Mailport: July 2012

Canting Keel Engineering

The Rambler 100 article (PS, May 2012) and US Sailing report state that the boat’s canting keel fell off. Keels are not supposed to fall off. Since it did, and it doesn't look like the keel struck anything, something was wrong with the boat design. I would have liked to have seen a discussion on the engineering causes of the keel failure and recommendations on preventing it.

Learning how to react to such an incident is important, but it would be far more useful in learning how to prevent the incident in the first place.

Chris Migdal

Silverheels, Beneteau First 44.7

San Francisco, Calif.

The keel failure’s cause is still under investigation, and at press time, the official report had not yet been released. However, a Practical Sailor article on keel design, in general, is in the works. Stay tuned.

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