Pros and Cons of the Wing Keel (5 Surprising Benefits)
Advantages of the Wing Keel Shallow draft. The main reason the wing keel gained popularity is that it offers better clearance. The horizontal wing enlarges the keel's surface area and so it doesn't have to go as deep as a fin keel on a boat of the same size has to - the difference can easily be a foot of draft on a twenty-foot sailboat. This is quite irrelevant in the Mediterranean or Adriatic ...
Winged keel
The winged keel is a sailboat keel layout first fitted on the 12-metre class yacht Australia II, 1983 America's Cup winner. Design ... Note that, contrary to classic configurations, the keel of this boat is "upside down" under the hull (the root chord is smaller than the tip ...
How Does the Winged Keel Work?
The winged keel works by using a series of wing-like structures on the bottom of the keel to create lift. As the boat moves through the water, the wings generate lift, which reduces the amount of drag. This allows the boat to move through the water more efficiently, leading to faster speeds and better performance.
Wing Keel Sailboats Explained
When Was the Wing Keel First Used? Like many innovations in yachting and sailing, the winged keel was first used as an attempt to gain an advantage during a famous yacht race. In 1851, the schooner America was sailed to the UK to compete for the 100 Guinea Cup. The ornate and elaborate trophy spent the next 132 years defended successfully by ...
Sailboat Keel Types Compared: Pros and Cons of 13 Types
Furthermore, if the boat does become grounded, the wing keel design makes it easier to refloat. Cons of wing keel. However, the wing keel is not without its drawbacks. The most notable disadvantage of this design is its reduced pointing ability compared to fin keels. The wing keel may struggle to sail as close to the wind as a similarly-sized ...
AUSTRALIA II, the winged keel and more
Posted on 24 Sep 2013 by David Payne. Australia II has become one of the nation's most recognisable vessels, thanks to that extraordinary America's Cup win in 1983. Almost everyone knows about its winged keel that seemed to make it unbeatable. The keel completely spooked the Americans who tried many moves off the water to avoid having to ...
How keel type affects performance
How keel type affects performance. James Jermain has tested hundreds of yachts in his 30 years as Yachting Monthly's chief boat tester. The performance and handling of a yacht depends on many things, but perhaps the most important single feature is the shape of the hull and the profile of the keel. Over the years hulls have become shallower ...
Wing Keels
While a wing keel may sound like the perfect solution to a sailor who is searching for a high performance yacht with a shallow draft, but they do have an additional problem with groundings. Fin keels are rather weak and can suffer great damage during a grounding, but the sailboat can usually work its way off a shoal with enough effort.
Throwback Thursday: Australia II's Winged Keel Design
Australia II's 1983 America's Cup win was largely credited to her revolutionary winged keel design. All sorts of interesting things happened back in 1983. McDonald's introduced the Chicken McNugget, Microsoft Word was released, and Swatch watches were all the rage. For sailors, however, the biggest news of 1983 was when the 12-Meter Australia ...
Winged Victory
The man whose name is synonymous with the winged keel, Ben Lexcen was the most prolific Cup designer over the five-match period that ran from 1974 through 1987. ... a storm of controversy gathered over the challenging Australian and defending New York Yacht Club syndicates. At that time, the rules governing the Cup required that each yacht be ...
Australia II
Australia II was designed by Ben Lexcen, built by Steve Ward, owned by Alan Bond and skippered by John Bertrand. [2] Lexcen's Australia II design featured a reduced waterline length and a short chord winged keel which gave the boat a significant advantage in manoeuvrability and heeling moment (lower ballast centre of gravity) but it was a significant disadvantage in choppy seas.
Ben Lexcen
Benjamin Lexcen AM (born Robert Clyde Miller, 19 March 1936 - 1 May 1988) was an Australian yachtsman and marine architect. He is famous for the winged keel design applied to Australia II which, in 1983, became the first non-American yacht to win the prestigious America's Cup in 132 years.
Keel types and how they affect performance
He also designed America's Cup 12-Metres that defended the cup up to 1983 until Ben Lexcen's winged keel shook the sailing world. Many S&S fin keel and skeg production boats - such as the Swan 36 (1967), 37, 40, 43, 48, 53 and 65, She 31 (1969) and 36 and S&S 34 (1968) - still win yacht races and are much sought after as classics.
Australia II
Some of his Australian 18s, model boats, and other designs had wing-like endplates and unusually small fins.When he worked on the design for Bond's 1977 Cup challenger, Australia, he and his associate, Johan Valentijn, tested wings and a keel 15 to 20 percent smaller than the norm before doubts about the accuracy of the tank tests led them ...
