Cornish Cruising has incredibly safe boats.

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imsodepressed

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Today, A 38 ft Fin & Skeg Boat, with 2 couples on board plus the skipper, received a bit of a shock, as they were sailing from Falmouth to the Helford, the boat suddenly went floppy.

Not sure what the problem was, they motored back to Falmouth to fix it.
On lifting the boat, it became apparent what was wrong, cos the whole of the Fin Keel had dropped off!

How it did not invert, I have no idea, but whatever the make, it is obviously incredibly safe!

OK its a Jennau 37.
 
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Bleeding hell!

Thats unbelievable!

I would have thought that in one of these if you lost the keel you would have a bloody great hole in the bottom as well....

At least it wasnt one of the Bavaria's they run... we would never have heard the end of it...
 
photodog said:
Bleeding hell!

Thats unbelievable!

I would have thought that in one of these if you lost the keel you would have a bloody great hole in the bottom as well....

At least it wasnt one of the Bavaria's they run... we would never have heard the end of it...
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The type of boat hasn't been mentioned yet so it could well turn out to be one of the Bav 38's. Unlikely though as all those have had their bottoms drastically reinforced after various groundings tried to rip the keels off.
 
Woodlouse said:
The type of boat hasn't been mentioned yet so it could well turn out to be one of the Bav 38's. Unlikely though as all those have had their bottoms drastically reinforced after various groundings tried to rip the keels off.
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Apparently its the SO37 that they run........(Polbream??)

I have actually witnessed one of their Bav 36's run up onto the Bar at the bottom of the Fal opposite Trellesick house... Cant have been doing less than 6 knots..

Photographed it in fact....

Apparently did a considerable amount of damage.

Family who were on board came ashore and had a BBQ, happy as lambs.
They thought it was a nice jolly gape... not so for the next lot who had booked the boat and had their holiday cancelled I suspect.

I would never put a yacht into charter, the punters dont seem to give a stuff.

:(
 
photodog said:
Apparently its the SO37 that they run........(Polbream??)

I have actually witnessed one of their Bav 36's run up onto the Bar at the bottom of the Fal opposite Trellesick house... Cant have been doing less than 6 knots..

Photographed it in fact....

Apparently did a considerable amount of damage.

Family who were on board came ashore and had a BBQ, happy as lambs.
They thought it was a nice jolly gape... not so for the next lot who had booked the boat and had their holiday cancelled I suspect.

I would never put a yacht into charter, the punters dont seem to give a stuff.

:(
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I was going to say,i don't think its they don't give a stuff, most are blissfully ignorant! But on reflection, I think you're right!
 
Some modern boats have small lightish keels, most of their stability comes from the beamy hull.
So although it has some stability without the keel, it does not, in my book make it a particularly safe boat, although they are excellent for what they are designed to do. When it comes to beating off a lee shore in real weather, ballast ratio becomes important.
In any waves it would probably have capsized like a big dinghy. I suspect the helm who got it home is probably a good sailor?

To have the keel fall off means either a design/build fault or serious abuse though. Or of course grp weakening through osmosis....
 
lw395 said:
Some modern boats have small lightish keels, most of their stability comes from the beamy hull.
To have the keel fall off means either a design/build fault or serious abuse though. Or of course grp weakening through osmosis....
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I think this must be the same Sun Odyssey 37 called Polbream that started life in the Sea Ventures charter fleet at Lymington maybe 5 or 6 years ago. The SO37 was an excellent design, just right for a couple or a small family. There must be a few hundred in regular use around the world, so you can pretty much rule out design or build faults. Much more likely to be driver error.
 
TQA said:
Lot of it about!

This guy just did 800 miles across the pacific into SF sans keel.

http://www.openbluehorizon.com/inde...-n-135-55-w-&catid=19:ships-log&Itemid=200104
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Not that uncommon for keels to fall off racing boats.

This boat was also built with water ballast (though it wasn't used in this race)

Seems they motored home and were lucky with a suitable weather window.

Most boats would be 'stable' sans keel in flat water and no sail up. Form stability especially in beamy modern boats would be enough in reasonable conditions. Problem would be if you got into large waves or wanted to carry any sail....

Pretty scary all the same!
 
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imsodepressed said:
Today, A 38 ft Fin & Skeg Boat, with 2 couples on board plus the skipper, received a bit of a shock, as they were sailing from Falmouth to the Helford, the boat suddenly went floppy.

Not sure what the problem was, they motored back to Falmouth to fix it.
On lifting the boat, it became apparent what was wrong, cos the whole of the Fin Keel had dropped off!

How it did not invert, I have no idea, but whatever the make, it is obviously incredibly safe!

OK its a Jennau 37.
Click to expand...

Looked at it this afternoon: Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37, - quite obviously the keel had previously had a VERY hard grounding, as every one of the stubs of the dozen or so one inch keelbolts was bent backwards. Also evidence of the GRP hull bilge damaged by the keel moving aft. I was particularly interested as I have the 35 ft version of the same design.
 
Little Rascal said:
Not that uncommon for keels to fall off racing boats.

This boat was also built with water ballast (though it wasn't used in this race)

Seems they motored home and were lucky with a suitable weather window.

Most boats would be 'stable' sans keel in flat water and no sail up. Form stability especially in beamy modern boats would be enough in reasonable conditions. Problem would be if you got into large waves or wanted to carry any sail....

Pretty scary all the same!
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The only water ballast this boat has is the drinking water tanks.
The Sun Odyssey 37 is known to be undercanvassed.
You might be thinking of the Jeanneau One Design.
 
does this mean there is a lump of lead lying around on the seabed waiting for someone to get it stuck in a net ?

Would insurance cover the recovery cost if it fell off in a harbour entrance, f'rinstance?
 
jwilson said:
Looked at it this afternoon: Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37, - quite obviously the keel had previously had a VERY hard grounding, as every one of the stubs of the dozen or so one inch keelbolts was bent backwards. Also evidence of the GRP hull bilge damaged by the keel moving aft. I was particularly interested as I have the 35 ft version of the same design.
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Funnily enough Jeanneau build recesses into their top hat sections in the stringers under the floor boards...So if the top hat sections need reinforcing (after the keel takes a battering for instance) it can be done without effecting the level of the floor boards.
 
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