J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Keel Depth Limit

Steve,

The keel on Rhapsody was very fat and had to be planed down. My guess is the mold used to make the keels "grew" over time each time a keel was poured. I also templated to the minimum allowable keel width and shaved just a little bit more off the lead so the outer surface was a skim coat of fairing compound.

I did have to build up the bottom of the keel about 3/4" to get the proper extension below station V of the keel templates. I attribute that more to the times that the keel may have bottomed over the life of the boat. The keel was "short" fore and aft so I built up the leading edge with a batten and faired it in. The front corner near the bottom was really short, probably since that is the first place that hit whenever the boat grounded. My guess is whoever fixed that area over its life just rounded it off and called it a day.

I guess the keel on Rhapsody is lighter by some extent due to the lead shaved off, but probably insignificant compared to the hydrodynamic improvement gained by fairing it.