Topic: Fiberglass repairs on the bottom of the keel

Thought everyone might find this interesting and decided to share it.
I needed to do some glass repairs on the bottom of the keel and wasn't sure if this plan was going to work out OK.  As it turned out, it worked good.  I was able to jack the boat up with automotive hydraulic jacks on the front and back of the keel while I cranked the four supports up under the hull.  When the support jack screws ran out of range, I would crank one down at a time and clamp on a wood block extension.  Finally, the whole boat was about 9" up off the trailer with enough room to easily get the random pattern orbital sander on the bottom of the keel.  All glass repairs, barrier coat, and bottom paint on the bottom of the keel are done now and I'll be reversing the process to get her sitting back on the trailer on Saturday.

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Re: Fiberglass repairs on the bottom of the keel

I'm glad it went well, but *PLEASE* don't do it that way again.
Apart from the need to work far too close to being under the load while jacking,  extending the support pads like that is extremely unsafe as if the pad is not exactly square to the screw shaft, once extended with the blocks it vastly increases the risk of a support buckling. Because you are actually rocking against the support as you jack the keel the risk of failure is even higher

Also it really isn't a great idea to jack against the hollow section of the keel aft of the ballast.

If I had to do that, I'd jack the whole trailer with multiple heavy duty bottle jacks and cribbing, then block up both ends of the keel, and add eight shores tied together with bolted on planks to form an improvised cradle, then back off the pads and lower the trailer till I had enough clearance. 

The shores would be three a side + one at the bow and one bearing on the top of the aperture for the propeller at the stern.