Venture 17 Keel Cable Failed

[Billymac]

Venture 17 (1971?), presently in the water. Keel cable failed below the hull. Can anyone provide photos or detailed description of how the cable attaches to the keel? Never laid eyes on it.

I'd be interested in any and all advice as to how to get the keel up and onto the trailer, replace the cable, etc. Scuba?

Thanks!

[Ixneigh]

IIRC it’s a bolt through the iron keel. To raise a cable less keel, to trailer the boat, I was advised loop a line beneath the hull, and slowly motor the boat to some shallows which you can use to fold the keel back against hull. Use the line to secure it to the cockpit winches. You can of course scuba down if you are able to do that. The bolt went through the thimble eye in the cable and I think there where also couple washers too. You’ll have to feed the other end from the bottom, up into the boat and then connect to the winch. I was able to do all that myself in my v22w, when I replaced the cable (before it broke)
I can’t remember if I redid the connection method. It looked sketchy to me. But, I’ve encounter many other sketchy looking macgregor stuff over the years and most of it took every bit of my ability and lots of additional money to improve on.
Good luck!
Ix

[Maraquita]

This happened to me on my old V-25. Looks like about the same keel. I careened it onto a swimming beach and dug enough sand away to run a truckers cargo strap under the keel. It still hung down slightly, but I was able to get it up onto the trailer (original single axle) far enough to winch it the rest of the way on the trailer. The normal trailer supports held the keel in place until I got home. I don’t know what yours weighs, but the V-25 keel is about 900 lbs of iron, so you need a pretty stout strap or rope to keep it up high enough, without stretching, to get on the trailer. Since it hinges from the front, once you have that over the rear cross support winching it forward Will tend to push the keel up into the trunk.
I don’t remember the exact attachment scheme, but I remember that I jacked the back of the boat off the trailer less than 6 inches and could reach it to cut off the corroded hardware and install new