I grew up in a house where inventing, designing and then manufacturing the result, was taken as a normal activity. My father pursued this way of life, making a reasonable contribution to his income, until he retired. That upbringing has rubbed off on me.

My interest in sailing boats started at the age of five when my parents bought a small dingy which we sailed from Sea View on the Isle of Wight. This brief exposure to sailing during our annual summer holidays kindled an interest which I have pursued on and off ever since.

I was lucky to be sent to a school that encouraged participation in a wide variety of hobbies. Many of the interests I developed then still occupy a major part of my life today. Gliding at Lasham Airfield was one of the extracurricular activities which I took to like a duck to water. This led to a career in Aviation. Training at the College of Air Training Hamble at the end of the sixties, I then flew for BEA/BA until I retired as a Senior Training Captain in 2003.

Development of a retracting keel.

Having been a regular reader of PBO and Yachting Monthly since the late seventies I have watched with interest the developments of swing keel/raising keel boats. Living in landlocked Buckinghamshire, a trailer sailer of around 25ft is a very appealing proposition. Now retired, I have been working on the design of a retracting keel for a sailing boat. My goal has been to try and incorporate elements of the design requirements for undercarriages on aircraft.

For instance, I have never boarded an aircraft to find a large box in the cabin to house the undercarriage. On small cruising boats with swing/raising keels there is always a keel box in the cabin. Very clever ways of incorporating this box into the cabin layout, without making it too intrusive, have been part of the design. But on these small boats space is at a premium and if the requirement to have a box in the cabin could be overcome it would be a big step forward.

An aircraft undercarriage is designed to extend under gravity alone. When extended it locks in place. A keel which locked when extended would have safety benefits. The keel would stay in place providing a righting moment in the event of a knockdown or rollover. This would be a significant improvement over a swing keel or lifting keel where a rollover can result in unrestrained heavy plates causing structural damage. A classic case of a crisis having the potential to turn into a catastrophe.

With the flick of a switch an undercarriage will retract immediately. The ability to raise a locked extended keel at short notice would also be useful.

I have developed a retracting, bulbed boat keel that meets these design criteria.

Simply described it is,

A FIXED KEEL, THAT RETRACTS.


Will Steynor.