Yachting world does investigation keel failures

[scuba0_1]

Keel failure: the shocking facts - Yachting World

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[snort]

When he arrived on the scene and the boat had been lifted it was clear that it had hit the bottom harder than had been suggested by the previous charterers – so hard, in fact, that the keel was “hanging on by a thread”. When the surveyor informed the charter operators of the damage, he was staggered to hear that the boat would be going back out on charter offshore the following day as the company did not want to suffer any loss of income and that there was no time to effect repairs.

May these folks go out of business immediately. This is what I pray.

[Polux]

Well not them I read the article some months before, it is much better than that, it is a work group formed by ISAF and probably constituted by recognized professionals.

This type of work is necessary. It seems to me there is much to learn and information and recommendations can contribute to better boat maintenance and to safer boats.

To that list of boats that is cited on the article as having lost the keel recently I know of three more, a Jeanneau 37 and two very expensive quality sailboats, a Maxi 36ft and a Sweden yacht 42. All had previous groundings.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by snort

May these folks go out of business immediately. This is what I pray.

Hum, how about those that chartered for two times a Jeanneau 37 that had lost the keel? Sure they did not know but should not they check the boat underwater before delivering it to a new client?

[DeepFrz]

Part of the group’s initial work was to develop a database of the reported failures. Currently, the list includes 72 cases since 1984, and in those 24 lives have been lost – a small number perhaps when compared with the many thousands of boats that have been built over this period, but unacceptable nonetheless.

The trouble is that these are only cases where the worst has happened and the keel has parted company with the boat.

Read more at Keel failure: the shocking facts - Yachting World

They are only looking at Keel failures but we also see many instances of steering failures from the loss of rudders to the steering system ripping out bulkheads and the total loss of the boat.

Hum, how about those that chartered for two times a Jeanneau 37 that had lost the keel? Sure they did not know but should not they check the boat underwater before delivering it to a new client?

I'm not sure I believe this.

[brownoarsman]

Most of the articles of this type on the web suffer from lacking a definition for a hard grounding. This article says to haul your boat and check your keel after every grounding, with no provision for hard or soft. Florida would need a hell of a lot more lifts if every boat owner did this.
What type of hit constitutes a hard grounding? Boat US' definition if I recall is that the boat is left dry and unable to be pulled off. A careening satisfies this definition though and no damage would result from that. I believe Dockhead hit an uncharted rock at speed and deformed his keel but didn't damage his keel/stub structure, but that would seem closet to a hard grounding than boat us' definition.
For my part, I dive her to check the smile and I check under the boards for any damage around the bolts after every grounding.


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[Prairie Chicken]

I'm with snort! Sending a customer out with a known problem of that nature is way beyond belief!

As for those who send out a boat without a keel ... ditto if they knew. I wonder if they did know? Either way, I believe they deserve to go belly up too.

[barnakiel]

THX for sharing. Reading in now.

b.

[Pegu Club]

It would be usefull if more concise info was presented, this was more of a fluff article, not that it is an unimportant topic, but there was not much to be learned from reading it.
What we all really want to know is how many of any given brand, over what years of construction has this been happening, info that manufactures will not give up of there own accord, knowing full well that much of their design/constructin methods are questionable. Not all but far to many.

[boatman61]

I'm sorry.. but for me it seems logical that keels and rudders are weak points on boats when one considers the weights and loads a keels is subjected to hanging under the boat supported and held in place by a few bolts against a plastic hull.
You can blather on about space technology materials etc all you want but they're not operating in Space.. they're subject to the effects of 'Solid Air'... normal sailing inflicts immense loads by itself.. throw in some groundings and its obvious somethings got to give... same for rudders which are not as immune from this event as many seems to think.. just coz its a foot shorter than the keel does not mean it does not get banged about as the boat pitches back and forth on the bottom.
You want a fin and spade boat.. understand thier weakness and live with it.. don't whinge about the builders.. they are merely answering the customers demands as best they can.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

....
I'm not sure I believe this.

It seems you miss that one it says a lot to about the quality of at least some charter sailors.

I agree that it is hard to believe but true.

[Pegu Club]

"Answering customer demands as best they can"..., if the take their queues from typical consumers in design and manufacturing and then release a product that does not stand up to real life use, it fails the best as they can idea.
I would be hard pressed to purchase, new or used many of the current era boats, they do not give one the feeling of, shall we say quality. This is my opinion.
Well it's sunday, it's going to be mid sixties and sunny, me and my girl are going sailing, hope all of you folk get the chance to do the same today, happy sails to all.

[hasse_A]

I say Long Keel. I would not do transoceanic sailing in anything else. Way to often you hear about trouble with keels and rudders on fin keeled boats.

[DeepFrz]

They don't have to be long keel encapsulated keels to be strong keels.

Posted by boatman61: You want a fin and spade boat.. understand thier weakness and live with it.. don't whinge about the builders.. they are merely answering the customers demands as best they can.

I think they are answering the shareholder demands and the guy at the top who wants his bonus even more so.

[barnakiel]

It sounds the damage was not because any wrong design in the keel department. Much more likely result of the boat hitting the ground bad in her coastal cruising/racing past.

Some keel designs take groundings fine, others simply do not. Plain mechanical facts.

You do not want a fine fin keel boat that took any serious grounding as your future ocean crossing tool. As simple as that.

If you want to cruise oceans FAST, you do want a fine keel. NOT one that got hit against anything hard at any point though.

b.