What will happen to a boat with a bulb wing keel and a spade rudder in an accidental(soft)grounding? Have you run aground? How did you get unstuck? Any damage?
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It happened to me once.
Two years ago I ran aground in West Neck harbor on Shelter Island, L.I. It was a soft grounding in a channel that had shoaled and I was only creeping along. Fortunately, I kedged off to deeper water by spinning the bow toward deeper water and running my anchor out about 150' into deeper water. Winching the anchor line, I moved about 15' before dropping into deeper water. The boat suffered no damage. I suffered a broken ego, but had another war story for my trunks of sailing episodes.
Two years ago I ran aground in West Neck harbor on Shelter Island, L.I. It was a soft grounding in a channel that had shoaled and I was only creeping along. Fortunately, I kedged off to deeper water by spinning the bow toward deeper water and running my anchor out about 150' into deeper water. Winching the anchor line, I moved about 15' before dropping into deeper water. The boat suffered no damage. I suffered a broken ego, but had another war story for my trunks of sailing episodes.
No Problem
Yep successfully went around and kedged off. Also wife (ofcourse) has hit a submerged rock at about 5 knots, and a tree (successive days) without damage to the rudder. Keel required some repair when we hauled it. That was all several years ago. The boat is still afloat, as is the marriage. Remember the rudder is still shorter than the bulb keel.
Yep successfully went around and kedged off. Also wife (ofcourse) has hit a submerged rock at about 5 knots, and a tree (successive days) without damage to the rudder. Keel required some repair when we hauled it. That was all several years ago. The boat is still afloat, as is the marriage. Remember the rudder is still shorter than the bulb keel.
Aground
I ran aground in my '88 35 on sand with a lee shore in 2-3' waves off the lighthouse on Key Biscayne Florida. Missed the outer marker of the channel, really stupid. Every wave would pick the boat up and bam! throw it back on the sand. We tried to motor out, every wave would pick us up about enough to go one foot then bam! it'd slam back down on the hard sand. It was terrible. The whole boat would shudder and it sounded like it was taking a terrible beating. This went on for what seemed like an hour, thoughit was probably less, before we finally got back into deeper water. I was sure that we had messed up the rudder and the keel. But when I took a look at it later, however, they were fine. I probably damaged the fiberglass a little bit on the top of the trailing edge of the rudder, (I didn't notice it until it was hauled out the following month, and there might have been a couple little dents in the keel that weren't there before, not sure, but the biggest change was all the barnacles got scraped off the bottom of the keel. It was quite a pounding. The winged keel and rudder are tougher than you think.
I ran aground in my '88 35 on sand with a lee shore in 2-3' waves off the lighthouse on Key Biscayne Florida. Missed the outer marker of the channel, really stupid. Every wave would pick the boat up and bam! throw it back on the sand. We tried to motor out, every wave would pick us up about enough to go one foot then bam! it'd slam back down on the hard sand. It was terrible. The whole boat would shudder and it sounded like it was taking a terrible beating. This went on for what seemed like an hour, thoughit was probably less, before we finally got back into deeper water. I was sure that we had messed up the rudder and the keel. But when I took a look at it later, however, they were fine. I probably damaged the fiberglass a little bit on the top of the trailing edge of the rudder, (I didn't notice it until it was hauled out the following month, and there might have been a couple little dents in the keel that weren't there before, not sure, but the biggest change was all the barnacles got scraped off the bottom of the keel. It was quite a pounding. The winged keel and rudder are tougher than you think.
spin/lower/kedge
I've grounded my 410 five times now, twice while motoring into harbor entrances, and three times while running downwind with the spinnaker up. I'm finding it fairly easy to spin the boat on the keel (mine is a bulb keel with winglets, the deep keel version of the 410) before heeling the boat and heading for the deep. wave action helps, even if it's just wakes from passing power boats. I belong to Sequioa Yacht Club, which is located in the shallow southern part of San Francisco Bay. Our rule is that, if you must kedge off, you should first lower the burgee so that no one knows that another Sequio Yacht has commensed dredging operations. Last summer I went aground within 100 meters of the club's summer anchorage up in the Sacramento Delta. A dozen tenders were immediately launched, one or two for the purpose of offering assistance, the rest to make sure I'd strike the burgee. Sheeesh.
