The issues I discovered when the keel fell off

When Terry Abel repairs the keel of his 40-year-old swing-keel yacht he is astonished by what he finds

photo: Enya being lifted out to check out the swing keel

sailing is crammed with compromises and boats with swing keels are certainly one of them. they'll certainly not be as fast or agile as their fin-keeled cousins, however how pleasing it's should you are operating out of water to have the capability to in the reduction of your draught via a few feet! here, on the Essex coast, amid the Thames estuary sandbanks, it feels less of a compromise and greater of a godsend.

youngsters, I have learned – after an alarming journey where the keel fell off – that there are a few issues I deserve to hold an eye on.

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if in case you have bought or owned a sailing boat of a 'definite old' within the remaining two decades, you are going to essentially actually have spent hours scouring the cyber web for articles about your latest craft. here is what I did in 2016 after I bought my swing-keel Pandora seven-hundred. She became built round 1980 by means of Rydgeway Marine and had a just a little chequered history.

keen to find out as a great deal as I may concerning the class, background, performance and development, I went online attempting to find Pandora. I found just a few for yachts for sale and lots of jewellery adverts, however little else until I got here across pandorasailing.com, a superb web page run by way of the South Caernarvonshire Yacht membership in Abersoch, North Wales. They race an outstanding fleet of Pandoras (fin keelers) and there isn't lots they don't find out about sailing, rigging and fixing them.

Double take

To my shock, despite the fact, I got here across a photograph of a very neat Pandora seven-hundred referred to as RedStart. She had the equal sail quantity as mine: 799. become it a mistake? On a map, Abersoch is diametrically on the contrary aspect of the united kingdom from Maldon in Essex. both boats were about as far from every different as they might be on mainland UK, and as I don't race I didn't actually see a problem. however i was intrigued!

Terry found another Pandora with the equal sail quantity referred to as RedS tart, sailed here by using Ian Curnow and his daughter, Emily. photo: green Sea photography

I made some enquiries and was put in touch with RedStart's proprietor, Ian Curnow. It became out that the common (blue hulled) fin keeler became inbuilt 1980 but sank on her mooring. Her first owner sent the boat returned to Rydgeway Marine in Kessingland, Norfolk, and a new fin-keeled, red-hulled Pandora seven-hundred (hull quantity 823) was shipped to Abersoch as a alternative. in the exchange-over, the owner had saved the normal sails and when his great, vibrant, new crimson hull arrived, he naturally did what any pink-blooded Welsh sailor would do: he bent on the sails and went sailing. 4 homeowners later, RedStart still races below hull 823 and sail number 799.

"It concerned me once I first purchased RedStart," admits Ian, "therefore, I explored what had happened; it became like purchasing a car with duff documents! however for my part 799 is a nicer quantity on the attention."

What grew to be of the normal hull?

however what then became of the long-established hull? i think (however don't know) that the motive she sank on her mooring was as a result of a leak around the fin keel bolts. I simplest imply this as a result of I as soon as owned a fresh 'twin finned' (bilge-keel) Hunter Horizon 21. Freya, hull No3, changed into the 1991 Southampton Boat show exhibit. within weeks of taking delivery simply after the display, she developed a leak (smartly a weep really) around the port side bilge keel bolts following a active October sail up the Essex coast to Harwich in a very good force 5 easterly. Hauled out and sat on her trailer she became lower back to the Hunter manufacturing facility in Rochford, Essex, where it turned into arranged for the keel to be stripped off and rebedded. within a week the difficulty changed into resolved. back within the water, Freya and that i had a great few years collectively.

although, whatever thing the problem changed into with Pandora 799, Rydgeway Marine decided it became top-rated mounted through changing the keel configuration from fin to swing keel.

Anyway, 36 years later, Aphrodite – as she became once I purchased her – changed into languishing in a nook in one of the yards in Maldon. She had been raced a little bit judging with the aid of the twingers and tweaks she sported however now had a good set of cruising sails with a curler reefing headsail. Her mast had been broken when her proprietor had misplaced control whereas reducing it and despite the fact the coverage business had sportingly paid out for a brand new mast and a group of standing rigging, I feel her owner simply misplaced coronary heart and walked away. She had been standing, not noted, for a few years after I first saw her.

