A hooked keel no more!

Some previous owner of Mayhem! ran into something with the very aft tip of the keel. This resulted in a significant hook in the keel which I am sure resulted in a significant loss of speed in my club buoy races last spring & summer (or at least that is my excuse) and cost me more than one close finish for something other than last place. Well... like so many other completely valid (and some not so valid) excuses, this problem is no more!

Today, after using a handful of homemade blocks to provide much needed room below the keel, I was able to get to it with a hammer and sledge, the simultaneous swinging of which is more difficult to harmoniously orchestrate than one would think, allowing me to pound it back into near perfect alignment.

Before too long, all of these little annoyances which have collectively stacked up to rob precious speed from Mayhem! shall be forever eliminated leaving behind only a vague remembrance of days when I could, with a relatively straight face, walk into the yacht club, long after my saltier competitors, and a somewhat legitimate reason as to why my performance was less than stellar... (never-mind the fact that I only just last year became a skipper and on a mere two occasions had anyone but myself aboard Mayhem! for a Wednesday night race... not another excuse... I'm just putting it out there)

See below for before and after pics of the keel.

This may explain why I always seemed to point better on
a port tack...

The keel is now relatively straight and should result in better overall upwind performance... right??