Keeling a 26' Power Boat

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Oct 5, 2008
62
Grampian 23 Bobcaygeon ON
For functionality -- a saillable / power-boat for inland lakes and canals.
How feasable to attach an iron or lead keel to the hull-bottom of a power driven vessel?
Could be I/O, or any other motor type. . .
Boat would be rigged like a Non-Such. (I think?)
I know this would compromise both designs but the trade-off could be advantageous to an imaginative innovator who wanted to experiment. (McGregor did it :)
Since, "Anything is possible" what keel weight, length and depth would seem appropriate to balance a sail that could move the craft at 5 knots, safely???
Roger on the Trent
 

RichH

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Feb 14, 2005
4,773
Tayana 37 cutter; I20/M20 SCOWS Worton Creek, MD
Safely --- Not very likely, for structural as well as hydrodynamic reasons.

Suggest you get a copy of: "Yacht Design Explained" Steve Killing & Douglas Hunter
IBSN 0-393-04646-X, W. W. Norton & Co., 1998
 

hman

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Sep 13, 2006
93
Oday 23 Grass Valley, CA
You can put a fin keel on a I/O, a mast and a sail, but since the outdrive is what steers the boat, you're gonna have some problems unless you add some kind of rudder too. If you're gonna do it, invest in a V drive, they have rudders
 
Oct 5, 2008
62
Grampian 23 Bobcaygeon ON
Hi ALL! This response is UNBELIEVEABLE!!!! THANKS TO EACH!!!
All within seconds from everywhere in North America! Great advice and info!
Like "WOW!"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Roger
 

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
Study what it takes to make a boat sail where you want to go. You must have a device to reduce leeway, you need a rudder, You need a mast of some sort and the means to keep it standing upright and you need some sort of a sail. There is no limit to the sailng rig you can use but you will want to keep it simple.
link for sails: http://www.diy-wood-boat.com/Sailing_Rigs.html
 

RichH

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Feb 14, 2005
4,773
Tayana 37 cutter; I20/M20 SCOWS Worton Creek, MD
The 'problem' nowadays, in a country that now has 1 lawyer per 250 citizens, if YOU make modifications to any OEM design and that modification harms anyone, it relieves the OEM manufacturer of any blame for product liability and transfers that BLAME / guilt **entirely to YOUR shoulders**. Sorry, but thats the way it works in a country that abandons its 'rule of law' and substitutes it with 'rule of the pursuit of contingency fees'.
 

BobM

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Jun 10, 2004
3,269
S2 9.2A Winthrop, MA
Yes but...

The 'problem' nowadays, in a country that now has 1 lawyer per 250 citizens, if YOU make modifications to any OEM design and that modification harms anyone, it relieves the OEM manufacturer of any blame for product liability and transfers that BLAME / guilt **entirely to YOUR shoulders**. Sorry, but thats the way it works in a country that abandons its 'rule of law' and substitutes it with 'rule of the pursuit of contingency fees'.
...the question came from Ontario.
 

RichH

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Feb 14, 2005
4,773
Tayana 37 cutter; I20/M20 SCOWS Worton Creek, MD
Canada: 1 lawyer per 562 citizens ... and just as hungry; but, the laws in Canada better protect its citizens.
 
Oct 5, 2008
62
Grampian 23 Bobcaygeon ON
Ross, thanks for your practicality. And for the web link! As the novice communications guy of PLYC I'm trying to create a Column of "Bits & Pieces" of Info, Interests, etc that club members might find inviting, so I will try to get access to that link. I appears that is encouraged. . .
 
Oct 5, 2008
62
Grampian 23 Bobcaygeon ON
Hi Legal Eagles :) Yer right about Liability et al. But generally, as a Canadian where "Peace, Order and Good Goverment" base our social system, and not "The Pursuit of ..." I don't have the same fears that tend to prevail in the USA.
I sure hope my response doesn't errode our Good Neighbor policy??? :) Roger
 

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
Roger, don't know if you have the boat or not but consider how easy it is to pull a boat slowly around in the water. You can move a 10 ton boat in still water with a piece of clothes line. You don't need large sails to be able to sail a boat, you just need large sails to sail a boat fast.
 
Jun 8, 2004
3,012
Catalina 320 Dana Point
That's the great thing about both the US and Canada, you are free to do almost whatever you wish UNTIL it proves to be a hazard to others.:dance:
 

Attachments

higgs

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Aug 24, 2005
3,736
Nassau 34 Olcott, NY
Power boat hulls and sailboat hulls are far different. Attaching a keel to a power boat would make it less efficient under power and probably incapable of planing. Under sail you would have an upwind piece of crap.
 

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
I think leeboards would be the best way to go. That way they could be completely lifted clear of the water when powering. I wouldn't modify the shape of the hull.
 
Sep 25, 2008
1,096
CS 30 Toronto
just buy a sailboat

Why not just buy a sailboat?

You think you can beat the engineering and create your own one-off at a lot of cost? That new mast alone is going to cost you more than a whole boat, never mind the new sails unless you're going to use bed-sheets?

Anything is possible including build a boat with old plastic bottles. It cost millions of dollars but you may have the resources to do it. If so, just do it......
 
Oct 5, 2008
62
Grampian 23 Bobcaygeon ON
Yer right Ted! We now enjoy Smoke-Free-Restaurants, Wheel-Chair-Access etc.... That thumb nail sketch looks like what I imagined! Tell me more! Roger
 
Oct 5, 2008
62
Grampian 23 Bobcaygeon ON
Re: just buy a sailboat

Alexco from TO, you sound soooo typically Canadian-in-da-box, LOL :) Juss kidding!
I gotta a very lovely little 23 Grampian, that I chopped 7 feet off the mast-top. As far as I know, I'm the only guy who travels The Trent, from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay, with his mast up. Sailing or motoring as conditions suggest.
A plastic-bottle boat? WOW! That would be boyant!!! Hope ya weren't too badly inconvenienced by the G-20??
 
Oct 5, 2008
62
Grampian 23 Bobcaygeon ON
Agree!

I think leeboards would be the best way to go. That way they could be completely lifted clear of the water when powering. I wouldn't modify the shape of the hull.
Hi Ross, I think you are right. That is something I've thought about before. The challenge would be stabalizing them, as I visualize them. Keep them from flopping around.
Have you seen such an adaptation? I guess folks from Holland could be resource persons?? Roger
 
Jun 28, 2009
312
hunter 23 Lake Hefner
Sure it could be done. But the question is, what would you have after you spent all that time, effort and $$$$. What I see as the obstacles on your mission are:

1. Installing a mast
Adding deck support/compression post.
Bulkheads for chainplates.

2. Directional control
Rudder. Depending on your boat. Where would you put it? Single rudder if it won't interfere with your screw(s). Dual rudder like a MacGregor.
Keel (if you choose that route) would have to reinforce the hull. So you'd have to tear up the cabin sole to do that. But a lead or iron keel would help keep the boat upright as well as side windage.
Leeboards, easier than a keel :) but would still require hull reinforcement

3. Positive stability
Installing a weighted keel.
Making it a multi hull. This would actually help with steerage as you could put your rudders and daggerboards on the outriggers.

All in all I think it is feasible. But just in a "I told you I could do it" or "Look what I did" sorta way.

Disclaimer: All the above is IMHO of course. :D
 
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