OUR SMART KEEL SYSTEM

Our retracting foils are fundamental to our boat's performance, stability and versatility. Without adjustable draft, you're typically forced to choose between a boat designed for deep water, or a boat designed for shallow water. Usually one boat can't excel in both depths. Ours can. In deep water, with our keel extended, and with its ballast low at the bottom tip of the keel, our boat is very stable, and very seaworthy. In shallow water, with the foils retracted, our boat can take you places other sailboats can't go, and with the ballast in the bulb, the boat remains stable at all draft settings.

Because our foils retract, our boats are easily trailered. They sit low on their trailers so wind resistance is minimized, and visability from the tow vehicle is excellent. The boats float on and off their trailers easily, and setup and breakdown is quick and uncomplicated.

Our keel is housed in a rugged fiberglass trunk that runs from cabin floor to ceiling. This trunk is laid up as part of the hull, and glassed to the deck, creating a very strong, almost monolithic boat. The keel moves vertically, powered by a 12 volt motor, housed in a motor box on deck, and controlled from the cockpit.

The keel itself is constructed of fiberglass with a fiberglass composite inner core. The cast lead ballast is encapsulated in the bulb and lower keel sections. The keel's outer fiberglass skin is laid up as follows: Isothalic gel coat, vinylester hot coat, 17 ounce unidirectional carbon fiber, 24 ounce unidirectional E-Glass, and two layers of 2410 biaxial E-Glass.

The 12 volt motor moves the keel via quarter inch 7x19 stainless cable, rated at 10,000 pounds. The motor/winch assembly is built by ITT-Jabsco, is stainless, and is rated at 2,000 pounds. Bronze turning blocks route the cable to give it mechanical advantage (three to one for the 26RK, and four to one for the 32RK) so that no component is stressed to more than 40 percent of its rated capacity. The blocks are built for us by Edson, and are rated at 10,000 pounds breaking strength

The upper keel arm is the part of the keel that remains in the keel trunk when the foil part of the keel is fully extended. It's function is to transfer the lateral loads generated by the keel as the boat heels. On our boat, these loads are spread throughout the boat, since the upper keel arm fills the truck at all times. This upper arm is constructed of #304 stainless steel box tubing. There are three holes in the upper keel arm, designed to receive a pin of the same diameter, which is used to take the keel weight off the motor/winch mechanism when servicing the mechanism.