T&T: Stabilization

[Mark Richter]

<<Listee Mark Richter fitted his boat with them but told me he did not know
how the boat
behaved without the bilge keels.>>

Hans,
Actually, I do know.  I added the bilge keels several years after launching
Pooh, and wished I had done the job earlier.  The improvement in roll
damping was substantial, but not dramatic.  I can measure no speed reduction
or fuel increase with the bilge keels, even though there must be some
performance penalty.  The ones I added are 8 feet long, and extend 5" out
from the hull, made of PVC foam, glued to the hull and glassed-over with
epoxy resin.  If I were doing this job again, I'd make them 10' long and 10"
wide, which would substantially improve their performance.

Pooh is 46' long, 15' beam, 4.7' draft, and displaces (and weighs) about
33,000 lbs.

Mark Richter, M.E.
m/v Winnie the Pooh, a trawlerized Heritage West Indies 46 ketch
underway passing Belhaven, NC and northbound