it the rods bend easily if the keel is not exactly lined up perfectly. So an alternative approach is needed.
The approach I use now to drop the keel off and put it back is simple enough and quick enough that I have dropped the keel down a couple of times. You will need: a cheap come-a-long, some rope rated well above the weight of the iron keel, a 2 ton bottle jack and the keel winch inside the boat. The bottle jack and come-a-long can be purchased at big box stores or most hardware stores. I bought mine for a combined price under $40 at Norther Tool.
By the way… If you try this you assume all risk. I am not making any statements of suitability for any purpose. I am not recommending any tools or stores. This is presented for your reading pleasure only and your mileage may vary. Always work carefully, within any applicable laws and recommendations of manufacturers. Again, this is a technique that I used and it may not be appropriate for anyone but me.
The key concepts:
- Clamp the keel to the trailer with guides or something of your own creation. I used a 2×4 truss-like apparatus with a 2×12 as the face, on either side of the keel; clamping it tightly in place.
- Lower the back of the keel on to the trailer support with the keel winch
- use the bottle jack to take the weight upfront,so the bolts can be taken out.
- drop the keel using the bottle jack.
- If you design to lay the keel flat on the trailer,
- put the keel hangers and bolts back in with the bronze pin.
- thread rope over pin and tie through keel hole
- attach rope to trailer winch to give you mechanical advantage to lower keel.
- Reverse to reattach keel.
The come-a-long is used mostly to get the keel positioned before reattachment.
The clamps to hold the keel upright while lowering to the trailer look like this:
Once the keel has been lowered in the upright position it can be lowered on the trailer:
