None of were too sure how long it might take to get the keel in. The optimistic guesses were half an hour while the pessimistic guesses said a whole day. Thankfully in the end it was somewhere between.

The initial plan was to lift Rafiki by crane, stand the keel up, and then drop her down on top of her keel. The weather forecast was for quite a bit of wind which didn’t bode well for the craning part of the operation. However the KB Boatpark has a nice bit of forklifting kit which we were able to utilise instead which made for a high precision operation.

Once we’d got the keel inside it was a matter of lining it up exactly so we could get the 8 bolts in. Then it was back on with the keel box which surrounds the keel and stops the water from coming in.

So, about three hours later all was sorted. Next on the list is finishing off a bit of anti-fouling. The final big task on the list is to get the mast in. Hopefully that will happen next Friday and then I can get down to the business of learning the boat.