On Mon, 25 May 09, derry wrote:
Hi all
I seen there a while back someone had the problem of a swing keel
stuck in the keel trunk.
I have the same problem. and am now at a crossroads with it.

I drilled a hole in the steel keel and used a 800kg ratchet winch onto
an large anchor weight
this pulled the keel down with some effort. I removed the keel winch
and the keel pin.

but still cant pull the keel out with the rust around where the pin
was.
I guess I need some thing to dissolve the rust that will not damage
the gel coat.

I have tightened up the ratchet pressure again and soaked the keel in
diesel. And left it over night to see what will happen .

Anybody got any better ideas on this.

What size boat and what weight keel are you dealing with?
And are you able to open the top of the trunk? Or flip the boat
upside down? Or reach the pin location? (in other words, is the pin
located up inside the trunk, of externally like a Catalina 22?

Seems like you could clean the part of the keel that's out, then winch
it back up, down, up, down, etc. to loosen the pin area a bit. Might
help to flush it with a water hose while you're doing that. Then pull
the pin again and go from there.

-shrug- just a suggestion. It's hard to say without knowing the
details.

Rick