Cornish Cruising has incredibly safe boats.

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oopsmykeelfelloff said:
Most definately criminal...insane maybe, but if I find out who it was they will be getting a very large piece of my mind! They are directly responsibly for a severe loss of confidence in myself, and the possibility that another member of the crew is highly unlikely to ever set foot off the land again!
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They should be OK if they avoid Bavarias ... it's very unusual for other makes to lose their keels.

By the way - go on, tell us more of the story. Had you really been without a keel since the Scillies but only noticed back at the mainland? Had the boat ever had a keel while you had it? I'm potentially very impressed, would love to hear the full saga.
 
My interpretation of the thread so far is, but I stand to be corrected:

The charter posters on this thread chartered a boat which had no keel because the previous charter party had knocked the keel off in the Scillies , brought the boat back to Falmouth and "forgot" to tell the charter Company. Presumably the memory lapse may have been something to do with a deposit and very little to do with worring about the safety of future charterers of the vessel.

I would also suspect that their memory lapse may also add to all future charter costs of all vessels because presumably there will now be a strong argument for a dive inspection upon return?
 
What I cannot understand and I hope someone will explain, if a feel falls off, either there will be a number of holes left in the hull where the bolts have pulled through, or in the event that the bolts had stripped out of the keel, they would have been disturbed enough so that in either case water is likely to be able to flow freely into the boat, which I believe can be a problem. So how did this keel fall off and the boat not sink?
 
There seems to be something missing in this story. I cannot imagine any sane sailor, loss of deposit or not, would contemplate bringing a sailing yacht which had lost its keel on any sort of passage and certainly not the 60 odd miles from Scillies to Falmouth. Also, I cannot understand that the lack of keel was not noticed by anyone from Cornish Cruising during the handover or by the new charterer, until (as I understand they were near the Helford River) 5 miles plus from Cornish Cruising's base. The yacht cannot have felt right to anyone used to sailing a keel boat. Also, I would have thought the damage would have caused a certain amount of ingress of water into the bilges, which should have indicated something amiss.

Perhaps "Oopsmykeelfelloff" can add a bit more to this increasingly incredible story?
 
galadriel said:
Firstly, it would be nice if 'imsodepressed' were to offer an apology that is due to those he has been a little rude to. We can only hope.

What I cannot understand and I hope someone will explain, if a feel falls off, either there will be a number of holes left in the hull where the bolts have pulled through, or in the event that the bolts had stripped out of the keel, they would have been disturbed enough so that in either case water is likely to be able to flow freely into the boat, which I believe can be a problem. So how did this keel fall off and the boat not sink?
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The keel bolts did not pull through but had sheared flush with the hull so the hull was still totally intact (from what I could see).
 
Captn D said:
There seems to be something missing in this story. I cannot imagine any sane sailor, loss of deposit or not, would contemplate bringing a sailing yacht which had lost its keel on any sort of passage and certainly not the 60 odd miles from Scillies to Falmouth. Also, I cannot understand that the lack of keel was not noticed by anyone from Cornish Cruising during the handover or by the new charterer, until (as I understand they were near the Helford River) 5 miles plus from Cornish Cruising's base. The yacht cannot have felt right to anyone used to sailing a keel boat. Also, I would have thought the damage would have caused a certain amount of ingress of water into the bilges, which should have indicated something amiss.

Perhaps "Oopsmykeelfelloff" can add a bit more to this increasingly incredible story?
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It sounds like the lose of the keel had no effect on the watertight integrity of the hull. I presume the previous charterers (if they did lose the keel and attempt to cover it up) either motored back from the Scillies or sailed downwind under a genny.

I can't believe the charter company didn't notice the boat was riding a bit higher in the water.

Presumably the boat did handle differently, but I get the impression from OopsMyKeelFellOff's post that it was a single experienced skipper (instructor?) and inexperienced crew (trainees?) so maybe he did notice the boat handled differently, dealt with it, then muttered something about the make of boat.

A charter company doesn't need a diver to inspect the boats, when I took a boat back immediately after casting off one day and said there was something seriously wrong with the prop they got out an underwater camera and counted the blades "One..er..one..." which did explain the severe vibration. For a charter company with a fair few boats an underwater camera would seem a reasonable investment.
 
