J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Putting Rhapsody's Keel on a diet

Luke - according to the specs listed at the bottom of the J/30 Class rules, there is a note that reads tip rounded to a centerline depth of 20mm maximum below Section V. To me that sounds like a curve with a radius just over 0.75". I'm thinking of cutting a section of PVC pipe lengthwise, lining it with release cloth, then filling with thickened epoxy to provide a uniform shape for bonding to the keel bottom.

Were there ever keels built close to templates? If so, they would have more ballast then all of our short shallow (pre-templating) keels, wouldn't they? If that is the case, would it be legal to add depth to the keel (obviously only up to template limits) using a substance with some weight?

Steve - I see no restriction that prevents using lead as a filler. Good luck getting someone to work with hot lead. This is the way that auto body repairs were done before Bondo was invented....

Lead powder or lead wool chopped could be two alternatives used as "filler" in epoxy?

So OK ... the weather up here actually is getting close to 60 during the day ... at least one day a week with sun. Visited Bill who is trying to catch up on his keel work before the summer starts.

Bill,

Lookin good! Though I guess if you were working that you missed your intended launch date of last weekend. If it's going into the water before May 18th then let me know and I'll do my best to come up and sail her down with you.

Wes

Rhapsody should go in the travel lift sling late Friday so I can finish the keel bottom and paint Saturday. Boat will launch on Monday 9 May, possibly Sunday if BLM wants to.

Two more images below. All the fairing work was done using West Systems thickened with a combo of colloidal silica and fine fairing compound. It was a pain to sand. I'm going to apply a skim coat of stuff easier to sand to fill minor surface imperfections, then start barrier coating. The bottom section will be done when the boat goes in the sling Friday afternoon, and will launch Sunday or Monday.

The upper leading edge needed to be extended about 1/2" near the top as even with the batten epoxied on, the upper leading edge was not parallel with the rest of the keel leading edge.

Bill-

Nice work! I did this (with help) on another 30 10 yrs ago. That keel was asymetrical - fat on one side mid-chord to the trailing edge and "hollow" on the other aft and very fat forward.

Power planer is indeed the ticket. We used tooling to create template "ridges" with yellow-dyed west filler. Once each was done, we too were able to just drag a bunch of thickened filler across the new template stations (like screeding concrete) and it worked quite well.

It was a long (and physically taxing) project but well worth it. You'll notice a difference (i.e. more consistent on each tack) which always required funky tuning to deal with before. Boat also felt less sticky in the water (but that might have also had to do with burnishing to 1200 too... ;-)

Looks great AND you'll be very happy you did it after you get over the back pain!

Cheers,
Jeff

BTW - one tip if you haven't considered it is an airboard for longboarding a little more efficiently. They're used in bodyshops. Those can really cut through the harder west filler/epoxy materials and then you can use 410 (if I recall correctly) for last skin and then a standard manual long board.

Follow with barrier coat (we used interprotect if memory serves), bottom paint, burnish, and splash! Boy - that sure makes it sound easier and faster than it actually is, huh?

Cheers, Jeff