Man the pumps!

[toddco]

Hello All,
I took my 1975 O'Day 20 out for it's second shake down cruise yesterday. From the first shake down, I found that the swing keel brakets were loose, and I was taking on water through the screw holes. I removed the screws and sealed everything with epoxy. All better there. Cruise number two went ok for a couple of hours, no water in the bilge. Then I started taking water again. The bilge pumps kept up ok, but I went from no water to the bilge pumps cycling every 15 minutes. I motored back to the dock and pulled back to the ranch.
The bushings are out of the center keel roller on the trailer. My partial keel has a little rash from scraping the roller bracket, it looks like it's been there a while. Its the only damp spot under the boat. My plan is to rework the trailer bunks, replace the center roller and repair the rash.
My question to the learned panel is, how much weight should be on the center roller versus the trailer bunks. Currently, the keel is resting firmly against the center roller even with the bushings out. I can raise and lower the bunks as needed. Should the trailer bunks be carring most of the weight or the center roller?

Thanks for any suggestions or comments.

Todd

 

[GeorgiaBII]

The keel should support the weight and the sides only steady it. That is my understanding.

 

[NC-C320]

I don't know about the Oday 20 swing keel, but on both the Venture 24 and Catalina 22 MKII swing keels, the weight of the boat is to be supported by bunks against the hull. Then the keel is lowered a bit so that it rests on trailer supports, thus reducing the amount of weight supported by the bunks and stress on the hull. Again, the weight of the boat is not on the swing keel....if so you will probably damage the boat/swing keel joint.

On larger boats (fixed keel), the weight of the boat when in the yard (and I assume a trailer as well), the keel supports the weight of the boat and the side supports (stands) are for keeping the boat up right.

 

[toddco]

Thanks for the replies.
NC, the swing keel on the Oday 20 actually folds up into a pocket in the keel. The weight shouldn't transfer to the swing keel. If it did take the weight, I'm pretty sure I would crush it.
Today I replaced the bunks with treated 2x6's. The old bunks were pretty mushy underneath the carpet. I also replaced the center keel roller. The new roller bracket is made about 1" taller than the old one. I rasied the back bunks 1" as well. The new bracket looks like a safer profile to keep from marring up the keel. I wanted to get a little more tongue weight on the trailer anyway. It's around 150 lbs. now.

 

[Capt Mike]

We have a Hunter 22 with a trailer, the weight of the hull is supported by the trailer bunks..The swing keel moves freely and no weight on it, the keel just rests on a center support on the trailer.

 

[toddco]

Thanks Mike,
I'm trying to figure out if I need to rasie the bunks another inch. I'm carrying weight on both the keel roller and the bunks. I know the hull will "sag" for lack of a better word, because the trailer bunks don't support the hull the same way water does. The center support on your trailer, is it a roller or a flat plate?

Todd

 

[NC-C320]

It sounds as if the Oday 20 is really a fixed keel with a centerboard (what you have called a swingkeel) and that the centerboard recesses fully into the keel. As I recall on some of the Oday's, the fixed keel portion is rather long and not so deep. Absent better information to the contrary, I would think that having the load distributed evenly over the center roller (assuming the "roller" is a series of rollers one behind the other) and each of the bunks would be the best for the boat. If it is a single roller, that suggests to me that it is there primarily to aid in loading/unloading and then would not be intended to carry the load....this case calls for bunks supporting full load, but the single roller would still need to make contact (but not carry weight ) with the boat so as to perform it's function in loading/unloading. A single roller would put considerable stress at a single point whereas bunks distribute the force. For clarification, is that roller under the keel (the fixed portion that extends down below the fiberglass hull), or is it making contact with the boat centerline forward of the keel?

Is your swingkeel/centerboard weighted (in which case, it would be a swingkeel, if not, then it is a centerboard....according to my understanding)?

On the Venture 24 and Catalina 22, and perhaps others, the part that swings up and down is all of the ballast weight, hence the name swingkeel. Here the bunks carry the load and the swingkeel is lowered with the winch a few inches into a keel support to take the bulk of its weight off the hull in trailering.

One other consideration regarding bunks. The hull of the boat is likely curved and the bunks need to conform to this shape to avoid stressing the hull in one spot. If your bunks are supported only in two places (at/near the ends), the bunks will tend to conform to the shape of the hull and distribute the load. If, like on my C22 trailer, the bunk has middle supports (i.e. three support points per bunk), then you have to take care to position this middle support of each bunk board so that the bunkboard is curved to match your hull, again to distribute the load evenly and avoid over stressing the boat in the midpoint area of the hull.

 

[toddco]

NC,
Everything you replied make sense to me. This is my first sailboat, so I am trying to learn as I go. There is just one roller centered under the last 1/4 of the keel. The swing portion is not weighted, and I guess the correct term should be centerboard. The previous owner hauled from Washington State to St. Louis, and we bought her from a charity auction. I think I'll take a bit more weight off the center roller. I have a little more confidence in my new bunks. They are supported in two places as you mentioned. Thanks for your replies.

Todd

 

[watercolors II]

http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=119

 

[toddco]

I adjusted the bunks till the compression on the keel roller would still turn by hand. While I was under there, I took a screw driver and scraped around on the gouge in the fiberglass. I have apparently been hauling a decent amount of the pacific ocean and some black sand, kind of ironic living in Southern Illinois. On the bright side, it's 105 deg. here today. If that won't dry it out I don't know what will. I'll let it dry out before I start grinding out the bad spot.

Todd

 

[toddco]

Current crisis averted

Ok,
Don Casey might not send me an autographed copy, but I am satified that this is going to hold. It took me two days and it really should be wet sanded and painted again, but I am basically done with my patch.

Todd