Canting Keel

"We are a customer of C-Tech battens on Kaizen and had heard about some of their Americas Cup work, so when we came to build a new keel we put C-Tech on the list to approach. Coming from our One Design Sailing background we know that C-Tech deliver both quality and precision and as passionate sailors themselves, you are going to get ideas and contribution to a better end product."

– Simon Manning, Kaizen Owner

Canting Keel

Farr 36

Kaizen

C-Tech worked with Pure Design on a cost effective process to build the composite canting keel to a high specification and fine tolerance. Our objective was to build a fin that was longer, a lot lighter, had a smaller chord with less deflection compared to the old keel – and a shape and fairness that you would expect in a dinghy fin.

challenges

CHALLENGE #001

manufacture

The deliverable for this project was a a high performance composite keel built to fine tolerances with some cost limitations. Quality and process cannot be compromised on a keel so some innovative solutions were required.

SOLUTION

Building a mould was cost prohibitive so C-Tech decided to use a multi-step machining process to control shape and tolerances throughout the build. C-Tech worked closely with Pure Design to align engineering with the manufacture process. The structural core of the keel was built from autoclave-cured carbon fibre plate. The process minimised wastage and ensured uncompromised quality with the laminate stack optimised. Foam was integtated to provide fairing around the structure. The keel was machined in 5 steps to achieve a tolerance withina a fraction of a mm.