Had a guy from Cornish Cruising in today who told me that the boat in question was on a charter and hit the Little Kettle which is to the north of Tresco and that is where the keel is. They sailed the boat back to Falmouth and then the boat went out on charter again and was sailed up to Plymouth and back before it went out on yet another charter which is when the missing keel was discovered. Now thats amazing that the charterers that took it to Plymouth did not notice anything wrong.

Apparently the keel is to be recovered but the yacht may still become a 'write off'
 
jimi said:
The keel bolts did not pull through but had sheared flush with the hull so the hull was still totally intact (from what I could see).
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So its not a **** boat or **** keel, just **** bolts then?

Ah! **** = an anagram of carp
 
Scillypete said:
Now thats amazing that the charterers that took it to Plymouth did not notice anything wrong.
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That's is amazing. Maybe they sailed downwind both there & back, but parking it in a marina must've been an experience.

Edit: Best not tell the builders as they may be looking for ways to cut costs.
 
jings, keel less, it must have gone like a train downwind ... surfing at 20+ knots ;-)
Would be good to get a first hand account!
 
Scillypete said:
Had a guy from Cornish Cruising in today who told me that the boat in question was on a charter and hit the Little Kettle which is to the north of Tresco and that is where the keel is. They sailed the boat back to Falmouth and then the boat went out on charter again and was sailed up to Plymouth and back before it went out on yet another charter which is when the missing keel was discovered. Now thats amazing that the charterers that took it to Plymouth did not notice anything wrong.
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It gets more incredulous with each added piece of info. This story is worthy of a chapter amongst the most amazing sailing yarns of all time.

On further reflection, and not wanting to knock what has been told to "Scillypete", isn't it more likely that the damage was done on Little Kettle, but the keel did not actually fall off until it was noticed by the second charters near the Helford? This would make the story a little more understandable. Or has the keel actually been seen near Little Kettle?
 
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Scillypete said:
Had a guy from Cornish Cruising in today who told me that the boat in question was on a charter and hit the Little Kettle which is to the north of Tresco and that is where the keel is. They sailed the boat back to Falmouth and then the boat went out on charter again and was sailed up to Plymouth and back before it went out on yet another charter which is when the missing keel was discovered. Now thats amazing that the charterers that took it to Plymouth did not notice anything wrong.

Apparently the keel is to be recovered but the yacht may still become a 'write off'
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That is one of the most amazing stories I've ever heard.

I can sort of understand why charterers may not have noticed though, by their nature charterers tend to be less experienced, and may have assumed that any poor performance was operator error, as "hmmm, the keel might be missing" is probably not something that would cross anyone's mind!
 
flaming said:
That is one of the most amazing stories I've ever heard.
....... the keel might be missing" is probably not something that would cross anyone's mind!
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Me too: I am mighty impressed that the Jeanneau "sailed" all that way...

are keels an optional extra?
 
jwilson said:
I heard yesterday that the (iron) keel had been found sitting upright on the bottom of New Grimsby Sound in the Scillies. The insurance company are probably going to recover it and refit it rather than buy a new keel. It does mean that the boat covered a significant distance without it's keel.
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The OP said that the boat was on passage from Falmouth to Helford when the boat 'went floppy' implying they lost the keel then.

Seems to be a discrepency here?

Anyone able to clarify?
 
The OP didn't have all the facts. The boat that went 'a bit floppy' was actually knocked down.

I have to say though, if you got on a particular boat for the first time and found that it was sailing like a dog, would you really think the keel had fallen off? Personally it would be the last thing I would have thought of. Though now, having heard this tale I'd be raising the question every time I seem to be making rather excessive leeway...
 
Scillypete said:
Had a guy from Cornish Cruising in today who told me that the boat in question was on a charter and hit the Little Kettle which is to the north of Tresco and that is where the keel is. They sailed the boat back to Falmouth and then the boat went out on charter again and was sailed up to Plymouth and back before it went out on yet another charter which is when the missing keel was discovered. Now thats amazing that the charterers that took it to Plymouth did not notice anything wrong.

Apparently the keel is to be recovered but the yacht may still become a 'write off'
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Apologies Scillypete - just reread the thread and it seems you have the definitive story.

Oopsmykeelfelloff mentioned a broach so perhaps that was when it was discovered...
 
This is a totally unbelieveable story. I have sailed a SO 37... but I didnt think they had that much form stability!

Anyways... just goes to show how good the average sailor on a charter yacht is..... They cant even tell if they have a keel or not!
 
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