INVESTIGATOR 563

Thanks Pete. I tried that it didn't achieve much more and it became very wobbly and I was not keen to continue with the jack.

A good thought nonetheless.

Cheers

If you were down here in Tassie, you could have used my lifting frame. Cheers, good luck with it. Make sure to let us know what you find

Hi Again Brainstrust

Attached is a photo of the keel down but not all the way.

Obviously no cord.

There doesn't seem to be much "meat" on the keel. i.e. the hole for the cord is very close to the edge. Is this normal? It looks quite different from the diagram posted on this thread by Raya on 9th March.

I'm thinking drill another hole whilst I've got it up.

Mambo,

The drop keel may have been replaced at some past time. Most have. Yours looks to be in good condition.

I would definitely drill another hole to leave a bit more meat between the hole and the edge. I would use stainless steel wire for most of the distance back to the cockpit and join the rope for the last bit where you grab it with your hands. You could simply join the stainless to the keel plate with a loop through the hole and a swage to secure it. Others might have a better idea but I simply swaged mine (about 20 years ago) and have had no issues with it.

Out of interest, is the original bulkhead fitting for the drop keel cord still there?

WOO HOO, EEE HA AND "TISH" YEAH

The keel rope is free. I got the keel down far enough to get a 5mm steel rod with a hooked end and got a hold of the little bugger. After a brief altercation, I took him into custody. The end is attached to a saddle with an eye (see photo) not sure how it was attached but I'm going to ditch it in favour of a shackle.

The rope moves freely in the existing conduit and I think I'm going to leave it that way fo now.

Now time to get some spectra. it looks about 6mm to me and try to re-thread it up into the hull.

The keel is an aluminium plate and should be easy enough to drill a10 or 12mm hole in it and connect with a stainless "D" shackle. Any thought on this?

I have some rope that came with the boat. see photo. Can anyone tell me if that is spectra? Time for a beer

Happy days

Mambo

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Have a look at this, this is my new centreboard which I basically copied from the old one. On my old one it looked like the loop of steel to attach the cord on to was actually a piece of 1/4 inch rod welded on before it was galvanised. When I made my new one, I ground it out of solid as seen here before I had it galvanised. Yours looks like the loop has been cut off and just a hole drilled into the board. Ignore the step that I ground into the leading edge, that was for another purpose. Someone else may have a photo of an original or if not, When I get home tomorrow, I will take a close up of my old one and post it here for you.
Cheers

Have a look at my post called " centreboard Removal" under Technical Articles. You will see more there. If yours is an aluminium plate, you will have no problems sorting it out as no rust with aluminium. Just make sure that if you use a D shackle, that it will not bind or get stuck inside the centreboard case. Cheers

Mate , just a suggestion but if it’s easily drilled aluminium you could just make a 6 mm hole in the board suitably rounded and thread the 6mm spectra directly into it. No issues of corrosion with different metals. I have the same with a welded ring. Anyway congratulations on persistence and retrieving the pull chord.

Here is that photo of the bottom of my old centreboard. As Ozzie said, easiest way to fix it would be to drill a suitable hole and tie the cord directly to the board. Make sure you round off all the edges though, you don't want any sharp edges to cut into the cord.
The thickness of the tie on part of both my new and old board is somewhat thinner than the board itself to give room for however you attach the cord
Cheers