Another keel breaks...

A case for the canting keel would be that they reduce the stability of an upturned boat making them easier to right from full inversion. With a conventional keel, you are dependant on the force of a wave to roll the boat back over from total inversion. If you consider Isabelle Autissier's inversion on Open 60 "PRB" with a conventional keel, the upturned stability of PRB was too much for the force of a wave alone to right the boat. With the beemier boats like the VO70s, Open 60s, etc, the canting keels provide a bias of force when the boats do go fully inverted and aid the righting of the boat. Consider a dinghy sailor hanging onto a centreboard to right an inverted boat, and you have the same effect a canting keel provides. Reckon canting keels are a step forward from a safety point of view aswell as a performance point of view, and feel that most offshore racers would support that point of view. The failings are from a mechanical point of view, but on the whole, canting keels seem a step in the right direction.

This is very true and I was just having the same conversation with my dad.  But I am against banning them as sailing always needs to modify and develop and canting keels are one of the most groundbreaking innovations on boats in the last few years.  However, I do think that they need far more thorough testing and if they are to be used there needs to be strenuous testing and regulations to make sure they are fail safe.  They will not be banned and they will continue to be widely used purely for the fact that, from a sailor's point of view, the benefits outweigh the risks.  Every sailor wants to win a big race and they will always have the "it will never be me" attitude so the only option is to develop the technology further and make it safer.