Changing a keel on any boat is not for the faint hearted. This article covers the Kick E10.5 Keel Replacement and the process of removing and replacing a keel on a 10.5 meter yacht.
Kick E10.5 Keel Replacement
Customer Story
kick E10.5 keel replacement
After many years of wanting to update Kicks (Elliott 1050) keel and many talks with Steve over the years an opportunity arose when one of his designs Serena (Thompson 38) updated their keel and the old keel was for sale.
After a quick discussion with Steve it was decided it could be modified to fit onto Kick so the purchase was made and we engaged Steve to draw up the line drawings of Kick as these were not available so we had to start from nothing.
Steve then started running the numbers for the new keel and these became very attractive with an 18% increase in righting moment and 40% reduction in wetted surface and the polars showed an increase in performance at all points of sail.
The next challenge was to put a plan together of how we would modify the Ex Thompson 38 keel as this had a draught of 3m and weighed over 1700 kg and we were aiming for 2.45m draught and 1500kg.
Steve went to work and produced template drawings for the bulb and new foil profile drawings for the fin so we could start to re shape them. Through this whole process I was in contact with Steve each step of the way to ensure we were keeping on the right track.
Kick has been sailing with her new to her keel for 6 months now producing some great results so far and winning on line against a Z39 in our local club racing 5 out 6 races so far. We are finding the boat to be quicker in manoeuvres and overall averaging higher speeds upwind, reaching and down wind so overall a great upgrade.
Steve has been great to deal with through this whole process and what a great result!
Designers comments
The process of designing a replacement keel on any boat is not an easy one. First and one of the biggest tasks is to configure and draw the boat and foils as they exist and with the owners help decide on where the boat is in terms of sailing ability and what needs to be done to improve the boat. Only then can you start to design a new keel setup for the boat. In this case Kick was not a class boat to start with and had a taller mast and a keel different from the other class boats.
The boat lacked stability in any breeze over 10 knots.
The hard part is to increase stability without increasing wetted surface or weight.
My process is to draw the existing boat, design the new keel and do a comparison of the stability and VPP performance of the two configurations.
Fortunately, in this case Brendan was able to purchase and existing keel that he was able to modify to my new design.
No small task as the Serena keel had to be modified by fairing and removing a lot of excess filler plus a lot of planning and shaping the lead to the templates provided.
Steve Thompson – Designer