This is the sad saga of the day the wing keel nearly sank Utopia, our O'Day 322. It was almost "bombs away!" one August morning in 1994 on Chesapeake Bay when water began gushing in from the bilge. My youngest son, Colin, was at the helm, and we were returning from an overnight in St. Michaels on our way back to our home port in Havre de Grace. The night before I'd noticed that the bilge pump was coming on more and more often but attributed that to water coming in from the stuffing box which I knew was leaking excessively. Also, though our small switchless bilge pump was rated for 1100 gallons per hour, I always suspected it was too small for the job. The 322 has a very confined bilge, so larger pumps are not really an option. Anyway, we set sail the following morning under clear skies and a brisk wind. Colin was happily sailing and I enjoyed alternately watching him and gazing at the Eastern Shore as it slipped past on our way north. This was an especially poignant voyage for me because Colin was recovering from two severe bout of Crohns disease which had landed him in a Manhattan hospital that year. We would peer out of the hospital window, watching sailboats on the Hudson River and I promised him we'd soon be back sailing on the Cheasapeake. Now, in spite of his fearful loss of weight, he looked tanned and strong. Surreptitiously watching him doing what he loved best, made me glad my wife and I had invested what for us was a lot of time and money into this boat. Colin had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania a couple of years before where he was a student captain on the ROTC sailing vessel, the 50 foot Morgan "Centaurus," crewed by Navy and ROTC personnel. So here we were, several years later, neither he nor I realizing that pleasant summer morning, that he would be back in the hospital in autumn, one last time, to undergo surgery. Thankfully, he has been in remission ever since. I went below to grab a few snacks to tide us over till lunch and was stunned to discover water covering the cabin sole. I saw immediately that water was flowing in from under the bilge cap. Shaken, I lifted the cap and was confronted by water pulsing in from the aft area where the smallest of the four retaining nuts supporting the keel is located. I called up to Colin to let him know of our problem and he answered that he'd noticed that the helm was responding more sluggishly but attributed that to the increasingly rougher seas that were making Utopia yaw and pitch. In short order, increasing amounts of water began to cover the entire cabin floor, rapidly reaching past the stepped areas. Now when Utopia rolled, she remained over much longer before beginning her return to the opposite side. When Utopia was new I rigged a hose, fittings and levered valves in order to more easily install and remove antifreeze to the engine's water intake. I love to sail in winter and this setup made winterizing at will much more convenient. Now this arrangement would play a more important role: using the engine itself to suction the water from the boat. The little Rule 1100 pump was no longer able to cope with the increasing volume of water. Soon, even the engine was proving insufficient to the task. It was time to bite the bullet and send out a distress call to the Coast Guard. Thanks to our small Garmin GPS I was able to give them the exact coordinates of our position and within 20 minutes we saw the Coast Guard vessel aproach. Several of the Coast Guard crew boarded our boat and went below to check out the source of the incoming water. They discovered that Utopia's nearly 4000 pound lead wing keel was pulling through the hull. With the horse-hair compound they'd brought aboard, they begain stuffing the opening until most of the hole was blocked. With the large pump and hose they had also brought aboard, they quickly pumped out most of water. We were able to power unassisted into nearby Fairlee Creek at Great Oak. Utopia's keel began to appear as she was lifted from the water in the hoist sling. The now visible keel was hanging from two of the forward bolts, the aft two having pulled through the 3/4 inch fiberglass bottom and keel stump, dragging their backing plates with them! We had avoided a serious mishap by the skin of our teeth! Six months later, Utopia's repairs were completed and she was better than new. Why better than new? Because in analyzing the damage the cause became clear: the use of individual steel washers as backing plates for each keel bolt was woefully inadequate for suspending 4000 pounds of lead from fiberglass. Considering the weight of the wing keel, the stress of years of smashing down on heavy seas and the corresponding lifting of volumes of water on the large keel wings on the upsurge, not to mention heeling in stiff winds, groundings, bumps, etc., it's no wonder the attachment system was not up the the job. What was almost more galling than the mishap itself was the attitude encountered in dealing with the insurance company and the reaction of the boat's designers, Hunt Associates. It was clear to me and the marine repair facility, Vogel Marine, that it would be pointless to restore the keel to its original configuration. Something much better suited to the task had to be worked out. We quickly concluded that a solid one-piece formed metal plate was necessary to support the nuts attached to the keel bolts. This would distribute the pressure of the weight evenly on the hull. A transverse stiffening brace was added to further strenghten this section. The keel itself was bonded and faired into the keel stump making it an integral part of the hull. From then to now, the repair has proved itself. It's as solid today as it was at the time it was installed. The insurance company only wanted to pay for a restoration to the original design even though their surveyor agreed that it was inadequate. My argument that this would result in a repeat of this incident further down the road finally got the company to meet us half way by splitting the cost. So I picked up the tab to make the boat the seaworthy vessel it should have been all along. I wrote to Hunt Associates and described the incident. They responded that there was nothing wrong with their design and that it must be considered an owner-caused problem. My advice to 322 owners is to check the tightness of the keel mounting nuts every time the vessel is hauled. By jacking up the keel to remove the pressure of the weight, it will be quickly determined if the nuts have loosened, indicating the compression of the fiberglass and possible looseness and gap in the keel and the hull. Remember, the only thing between the washers and the keel is fiberglass. Hunt Associates maintain that they are backing plates and are sufficient. It's your boat; it's your friends and family aboard, so you be the judge.