I've grounded my 410 five times now, twice while motoring into harbor entrances, and three times while running downwind with the spinnaker up. I'm finding it fairly easy to spin the boat on the keel (mine is a bulb keel with winglets, the deep keel version of the 410) before heeling the boat and heading for the deep. wave action helps, even if it's just wakes from passing power boats. I belong to Sequioa Yacht Club, which is located in the shallow southern part of San Francisco Bay. Our rule is that, if you must kedge off, you should first lower the burgee so that no one knows that another Sequio Yacht has commensed dredging operations. Last summer I went aground within 100 meters of the club's summer anchorage up in the Sacramento Delta. A dozen tenders were immediately launched, one or two for the purpose of offering assistance, the rest to make sure I'd strike the burgee. Sheeesh.
No Worries
Geez! You guys worry too much. The boats, especialy the older ones like my 33 are built to take a grounding. If they weren't they wouldn't be worthy of purchase! Here on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey, with an average depth of 5 feet, and a max of 16 feet by my depth guage, groundings are a simple constant fact of life. When the boat bounces it's time to tack. Our basic axiom is: If you haven't run aground yet this season, you're about to. My wife and I did manage to locate what I believe to be a submerged truck in our chanel with the lead keel at about 2 1/2 knots. The boat stopped dead with the bow dipping a good distance and a racket from stuff moving around in the interior. My wife, who was sitting at the top of the companion ladder at the time disappeared below, a drop of about 5 feet. There was a decent size ding in the lead of the keel, repairable, and absolutely no structural damage. Oh yeah; my wife healed nicely. And no longer sits on the ladder.
Geez! You guys worry too much. The boats, especialy the older ones like my 33 are built to take a grounding. If they weren't they wouldn't be worthy of purchase! Here on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey, with an average depth of 5 feet, and a max of 16 feet by my depth guage, groundings are a simple constant fact of life. When the boat bounces it's time to tack. Our basic axiom is: If you haven't run aground yet this season, you're about to. My wife and I did manage to locate what I believe to be a submerged truck in our chanel with the lead keel at about 2 1/2 knots. The boat stopped dead with the bow dipping a good distance and a racket from stuff moving around in the interior. My wife, who was sitting at the top of the companion ladder at the time disappeared below, a drop of about 5 feet. There was a decent size ding in the lead of the keel, repairable, and absolutely no structural damage. Oh yeah; my wife healed nicely. And no longer sits on the ladder.
stumped!
I had an interesting grounding of sorts last summer. Our shallow lake (avg 6') was low due to drought and I bumped up onto and stuck on a stump with my wing keel H23! It was quite a surprise that nearly sent me over the bow pulpit as we were doing about 6 knots. I quickly got the sails down and while wondering what to do next the boat turned in the wind and wave action and I simply motored off......
I had an interesting grounding of sorts last summer. Our shallow lake (avg 6') was low due to drought and I bumped up onto and stuck on a stump with my wing keel H23! It was quite a surprise that nearly sent me over the bow pulpit as we were doing about 6 knots. I quickly got the sails down and while wondering what to do next the boat turned in the wind and wave action and I simply motored off......
prpldimond@aol.com
Wow, another Hunter owner in California. I'm at Peninsula Marina in Redwood City and we run aground all the time. Best toy in the box is tide log. I've never had a problem getting unstuck in mud but a little hairy leaning over when I force my way in against better judgment. But I usually won't force my way off a sandbar when I know I'll float off later. Just remember not to run aground at a "high" high tide. That's expensive. Know your water and your tides and the worst you'll ever have to do when stuck is enjoy the company of your crew!
Wow, another Hunter owner in California. I'm at Peninsula Marina in Redwood City and we run aground all the time. Best toy in the box is tide log. I've never had a problem getting unstuck in mud but a little hairy leaning over when I force my way in against better judgment. But I usually won't force my way off a sandbar when I know I'll float off later. Just remember not to run aground at a "high" high tide. That's expensive. Know your water and your tides and the worst you'll ever have to do when stuck is enjoy the company of your crew!
aground
You may want to also worry about jackknifing on your rudder as the boat beats on those waves. Just try heal over as best you can and catched the wave with modest gun of the engine.
You may want to also worry about jackknifing on your rudder as the boat beats on those waves. Just try heal over as best you can and catched the wave with modest gun of the engine.
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