Stub keel first launch

[Ixneigh]

Hello everyone. I launched the boat today. She came off the trailer fine despite the 6 inch higher bunks in the back.

Conditions were 20-25 in a sheltered bay with 8 feet of water and a one mile fetch. No board and no rudders.

Power without ballast. Speed seems unaffected. Not surprising. Turning radius is (on my boat) unaffected. Remember I also have the dual skegs on my boat and those knock the squirrelly steering down at the cost of turning radius. I was surprised that the rolling without ballast in the mild chop seemed lessened. Wasn’t expecting that. Handling without ballast on plane seemed more directionally stable but again I have the skegs which will affect that. Power with ballast, at non planing speeds. Negligible affect except down wind where the handling was improved. (Less correction needed on helm, slower yaw. Recall mild wave state.
It was a wash on “crabbing” where I idle the boat into the wind and crab her sideways at the same time. She does that a bit less. Neither good nor bad, just different.

Sailing with double reef and no headsail. We were doing 3-4 knots like this to give you an idea of wind strength. Rudders down. No board. Leeway issue and pointing ability improved. I typically sail like this in poor visibility, unfamiliar, shallow or unmarked areas. Boat was marginally faster, pointed better. (Better as in making good 5-10 degrees better) But still will NOT TACK. This was a letdown, although a light high windage boat wouldn’t loose any points for this. I had hoped I could get her to. She may still do it in shallow water. It was pretty windy in any event and the keel is not hindering the boat with my normal half board down in these conditions in known adequate depth. She will still go about.
The win for today seems to be down wind handling. This was not unexpected but the effects seemed better than anticipated.
I’ve always been a bit unhappy with the M models downwind characteristics. She seems a bit slow because she seems to go through the water not quite forwards but a little to the side also unless you lower the board, and then you have the board induced yaw and because of that I never use the board down wind in following waves. I just suffer with the reduction in speed. Note I use the main mostly for off the wind sailing because it’s usually easier. I’m not sure how much of a gain in speed I achieved but when I looked at the water I though we were going pretty well and the boat was feeling more like a keelboat. Any improvement in handling on this point of sail is very welcome. In deeper water running in strong winds she’s only marginally under control since there comes a point where she’s not going to be able to come about and jibing is dicey. (Yes I know, use the engine, and I have)
So. So far so good. Except the coming about with no board. One of my rudders is stuck down, so I could not try sailing with them in the up position. I did one. I’ll try to fix the other tomarrow.

Ix

[Inquisitor]

Sounds like a very objective evaluation. Even if not 100% positive, sounds like an overall improvement and worth the effort???

I didn't see the skegs during your Stub Keel build... or I missed identifying them. Do you have pictures... I'm having trouble visualizing them.
Also, do you have any compatriots down there with an M to do a side by side testing? Might be interesting to qualitatively note the side slip differences, pointing and ability to tack.

[Ixneigh]

I don’t have a good picture handy but I did do a fairly extensive write up on them. You could probably find the old posts perhaps? I think they still exist.

Continuing with the testing.
Today was pretty windy. I tried a too large, poorly fitting jib alone and got a beam reach with significant crabbing. I hardly ever sail with just a jib. As expected, coming about was impossible. Going down wind was improved. IE I could actually do it with the rudder in the up position with quite a bit of wind behind me. Strain on steering was moderate. I haven’t been able to get the boat to do that with a jib and the rudders up. In these conditions the main is better. I set the main with a double reef. Boat was off like a scalded cat. The boats docility, while setting and adjusting sails, remains unchanged. This is extremely important to me since I single hand exclusively. Let me tell you, I’ve been on enough Ill manned small boats to really appreciate the M model here.
Handling on a close reach with half board down seemed marginally improved. Handling and pointing with no board was 15 percent better. SP. leeway. I could always get the boat to weather in some degree with no board and the right sail up provided I could have the rudders down. Now she’s that much more weatherly than before. Maybe 25 percent. The boat “feels” better. She is in no way rejecting this graft of wood and fiberglass.
Progress with rudders up was slower, and the jib was too much. I changed down to a pretty small jib which was good. Less heel. Same speed. Better handling. Bear in mind that rudder up sailing is only for slow speed shallow (three feet or less) work. In the real world (not testing) I would never sail like that in four or more feet depth. Win for today is added performance with rudder down and board up. Still will not come about even with the jib unless the rudders are up. (?) weird. Jib is mandatory for that but I usually don’t use a jib for lurking the boat through very shallow areas. Just the main. The new headsail was a wash. It was cheap, brand new, but does not set well. It’s not cut correctly for the boat. I may still be able to use it as a staysail if I ever wanted to rig one.
At anchor. Got the rudder unstuck. Boat behaves slightly better at anchor. Added plus. I think despite not trying the boat in perfect weather yet, that I have enough information to asses this mod.
Final thoughts. The skegs on my boat were installed farther aft than I wanted to avoid trailer modifications. They were meant to be temporary. I was hoping they would reduce squirrellyness while motoring at low speeds and they did. The problem was the slight but noticeable tacking impact. I accepted that in light of the benefits. It also reduces load on the rudders by giving the boat some bite back there, and helped with shallow water sailing. All the things I’d hoped they would do. I’m too lazy to change them now. So this new keel mod is already starting off on a boat with a known tacking demerit. While I’d recommend the skegs to pretty much anyone, I certainly might start with the keel and see how the boat does with just that. It may be enough by itself. Hard to say. Right now I’m pleased with the boats sailing. She may not be the fastest M due to added wetted surface but she is doing what I need her to do for my particular use.

