Stop cranking on keel pendant winch when keel reaches the "up" position. It won't go any higher. Should you choose not to stop cranking the winch handle because you have pre-occupied your feeble brain with some other thought and your muscles in you arm continue to keep cranking on autopilot, you will probably be reminded that you have reached the limit of travel of the keel and the limit of strength of said pendant with a sickening "SNAP" followed very shortly thereafter by the loudest "THUD" you would ever NOT want to hear you boat make as a 300lb plus keel accelerates at 9.8 meters per second squared and then is suddenly stopped by that little half inch bronze stop pin. You will then thank you lucky stars that you purchased a Montgomery, because after you struggle for an hour to get the keel re-raised out of the frame of the trailer (off-center of course), extinguish the electrical fire in the tow vehicle from backing in so far to attempt to free said keel from the grip of the trailer (which will not work, by the way) that the salt w ater became conductive within the trailer connector plug and shorted it, and then finally find that you can still get a hold of a piece of the pendant that remains, secure it to a line and run that to a cabin top winch so that you can just get the keel up high enough, freed from the trailer's grip, get the boat re-centered , loaded, pulled out of the water.....and you fine NO visible damage or water in the bilge. Of course, I have probably just bought myself a trip up off the trailer with a crane to really check things out and to be able to get access to change the pendant. But, when I heard and felt the "Thud" I was sure that I was going to have water in the bilge immediately. Not a drop. So far so good. I'm thinking dropping the wrong halyard would have been a lot more fun! :-) ( and a lot less costly :-( ) Sean