See......nothing to it.

With everything in place i turned my attentions to inside the boat having purchased supersize sockets (nearest metric equivilents were 32mm and 38mm). This became abit too easy as once the socket was over the locknuts of the starboard keel they just undid with the slightest of touch, basically they were just above hand tight!

Having now taken all the nuts and where there were any - locknuts off, i proceeded to air chisel out the washers which had been laminated in for some reason; once these were out of the way i made sure all the chocks were in place and a couple of car jacks were under the bottom of the keel to take the weight.

I then began hammering the tops of each stud working inwards from both ends of the keel, eventually enough of a crack appeared to be able to drive in wedges into the joint between the stub and keel.

It was really then a case of lowering the car jacks 5 - 10mm at a time and driving the wedges in deeper, that the keel was almost out (top of the studs visible in places) when i got impatient and put a jemmy bar between the keel and stub and then leant down on it with all my might.

With a brittle sounding crack she came to rest leaning on her supports.