Further notes on my skegs. I placed them by eye and perillel with the boats centerline. I do not think that is ideal. My instinct now after six years is that the front ends should be about two inches farther off the centerline than the back ends. Someone might be able to computer model the water flow. It’s not straight fore and aft at this part of the boat, but partially follows the curve of the hull. The skegs should deflect that flow slightly. I have a feeling mine are doing it more than slightly. But not enough for me to bother changing them.

Ix

[Ixneigh]

That’s close to what mine look like except I have two, one in front of each rudder. Mine aren’t quite as long, and are two inches thick. If you don’t mind me asking what was your fuel and engine repair cost for that trip?

Ix

[Ixneigh]

Final update on this mod. Tested in moderate conditions and it behaved nearly exactly as I had hoped. Boat will tack with full main, rudders up board up. You have to finesses it. But she’ll do it, and in shallow water it seems slightly better. She still won’t do it with rudders all the way down. No low speed steering from long thin foils. This form of coming about is different then my rudders out of the water trick. But that’s a pain. A welcome boost in handling with rudders down (15 percent better) and marginal but noticeable with board half down. These improvements are not speed increases. They are handling and feel improvements. Like going down wind, will she fall off when requested? Does the steering feel sharp and can you control the boat in puffs without her wanting to round up. All these things are improved.amd the unexpected benefit of reduced anchor roaming was a nice unexpected bonus.

Ix

[Inquisitor]

Final update on this mod. Tested in moderate conditions and it behaved nearly exactly as I had hoped. Boat will tack with full main, rudders up board up. You have to finesses it. But she’ll do it, and in shallow water it seems slightly better. She still won’t do it with rudders all the way down. No low speed steering from long thin foils. This form of coming about is different then my rudders out of the water trick. But that’s a pain. A welcome boost in handling with rudders down (15 percent better) and marginal but noticeable with board half down. These improvements are not speed increases. They are handling and feel improvements. Like going down wind, will she fall off when requested? Does the steering feel sharp and can you control the boat in puffs without her wanting to round up. All these things are improved.amd the unexpected benefit of reduced anchor roaming was a nice unexpected bonus.

Ix

Cool! When you say rudders up... are they laid horizontal and still steering or totally up and you have some stub rudders like someone had on your skeg build thread using surfboard skegs?

[Ixneigh]

They are in the horizontal position.
The strain on the wheel is reduced with the mod. I only sail like that in light air or reduced sail.

Ix

[Ixneigh]

My trip south from key largo to big pine was a mixed bag of conditions, from very light to breezy to a bit strong ish. I pretty much only used the main due to laziness and beam and quartering winds. Average speed 3.5. I’m in no rush. I motorsailed in light conditions. One day the winds were 10-15 but the boat would only do 3-3.5 and felt off. Like I was dragging something. Seemed like we should have been going faster. I had experienced a similar thing last year but chocked it up to excess weight that I don’t have now. (Lighter by 300 lbs) at one point it didn’t seem like having the board down made a bit of difference. I wondered if the stub keel was interfering with the daggerboard water flow. Later as I closed Bamboo key I took a reef. Our speed remained the same but the pointing issue went away. The next few days were strong winds from astern 15-20. Boat performed well with reefed main, and as long as I kept the rudders clear of weed, it was a very light, responsive helm. She felt a bit more in control and the keel was doing its job here, esp. at speeds above 4 knots. I had no board at all, due to weed fouling issues, very common here. From there I sailed down past no name key, dolphin key into some really shallow water. I took a 2nd reef, picked the rudders up and squizzled the boat over water just barely deep enough to float in. Much more control under these conditions. I located a few stake markers for slightly deeper water and felt my way through them in not that great a light. Boat would go to weather marginally but with lots of leeway of course. A bit less than before but certainly not a huge amount. The keel here seems to mostly help in steering. Now I’m in the big pine key district with nothing but really shallow water for the next week or so.

Ix

[Be Free]

What point of sail were you on when you could only get up to 3.5? Did you determine the cause of the problem?

[Ixneigh]

Beating. Might have been Sail trim, too much main up. I couldn’t seem to get the boat into her grove where she surges ahead. It’s possible the keel addition has altered her sailing characteristics enough that I need to relearn a few things. But read on! Or not !
So I had some more off and down wind sailing in breezy conditions in pretty, and really, shallow water. Boat did ok and I left the motor down to ease steering. (Or adjusted the depth as needed) it did not hinder speed much. Even in dragging the bottom (grassy) I had steerage and could turn the boat off the wind. That was the most serious squizzeling I’ve done in a while. (Verb, crossing the shallows if any question exists of making it ) and the boat was in good control. Success. I was not able to do that before. When I gained a dubious pass, I lowered the main and ran the engine to go through. After I had gotten into a little deeper water I sailed again, this time upwind. With the board half down and still the double reef, the boat felt pretty normal and did 3-3.75 knots about what I expect for that sail. She pointed pretty much the same IE not very great and as I got a bit closer to my planned overnight spot, I lifted the board entirely. With the rudders down or nearly down steering is light. As we crossed slightly shallow water the steering got heavier of course. But I still had control. I could keep her on course in the puffs. Again, putting the engine down helped also.(as would a small jib) The boat will go to weather as verified by Chart plotter. Wouldn’t want to do miles of it but even 15-20 degrees is handy in water like this. Without the keel I could get her to weather Also, but only in a pinch, a few hundred yards, trying to get closer to someplace to park, for example. So that’s a modest (but well worth while to me) improvement. I sail the boat with no board a lot. In low vis, dodgy areas, or places with known hazards, etc. next to check off, full sail weather work, if the winds abate.

Ix

[Be Free]

I think your diagnosis of too much sail is right on target. With the short keel you are going to heel a little sooner (wasting power that would make you go faster) and you are going to have more leeway. If I understood you correctly, you achieved the same speed later with a double-reefed main on the same point of sail. That would be further confirmation.