Adrian, the yard manager, instructed me that the new mast and standing rigging, were within the mast rack nevertheless in their transit wrapping. The deal seemed good so I purchased her for a very modest sum and set about sorting her out.

Spark of existence

the first factor to go had to be that identify! are you able to imagine spelling Aphrodite phonetically in an emergency? I renamed her Enya, which is a Celtic identify, that means anything like 'spark of existence'. Echo November Yankee Alpha – an awful lot better!

I stripped her out, replaced the tired ancient upholstery, re-rigged her, repaired and reinstalled the roller reefing spar (damaged when the mast came down), replaced the operating rigging and rewired her.

It changed into while antifouling that i realized that the bronze/DZR epidermis becoming on the centreline, simply aft of the stub keel, was worn. The becoming publications the swing keel uphaul rope in the course of the hull, up a hose to the cockpit cleat. The motion of the rope, aided via some nice East coast mud acting as a chopping compound, had worn a groove in the becoming. I made a mental note to change it the subsequent season.

The keel fell off

The spring and summer season of 2017 I sailed her up and down the Essex/Suffolk coast, making small adjustments and enhancements to the rig, equivalent to lazy-jacks and operating manage traces to the cockpit, to suit my (on the whole) single-handed sailing.

Enya comfortable on her mooring on the Blackwater in Maldon

Then, early in may additionally 2018 I set out for a brief 'shakedown' sail. With the ancient, bombproof 5hp Johnson 2-stroke running, I slipped my mooring, hoisted the main, unfurled the genoa then killed the outboard. halfway alongside the Maldon fairway i realized that she appeared to be handling 'oddly'. variety of 'edging' sideways instead of tracking straight. I'd forgotten to lower the swing keel, however that shouldn't have made such a difference. I uncleated it anyway. The uphaul rope roared away via my fingers, leaving a foul rope burn appropriate throughout my left palm and reminding me why we certainly not wrap a loaded rope round our arms! The rope changed into halted at the cockpit sole by means of the as it should be named stopper knot! Staring stupidly at the straining knot, I realised, with horrible readability, what became amiss…. The 90lb cast iron swing keel had fallen off! only the 10mm uphaul rope became protecting that extremely go od lump of iron in contact with the boat.

The tide was nevertheless flooding with half an hour to run and the swing keel become dragging along in the mud beneath the boat! I couldn't lift it and didn't need to cause to any extent further damage with it swinging around under the boat, so I all started the outboard, rolled away the genoa and dropped the leading. Then the usage of the remaining of the flood and lots of the Johnson's horsepower, we limped, painfully slowly back up river to the yard.

We lurched and jolted alongside as the swing keel alternately dragged during the mud and bumped across gravel patches on the bottom. ultimately, again at the yard, I tied up to the long pontoon and waited for the ebb. After an hour or so, with the swing keel cushioned in the mud, slightly of slack grew to become obtainable on the uphaul rope. I eased Enya forward to evade her sitting on her indifferent casting.

Thank goodness for the stopper knot

The tide finally left us and the swing keel could be considered three feet at the back of the transom, half submerged within the mud. I gave thanks for that stopper knot as I untied it and, the use of the boat hook, I fished the road out and tied it off to a mooring cleat on the pontoon. Between us, Adrian and that i heaved the remarkable, mud-covered, steel lump out and up onto the pontoon.

I hosed the mud off expecting to discover gap where the pivot bolt should have been – earlier than it had corroded away and caused my current challenge. however there turned into no gap! No fragments of damaged pivot bolt; nothing. only a properly forged aerofoil shaped lump of cast iron with forged-in trunnions on each side (trunnions are 'protrusions' frequently viewed on historic navy and military gun barrels which enable the barrel to pivot around them on the gun carriage to alternate the elevation of the gun).

