man this thread was a looong time ago...but the info is still good...

alan what I meant was that the flex is an inherent part of the boats attiitude so to speak...now mine flexed like crazy in a lift sling...and I did nothing to it...mine was used in the delta and sf bay and did just fine

a member at the club came along with an IONA excalibur which were made later on and that boat did not flex as much...I remember he gave me the plans of the boat and showed me where he layed up glass and all...his boat was tuned even tighter

in any case look in your bilges...youll see the turns of the bilges on both access panels...the guy added layers in these two areas using strong woving...It has been soooo long I cant remember but I vaguely recall him and other excalibur owners and myself just living with this quirk

what you do NOT want to do is make this area so stiff and strong that therest of the boat develops stress cracks and or suffers from unwanted loads

the keel is not going anywhere as its not bolted but part of the hull like the cal 40 what you need to do if sailing the ocean or pounding against waves and such is to lightly reinforce the area so as to avoid stress cracking and failure...cant remember if there are floors or stringers in the bilge area but those could be reinforced as well

anyways

enjoy the boat

I miss mine...

ps....sailing the pacific would be an awesome sled ride for the excalibur...they excell as do their big brother the cal 40 off the wind...surfing

and yes they do surf if the wind is enough...

cheers

Christian, I appreciate your knowledge. I own a 26 Excalibur and on the registration it states the year 1964 but it was said that Crealoch started building these molds in 1967. If this is true I am assuming that I have one of the first 25 built. Any ideas? Also question for you...... Do you know exactly how much lead is in the keel?

Thank You,
Jim
Monterey,CA

He designed the boat prior to 67, but it wasn't until 65 or so that the molds became property under the Islander name - the earliest ones were Excalibur Marine, or Wayfarer boats. I'm not sure why Sailboatdata lists the design as a 67, unless they were just counting the "mainstream" production at that point. So a '64 would put you in the earliest stages of the boats. Your keel should be about 1605 lbs, if all records are accurate so far.