Australia II
Significance AUSTRALIA II is a 12 metre class yacht built in WA in 1982. It was the yacht that won the 1983 America's Cup challenge against the USA and ended the longest winning streak in sporting history. It is a celebrated and radical design from Ben Lexcen featuring his winged-keel concept and was built by Steve Ward near Fremantle.
The development of the winged keel for twelve-metre yachts
In this paper the authors present a numerical and experimental analysis of the winged keel originally developed for the International twelve-metre class yacht Australia II that won the America's Cup in 1983. After briefly explaining why this keel was evolved in 1981, some basic considerations are presented relating keel performance to various design parameters.
Sailboat Keel Types: Illustrated Guide (Bilge, Fin, Full)
The most common sailboat keel types are full-length keels, fin keels, bulb keels, wing keels, bilge keels, and lifting keels. Full keels are popular among cruisers, while fin keels are generally used for racing. Bilge keels and lifting keels are typically used in tidal waters, on small fishing boats for example.
Winged keel
Other articles where winged keel is discussed: Ben Lexcen: …the 12-metre class with a winged keel that improved the boat's stability and maneuverability. Lexcen suffered a heart attack in 1983 after accusations that he had not designed the revolutionary keel, but he ultimately received full credit for the boat's victory.
12 Metre
It covers all 12 Metre yachts built with winged keels and all constructed after 1983. Australia II, launched in 1982, was the first wing keeled 12 Metre so is considered the first of this division. USA (US 61), also fits into this category, even though its keel structure is different from the standard winged keel of the class. It is also the ...
What is the Best Keel for A Shoal Draft Boat?
The Scheel keel is pretty well proven by this time. We think it's a better bet than the wing, if you have that choice, and overall a good moderate design for shallow-draft cruising. Performance isn't bad-in racing, both PHRF and IMS show that the Scheel keel is about 5 to 12 seconds per mile slower than a deeper fin on otherwise identical ...
The Development of The Winged Keel for Twelve-metre Yachts
This paper presents a numerical and experimental analysis of the winged keel originally developed for the International twelve-metre class yacht Australia II that won the America's Cup in 1983. After briefly explaining why this keel was evolved in 1981, some basic considerations are presented relating keel performance to various design parameters.
Keel failure: the shocking facts
Far from being extreme, this was a tragedy that claimed four lives aboard a run-of-the-mill cruiser-racer and struck a chord with thousands of sailors. It wasn't the first case of its type ...
1983 America's Cup
The revolutionary "winged keel" of the Australian yacht was a subject of controversy from the outset of the challenger series, with the New York Yacht club alleging that the winged keel boat was not a legal 12 Meter, and that the keel design itself was the result of Dutch engineers, and not by Lexcen.
COMMENTS
Advantages of the Wing Keel Shallow draft. The main reason the wing keel gained popularity is that it offers better clearance. The horizontal wing enlarges the keel's surface area and so it doesn't have to go as deep as a fin keel on a boat of the same size has to - the difference can easily be a foot of draft on a twenty-foot sailboat. This is quite irrelevant in the Mediterranean or Adriatic ...
The winged keel is a sailboat keel layout first fitted on the 12-metre class yacht Australia II, 1983 America's Cup winner. Design ... Note that, contrary to classic configurations, the keel of this boat is "upside down" under the hull (the root chord is smaller than the tip ...
The winged keel works by using a series of wing-like structures on the bottom of the keel to create lift. As the boat moves through the water, the wings generate lift, which reduces the amount of drag. This allows the boat to move through the water more efficiently, leading to faster speeds and better performance.
When Was the Wing Keel First Used? Like many innovations in yachting and sailing, the winged keel was first used as an attempt to gain an advantage during a famous yacht race. In 1851, the schooner America was sailed to the UK to compete for the 100 Guinea Cup. The ornate and elaborate trophy spent the next 132 years defended successfully by ...
Furthermore, if the boat does become grounded, the wing keel design makes it easier to refloat. Cons of wing keel. However, the wing keel is not without its drawbacks. The most notable disadvantage of this design is its reduced pointing ability compared to fin keels. The wing keel may struggle to sail as close to the wind as a similarly-sized ...
Posted on 24 Sep 2013 by David Payne. Australia II has become one of the nation's most recognisable vessels, thanks to that extraordinary America's Cup win in 1983. Almost everyone knows about its winged keel that seemed to make it unbeatable. The keel completely spooked the Americans who tried many moves off the water to avoid having to ...
How keel type affects performance. James Jermain has tested hundreds of yachts in his 30 years as Yachting Monthly's chief boat tester. The performance and handling of a yacht depends on many things, but perhaps the most important single feature is the shape of the hull and the profile of the keel. Over the years hulls have become shallower ...
