Worn Bilge Keels

[sharmajm]

I have a Halcyon 23 with 3 keels, a central solid one and two bilge plates. The boat is moored on a mud berth and when dried out tends to lean over more than is comfortable.

When taking the boat out for the winter the yard owner mentioned that the bilge keels were worn and could do with being strengthened by welding a extra panel of steel. He also mentioned that this might cure the lean as the keels were very sharp and easily dug into the mud.

Has anyone else had the same problem?

I would also like to stop the lean and to this end have been thinking of welding a narrow wing at the bottom to stop it digging in, I have also heard of fibreglas bulbs you can buy for bilges keel, but haven't found any details.

Sorry for war and peace hope someone can help.

Thanks Jon

 

[steve28]

oh good a solution i can recomend,
My father has a 24 foot triple keel boat, it has metal bilge plates. At the botton are bolted pieces of angle each side.

it sit nicely on the mud all the time.the only disavantage is it also collects a lump of mud when it floats, this just washes off when under way.


hope this may be of help


steve

 

[phild]

i have seen flat plates welded to plate bilge keels before , i always thought that it was essential,
if its good and thick its weight where you want it and you wont have to worry about wearing them out!
for width it would need to be wide but not too wide
check out the way british hunter boats do their cast bilge keels i think they may have it about right.

 

[oldharry]

Thinning bilge plates seems to be a common problem on the Halcyon. One of the dangers is that the weakened keel can no longer take the weight of the boat and may bend. I saw one last year where the bilge keel was less than half the original thickness, and the keel had just folded over like a piece of cardboard!

The problem will be finding any metal to weld anything to!

The 'proper' solution is to have them off and get your local welder to make a new set to pattern. Not quite as difficult as it sounds - providing the keel bolts will undo! You may find that the keel bolts are badly corroded, and need replacing anyway.

The 'stop gap' if there is too much corrosion lower down, is to cut them off six inches or so below the hull, and attach new plates.

And yes a flange 6 inches wide on the bottom of the plates will stop her cutting into the mud and is almost essential on any triple keeler like the Halcyon