Keels for cruising yachts
Performance benefits of fairing a keel
The effect of surface roughness of a keel on performance is well understood (e.g. go to General design topics page). However, the effect of longer undulatoins and waviness is not so well understood. As is so often the case, the answer was found in the technical reports of NACA (forerunner to NASA) from the 1930s and 1940s, when there was great interest in the performance of sub-sonic aircraft.
Performance of T-bulb keels
Capsize of Finistere due to keel loss
Just before midnight on 23rd February 2018 the yacht Finistere, competing in the Bunbury and Return ocean race, suffered a catastrophic failure of its keel. This caused her to capsize and the six crew entered the water. Four of the crew were successfully rescued, however two tragically died. This presentation I gave to RINA summarises the DoT (WA) technical report of the incident and some lessons to be learned, both by naval architects and by the broader yachting community.