Winter Project

[Jim Herbert]

I bought an old Chrysler Buccaneer 18 sailboat for our boat club this Summer. It is a little tippy. I had a Twin keel Westerly years ago.

I am thinking of adding two 200 lb keels to the Buc to add a little stability, straddling the centerboard. Dimensions are about 4" x 72" x 10" ht, full of concrete.

The question is fore & aft positioning. I am thinking that the trailing edge of the extended centerboard should be about the center of lateral resistance, which would be where I would position the center of the keels. Any thoughts?

Jim Herbert
Twin Cities Sailing Meetup

[bistros]

Originally Posted by Jim Herbert

I bought an old Chrysler Buccaneer 18 sailboat for our boat club this Summer. It is a little tippy. I had a Twin keel Westerly years ago.

I am thinking of adding two 200 lb keels to the Buc to add a little stability, straddling the centerboard. Dimensions are about 4" x 72" x 10" ht, full of concrete.

The question is fore & aft positioning. I am thinking that the trailing edge of the extended centerboard should be about the center of lateral resistance, which would be where I would position the center of the keels. Any thoughts?

Jim Herbert
Twin Cities Sailing Meetup

Hope I'm not offending, but I would not consider this type of mod to a Bucc. You would slow down the boat dramatically and alter it's sailing abilities for the worse a lot.

A Buccaneer is certainly not an unstable dinghy - it can sit at the dock unattended so it is a lot more stable than anything I sail. Yes, it can tip and capsize, but that is dinghy sailing. 400 pounds added to a Bucc, along with all the drag will hugely decrease performance and may affect buoyancy enough to be dangerous. If you really want a small keelboat I'd go buy one.

I would not want to be your insurer if a member or guest were sailing the boat and a capsize and subsequent trouble was traced to your "modifications".

Sounds like you need to buy the right boat for the job.

--
Bill

[messabout]

I do not recall that my Buc was "tippy". Actually I thought it was entirely adequate in terms of stability. Heed Bistros warning. Do NOT add ballast to that boat. Dinghys depend on shifting ballast in the form of crew weight and only attentive crew weight.