Keel bands and boat covers

[RogerLennard]

I have just been sent the list of options for the BR20 I am having made. I wanted to tap into your experience to help me make some choices.

My boat will mainly be sailed on a lake and kept at the boat club there. However, I do want to go away to other places for overnight camping. This could involve the boat drying out on various surfaces or being pulled up onto a beach. Is it worth me going for the keel band option?

Secondly, will the mooring cover, offered by Swallow Yachts, be the right one to buy? I don't intend to drop the mast most of the time and so the Swallow Yachts full cover seems unwise. Are there any other cover manufacturers.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Roger

[garethrow]

Roger

I think the keel bands are well worth while to give protection whilst beaching.

Like you, I recover my GRP BR20 on to a slipway and leave her in the dinghy park with the mast up - so required a cover to suit. I had one made by a local craftsperson (local to Cardigan that is) that covers the full hull length and has a 'skirt that reaches down to the rubbing strake - just about. It hangs with 4 straps from over the boom / mainsail, which itself has the boom cover option - again worthwhile. I drop the jib and mizzen to lie under the cover to avoid UV degredation - this assumes you don't have a self tacking jib and do have a forestay. The cover in front of the mast is slit to wrap round and fasten with velcro.

Hope that helps

Gareth Rowlands
BR20 Halen Y Mor

[Graham W]

Roger,

Congratulations on your purchase (again!).

I'm surprised that keel bands are even an option, as I'm fairly sure that they used to be standard.  They seem essential to me if you want to dry out or draw up on a beach.  I'd also recommend the wooden rubbing strake, not least because boat covers can be attached to it.

There used to be an effective mast-up cover on the yard's options list (£350 plus VAT back in 2010) that sounds very like the one Gareth has had made.  I think that Swallow now subcontract their cover work to Rain & Sun in Southampton.  That company seems to want to channel your order through the yard, rather than you dealing directly with them.  There are other cover makers out there but I've found in the past that quite often they don't even bother to respond to enquiries.  Gareth's maker seems like a good option to try.

[Sea Simon]

Fwiw...BRe...

Imo, 3 keel bands are essential, as GW says above. Also consider that (like the wood rubbing strakes) they are relatively easily fitted at build, but much harder later.
Also surprised that these keel bands are now "extras". Sign of the times? I believe the wood rubbing strakes always were?

Rain and Sun covers are not cheap, but they are good quality and have proved to be durable on both my BRe (4 years for my mast up mooring cover - has this year required the bungies replaced, otherwise aok) and also on two racing dinghies. All left outside, all summer)
Mine is a grey PVC type material ("coolmax" or similar material?), the idea being that its more durable, and easier to clean than the buff canvas of my other canvas items.
Recommended.

I think the yard may hold stock, hence makers directing you to yard?

[Graham W]

Lara may have been talking about protective strips on the leading edges of the lifting centreboard and rudder, which are bare as standard.  Steel bands may slightly disrupt the carefully designed NACA profiles of both foils, depending on how much of them you protect with the metalwork.  The whole leading edge and foot or just the leading bottom corner?

I'd be surprised if steel protective strips on the central keel or on the two smaller bilge keels make much difference to performance.

[Sea Simon]

Agree.
I think we might be confusing keels (including bilge keels/runners) with foils (rudder and centreboard)?

I don't have metal protection edges on my foils, and haven't missed them. However, I usually sail in an area where isolated rocks and ledges are well known, the beaches are soft sand and much of the river is mud.
That said, I did whack a dinghy rudder badly, here in Fowey years ago, some damage to both foils. Luckily the dagger board was partially raised.
I was racing in light wind/strong adverse tide, and was pushing my luck!
Not sure metal leading edges would have made a huge difference? What if you REALLY whack it and bend the metal edge strip?

I'm sure others will differ?

Again. Cheaper now, more expensive and difficult later.

I'm sure metal edges on foils will have a significant negative impact on performance.
Is that worth the cost, in £ and performance? Down to you.

[Sea Simon]

I was a bit confused between keel bands and the drop keel and rudder protection. Lara clarified that the Bre has a stainless steel band running from the the bow (not sure how far back it goes) as standard. I'm happy enough to lift the keel and rudder to run the boat up a single beach without damage

My ss keel bands, on all three, cover their full length.

[Llafurio]

I was thinking about the keel band/rudder protection and talked to Lara about it. Apparently, it degrades performance; presumably the 'keel protection', whatever that is. ....

WHAT?: SwallowYachts fits "keelband/rudder protection" which "degrades performance"? That's not good advertising, or boatbuilding. Why do they do that?

[Philip L]

My understanding is that this was originally requested as a one off by a customer who was sailing in the Baltic Sea and knew he would need this type of extra protection on the foils. Matt doesn't normally recommend it unless your sailing area is at similar risk of meeting uncharted rocks

[Llafurio]

Yeah, good reasons to have impact protection on centreboard and rudder, but why do they put a protection on which "degrades performance"??

P.S.
I mean, come to think of it, the very point of having impact protection on board and rudder is to KEEP performance by preventing the NACA profile from becoming damaged by ground touchings. C.