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Sailing on without noticing they had lost the keel!!!

7K views 22 replies 14 participants last post by  newhaul 
#1 ·
This is probably the most incredible story I have ever heard about sailing boats.

It turned out that a charter crew hit a rock and continue sailing without noticing they had lost the keel. You find it hard to believe?

Try this:

After that, the boat was chartered by another crew that went sailing happily in a boat without keel (and ballast). They didn't noticed anything and delivered safely the boat. Only a thirdd crew, after a broach suspected that there was something wrong. The 37ft Jeanneau boat made around 150nm sailing without its keel and ballast without anybody (two crews) noticing that there was something wrong with the boat.

Can you believe this?

The story is on the December edition of YachtingMonthly.

Regards

Paulo
 
#7 ·
They struck the rock motoring. They have sailed out Falmouth to the Scilly Islands (that's on this leg they had hit the rock), got some disturbed seas at Lizard Point and then returned to Falmouth, motorsailing with a genoa and 12K of ap wind on the starboard quarter.

They don't mention if the second crew used their sails, but when you charter a sailboat it is supposed to sail the boat.

The third crew was sailing because they have broached when they were already delivering the boat on the return trip, near the base.

Regards

Paulo
 
#11 ·
No, modern designs rely on hull stability for most of its sailing needs. The ballast only complements that stability and supplies reserve (safety) stability.

I guess those guys sailed only in light winds and never needed reserve stability till the last crew, that broached.

On the last Vendee Globe Mark Guillemont brought his Open 60 home and finished the race after losing his keel.....and we are not talking about some 150nm, but about thousands of miles.

However those crews should not be great sailors because without a keel the boat would not go properly against the wind, and I guess they should have noticed that:rolleyes:

Regards

Paulo
 
#15 · (Edited)
Paulo,

This all is three week old news on the jeanneau owners site/forum!

I got the article, altho I have not seen some of the pics you have shown as of yet. I'll have to wait to read the actual article for probably 30-45 days when they start getting to this side of the pond.

marty

on edit, here is a link to the jeanneau owners forum info, and a link to a YBW forum on the last post, where folks have talked about this.
jeanneau owners network - Sun Odyssey 37 sails 100 miles without keel
 
#16 ·
It seems unbelievable but I do definitely believe it!

When we were chartering in Italy last year we pulled into a Marina next to a bunch of german guys on a chartered Bavaria.

Walking back from the showers as I boarded our boat I looked down in amazement to see that at least half of the Bavaria's Rudder was gone!

Negotiating the language difficulties we asked them about it and found out that they had no idea, had just picked the boat up the day before, and had in fact wondered why the helm was not particularly responsive :) :)
 
#17 ·
Lats summer I had charted for the first time a boat. It was a 5 months old boat that looked like a 3 or 4 years old boat, with lots of damaged things and some broken. I had no idea that a boat could be destroyed so quickly. It was a good and relatively expensive boat:eek:

Now I understand why the owner of that small charter company, on the boat reception, dived under the boats: With that kind of sailors, you would never know if a keel or part of a rudder is missing:D

Regards

Paulo
 
#18 ·
The main reason was sheer dumb luck. The winds were mostly from behind the boat, and there's little torque to tip the boat over when running.
 
#19 ·
Yes they were all lucky but what kind of sailor does not notice that the boat has not a keel?

All the three crews made trips that returned to the same point. That means that if they had wind from behind on one direction on the return trip they would have a head wind. The third crew broached near the Charter base, meaning that they had sailed all the way to that point without major problems.

I know that modern boats can sail in weak winds without the ballast, relying only in its big initial stability, but not noticing that the boat was drifting hugely (without a keel) is odd. Against the wind the boat should be going really sideways, making as much frontal as lateral way.;)

Regards

Paulo
 
#20 ·
if they had wind from behind on one direction on the return trip they would have a head wind.
This statement is disproved by the fact that the first two crews didn't have any problems, which you agree they must have had, had they been sailing upwind.

The description of the incident mentions that they were all very lucky and had downwind runs in both directions.

Sometimes wind changes direction, I guess. Whoda thunk?
 
#23 ·
many people who charter will get a sailboat and motor it like a power boat due to the fact a sailboat costs about half that of similar sized power boat and they will power it and have no idea how to raise sails let alone actually know that there is a stability issue.
 
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