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A while ago I purchased from Paul Riccelli a set of plans for his weekender keel upgrade. I put this on the "to do" shelf for a year or so. I've never been unhappy with my boat so I wasn't in a hurry to change it too much, but I told myself that if the keel ever needed repairing, I would not bother repairing it, I would do the modification instead. 

Well this year the varnish and wooden parts on top of the boat needed a lot of attention, plus the rudder box finally rotted enough that I needed to make a new one, AND the keel needed to be sanded and painted on account of the water level having dropped last year and the boat working against the gravel bottom and losing most of the paint on the keel. So I decided this summer would be a "build" summer instead of a "sailing" summer, in order to give the old boat a face-lift.

I have always been aware of the boat's quirks compared to more evolved designs, I am a pretty experienced sailor and it's not like I haven't noticed the time it takes to work to windward, ponderous tacks in high wind, and the high degree of force on the rudder, etc. I have also however, been of the mindset that no matter what boat you have, someone will always have a handier, faster and less leewardly boat than you. My weekender has always admirably satisfied my desire to bob around drinking beer and exploring my part of the giant lake I live on. When I crave performance, I go to the club and sign on as crew on race night, or borrow my friend's Kirby. One think I do not like about the original keel is that when I beach the boat, the deep forefoot gives it a great fulcrum upon which to rotate and throw me into the lake.

SO anyway, I decided to do the keel modification, since a) I've been curious about it; b) the boat was upside-down anyway, and c) I paid good money for the plans. 

Once I worked up the nerve to take violent power tools to the fabric of my innocent little boat, things have proceeded quickly. The wood in the old keel was in surprisingly good shape, although along the joints I found a few wet spots. Wet despite the boat having been dry for the last nine months. If I lived somewhere warm, this would surely have turned into a problem by now. Those of you building right now, take warning and use epoxy and take special care on those joints!! I used some powdered resin when I built mine. I liked it because it had an Air Force part number and apparently was the glue they made aeroplanes with way back when. Don't use it on a boat. It was so easy to take the outer layers off the stubby remaining keel section that is left, that I have to wonder what has been holding my boat together for the last fifteen years.

Anyhow, the pictures tell the tale. The plans recommend bevelling the remaining bit of deadwood along the bottom so I steamed and laminated an ok strip over the old laminations in the keel so they wouldn't be exposed to water. Once I round this off, it will have a hardwood leading edge that will hopefully stand up to the odd bonk. The new pieces are also oak, because I wanted it to be harder than fir, and also I noticed the fir timbers in the old keel did quite a bit of "cupping" over the years and were forever needing repaired as they shifted and aged. I suppose the oak might do that as well, but at least it is much harder than fir, so if I forget my boat's slightly increased draught and hit something, maybe it will stand up better. Anyway I love the smell and feel of working with oak. So there.

Here is the progress as of last night, the leading edge is shaped and I have clamps and screws holding it all together while the glue sets. If appearance is anything to go by, she certainly LOOKS less dumpy!


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Good to see you've gotten enough of live set aside for this project. The few inches of extra draft will not matter much in the big picture. Did you taper the fin (foil shapes) or just "slab side" it? It does look more modern doesn't it. Will you make a barndoor or a kickup rudder? If going back to the kickup, consider adding a few inches to the span of the blade. She'll pick up a little more lateral area and improve turning too.

Hi Paul. I spent today shaping it with the planer. It has a foil shape, although with slab sides, like the picture in your plans, the front 10 inches and the aft 20 inches at the root are shaped but I went with a bit more curve to the tip so more of a "semi slab" I guess, but it's got a pleasing shape to it. I wanted to leave lots of meat where it joins the hull.

It does look more modern but it still fits with the overall look of the boat. I think it looks pretty good. I'm pretty excited to see the difference in how it sails.

I haven't done anything with the rudder, I figured I would sail it with the new keel to see what it was like first. Depending on how the new keel feels, I was thinking of widening the blade with a new leading edge. I'm running out of time to do much else  this year though, in another couple of weeks it will be cold and crappy up here.

Cool, keep us updated. The difference next spring will be noticed the first time out.

I've seen production boats that have a shoal draft keel like this one but with a wing attached to the bottom.  I wonder if that would help this modification.  The boat that I  am currently building has a barndoor rudder with a wing on the bottom and I am interested to see what it sails like when it is done. 

I have also thought that a flat bottom keel would help keep the boat from rocking when on the trailer.  I have had some issues with rocking when I am on my longer walkabouts with my weekender. 

Al

A wing on a fin is a difficult thing to execute on a small boat, because of the trim issues associated with them. Simply put, a small sailboat tends to change trim a lot underway, which places the wing in compromising positions. An end plate on the other hand can be helpful. In fact, the draft of the fin can be reduced a bit with the addition of an end plate. Bolger was known for his use of them, particularly on rudders. Modern aircraft have adopted this feature readily too. You'll note most modern jets have "winglets" on the ends of their wings. This permits them to use short span wings, but generate the same lift as a longer one. The same thing happens on appendages, you can employ a 40" rudder blade (for example) that acts like a 48" blade, if it has a well shaped end plate.

