Carboman;
Sailboat hulls are diplacement hulls that push water to the side vs. a planeing hull like you see on a power boat whose hull rides on top of the water with high rpm engine going alot faster. Generally for a sailboat, when hitting something along the bow or leading edge of the hull, debri usually deflects off without any damage but soemtimes it is small depending how hard you hit; however, it is the bottom of the keel that will strike first, not the bow or leading edge of the keel. If you are beaching the boat, then a coating or a stick on protective material would be the way to go as generally sand is couse and over time will wear anything off but most folks do not do that except more often in a beaching style catamaran. Therefore, I do not see the need on sailboats as they do not go that fast..
Rarely did I have to repair such damage. The major damage to a keel years ago was on a 44 fooot Hunter and the owner denied running aground or hitting anything. When the boat was pulled, steel rebarb, concrete, coral, etc was embedded bacly into the keel with the last section of the keel seperated from the hull and part of the rudder missing while all the time the owner stiill said he never hit anything before the boat was pulled. My response was I counted over 50 liquor bottles on board and how do you explain all the damage? He did not respond but I did and said that if anyone was ever hurt, the Coast Guard would come down hard on him and in a foreign country to include the carribean, they would simply throw the jail key away.
crazy dave condon
