This has been a rewarding discussion. I have looked at the factory keel
on /Wyanokee/ and often thought that it just didn't look right. This
tends to confirm it! At one point I did consider having the yard grind
it into what I thought was a better hydro-dynamically shape. I didn't
know someone made or had the templates for a better design. Thanks so
much for this thread. It's easily worth the membership !
Dave Hoy
WYANOKEE #6295
Camden, Maine.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
A few years ago we, as a class, instituted a rule that any keel
fairing had to be within an 1/8" of the compu keel template that we
built for the class. Only 2 boats have done the fairing since. Last
year they were first and second in Hi Point for the season. They were
really good sailors and fast boats to begin with, but they also value
every advantage they can get.
I didn't see Tom's fairing job being done, but when Julian was doing
his it was amazing how much lead he was pulling (planing) off.
To put this in perspective, the amount of lead Julian pulled out of
his keel will be more than tf will be putting into his new i550 build.
But I will say that it is not the lead being taken out that is the
improvement. The shapes of our keels are so random and messy (for a
race boat anyway) that filling in and smoothing out the rough
spots will make a difference. Is is HUGE? Probably not, depending on
the condition and original build of the keel, but it will make a
difference.
The biggest I saw visually was a the trailing edge. The template that
we use (honestly don't know which one it is) has a hard "chine" on the
leading edge and just looked faster than the randomly rounded trailing
edge the boat used to have.
I will say that the boys at Muellers who did the job were particularly
proud of turning the "tanks" keel into one that looked like it could
be on a "real racing boat."
I had to go and measure it (the boat was that of the fleet measurer)
and just about everyone in the yard came over to tell me which part
they did.
CD
In a message dated 3/16/2008 4:01:20 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
oh and btw, theirs was defintely the IMPROVED version...really
came out looking a lot different than the Catalina factory keel.
tf
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