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“New” design Beneteau 210 Keel lift mechanism;

by Dennis Whitney
updated June 30, 2008

I recently replaced the keel lift mechanism in my Beneteau 210, Sojourn, hull 76. My keel had become difficult and noisy to raise. It had also required a varying number of turns every time I raised or lowered it. Since I am not the original owner, I don’t know if the mechanism I replaced was the original or if the bronze nut had been replaced once. Here are my observations on the new mechanism and the differences from the one I replaced. The new one is very smooth, quiet and requires very little effort.

The most recent design for the Beneteau 210 lift mechanism has a tube welded to the yoke that attaches to the keel. The bronze nut is fastened to the top of the tube and the screw is welded to the socket for the winch handle. The screw now goes down into the tube when lifting the keel, a reverse of the original design.

1. The yoke is much thicker. Unfortunately I did not measure the thickness, but the original one looks to be only 1/8 inch stock. The new one looks closer to 3/16 or 1/4 inch.

2. The bronze nut is longer. I measured 2.16 inches on the new one while the original one was only 1.57 inch. Assuming that there is the same amount of engagement on the tube on the new design as on the old design, there should be a half inch of extra engagement of the nut and the screw.

3. The thread pitch appears to be 2 mm on the new screw as opposed to the 3 mm on the old screw. The screw is still an 18 mm major diameter.

4. The nylon bearing block and thrust washers appear to be the same on both designs.

5. The bronze nut appears to be screwed to the tube, but is anchored with a tab welded to the tube. It looks like one would need to take it to a shop to replace the nut.

6. When fully extended, there are several inches of the screw exposed above the nylon block. This should allow for lubrication of the screw. If the boat were on the trailer, then almost all the screw should be exposed for lubrication.

7. A nylon bushing and two spacers were provided for the attachment point on the keel. The bronze bushing in mine was still in good shape so I did not replace it. However, the nylon spacers don’t work as well with the bronze bearing. I was only able to use one and there was still a little play in the connection. My suggestion would be to have a few stainless, bronze or nylon washers available.

8. Since the yoke is a little thicker, I had a little difficulty getting it down the trunk. Luckily I was able to force it, but one might want to have a rasp available to widen the opening.

The actual replacement probably took less than ten minutes. As one might expect, the major effort is raising the boat high enough to lower the keel and access the bolt. Fortunately, I had access to a lift at our yacht club.