Replacing Keel Wire Farr 5000

Decided I should replace keel wire and lockdown rope. The lockdown rope looked very old and an inferior grade of rope so I decided it needed replacing. The keel wire looks brand new but I decided I would replace it too. This is what I did.

1. I dry launched the boat onto the lawn with the mast up. I attached a rope to the mast at the point where the jib halyard enters the mast.
2. To do this I got some old tyres from a local tyre place.
3. Undid keel bolt nut. I did this because I realised that once the boat was on lawn I may not be able to access the bolt. I left the bolt in. I have recently renewed this bolt otherwise I would have taken the chance to replace the bolt also. The original bolt had a small bend in it.
4. I put some bricks under the front and rear tyres of the car as I was worried the weight of the boat coming of the back of the trailer might lift the back of the car up and it would slide down the slight grassy incline it was on.
5. Released boat winch 6 inches at a time and pushed boat back on rollers. Once I reached the point where the boat would tilt on its tilt trailer I tilted the trailer and continued to let boat back on trailer until it would go no further. It had come to rest on a tyre I had placed under transom.
6. I put a tyre under either side of boat just in from transom to keep the boat upright as it came off trailer.
7. When the boat could no longer be pushed off the  trailer I slowly drove the car forward. I had placed a sheet of plywood under rear of trailer so it would not drag through the grass in its tilted position.
8. Eventually the boat came to rest on the ground.
9. I then knocked out the keel bolt and unwound the keel winch till it was very slack. It needed to be unwound other wise the keel would swing forward when the keel bolt was removed.
10. I pulled the boat over using the rope  onto an old lounge cushion I had.
    
    
11. As the boat gradually tilted over the keel gradually fell out of the keel hole.
12. I tied of the mast to a large tree near by.
13. The keel weighs only 65kg so it was quite easy to manoeuvre with the help of a neighbour.
14. Replacing the lockdown rope was the hardest as the rope had rusted and squeezed itself into the keel. In the end I had to drill the rope out.
    Removing rope
    
    
    Groove at top of keel is for retaining rope
    
15. Replacing the keel was fairly easy. Supported the keel on a couple of pieces of wood. By removing the wood at the bottom of the keel the top lifted up into the slot and it was quite easy to replace the keel bolt.
16. I haven't put the boat back on the trailer yet as I have decided to do some work on the trailer and it is easier with the boat off the trailer.

Towra Point Sail

 

Boat launches so easily now with new rollers. Just back down ramp so tyres are just in the water and it glides easily off the trailer. Red rollers are the way to go. Below is a short movie of my day at Towra Point. I launched in Dover Park in Blakehurst near Kogarah Bay Sailing Club. The ramp is fine for me as long as the tide is above 0.5 m.
Because the wind was so light I made use of the tide to get to Towra and then used the incoming tide to return. It meant I was doing about 3 knots with almost no wind.
The movie was made and edited on my phone.

Rollers

Yellow rollers turned out to be softer than black roller and flattened in less than a week. You would think the people who sold me the rollers would have known this especially as they manufacture trailers. Bold trailers in Caringbah need to watch their customer service. They were most unhelpful after the initial sale. Anyway replaced the rollers with red rollers and new spindles purchased from Bias.

Mast Raising

A video of mast raising on a Farrr 5000.

January (not) sail

Have joined the St George Motor Boat Club as they have an excellent launching ramp which should make it easier for me to launch the boat. Unfortunately I discovered that some of the rollers under the boat had flattened out which meant they wouldn't turn and I was unable to launch the boat on my own. I have replaced the black rollers and spindles with yellow and red rollers which while still soft are much better than the black rubber.