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Stefan Lloyd View Drop Down
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Posts: 1599 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Stefan Lloyd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Another keel breaks...
    Posted: 26 Nov 06 at 8:23am

Originally posted by 49erGBR735HSC

 From a general point of view, canting keels may aid the sport as a whole due to the fact that it's quite scary how many cruisers, racer/cruisers, etc have high inversion stability, in such they won't self right.

So name a few instances of an offshore monohull, with keel intact, failing to self-right. Other than the Open 60, which was been allowed to go a trend of exteme beam. You will find the offshore rating rules in use for cruiser/racers have provisions to ensure that designs won't go that way.  In any case, for general performance around the bouys, extreme beam isn't fast. I've matched the pace of an Open 60 for several hours in a 38 foot cruiser racer in light running conditions. Of course in the strong-wind reaching conditions they are designed for, it's another story.

I think you are confusing the preference of some sailors for canters for performance gains (which are certainly real) with safety improvements. Given the high number of failures it is rather hard to argue that canters are safer.

 



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Stefan Lloyd View Drop Down
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Posts: 1599 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Stefan Lloyd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Nov 06 at 9:56am

Originally posted by CurlyBen

Also, by providing more righting moment the canting keel will reduce the liklihood of a capsize

Depends on whether the keel is on the "right side". Dinghies mostly capsize to leeward (except, perhaps, Lasers and similar), whereas on a keelboat, broaches to windard (i.e. capsize to leeward) are generally quite tame affairs. It is broaches to leeward (with unplanned gybe) that cause the grief. In that case, not only will the sails be pinning you down but so will the keel, now on the wrong side.
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CurlyBen View Drop Down
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Posts: 539 		Post Options Post Options   Quote CurlyBen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Nov 06 at 10:36am
After seeing a spectacular video of a Mumm 30 crash gybing I have to agree! I have found that a lot of high performance boats (especially those with the helm on the wire) tend to go in to windward more often - it's easier to dump sheets than to bring them in again - but that's another topic.
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WildWood View Drop Down
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Posts: 136 		Post Options Post Options   Quote WildWood Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Nov 06 at 10:43am

Canting keels seem to be gettng a fair bit of grief and they obviously have some reliability issues, but the suggestion that they should be banned is taking things too far. 

Going sailing offshore short handed is inevitably going to be dangerous, whether going in a canting keel boat, conventional keel boat, or (craziest of them all!) a multi hull.  There are an almost infinite number of things that can go wrong with offshore race boats - for example snapping a mast, hitting something etc.  I guess it is best to let the sailors decide if the performance gain from a canting keel outweighs the risk of a keel failure.

It seems there are plenty of other dangerous things out there that don't get banned'so why pick on canting keels!
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