John and Deb Rogers, owners of Deerfoot 2-62 Moonshadow, are currently having a little work done by Circa after a surprise encounter with a “bommie”…
The above photo is of Moonshadow’s keel, after smacking into a “bommie”–aka coralhead–while entering a Tuamotan anchorage. Thanks to the Deerfoot 2-62’s brute structural strength, the bommie came away the loser. After 3,000 extra miles of cruising on a slightly dented keel, John and Deb are happy to have the good folks at Circa doing the fix. John writes:
“We have sand-blasted our keel and removed the inspection ports on the side of Moonshadow’s keel to see what the extent of the damage from our bommie encounter might be. Besides the wrinkled nose of the keel, it appeared to come through amazingly well, but we did find a couple of welds along the stem had broken so have proceeded with repairs. The damage has been cut away and next week the new bits will be assembled and welded back in place. Below are a couple of photos you might find interesting. Having sailed 3,000 miles with our banged up keel since the accident, once again I must say it is very satisfying cruising on a boat that was not only conceived expressly for just how we’re using Moonshadow, but engineered with a view to take in stride the kind of hazards this lifestyle includes!”
John and Deb have a fascinating recap of how this encounter came to pass… Find out all the details with some great photos on their latest blog at saillegacy.blogspot.com.
Posted by admin (December 13, 2016)
December 17th, 2016 at 8:17 am
Is this an impact that could have torn the keel off or caused enough damage to loosen the keel, break mounting points etc, & cause enough damage to create a leak in many other boats?
This looks like a serious impact to me & I am thinking the dents did two things. First off, it remained water tight. I haven’t been sailing for a while but I seem to recall that being fairly important. 🙂 lol
Secondly, I am thinking the denting absorbed some energy & helped protect the mounting points & integrity of the hull.
I am highly impressed with the construction of this boat. Looks to me like it could have been much, much worse. I am curious about your take on this incident & how well the boat stood up.
I am glad they explained how it happened. Everyone learns from things like this even if it can be hard on the ego. We have all been there, or will be there at some point. That’s why we all appreciate quality construction. Things like this do happen & a well built boat comes away with everyone safe & minimal property damage.
December 18th, 2016 at 7:54 am
Morning Shaz:
Our keels, attachment, and local structure have always been designed with an eye towards impact. In the olden days, when there was an ABS rule for yachts, we tried to design the keel attachment and local reinforcement to four times the ABS rule. This was a small weight and cost premium that allowed far more impact than normal without beng forced to haul out. In Moonshadow’s case, this extra FOS was sufficient to do the job.