Wing Keel

I am looking to purchase an E28 and have a few questions. The broker tells me the boat has a wing keel and the rudder is 6 inches longer than the bottom of the wing. I imagine the wing keel was an after market add-on and was mainly done so due to the skinny waters we have in N.C. Should I consider the need to shorten the rudder the next time she's pulled or would this alter her performance?

My 1988 E26 had a wing keel from the factory. the rudder was about 6" shorter than the keel. The wing was very wide approx. 44". Hope this helps

All the other postings made me believe that any wing keel was an after market and I was concerned about the quality of the job since it seemed a little strange that they would leave the rudder longer than the keel. I wouldn't be too concened about it being shorter. Thanks for the info.

Just be careful

The rudder is not exactly huge, so you can expect some loss the directional stability and heavy air control if you shorten it-I undertand the reasoning, but think hard about it.
S

Rudder length

My thoughts are that many Ericsons in this length have a fair amount of weather helm, the length of the rudder may give you some advantages here. My E27 is shoal draft and I feel that it has too small of a rudder (it is a spade rudder). When going hard to weather I wish I had a little more surface area of rudder to over come the weatherhelm a little more.
KJ

Billy Starr said:

I am looking to purchase an E28 and have a few questions. The broker tells me the boat has a wing keel and the rudder is 6 inches longer than the bottom of the wing. I imagine the wing keel was an after market add-on and was mainly done so due to the skinny waters we have in N.C. Should I consider the need to shorten the rudder the next time she's pulled or would this alter her performance?

Click to expand...

Billy,
Note that the broker is only quoting from the data sheet filled out by the owner. This info can be, shall we say, "incaccurate"...
All will be revealed when the boat is lifted for survey.

Since the later models probably had the wing keel as an option, this is very likely a factory set up. In such case the rudder is very likely of a matching draft. Again, you will know for sure only when you see it out of the water.

While there are a few boats out there with modified keels, these tend to be like the split bulb design from Mars Metals.

Best,
Loren

Thanks to everyone who responded to my inquiry as it has relieved some of my concerns.