Shaping the keel

After the last IJspegel (12th of March) the boat was put on the trailer and transported to Lemmer. Here we are doing some general maintenance, and shaping of the keel.

The shape of the keel is like a wing of an airplane; it provides lift. The lift generated by the keel determines the angle at which the boat sails upwind. During the Primo cup in Monaco we weren't really happy with the upwind angle of the boat. We took a closer look at the shape of the keel and it appeared to be a bit out of shape in comparison to the original keel shape. To solve this problem we are re-shaping the keel to the original shape. This is done by sanding off the old filler and putting on new, which off course has to be sanded again. The shape of the new keel should solve the occasional upwind problem.

Besides the maintenance we have also put a new fitness program together for our bowman, Ernst-Jan. It's called boat-lifting...