If this was done to my keel revision to Weekender, a simple length of aluminum plate, screwed to the bottom of the fin will be all that's necessary. Size it to have say a 1", maybe a 1.5" (25 - 40 mm) lip extending out from the perpendicular face of the appendage.

Below you can see the plate, simply screwed to the bottom of the new deadwood assembly (fin). The one to the left shows about a 1/2" lip. while the one on the right would be a 1" lip. This will also serve as a good grounding plate, protecting the bottom of the fin. This could also be done with angle stock, where it would be screwed to the side of the fin. This is attached just to the flat bottom portion of the fin.

To continue this discussion, the idea of a bulb is possible and if I had to, I'd consider an asymmetrical ballast casting, to form the edges of an end plate and/or a bulb. Picture an asymmetric sectioned wing instead of a plate, with crisp outboard edges, instead of the gradual taper usually used. This would provide lift and not upset trim imbalances too much. It's really just a way to lower any ballast (100 pounds or so) on a Weekender and get the benefits of an end plate.

I've drawn 2 different versions, one is asymmetrical and a typical flattened bulb shape. The upper shape show in plan view is the asymmetric version and more than necessary for this type of boat. The lower one in plan view has a "beavertail" sort of shape. It can be just a weight with blunt, squared off ends and sectional shaping or it could be tapered a bit, (shown far right in sectional view). I haven't calculated the weight of these castings, but it's a lot of effort for not much performance gain. An aluminum end plate will work nearly as well, without the need to cast lead. Something like this would be easier if instead of melting lead, you simply cast it as lead bird shot, with epoxy. I do this for centerboard weights and it's easy and neat. Just buy some bird shot from the local gun store and mix with neat goo, then pour into a mold or as I usually do the board itself. It cures to shape and you're just left with some putty to smooth it up.

The two real advantages are the end plate effect and lowering the CG a few inches, which is probably just as beneficial.

WFIW . . .

I just have a 50-pound lead ingot sitting on the floor in the cuddy. It seems to have an effect. My friend Josh weighs 250 pounds and works really well, but the lead brick is OK too when Josh is busy.

I have finished shaping and fairing the new keel to the bottom of the boat, and given all the bare wood two barrier coats of thickened epoxy. Saturday I will hopefully be able to sand it and get a couple coats of paint on there before it turns cold and rainy on Sunday.

Paint is a bit of a sore spot. I originally painted the hill with a two-part polyurethane. It was stinky but it laid on really nicely and it's very durable. Now this stuff doesn't seem as readily available, or they just outright don't make it anymore. All the boat store has now is brightsides one-part poly, and the colour isn't quite the same. So I can sand and paint the whole hull, or I can put up with some funny colour variations. The third choice is this LPU I picked up a number of years ago and didn't use. It's water-based, two-part (has a little bottle of cross-linking stuff) and seems like pretty good stuff. The problem is it's like six years old now. I phoned the company and they said if it had frozen or gotten too old it would be all lumpy and weird. I checked and it is still smooth so I think I'm going to try it. I like the water clean-up, and you can do a second coat relatively quickly, which is handy because Saturday is the last day in the forecast that is at all nice before summer takes its final plunge. I tried the older LPU on the rudder to test it, but I had to go out of town before it was dry, so I have to wait until tonight to see how it turned out.

Wish me luck. I've ruined more projects by trying to paint them than I care to admit.

I've used the WR-LPU's and don't like them at all. They do lay down pretty well, but for the cost aren't as tough as the solvent based LPU's. Water cleanup isn't as accurate as you might think. It's a waterborne product, but is still a polyurethane. It apparently has some emulsifiers in it, so it'll eventually break down with water, but you do need lots of soap and scrubbing. I've never been able to successfully spray this WR-LPU stuff and I've also had "Fre-Cut" sandpapers cause huge lack of adhesion issues. After peeling out the contents of a freshly painted cockpit (new build), in giant sheets of unstuck, but well cured paint, I gave up on this stuff. The single part polyurethanes are pretty darn tough, possibly a little better than the WR-LPU's, so a consideration.

About your weight, try it out by placing it on the boat's centerline underway and see how she trims up. Mark this location carefully and then cut a notch in the new keel, directly below the marked location, on the very bottom of the fin. Glue it in place and it places the weight in the best location it can be.

Maybe I will try the single-part paint I have then. I'll make up my mind when I see how my test piece turned out tonight. The single-part stuff is a slightly different colour but I guess it's a small hull, it won't kill me to do the whole thing.

I will think about placing my ballast under the keel. I need to work out a way to get oxygen and food down to him on long trips though. His wife would kill me if he drowned down there.