Scary Story

[Sea Hunt]

If this initial report of the cause of the capsizing proves to be accurate, it is a scary thought.

This sailboat, with very experienced offshore crew members, capsized in the Gulf. Apparently, she took on water rapidly and capsized quickly. The cause - her keel fell off

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/07/missin ... index.html

Frankly, I have never heard of this before. However, I am a tadpole sailor. How common is this

I have a CD Typhoon Weekender. Because it is supposed to be an "encapsulated" keel, I am assuming this could not happen on Ty Weekender. How wrong am I

[Mike Wainfeld]

http://www.sevenoceans.com/SoloAroundTh ... /Plant.htm

[Neil Gordon]

Think of the forces on the keel. The same force on the sails that tries to tip the boat over, and does to the extent of about 40 degrees (last Sunday!), are applied to the keel to keep the boat from going over any further.

Fin keels are attached to the boat with keel bolts that go from the hull into the keel. All of the force of the lead that's keeping the boat from tipping over is applied directly to the boats. If they fail, the keel falls off. That's bad for the keel and not so good for the rest of the boat.

This cannot happen to you, since you don't have keel bolts. Your keel is an integral part of the hull.

[M. R. Bober]

Think of the forces on the keel. The same force on the sails that tries to tip the boat over, and does to the extent of about 40 degrees (last Sunday!), are applied to the keel to keep the boat from going over any further.

Fin keels are attached to the boat with keel bolts that go from the hull into the keel. All of the force of the lead that's keeping the boat from tipping over is applied directly to the boats. If they fail, the keel falls off. That's bad for the keel and not so good for the rest of the boat.

This cannot happen to you, since you don't have keel bolts. Your keel is an integral part of the hull.

Right. So if your hull doesn't fall off (i.e. you don't go overboard) you are probably safer.

Mitchell Bober
Sunny Lancaster (where it's mighty hot), VA

[tartansailor]

Another one of my fears is ramming into a partially submerged container, especially at night.
Somewhere I read about the number of containers blown or washed of freighters. I forget the number, but it was astounding.
Hope this never happens to anyone of us.

Dick

[Russell]

Another one of my fears is ramming into a partially submerged container, especially at night.
Somewhere I read about the number of containers blown or washed of freighters. I forget the number, but it was astounding.
Hope this never happens to anyone of us.

Dick

Hitting whales and containers are my two biggest fears at sea, followed closely by ships (but at least ships you can see!).

[mahalocd36]

I have a CD Typhoon Weekender. Because it is supposed to be an "encapsulated" keel, I am assuming this could not happen on Ty Weekender. How wrong am I

You are right. The keel can't fall off. You'd be hard-pressed to talk me into a boat with a keel attached with keel bolts - it would just give me one more thing to worry about. Don't need that

Melissa

[Tod M]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=5028555&page=1

Another advantage of a keel like a Cape Dory's is that the leading edge is sloped nicely, which can often lessen the impact of a collision.

A guy was motoring a fin-keeled S2 9.2 up in the rocky North Channel of Lake Huron when he struck a solid granite ledge. He wasn't going particularly fast, but the boat stopped VERY quickly, throwing the occupants up against whatever was in their way. Although blood was drawn, the injuries were fairly minor.

The keel remained intact, although the lead did get a good ding in it.

[Steve Laume]

We had a nice day trip out to Fishers Island yesterday to hike around the shore. Heat index for home was 105. While walking the shore we came upon a strangely shaped piece of bottom painted fiberglass. Upon closer inspection it was very obviously a rudder skeg! The thing was complete, less rudder and it's associated hull. There were two 3/8" studs protruding from the top and some ragged glass fibers where the bond of it's saddle shape had parted with the hull. It is impossible to know the circumstances for how it arrived on that beach but it's presence did not inspire confidence in that sort of rudder attachment. At least the boat would have remained upright and the bolt holes were fairly small. I have seen a few boats in various yards with fin and spade arrangements that have had damaged keels and bent rudders. One boat had the keel bolts ripped out of the bottom so as to cause severe leakage but at least the keel stayed attached. I love our boats, Steve.

[Larry DeMers]

"You are right. The keel can't fall off. You'd be hard-pressed to talk me into a boat with a keel attached with keel bolts - it would just give me one more thing to worry about. Don't need that Wink

Melissa"

The sloped leading edge of our Cape Dories is indeed a good thing. I can attest to that:
We had one of those "Incidents" you hear about, but hope never happens. We were just coming out of a 3 day fog (of the convective kind, not the liquid kind), and arriving at our destination on Lake Superiors' Isle Royale.

I mis-entered the GPS coordinates for the entrance to a channel into the Islands' Washington Harbor. I saw a yellow coloration to the water ahead, and although I had full reverse going, we hit the rock shelf at 3.5 kts., sliding up and onto the shelf, skidding about 100ft before stopping, where we then listed about 10 deg. in 3 ft of water, with waves washing over the rock shelf.

After 4 hours trying to get back to deep water, we had to get the National Park Service's help (they were exemplary in their help) in the way of a short tow off the shelf and into deeper water.

Next spring, I went to work on the keel and rudder expecting the bottom to be pretty chewed up, and found that only the bottom paint had been disturbed. The keel and rudder took the 5 hours of pounding and sliding around without any damage.

I attribute this to the cutaway forefoot. It allowed the boat to slide from the mid point of the cutaway section all the way down to the keel. If that had been even a traditional full keel (ala' Wetsnail), I doubt that it would have slid over the rock edge, but rather it would have tried to go through the edge. More damages I expect. If it had been a fin keel on the boat, we would have certainly damaged something fairly seriously.

Carl Alberg knew his stuff..after 19 years with our boat, I am still finding things that make me shake my head in appreciation of that genius.

Cheers,

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
CD30c Lake Superior