I thought I would share this tidbit from last weekend's events:
I spent 3 days on the boat last weekend on a 5000 Acre surface lake (pueblo
res). Sat I entertained my boss for a perfect conditions great sailing,
then he left and I stayed the night solo at anchorage. Sunday my very
pregnant wife joined me for an all day lazy anchorage--we stayed on the
boat sunday night. Monday we entertained a family of 4 (2 small children)
for all day fun. We sailed and the gentleman guest was an expreienced but
not lately sailor.
He enjoyed the good winds and sunny day--It was the most people I have ever
had on the boat at once (4 adults and two children and two coolers). I
played it cautious having been knocked down a few times by gusts and having
kids aboard but I was over cautious but that is fine. We had a good sail.
When we were going into a cove for lunch we spotted a sand bar under the
water and started discussing it. He was my acting helsman and as i took a
close look and uttered "better slow down" in concern, not more than 5
seconds later the keel hit the sand and his wife went flying forward
hitting her shoulder on the forward slid companionway hatch. I freaked
about damage and injury.
The keel was not secured down and came up about 7 inches and rocked back
and forth. I thought of the horror story a few weeks ago about another
potterer hitting a rock and trunk repairs, etc.... Yipes.
We checked everyone and all seemed ok but shaken, we lifted the keel, and
then the rudder and motored over the sand bar, then over to the beach where
we had lunch. I visually inspected th front of the trunk topside for
damage but could hardly notice any--I guess that wa lucky. I did notice
some paint had chipped off the keel onto my carpet. I kept wondering if
we would be taking on any water in the bilge, we were runing about 4 knots
at the time of collision.
We ran the rest of the day without incident. I looked last night at the
rearward underside of the keel trunk where I expected the other part of the
damage to be if there was any, but all I noticed was some gelcoat chipping
(which is common in the trunk---get it all the time from highway speed and
the raised bolted trunk banging around. Will need to touch up the paint
to avoid further rusting--not a priority but a good idea. I seem to
recall though that my trailer has a bar in the way of lowring the keel
while on the trailer.
I think we were lucky that the obstruction was sand. it probably gave way
a lot compared to what rock would have done to us. The whole thing
though was embarassing and sucked big time despite not incurring a lot of
damage.
What else should I look for to note if there was damage? I guess that
trunk is actually pretty strong which is a credit to International Marine.
Have a good weekend sailing.