The keel failure on the First 40.7 Beneteau which brings to mind the keel failure on Michael Plant's boat. In his situation, his boat was a one off custom design and composite build.
His vessel also had a catastrophic keel failure. Many were of the opinion that the keel struck an obstacle at high speed. Much like a Nascar when it hits the wall, things break. Lets not fall into a false sense of security just because you have a full keel does not imply that it is not a bolt on keel.
Most fin keels are bolt on. Much like my Salar 40, which had a full keel but the lead portion was bolted from the keel to the hull structure and additionally the keel bolts and attachments were then glassed over. An Ingrid 38 shares this same attachment design.
A previous boat I owned, Mobjack, a 45 ft. Hereschoff design was a full bolt on keel. While I was restoring her, I removed the entire bolt on lead keel. Upon reattaching I used all new thru bolts.
In the case of the Beneteau Cheeki Rafiki and Michael Plant's boat the keel bolts had a very narrow attachment width which obviously allowed for movement of the keel from side to side, albeit slightly.
This side to side movement caused continuous crushing and fracturing of the fiberglass laminate and in some cases may even cause bolt deterioration from saltwater intrusion and stress failure.
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