Cutting my keel?

[DovetailNJ]

I sail in Barnegat Bay NJ and am tiring of bouncing off of the shallow bottom.
The 5' draft on my 1984 Catalina 30 is just too much.
I'm pondering cutting 12" off of the keel and using the scrap to cast two sides of a bulb that I can bolt back to the sides of the newly shortened keel.
Obviously this will hurt her upwind performance but I'm not that worried, I'm not racing her and after all the boat was originally offered with an even shorter wing keel that affects that model's upwind performance.
The thought of simply cutting the keel and not bothering to do the bulb thing has crossed my mind as well, I'm not sure how much ballast weight I'll actually be losing.
Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this issue?

 

[FastOlson]

Fairly Common change... but not cheap.
Whether it is "worth while" on your boat is a decision only you can make.
Most of us would just sell the boat and buy a shoal draft boat. In your sailing area a Properly Done modification will probably add back some value, but nothing like the check you will need to write to reach that point. If you keep your boat and enjoy it for another decade, you can write off the expense in family fun enjoyed.


If you do a poor job of it, you will reduce the value and make the boat harder to sell when the day comes, OTOH. (Just an opinion, and YMMV.)

Check out the Mars Metals site for details of this changeover. I have seen the Mars Metals modification lead to a faster sale, later on, FWIW.

http://www.marskeel.com/

Good luck.

Loren

ps: you might look around for a mid-80's Junneau 32 Attalia CB model.

 

[DovetailNJ]

Thanks for the response!
I'll be doing most of the work myself, I'm a custom cabinet maker and, humility aside, quite capable. Beyond that I have a barter arrangement with the marina owner, I do stuff for him, he does stuff for me, nobody ever writes a check.
Thanks for the link as well, it's actually the missing link I needed!

 

[Jackdaw]

Just don't do this. ;^)

http://www.digitalmarinesurveys.com/FindingsExamples.htm

(search for Catalina 30)