Ultimate 18 keel seal

[Scooch]

Hi all, I am new to this so please bear with me.
I am the new owner of SCOOCH the ultimate 18 that some of you may know.
SCOOCH has a drop keel and the other day after a quiet sail I pulled up to the jetty and tried to wind the keel up but it was jammed. While trying to wind the keel up I snapped the cable to the winch.
After many hours of bottle jacks and cutting lengths of wood my partner and I finally raised the keel high enough to get it back on the trailer.

My question now is how do I fix the seal around the keel case which is why the keel got jammed.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards

Paul

[zebedee]

The top opening of the keel case should be above water level (unless you're awash!!), so there's no "seal" as such but there may be rubber at the top of bottom of the keel case.

Are you talking about a rubber surround around the bottom of the keel case to make the bottom of the boat smoother around the keel?
Or the rubber surround at the top to inhibit splashing into the bilges?

The bottom flap seems most likely since it could possibly get drawn up into the keel case with with the keel making raising the keel rather difficult.

Do you have any photos?

[Scooch]

Good evening,
I removed the top timber cover that the drop keel when in the lowered position rests on, there is a rubber seal of approximately 20mm wide by 10mm thick in a recess around the keel. When the keel was lowered it grabbed the seal and dragged it down into the keel case and jammed it.
In trying to raise the keel the older winch cable snapped and we were stranded.
After many hours in the dark we used a couple of bottle jacks and various lengths of timber to raise the keel.
I don’t have pics at the moment but I will tomorrow.
Many thanks
Paul

[MartinDreaming]

Hi Scooch,

Zeb is right about the "seal" being above the water line. The function of your seal is to stop water sloshing into the cabin through the keel box while you are underway. You could replace it with a strip of rubber or neoprene from a hardware store, or even strips cut from a yoga-mat. As you have found out, the important thing is to fix it so it does not snag on the keel and get dragged into the keel box.

Anyhow, I went through a lengthy "adventure" with the swing keel on my Austral 20, and kept a blog. You might find something interesting, starting around here
http://theboattinkerer.blogspot.com/201 ... ction.html

(NB, I notice that my boat recently got sold again, from the "Boats for sale" thread)

[Scooch]

Thank you for the information it’s been very helpful.

[Scooch]

Hi all, these are the pics of the rubber keel seal and the top of the keel.
There is something like sika flex where the rubber seal would sit in its recess.

[colect149]

What you have looks right. I had a drop keel UY18 for about 18 years. Originally water did leak in via the keel in heavy weather. I obtained new rubber, I think from Clark Rubber and replaced it. About every second launching I would smear some Vaseline on the keel itself before lowering. In the years with that yacht it had a lot of use and more than it's fair share of heavy weather. Never again had a leak. BTW never had silicon or Sikaflex anywhere near it. Some folks think silicon type stuff will fix anything which goes for cars as well as boats. In many cases it does more harm than good.