wrote in message
...
I hear disparaging stuff about encapsulated keels but all the
accidents seem to happen to external keels. My 8.5 M S2 has an
internal lead keel so I never have given any thought to keel bolts and
such. Keel bolts on an older boat would scare me silly. I'd probably
rather sail a multihull on a long trip than an external keel boat.
I sail in the seriously shallow NE Gulf of Mexico and run aground
regularly. If I had an external keel, this would be a serious issue.

It depends upon how the external lead or cast iron keel is attached. Some
are good and some are not so good.

Here is an example of the good. Consider the world famous Capt. Neal's blue
water Coronado 27, for example. It has an external, bolted-on, cast iron
keel but it has an added feature few or no other sailboats seem to have -
there is a large rectangular keel flange on the top of the keel that fits
tightly into a same-shape cassette in the bottom of the boat. The entire
keel at the factory was covered with several layers of epoxy resin to seal
out moisture, the top part that fits into the cassette was covered with
marine epoxy glue and bolted down tightly to the hull. The excess epoxy that
oozed out was ground away and faired. Even if the keel bolts rusted
completely away the keel is effectively part of the hull being epoxied into
the cassette. And, a hard grounding will not tend to tear the keel off the
hull.

The main problem I see with built in keels with internal ballast is if one
runs them aground hard they can hole and fill with water. This is impossible
to fix without hauling the boat.

Wilbur Hubbard