Something recent has brought to life the issues of keels, as you know the news has been pleged with stories of keels falling off boats and even this-morning the news was about a
boat turning turtle and losing its
keel in
Mexico.
Dont lose faith, my fellow fin keelers, or those that have made the choice and think they made a mistake.
The keels in mention are far from the boats we would use for cruising. The
keel on many of the "high performance" racers is eith er a canting keel, held on by bearing plates or a fixed unit with a foot-print of about 2 to 3 foot and is only bolted to the
hull by a small plate. these boats are also listed in the ULDB division which is an ultra-light in the weight of 12 to 14k in a 38 to 40 foot
boat, very light.
The majority of fin keels on production boats, even performance models is more substancial and robust than those in the news.
A good example is my boat, a performance
racer, turned cruiser has a keel that bolts to the
hull with 16 bolts on a foot print of 12 feet long and over 2 feet wid at the top... thats 24 square feet thats bonded to the bottom of the boat... If I hit a fixed object with this boat, and I say if, it would rip the bottom off the boat before the keel broke lose.........
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions