How tough IS the bottom of our keel?

[c_amos]

[size=3]This morning I as was re-reading Kurt's account of bringing Katie Marie home, [/size][size=3]I came across the following excerpt;[/size]

[size=3]"Now, some folks have a strong aversion to running aground. I do too, when circumstances warrant it, but I'm not scared of boat-touching-dirt when there is nothing to be scared of. My only concern was large wakes, but there was very little traffic this day, so I felt we would be alright, and soon Katie would float again, swinging head to anchor and wind, probably in 20-30 minutes. I probably could have backed off under engine power; I'd been half expecting to polish the keel on the bar anyway, and so had been moving at a drift when we got upon it. However, being a relative professional at this style of intentional grounding has its merits, and I think I could even describe it as a "technique", if forced to take a position on it by some argumentative boating types. Different strokes for different folks, and all that. Anyway, it served the purpose, and in about 25 minutes I felt Katie lift and start to turn into the wind, a floating boat again. I was halfway through getting ready for the next leg, so I watched for a few minutes to see that the Fortress, self-proclaimed "Worlds Best Anchor", would hold us steady, and, seeing that it did, continued my tasks."[/size]




[size=3]Drawn from;[/size]

Link to Kurt's Log 'Katie Marie comes Home'


[size=1](An excellent read by the way).[/size]

[size=3]As a fellow 'relative professional' at running aground, I would dare say that the sand in the New river does a nice job of keeping the bottom of my keel clean.[/size]

[Robert Lemasters]

When Mike Goodwin and I removed and filled the through hulls on Commander #105 the hull was more than 1" thick closer to 1 1/2 " and the glass seemed like new. I have run aground hard at full speed and there was no damage to keel, the 6 hp Nissan 4 stroke was able to back out with some little difficulty. Note that my good ol' boat survived having another bigger boat on top of it and crushing waves and all kind of hits from wrecked piers and other boats during hurricain a couple of years ago that sank or severly damaged most newer boats in and around same marinia. This is one very tough old boat, very much heavier then new ones of same length today with such sweet lines too. I will be posting photos soon as I get the mast back on and deck painted.

[eric (deceased)]

most of the older fiberglass boats of any brand were built stronger than todays boats.at the marina where I was for hurricaine jean last year the marina was totally destroyed.many of the newer most recently built boats were pulled off the bottom in pieces.a brand new catalina 30 was basically split in half by wave action upon a piling.my 1967 islander wayfarer was obviously pounding on a piling by the same wave action yet remarkably remained afloat suffering only major cosmetic damage only