Replace Jeanneau keel?

[KeepInTune]

I've got an offer from a seller of a beautiful 2010 Jeanneau 44i with a 6'8" draft. It's such a great deal that I may not want to pass it up.
My problem: I need a draft of 5'6" or less!
With bolt-on keels, is it possible to find a Jeanneau shoal keel and haul it out and replace keels? Is this plausible to find a replacement? Has anyone done this?
(I would want the work done around SE Florida)

Advice?

[Cool Hand Luke]

Keep the boat and keep the keel. It's a beautiful vessel that will sail well in blue water. Maybe find another place to keep it?

Just my 2 cents... good luck!

[GordMay]

Not cheap, but posible ➥ https://marskeel.com/production/repa...ft-reductions/

[UNCIVILIZED]

You may find it less expensive to have the current keel modified than it is to find a shoal draft replacement keel, & then do the swap. Usually such a mod entails chainsawing 1-2' off of the bottom of the current keel, & having the lead from this turned into a hydrodynamically contoured "torpedo bulb", or 2 bulb haves. Which then get attached to the shorter fin still attached to the boat.
Look up Mars metals/Mars Keels in Canada. They're the premier guys for this kind of thing in N. America.

[sony2000]

I think the procedure is to buy two torpedos that bolt onto the keel and remove the rest of the keel below 5'6'' or less. Then sell the lead. I saw it done three years a go in the yard. Fairing as necessary.

[dlymn]

Usually, if a designer creates a shoal draft hull from a hull with a long keel, they also change the sail plan. If you shorten the keel and don't change the sail plan, you boat is likely to become very tender and easy to flatten. The above deck changes might go so far as different mast and mast position to ensure that the relationship between the various centres of forces remains ideal. You would need to see specifications from long and short keel versions to see if there is a difference. It might be very disappointing to have a boat that heels too much.

[savoir]

Luke was right.

Swapping keels will cost more that it was worth and ruin the boat. The two forms of keel are not bolt on/off as you suggest. Their upper profiles differ making each incompatible with the mounts for the other.

Deeper keels sail better so go with that.

[Zanshin]

Have you contacted a Jeanneau dealer regarding the price of their shoal keel for this model, which I think is 5"2'? The mounts for the Jeanneau are standardized, so the shoal keel should fit in the same place.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

You may find it less expensive to have the current keel modified than it is to find a srhoal draft replacement keel, & then do the swap. Usually such a mod entails chainsawing 1-2' off of the bottom of the current keel, & having the lead from this turned into a hydrodynamically contoured "torpedo bulb", or 2 bulb haves. Which then get attached to the shorter fin still attached to the boat.
Look up Mars metals/Mars Keels in Canada. They're the premier guys for this kind of thing in N. America.

Your going to have some fun chain sawing a cast iron keel

[Stumble]

You really have a few options, none of them are terribly good..

1) live with the deeper keel.
2) buy a new shoal draft keel from the manufacturer
3) have Mars (or someone else) make you a new shoal keel
4) cut your existing keel down and bolt on a torpedo
5) find someone with your boat who wants to swap.

Frankly 5 is very unlikely, but would be great if you can, 1 has practical issues only you can answer, 2&3 are variations on a theme and are going to be pretty expensive.

So 4 is probably your best practical option. Mars has in house designers that can design a decent bulb to keep the boats RM the same. Basically you will just bolt two teardrop slabs of lead to either side of the keel and then fair them in. The problem is that as you raise ballast you also reduce the lever arm, requiring more ballast to keep the same RM, it won't be all that much, say a few hundred pounds more in lead than the cast iron you remove but it isn't nothing.

What concerns me, is I think you have a very similar keel to my Beneteau, which means the bottom of it is much thicker than the top, basically a primitive bulb. So you may have a lot more iron at the bottom than the top. If this is true, you could be looking at a massive bulb to compensate. Instead of the 1,500lbs in the first case it could be double that or more depending on the configuration.

From an engineering standpoint it doesn't make it that much more difficult, but cost adds up. 3,000lbs of antimony lead isn't cheap. If you needed this much a whole new keel may not be that much more expensive, and frankly would allow a better profile.


Realistically anything you do (other than learning to live with it) is >$10,000 so I hope it's a very good deal.

[KeepInTune]

Great insight and suggestions. Thanks so much. I may simply have to adjust my sailing plans to fit the depth/draft (Keys, Bahamas, St Pete, etc..). Frankly, I might just like that challenge.

[Eder]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Your going to have some fun chain sawing a cast iron keel

Not a big deal anymore...

ICS Diamond Chainsaw Chains for ICS Chain Saws - Desert Diamond Indsutries - www.desertdiamondindustries.com

[Cheechako]

If the boat is that new and that good a deal, getting a shoal keel from Jeanneau may be an option. Is it Cast Iron?
You are not going to be happy with a 6'-8" depth in Fl and Bahamas.
Looking at specs for the 44i, your boat is the shallow one! The other is 7 foot plus... If the boat is in FL and cheap, that may be the reason... ex charter boat?

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by Eder

Not a big deal anymore...

ICS Diamond Chainsaw Chains for ICS Chain Saws - Desert Diamond Indsutries - www.desertdiamondindustries.com

Well there you go, I just learned something, modern tools are amazing

[KeepInTune]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

If the boat is that new and that good a deal, getting a shoal keel from Jeanneau may be an option. Is it Cast Iron?
You are not going to be happy with a 6'-8" depth in Fl and Bahamas.
Looking at specs for the 44i, your boat is the shallow one! The other is 7 foot plus... If the boat is in FL and cheap, that may be the reason... ex charter boat?

It is the 6'8'' version and sure it's cast iron. It is an ex-charter.
I emailed Jeanneau, but no response yet.