New member here (I have put a post in the “lounge” section as a quick introduction) wondered if anyone could advise on a quick query please ?
I went up to my mooring on Ullswater at the weekend to find it vacant !!
Sundance had come away from her mooring (Broken Shackle) but luckily appears to have simply drifted into shore. Having left the keel down she came to rest within feet of the shore as the keel hit terra firma… the local boat hire company spotted her and kindly used my mooring warps (Still attached to the boat) to secure her to a tree and prevent her getting into further trouble.
On first inspection all seemed fine no damage or even marks of any description !!! but I was concerned that she was sitting in less water than I estimated the depth of keel to be.
Inside the cabin the large bush which holds the winch socket to wind the keel had popped up and the threaded bar was clearly visible…and in surprisingly clean condition !
Up until this weekend I knew little of how the keel looked or worked ….I am a card carrying member of the “if it aint broke –don’t fix it" club... and I was more than a little concerned, but after some attempts to get underneath and have a look (I need to lose some weight...or get a bigger wetsuit :oops: ) I simply plucked up courage and wound the keel up… all seemed to go well; the bush fell back into place, the keel came up with its usual satisfying thump into the casing and she floated off. The bolt which goes thru the casing and holds the keel in place showed no signs of stress or any leakage and again looked in surprisingly clean condition.
Having got her back on the mooring and not having detailed knowledge of the keel operation I was nervous of putting the keel back down…. If it came out there are 7 metres of pretty murky water below my mooring !! so I left it up for the time being.
Having looked at the drawings and photos on this site however I now feel pretty confident that all should be OK and that the bush coming up is what you would expect.
So at the risk of getting all pythonesque on you I am one lucky lucky lucky……….
Has this or similar happened to anyone else and can anyone think of a reason why I shouldn’t just put the keel back down ??
) I simply plucked up courage and wound the keel upÂ… all seemed to go well; the bush fell back into place, the keel came up with its usual satisfying thump into the casing and she floated off. The bolt which goes thru the casing and holds the keel in place showed no signs of stress or any leakage and again looked in surprisingly clean condition.