Adrian provided to crane the boat out the subsequent morning so I might investigate this curious arrangement. That night, yet another web search yielded nothing!

On the Pandora seven-hundred swing keel variant a enormous stub keel with a critical slot is bedded to the hull with keel bolts within the normal approach. The swing keel casting suits into the slot. The trunnions slide up into port and starboard 'chimney' slots which might be cast into the indoors sides of the slot in the stub keel. as soon as in position the swing keel is held with the aid of two trunnion plates, which close off the chimney slots below the stub keel. Over time the trunnions had worn and corroded their way in the course of the protecting plates. Adrian and i managed to clear up and unscrew the three stainless-steel M8 holding screws securing every plate to the stub keel and take away them for inspection. They have been not a gorgeous sight!

Keel repairs

tomorrow, the use of the historic plates as a e book, I fabricated two new plates out of 10x40x125mm mild steel bar, and set about repositioning the swing keel.

be aware how the trunnion plates have worn and corr oded to the aspect where they allowed the trunnions to drop out. interestingly there was little wear on the forged iron trunnions themselves

I should add this point, here is just an account of what I did, no longer a suggestion on a way to do it. The swing keel is very heavy and will trigger critical harm if it slips or falls. anyone who attempts to copy this should still accomplish that at their personal chance.

I used blocks of timber and a motor vehicle jack to elevate alternate ends of the swing keel casting unless eventually the swing keel was placed in the slot of the stub keel with the two trunnions of their respective port and starboard slots. both new trunnion plates had been bedded on linseed oil putty and screwed into the plate recesses in the backside with six stainless steel countersunk computing device screws blind tapped in the underside of the stub keel.

Left: new port facet trunnion plate outfitted. The 'gunk' is linseed oil putty. right right and backside: keel uphaul dermis becoming. word the groove worn into the formerly round hole

The stainless M8 computer screws were coated with water pump grease previous to refitting and that i ran an M8 faucet into the tapped stub keel holes to clean the threads.

When free, the swing keel trunnions endure down on the port and starboard trunnion plates permitting the swing keel to pivot as the uphaul rope is hauled or released.

while i was down there i thought I'd determine on that bronze/DZR uphaul epidermis becoming. It soon grew to become apparent that this become a really well timed flow since the inside threaded collar disintegrated when i tried to unscrew it! DZR or brass? either manner it had dezincified and turn into brittle. With a pipe wrench I unscrewed the physique of the becoming from the outdoor and noticed that the uphaul rope had worn all through the becoming. There turned into a pinhole which I may see daylight hours via and simplest a little bit of historical, set sealant had been conserving the North Sea out of my boat! The Gods of boating should have been smiling on me – if no longer truly falling about laughing.

I cleaned up the gap during the hull, interior and out, then geared up a brand new, respectable-excellent dermis fitting bedded on decent marine sealant and changed the hose connecting the hull becoming to the cockpit outlet. Double jubilee clips complete the job. It wasn't challenging, it wasn't elaborate, however I consider this little little bit of maintenance saved my boat.

essentials for my annual haul-out

So there you have it; for what it is worth, my bought wisdom of a way to keep a Pandora swing keeler floating the correct approach up and on proper of the waves; however I'm certain a lot of this applies to any swing keel design. Now, my annual haul-out/ maintenance listing includes two new essentials:

• get rid of as a minimum one trunnion plate for inspection. If worn, verify the other and change as fundamental (I reckon every three years in my enviornment with Enya sitting on a half tide mud berth).

• assess the uphaul hull skin becoming (and cord) each and every yr and change at the first sign of wear.

through 2019 and 2020 Enya and that i sailed many miles up and down the Essex and Suffolk coast, across the Thames Estuary to Ramsgate, where best a metamorphosis in the weather averted a pre-COVID crossing to Boulogne. We've been through the Swale and across the Isle of Sheppey and across the Buxey Sands via the Ray Sand Channel to discover the river Crouch. This able little boat will take me any place supplied I do my bit, retain her smartly maintained and sail prudently.

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