wing keel - drying out?

[skyflyer]

I wonder if anyone has any views, comment or experience in drying out alongside with a wing keel yacht?

Obviously a fin keel will sit with its weight on the bottom of the fin, no problem and if the boat heels slightly to one side - towards the quay I assume! - then no big deal.

However with a wing keeled boat any hel will put a slight upward pressure on the wing, which presumably has the potential to damage it?

The boat is a Catalina 320 if that is any help
I found a generic photo on the web here

Why do I want to do it? I don't right now but next year maybe for a mid season scrub and maintenance etc - £35 vs £££hundreds for a haul out!

 

[theoldsalt]

Skyflyer,

The few wing keels I have seen, the bottom of the keel is not perfectly flat. The wings have a small dihedral angle (each wing is angled up slightly).
This is designed to give the required performance when the boat is sailing and heeling. The added advantage is that it allows for the hull to have a slight list when taking the ground against a wall or scrubbing posts.
So my conclusion is that you should have no problems with the weight of the vessel damaging the keel. Of course if the list is excessive then problems may occur but excessive list could be a problem for any fin keel boat.

Edit : Some wings have an anhedral angle (angled down) which makes life much more difficult and may strees the keel if taking the ground with a list.

 

[EdWingfield]

The 'give' in the ground will provide even support.

 

[Boo2]

The 'give' in the ground will provide even support.

Normally, yes :

Boo2

 

[boguing]

I've done it more than a few times, some deliberate.

No problem at all. Don't forget that the keel is designed to stay on with the boat rolled to ninety degrees, and probably given a multiple of three times that bending moment for safety's sake.

 

[rudolph_hart]

I have a Dehler 35 with a wing keel, and have dried her out against scrubbing posts several times. The ground is quite hard around the posts, and the wings are quite wide and angled down, so the boat sits on the outside edges of the wings and the bulb at the forward end of the keel. The eliptical rudder is quite deep, and she sits on that at the stern, without problems.

She dries out 'flat' with the bottom, so if that is sloping sideways, then so will she.

Our posts are on a slight slope, & I lay her on the uphill side so she automatically leans into the posts.

I laid her on the outside once and she leaned out . She was fine, but I took a stout line from the base of the mast to one of the posts, just in case.

So, it's essential to give 'leaning room'. I gave her too much last time and she happily stood on her keel & rudder with a gap of about a foot between the rubbing strake and the posts

Keel piccie:

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Normally, yes :

Boo2

Yes but the keel on that Starlight is 5 foot wide. Some wing keels are no more than a foot, and on one Catalina at our club, grounding bent the wings of the keel.

 

[savageseadog]

I've dried down many times on a large wing keel, all of them intentional. I would advise caution as many harbour walls have rocks and sloping ground.

 

[chuzzlewit]

On my Beneteau 35' the rudder projects 6" below the wing keel and I'd be worried about damaging it.

 

[NormanS]

One would have to be careful of the many harbour walls where the ground slopes away from the wall.

Then there's the (possibly apocryphal) tale of the one who went aground in soft mud, and when the tide came in again, stayed attached to the bottom.

 

[Niander]

Long keel yachts dry out best then they can't tip down bow or stern
that keel doesnt look very long

 

[William_H]

Winged keel

I have only seen one winged keel boat in real life. A Beneteau 25ft or was it 23ft.(almost all are fin keels around here) Anyway It was hauled out on a cradle at South of Perth Yacht Club for a repaint. (by professionals) They chose to hoist the boat on straps obviously having no faith in resting the boat weight on the winged keel on timbers of the cradle. I guess that doesn't mean much but it does seem a bit tenuous with all that weight and the stress if it does lean. Straps mean you can paint the whole winged keel nicely but then you have move the straps to paint under the straps.
(the system here is you just haul out for 3 days max on a cradle on railway wheels on lines into the water, then it is put back in water.) olewill