Keel Fairing Underway!

Yesterday morning I started fairing the keel. My friend and fellow SJ24 owner, Mitch, loaned me the keel templates he made AND came over to provide me with a lesson and some assistance in getting the project started. Mitch also gave me some advise prior to starting this project which I, regretfully, didn't follow. The advice was to buy twice as much filler/fairing compound as I thought I'd need. Well... needless to say, Mitch was right. So... now I find myself with an entire gallon of filler applied to my keel and the compound I'd like to use on back order for over a week! This is NOT GOOD. I'm hoping I can drive to Fisheries on Tuesday and pick some up so I can get things moving again.

It is surprising how much compound is needed at the leading edge of the keel. The additional material is going to make me faster and higher up wind but will have the reverse effect going downwind. If you've ever sailed a San Juan 24 you know that you don't go anywhere near fast downwind and generally only pass people going downwind if they've had a blowout of some sort so I am not overly concerned about it. I think the net gain of faster and higher will be better than any adverse downwind effects.

In addition to work on the leading edge, I'll be adding a TON of material near the top of the keel where it meets the hull. Until now, the keel has been very narrow where it meets the hull. My goal is to have a straight smooth symmetrical foil from to to bottom. The trailing edge is about half an inch wide. I'm in the process of building the trailing edge of the keel and the rudder up to a width of about 1/8 inch.

For all my fairing efforts thus far I have used 3M High Strength Marine Filler (red can). It is not easy to sand and is not recommended for final fairing because of this, so I'll end up putting the last coat over the entire keel with 3M marine filler (without the fiberglass bits).

It is taking time... but the end result will be more speed and better performance on a boat with a name as truly fitting as Mayhem!, I need all the help I can get!

The shop is not heated so to get the keel and the air around it up to temperature, I had to drape tarps all around the boat. It works but with coveralls and a respirator it gets a bit stuffy... and flammable!

As you can see, the grey keel is getting covered over with green fairing compound. I'll sand the rough edges off between coats and will end up with a perfectly shaped and smooth foil for maximum lift and speed performance.

So far the largest addition of material has been to the leading edge. The top of the keel as well as the trailing edge will get their share in due time.

One expensive gallon of filler down... one to go.