Thanks to Mark Hogan, Chris von Guggenberg, Chris M. and others who chipped in with advice and support, Topaz, our 25-foot swing-keel is back in service!

They hauled the boat out, power-washed it to remove barnacles and other things growing on the hull, and installed a new lifting cable for the keel. Below are a few pictures from the procedure that provide a good idea of what the boat looks like underneath.  Click on any picture to expand.

Checking out the bottom of the boat after it has been power-washed. You can see the metal lifting cable line that had been broken on the aft bottom part of the keel.

Notice how it is not attached to the upper part of the boat? That's bad. That's a line they replaced.

They were lucky that Ron could schedule them for a haul out.

Mark Hogan taking off the old broken cable. They took off all the old fittings to find the cause of the line failure and breakage. Turns out it was a brass ball with a groove around it's circumference that serves as a turning block between where the cable is attached to the keel and where it wraps around the lifting winch. The little brass ball swivels as the lifting cable is lifted--keeping the cable safely in its groove.

The brass ball though was chipped, not swiveling and subsequently cutting the cable.

	Mark, Chris, and Chris looking up into the depths and surveying the damage.

This is what the hull looked like before the power-wash. They also used scrub pads to get the persistent barnacles and other growths off.

This stuff was holding on tightly!

They couldn't tell what this was in CJ's hands, but some type of alien growth had sprouted and grown inside the cavity that holds the swing keel when it is fully up.

Maybe fish or amphibian eggs? It was put back in the water. Uh.. sorry if it turns out to be aliens who take over the world.

Pictures below show Alex power washing the hull. The drain in the photo reclaims the dirty water to keep nasty stuff from the bottom of the boat from getting into the Potomac.