While a wing keel may sound like the perfect solution to a sailor who is searching for a high performance yacht with a shallow draft, but they do have an additional problem with groundings. Fin keels are rather weak and can suffer great damage during a grounding, but the sailboat can usually work its way off a shoal with enough effort.
Australia II's 1983 America's Cup win was largely credited to her revolutionary winged keel design. All sorts of interesting things happened back in 1983. McDonald's introduced the Chicken McNugget, Microsoft Word was released, and Swatch watches were all the rage. For sailors, however, the biggest news of 1983 was when the 12-Meter Australia ...
The man whose name is synonymous with the winged keel, Ben Lexcen was the most prolific Cup designer over the five-match period that ran from 1974 through 1987. ... a storm of controversy gathered over the challenging Australian and defending New York Yacht Club syndicates. At that time, the rules governing the Cup required that each yacht be ...
Australia II was designed by Ben Lexcen, built by Steve Ward, owned by Alan Bond and skippered by John Bertrand. [2] Lexcen's Australia II design featured a reduced waterline length and a short chord winged keel which gave the boat a significant advantage in manoeuvrability and heeling moment (lower ballast centre of gravity) but it was a significant disadvantage in choppy seas.
Benjamin Lexcen AM (born Robert Clyde Miller, 19 March 1936 - 1 May 1988) was an Australian yachtsman and marine architect. He is famous for the winged keel design applied to Australia II which, in 1983, became the first non-American yacht to win the prestigious America's Cup in 132 years.
He also designed America's Cup 12-Metres that defended the cup up to 1983 until Ben Lexcen's winged keel shook the sailing world. Many S&S fin keel and skeg production boats - such as the Swan 36 (1967), 37, 40, 43, 48, 53 and 65, She 31 (1969) and 36 and S&S 34 (1968) - still win yacht races and are much sought after as classics.
Some of his Australian 18s, model boats, and other designs had wing-like endplates and unusually small fins.When he worked on the design for Bond's 1977 Cup challenger, Australia, he and his associate, Johan Valentijn, tested wings and a keel 15 to 20 percent smaller than the norm before doubts about the accuracy of the tank tests led them ...
Significance AUSTRALIA II is a 12 metre class yacht built in WA in 1982. It was the yacht that won the 1983 America's Cup challenge against the USA and ended the longest winning streak in sporting history. It is a celebrated and radical design from Ben Lexcen featuring his winged-keel concept and was built by Steve Ward near Fremantle.
In this paper the authors present a numerical and experimental analysis of the winged keel originally developed for the International twelve-metre class yacht Australia II that won the America's Cup in 1983. After briefly explaining why this keel was evolved in 1981, some basic considerations are presented relating keel performance to various design parameters.
The most common sailboat keel types are full-length keels, fin keels, bulb keels, wing keels, bilge keels, and lifting keels. Full keels are popular among cruisers, while fin keels are generally used for racing. Bilge keels and lifting keels are typically used in tidal waters, on small fishing boats for example.
Other articles where winged keel is discussed: Ben Lexcen: …the 12-metre class with a winged keel that improved the boat's stability and maneuverability. Lexcen suffered a heart attack in 1983 after accusations that he had not designed the revolutionary keel, but he ultimately received full credit for the boat's victory.
It covers all 12 Metre yachts built with winged keels and all constructed after 1983. Australia II, launched in 1982, was the first wing keeled 12 Metre so is considered the first of this division. USA (US 61), also fits into this category, even though its keel structure is different from the standard winged keel of the class. It is also the ...
The Scheel keel is pretty well proven by this time. We think it's a better bet than the wing, if you have that choice, and overall a good moderate design for shallow-draft cruising. Performance isn't bad-in racing, both PHRF and IMS show that the Scheel keel is about 5 to 12 seconds per mile slower than a deeper fin on otherwise identical ...
This paper presents a numerical and experimental analysis of the winged keel originally developed for the International twelve-metre class yacht Australia II that won the America's Cup in 1983. After briefly explaining why this keel was evolved in 1981, some basic considerations are presented relating keel performance to various design parameters.
Far from being extreme, this was a tragedy that claimed four lives aboard a run-of-the-mill cruiser-racer and struck a chord with thousands of sailors. It wasn't the first case of its type ...
The revolutionary "winged keel" of the Australian yacht was a subject of controversy from the outset of the challenger series, with the New York Yacht club alleging that the winged keel boat was not a legal 12 Meter, and that the keel design itself was the result of Dutch engineers, and not by Lexcen.