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Jeff

wrote:
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.

My mostly second hand experiance with encapsulated keels has been that
the problems are on the maintenance side. There was a publicized case
of a 40 footer that ran hard aground in rocks in Woods Hole while being
singlehanded (not an uncommon happening). Although the CG got it off
the rocks quickly, and from the outside it looked OK, the encapsulated
keel was "bent" and it ended up being totaled. If it was just a dinged
external keel it could be repaired.

Of course, its much safer just to go without ballast!