Dehlya-Refit-Blog Week 63: Just press a button: Lifting keel 3.0 for our Dehlya 25

Sometimes you just have to be lucky. In the case of our Dehlya 25, we should probably call it a lucky streak. Because what is gradually coming together with the help of our partners will almost certainly be wonderful.

The outline of the extension at Mittelmann's shipyard is already recognisable. And these outlines look great. But more on that later - and much more in the next instalment of the refit blog.

Today, the first task is to unravel the secret of our lifting keel actuation. And that's also quite something.

We had already made the basic decision a year ago: We wanted to replace the mechanical spindle, which required tens of turns of a crank, with a hydraulic system that lifts the keel with a few pump strokes. In future, it would be operated from the cockpit instead of in front of the mast.

Because the master boat builder Sven Walter from M. and H. von der Linden After discovering a bargain on eBay and the enthusiasm of the Dehlya team had also taken hold of the editor-in-chief, the slightly misshapen thing that we had so many plans for is now gathering dust in our spare parts cellar, Dehlya department, shelf 3, compartment 17. A useful utensil, galvanised sheet steel housing, solid agricultural machinery technology. Should disappear somewhere in the back box, aesthetics or technical sophistication wouldn't matter.

Would, should, had - you guessed it! This thing is a thing of the past. Before we have to recommend it to our accountant for derecognition as a total loss one day soon, we will confess here: The pump is one of the surprisingly manageable number of hastily made bad investments.

Anyone who has ever taken the risk of a refit will be able to confirm that you should always reckon with a certain amount of hopeful or hamster purchases that later turn out to be premature, planned, or otherwise deepened.

In this particular case, we are actually really happy about this (even if our controller will probably not share our joy). By deciding on hydraulics early on, we have already plotted the right course, at least roughly, but have now found a much better solution. Okay, not us. It was Michael Kraske, known to loyal YACHT readers as Winner of the Baltic Sea Pearl familiar.

The head of the Kiel-based mechanical engineering company Werner Kluge Engineering designs and manufactures for a number of well-known water sports companies, including Hanseyachts and Kohlhoff. Marc-Oliver von Ahlen, who is in charge of the Dehlya project as Design engineer had recommended him to us. And in the very first conversation with YACHT editor Hauke Schmidt, Kraske came up with ad hoc solutions that sounded simply brilliant. Even better: they were.

A few months later, the final design plans are now available and the customised production of the power box that will raise and lower the keel of the Dehlya in future will begin shortly. Lars Bolle has already installed it in the right place in his computer and in 3D: it will be screwed into newly laminated aluminium plates on the hull floor under the forward berths.

Initially, we had considered mounting it upright, directly in front of the keel box. A less complex solution, but one that would reduce the interior space and appear somewhat jagged, as the square aluminium housing would then adjoin a rounded GRP part that tapers towards the front.

Apart from the visual impression, there was another point that spoke against it for us: We want to extend the berth aft to create a really comfortable sleeping area for two adults. The power box would then be in the way and reduce the shoulder width. That's why we hide it under the bunks.

Only a Dyneema strop on the front edge of the keel box allows conclusions to be drawn about the type of lifting keel operation. The line is supposed to be deflected downwards via a halyard outlet, as is familiar from mast building, and then disappear into the quadruple hawse of the power box. Its hydraulics are activated electrically via a radio-controlled motor from the Code Zero and Gennaker Furler, which Peter Kohlhoff presented last autumn and also developed with Michael Kraske. Once everything has been installed, we will show the system in detail and in action here.

The highlight: the power box is to go into small series production. As a retrofit solution, all Dehlya owners will be able to benefit from the development from spring onwards if, like us, they are tired of cranking and are about to have a lifting keel refit anyway. The price has not yet been finalised, but will probably be around 1500 euros for a manually operated system.

We can already see our Dehlya gliding off its trailer in the shallow waters of Lake Starnberg and casually press the button on the remote control for the power box. The interior of the cabin rumbles quietly as the lifting keel moves downwards. Even when anchoring very close to the shoreline of Avernakø or when going ashore on the Müritz, one push of a button is enough to get the 300-kilo iron up and running. At least in our imagination, which is clouded by the grey of winter.

Now we just have to find a solution for the rudder. Oh yes..., and we have to manage the interior and the deck paintwork and the electrics and the deck coverings and the cushions and tarpaulins. But there are still a few weeks to go until the christening at the Hanseboot Ancora Boatshow in May.

This is what the Dehlya will look like below deck when Hein, Thilo and Paul from Mittelmann's shipyard have finished with her. We'll be looking over their shoulders on Friday. Report to follow.

Stay tuned!