Replacing a keel, what does making a new one cost?

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SvenH

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We are considering to replace our current boat with 1.8 m draft with one with a shallower draft, primarily because a desire to visit inland waters more because of our little sailor we now take with us.

One of the boats I'm looking at is the vd Stadt 34, of which the majority has a 1.80 draft. A design for 1.35 draft is available but out of roughly 15 on offer at the moment, only 1 has this draft.

So I am wondering, would it be worth while to replace the keel?

Most are steel plate with lead so I hope that boats are all built with the strength needed for every keel and that only the sheet metal would need replacement.

Any idea of what something like that would cost to have fabricated?
 
The province of Friesland.

We went for the first time last summer and we were stuck in just about every marina, in one we could not even get to shore without accessing another boat.
And there were a lot op places where we could have gotten stuck on the go.

In general, less than 1.50 meters is recommended for Friesland.
 
The cost to have a keel made and to replace the deeper draft will be in excess of 5000 euros, provided you can use an existing former. So highly unlikely to be a cost effective way to go.

In the past I did know someone with a lot of friends, who cast their own lead keel. Afterwards said he would never do it again as heating so much lead up was a major problem, not to mention the fumes.

The best advice would be to look at only shallow draft boats and find one that is suitable for your needs. This will work out cheaper and better in the long run. Any yacht that has major changes from the orginal design e.g. a keel change, will be considered suspect unless under the direction of a yacht designer. So changing a keel for a non-standard one could also devalue the yacht below what you bought it for.
 
Sorry for the mix up.

The idea I have is to replace the steel frame/plate keel with one of the same construction.

I'm not sure how this type of construction is called in English. Box keel?

This boat has been specifically designed with the self builder in mind. With the vd Stadt 34, three keel types are included with the design.
The builder can just choose which one to build.

Because of most of them being self built, the level of finish varies greatly.
I'd have to be very luck to find one that has both the kind of finish I want as well as the right keel.

The best off course would be ending up lucky and finding someone wanting to swap their shallow keel for the deeper one....
 
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I have known 3 owners who have done this and all said "never again". The unforeseen problems were huge and all eventually handed the job over to a boatyard to finish, which cost large amounts.
Much better to buy the right boat in the first place.
We have cruised Friesland for 2 summers with a draught of 1.8m and have thoroughly enjoyed it but as you say, less draught would be much better.
 
Dan Tribe said:
I have known 3 owners who have done this and all said "never again".
Click to expand...
Do you know if they had the original plans for the replacement keel?

In the end it would be a calculated guess. I'll make sure to check the cost of fitting by a yard.
But so far I have not seen really cheap boats that might be worth the effort of a keel swap. In that respect finding a boat with the right draft to start with is the best option.
 
You would need to cut off the existing keel, fabricate a new one in steel plate and redo the ballast, probably with a bit more to compensate for the reduced draft. That is unless you can remove the ballast and reduce the draft with the existing keel. Doubless the different design options show this. After the mods, you will need to make sure the coatings are redone to avoid corrosion. This sounds an expensive exercise, even if you do it your self.
 
I think the best approach would be keep your existing boat. Assuming it has a fin keel either of cast iron or lead/iron you could cut the bottom off the keel to get the desired draft. You then can make in somewhat smaller mold half tear drop lead shapes to be bolted on the sides of the bottom of the shortened keel. This will reduce your righting power when the boat is 90 degrees knocked down but will not affect your stiffness when sailing. Alternatively you can add more lead ballast under the floor as low as possible. Again this will lessen righting power but will not decrease stiffness. (unless it has a deep vee shaped hull compared to usual flat bottom profile)
If you have a long keel boat then yes sell it and buy something with less draft. ol'will
 
Original drawings would be available along with good advice from Van De Stadt BV. You could enquire for advice if it could be done and ask the cost of drawings and they might give an opinion anyway. That along with the face book page above. The rig for the deep keel might be different.

A lot of work and unlikely to be economical though.
 
SvenH said:
Do you know if they had the original plans for the replacement keel?

In the end it would be a calculated guess. I'll make sure to check the cost of fitting by a yard.
But so far I have not seen really cheap boats that might be worth the effort of a keel swap. In that respect finding a boat with the right draft to start with is the best option.
Click to expand...

It was some while ago so I can't remember the exact details. Two were fabricated from steel plates with poured lead infill. A fellow club member was a yacht designer and provided some rudimentory sketches for ballast calculations. A template was taken from the old keel when it was removed for position of keelbolts. They used a "pot & ladle" technique for melting the lead but seriously underestimated the amount of work and danger involved. The third boat was a Hustler and the owner found a replacement keel from an identical boat. It should have been an easy swap but the keel bolts were millimeters different so some engineering was needed while the boat hung in the crane.
These were all done in a boatyard which allowed owners to do it themselves but all three attempts under estimated the skill needed to handle heavy weights with precision.
The Van de Stadt 34 is a fine looking yacht, I can see why you would be attracted to it.
 
There is a Van de Stadt site for the 34.
http://www.stadtdesign.com/designs/stock_plans_sail/van_de_stadt_34/1

Inerestingly the plans show 3 keel varitions. The shallowest has a centre plate. Best advice would be have a chat with the designers by phone. They should say whether changing the existing keel is possible and give an idea as to cost. The full plans only cost EUR 950, so just the keel plans should be very cheap. Also check whether you will need to reduce the rudder depth.

Personally I do not think it is economicaly viable unless there was no alternative yacht to suit.
 
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Contacting the designer would seem the best plan. You might even find the €15 study plans are a worthwhile investment.

As a "box keel" I would suggest *without the lead* a cost of perhaps €1000 would be reasonable to have the box keel fabricated.

Pouring the lead would be another issue, there are specilaist foundaries, but read the design plans first. It may be lead ingots and simply stacked in concrete/resin or similar.

Unbolt the old one, bolt on the new one ... speak to the designers, they are active.
 
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