Too much keelweight how to remove?

Lbjordal · #1 (**permalink**) 08-03-2008

Hi

Bought a 20` Sunwind a few years ago as first sailboat, the boat was not in the best of states, but we sailed it and learnd. The previous owner had "improved" the boat by adding weight to the keel, however, when the boat is on the water the waterline is all wrong. Even with an empty cockpit and me 115 kg at the pulpit she doesnt float right.

Well, last year we bought a larger boat (Sun Legend 41`) but I still want to fix this one. Any idea how to go about it? I`m thinking of drilling some holes into the extended keel to see what it`s filled with

Let me know if the images are too large
The black line indicates the original keel lenght

camaraderie · #2 (**permalink**) 08-03-2008

Hard to tell from the pix but is the keel a bolt on or encapsulated? If a bolt on, I'd be inclined to simply remove some lead from the bottom rather than mess with the whole structure. If encapasulated, it is a much bigger job to reduce the mass and rebuild the structure in a safe way.

Lbjordal · #3 (**permalink**) 08-03-2008

Guess, the boat is not going on the water this summer then

The keel is encapasulated, What worries me most is what has been done where the extension meets the hull. The one good thing is that whoever modified the boat did a rather sloppy job at hiding the mod. Hopefully he never removed any of the original "capsule."

pigslo · #4 (**permalink**) 08-03-2008

I hate to point out the obvious but why not return it back to original by removing the modification?
pigslo

sailingdog · #5 (**permalink**) 08-04-2008

I agree with Pigslo... remove the bastard addition.... anyone with half a brain or more would realize that adding to the keel the way he did would not only make the boat aft heavy, but shift the center of lateral resistance aft...giving the boat more helm problems than you can shake a stick at. Does the boat have significant lee helm issues? If not, I'd be very surprised.

Lbjordal · #6 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008

@sailingdog

Well we didn`t know better, but yes I suppose it had "issues." However at the time I was more worried about the water wich was flooding thru the drains and into my shoes

sailingdog · #7 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008

Not an unreasonable decision to worry more about water pouring in via the drains...since the boat is aft heavy... than to worry about helm balance issues...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lbjordal

@sailingdog

Well we didn`t know better, but yes I suppose it had "issues." However at the time I was more worried about the water wich was flooding thru the drains and into my shoes

Lbjordal · #8 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008

Well, started the work today.

Figuerd I best drill a hole somewhere in the keel to know a little more about the construction.

It`s wonderfull how such things seem to always happen to mee

Lbjordal · #9 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008

Well, next step:
This is why you dont use concrete in the keel, it was soaked.

I`m not shure what to do next, I was hoping to find the original keel somewhere in there, but no luck. After removing some concrete this is how it looks. I`m pretty shure the boat is still to heavy. I have removed like 40l of water and maybe 25 kg of wet concrete. I`am considering just putting it back together and find myself a new boat. Any adwise as to how I best should repair the holes I have made?

NOLAsailing · #10 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008

Need more info - surely there's a ballast pig forward in the original keel?