Keel back in Lady Jo! No pictures yet though . . .

[CaptainScott]

Well, last week with the help of a neighbor we lowered the keel far enough out of Lady Jo so I could clean and prime it.

Saturday morning the same neighbor came over to lower the keel again so I could paint it.

For those wondering, the keel has been completely disconnected from Lady jo however I have had it blocked up such that the top of the keel was JUST in the trunk of Lady Jo. This way I had full access to the keel except the very top and it was safe from falling over.

So Saturday morning at 9:00 am the keel was getting it's second coat of paint when another neighbor came to see whats up. The small crowd under Lady Jo drew yet another neighbor over.

We were discussing the "Next Step" which was to put the keel back in the boat when they all simply started insisting lets JUST DO IT! LOL!

So two floor jacks and a motor cycle jack were inlisted to do the heavy lifting and to work we went! Next thing ya know, the keel is hung and the pin is in! YEAH! Sorry Alan, I know you wanted to help but the guys were insistant on just getting it done!

For those that are interested, we had a floor jack on each end of the keel so we could move it for and aft. We put the motorcycle jack in from the side. This allowed us to move the keel port and starboard. Worked extremely well! Yes we had a lot of lifting and lowering and lifting again as we wiggled it slowly into place but it was very straight forward and fairly easy to do with lots of care.

So this week I will get a new keel cable made and do some minor fiberglass repair and she will be ready to float again! YEAH!!

Scott

[tgentry]

Good work Scott!

I would really like to do this to my C26, but I think it will wait until next spring, or maybe in the fall. For now I'm just going to lower the keel as far as possible and get to what I can.