We are looking at a Beneteau 38s5, with a short shoal draft keel. Want to do club racing, but the rudder is 2-3 inches below the keel. (Bad Idea). What is the keel construction?? It is wide, damn near square. Can it be reworked, to add length, or is the best option, get a hold of Marr's Metal and get a deaper keel. Not anxious to add a foot to the bottom of the existing keel. With it being a 3/4 or 7/8 rig has anyone gone to a taller lift for the genoa and or spinaker. Sailing on the Great Lakes with average of 8-15 mph wind.
Beneteau 38s5 Keel
- Thread starter Ropeburn
- Start date
I have thought of both ideas but for my boat '90 Hunter 30 a $5000 keel is not viable but that's not the end of my plans my keel is cast iron. Don't know what yours is. But cast iron is fairly easy to drill and tapp so thought of adding to keel and maybe cutting wings off . And the little 3/4 head sail I've already bought a headstay outlet connector and plan to move headstay to a'7/8 rig
People occasionally put a "shoe" on their keels kind of a retrofit bulb. This I think is more for stability than lift. A whole new keel I expect would be almost more than the boat is worth sell and buy another. I looked into this briefly as my keel which is iron annoys me, lead or better yet tungsten is the better choice.
Tungsten is extremely expensive I guess if you have access to scrap or machine cutting. I was planning adding a steel 2" wide 2' long x 3' sheet to bottom of keel drilling and counter sinking 1" stainless allthread thru plate and threading into bottom exist cast iron then grind, feather and fill and cut not all but some of winglets off . That or extream thought cut whole bulbous wing off with chop saw rework wing thing to just a ball like race boats and bolt bottom plate steel which would be bolted to old keel stub but worry of sheer strength
For racing I would think you need to stay within the class measured keel specifications. Which would mean sourcing the OEM spec deep keel. Add that all up along with the suboptimal shoal keel and this boat would need to sell low to make it worth the trouble.
that boat is going to be PHRF raced, so your local committee would adjust the rating. In principle if the rating system is working improvements to your boat will have no effect on your position as the fact that the boat has become faster is fully compensated for. If instead you spent the money on making sure the systems on the boat work correctly and don't screw up, and that the crew on the boat work correctly and don't screw up you would likely do better
Hey Ropeburn,
PM me I know a lot about the 38S5 shoal keel, I did 6 Macs on one. That particular boat had a Mars 500lb bulb (split halves), You could hardly notice the bulge. Boat was very fast off the wind with standard hoist and good inventory of spins. My recollection was that the boat's fractional tapered rig was too flexible to have higher spin hoist. Good boat for distance racing like the Mac, not that good for buoy racing. Invest in the best mainsail you can afford and have a very good main trimmer.
PM me I know a lot about the 38S5 shoal keel, I did 6 Macs on one. That particular boat had a Mars 500lb bulb (split halves), You could hardly notice the bulge. Boat was very fast off the wind with standard hoist and good inventory of spins. My recollection was that the boat's fractional tapered rig was too flexible to have higher spin hoist. Good boat for distance racing like the Mac, not that good for buoy racing. Invest in the best mainsail you can afford and have a very good main trimmer.
Back at the ranch. With this boat no longer in production, and it being a shoal draft keel, is there any info as to the construction of the keel, to either reshape the keel, add a foot or as suggested add side weight to the bottom sides of the keel. is it a lead encapsolated?? I know, get out a hammer and listen to the sound. If purchased, this could be an interesting winter project.