Making bilge keels to dry out - small sailboat

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After a decade of waiting I finally have a harbour mooring. My cornish shrimper will not sit upright in this drying harbour and I'd like to fit bilge keels to the existing bilge runners. Weight will largely be taken by the long keel. The manufacturer is asking £800 fitted. Anyone done anything similar and can advise? Shrimper is 19ft x7 ft drawing a little over 1ft and displacing 1000kg.
 
Is it that much of an issue? This Dutch Shrimper hardly heels when dried out.
I would certainly consider fitting some hardwood caps to the bilge runners to act as sacrificial bands.


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£800 seems pretty reasonable to me -- assuming he's making them out of steel and galvanising them. They only need to be a couple of feet long, but make sure he puts a good angle on both the leading and trailing edges, to help you avoid snagging mooring lines. Also, you really need a full-length internal stringer to take the grounding loads (even though most of the weight will be on the keel). Here's my old YM 3-Tonner Sanderling, designed by Alan Buchanan and built to take the ground regularly --

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Note that the trailing edge of the bilge keel is not at the angle I'd recommend though.

Mike
 
Shrimper owner's assoc could probably advise - maybe at great length, and the various recommendations might conflict.

Shrimper is a sailing boat. I can't see that adding underwater area as proposed could fail to spoil its sailing performance.
 
The Shrimper isn't exactly a white knuckle high performance job though; I agree with Jumbleduck and Lakesailor, simple shallow bilge strips with suitable internal reinforcement - as fitted by Cornish Crabbers I believe - would be far superior to legs, for regular use unattended.

Legs require fore & aft bracing and serious internal reinforcement, can catch on lots of things inc the mooring in wind over tide, and if one leg foot goes into a soft spot so the boat leans on it some nasty damage may result; I have known people use them on moorings, but personally I'd only use legs if I was there to keep an eye.
 
I'd be very surprised if you needed to reinforce the bilge runners. They are a substantial part of the hull moulding and already built to take the loadings of the boat at more of an angle than will be the case if they are extended.
If you have ever tried heeling a fin keel boat stood on it's keel on a trailer you will be very surprised how little force you need around the vertical position. The forces increase dramatically as the boat takes on more heel.
 
Seems like you only need them when on board. So some simple beaching legs would suffice. Rope braced Fore & Aft and adjustable for length (two bits of ally tube with pins) some decent pads on the bottom for soft bottom. Nailing some extra bits to the bilge runners sounds overkill. Non adjustable, so might sit on a rock and overstress the hull if it cannot rest on the main (ballast) keel.
Think it through.. The odd time grounding for the night when on board, verses a modification that might make it difficult to sell. Legs would be cheaper and removable.
DW
 
I second what DownWest said. Years ago I chartered a lift keel (it lifted into a stub keel) Sonata and that had legs, just small simple ones. I didn't use them but I understood that many charterers did, these boats had been going for years and there were no problems (other than mud in the plate case, but that wasn't the fault of the legs). But that, of course, was with people on board. When not being chartered, the boats had deep water moorings.

As for white knuckle high performance; yes, of course, and point taken. But I am given to understand that some Shrimper owners are very proud of the way their little boat sails.
 
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