davey
Well-Known Member
lifting/swinging keel problems
One drawback of lifting or swinging keels is seldom mentioned. What happens to the keel if the boat is knocked-down by 90 degrees or more? Well the answer is that it may retract itself which won't improve the boats self-righting ability at all. Hopefully there will be some method of locking the keel in place for sailing in deep water offshore.
I would like to mention an amusing story about lifting keels (it was a dagger-board actually). The case concerned a man who was the safety officer at a firm where I worked back in the 1960s. He was sailing a dinghy at high speed on Ullswater and couldn't get the dagger-board up. To make the job easier he straddled the casing where the board fits and pulled really hard. Just then the boat rocketed up the beach which was composed of hard glaciated pebbles and the board kicked-up of its own accord! The man's private parts were badly bruised in the incident and as he was the Safety Officer his ego was probably bruised as well. Murphy's Law strikes again!
One drawback of lifting or swinging keels is seldom mentioned. What happens to the keel if the boat is knocked-down by 90 degrees or more? Well the answer is that it may retract itself which won't improve the boats self-righting ability at all. Hopefully there will be some method of locking the keel in place for sailing in deep water offshore.
I would like to mention an amusing story about lifting keels (it was a dagger-board actually). The case concerned a man who was the safety officer at a firm where I worked back in the 1960s. He was sailing a dinghy at high speed on Ullswater and couldn't get the dagger-board up. To make the job easier he straddled the casing where the board fits and pulled really hard. Just then the boat rocketed up the beach which was composed of hard glaciated pebbles and the board kicked-up of its own accord! The man's private parts were badly bruised in the incident and as he was the Safety Officer his ego was probably bruised as well. Murphy's Law strikes again!