LOST KEEL 36' YATCH

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miguel

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LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

I am a Chilean sailor and would like to share my accident with the sailing community:
I had a 36' Bavaria yatch and on January of this year whil'st I was navegating, apparently ( not prooved yet) I hit a submerged rock with my keel. The result was that the yatch lost instantly and completely its keel. A hole was left in that place and in a couple of minutes the boat was full of water,capsized and we had to be rescued by a marina rescue team which fortunately heard my mayday.

I have complained to Bavaria because I feel a yatch should not have lost its keel under these circumstances , but they have said that it is only my fault and due to <span style="color:red"> </span> a navegation error.

I would appreciate your comments and will gladly give more details of this experience.
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YACHT

How fast were you going?

Did you hit a rock? You posting seems to question this.

Are you aware that recently there have been other reports of Bavaria's losing their keels?
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

You're not alone. There was a big scandal about this last year - surprised you aren't aware of it. However, this apparently only affected the Bavaria 38 and 42 Match designs :

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=keel+failure+bavaria

so yours must indeed have been entirely due to navigation error... or excessive speed... or too much deuterium in the water... or...
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

Is this a new users, no profile, anti-Bavaria support group? Or should there be a Bavaria owners forum, restricted access?
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

[ QUOTE ]
whil'st I was navegating, apparently ( not prooved yet) I hit a submerged rock with my keel.

[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe some meaning is getting lost in your English translation but if you were on your Bavaria 36 at the time the keel was lost you should have felt the collision. Did you or your crew get thrown onto the floor by the force of hitting the rock?

If not then a keel should not instantly rip away from the boat during a minor under water collision.

You might want to visit the following thread where the most recent postings describe a keel upgrade to a Bavaria 44. The designer of the keel upgrade was shocked to find that the floor grid was so poorly bonded to the hull. There is also a useful picture of what Opal has done to reinforce a Match 42 prior to sale.

What was the depth of your keel? Was it lead or iron?

http://boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7362&page=5
http://boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7362&page=6
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

We did not get thrown to the floor but I did feel something similar to a hit with the consequent noise...............not exactly sure why the keel with this kind of hit got separated from the boat......
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

Something seems very wrong here.

There should be so much reserve strength in a keel attachment that a serious amount of deceleration would have to occur in the whole boat before enough stress was generated to rip the keel off cleanly.

Do you have answers to my earlier questions on the keel depth and material?
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

It was a fin keel type and suppose its made out of lead. I was just reading somebody in a Bavaria 39 in its way from Denmark to Norway lost its keel in a grounding and THEY DIDN'T REALIZE THEY LOST IT AND SAILED SOMETHING LIKE 100 NM WITH MOTOR...........!!!!!
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

Are you sure you owned this yacht? Most owners of a Bavaria 36 would know whether theirs had a short iron keel or a deep lead keel.

What was your HIN?
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

I get a sense of Bavarias being slated and defended by two opposing camps, those lucky enough to be able to have one or apsire to one and those unable to afford with jealous resentment (sarcastic bit!!). Sailing today (other sailing magazines are available!) has an article praising them, or rather their owners,
so they must be quite good then?. So lets cut through the crap and find out whats going on. Is it that fact that there are a lot of them about which makes it more likely to be stories of disaster to feed the doom-masters (lets face it we English like to knock the successful) or are there real problems that are being played down by a worried builder and even more worried owners.
 
Re: LOST KEEL 36\' YATCH

[ QUOTE ]
So lets cut through the crap and find out whats going on.

[/ QUOTE ]
Good luck, what is your plan?

I doubt the authenticity of this report.
 
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