About the keel on an H29.5.

[Ed Schenck]

A friend has a 29.5, I think a '96. Was there ever more than one keel option on this boat(of any year?). A grounding has slightly "altered" the lead and he wonders if there are any modifications that can legally(for racing) be made. Honest, I am not the owner!

 

[Andy]

One boat one keel

Ed, The following is believed to be factual, but your friend may want to verify this with the factory.The 29.5 did not have any options on the keel. They did make a model change on the underbody but as far as I know, the only keel was a winged keel with a 4' draft. And yes, the wings do get bent! They can get bent up or down. I think they can be slightly warmed (heat lamp, torch) and then "molded" back into shap with a rubber mallet, large clamps, and of course a bigger rubber mallet.And oh yeah, as I recall, the wings protrude aft past the main keel so they can even get a twist~~~As for the underbody, the early models had a long skeg that went far aft. About '95 they trimmed off the skeg so the aft didn't drag while tacking. To compensate for the loss of the skeg, I think they lengthed the rudder.

 

[Rick]

unusual hull

Another interesting fact about the 29.5 is I'm told that rather than having a single molded hull, it has two "halfs" attached together. I'm also told (by a former Hunter employee) that this system, as you might expect, failed. There were instances of - surprise - leaks between the two halves and that Hunter quickly abandoned the production practice. When I bought my used H-29.5 ('95) several years ago,there were hull blisters that occurred mostly in the center of the hull which I had thoroughly repaired. Whether these blisters were caused by the imperfect gluing of two halfs of a hull allowing the intrusion ofa small amount of water, I have no idea. All I know is what I was told. Is this widely held knowledge by 29.5 owners or is it even factually accurate? What if anythign has Hunter had to say about it?