V34 Wing Keel

Admin · 2013-09-28 14:30:42

I have received an email from Mike Bees. He says:

We are in Brightlingsea and looking for something to replace our recently departed 25' gaffer, possibly a Victoria 30 or 34 (although the latter would be stretching our budget and I'm not that keen on 4'10" draught for East Coast creek-crawling).

If we end up being Victoria owners then of course I would join the Association.

Furthermore, he goes on to ask:

I believe that a small number of Victoria 34s were fitted with a shallow draft winged keel. Does anyone have any experience of this, or useful information? Is the performance better/ similar/worse than the standard keel? Are there any drawbacks (e.g. drying out, deliberately or otherwise!)? I have (cheekily?) emailed Chuck Paine to see if I get any feedback from him. Did he design the winged keel I wonder?

Can anyone offer Mike any advice or answers to his queries?

Admin · 2013-12-04 11:52:57

Mike has very kindly emailed some information that he obtained from Bob Hathaway, which he felt might be of use and interest to other members or (potential) owners, and Bob has kindly given me permission to include this information on the website:

Mike writes, "I managed to find out some useful information by tracking down Bob Hathaway, who was Technical Director of Victoria Yachts. I don''t know whether anyone in the Association keeps an archive of this kind of information but if so then perhaps what Bob kindly provided could be usefully added to the records."...

Simoon III was the only Victoria 34 fitted with the shoal keel. The keel was developed by me, in conjunction with Chuck Paine for my own Frances 34. The objectives were to lower the VCG in order to compensate for the weight of the wheelhouse, move the LCG forwards in order to compensate for the additional engine weight and deal with a long-standing "tail heavy" problem with the V34 hull & keel configuration and, really only for marketing reasons, reduce the draft to appeal to the East Coast market! We could have kept the draft the same but it seemed a good idea to develop a new variant. I also designed but never built, a deep draft version of the keel at 5 ft 4 in.

The keel was fitted to Simoon III, the V34 advertised which crossed the Atlantic, and 4 Frances 34's. The effects were dramatic with a significant stability increase, better balance and better trim. In fact the V34 ended up slightly bow heavy. Despite all of the additional weight and large engine/propeller my Frances 34, albeit with very good sails, (Thanks Hood) outperformed all Victoria 34's in any close
encounters. The improvement was achieved by abandoning an encapsulated keel for a bolted-n keel with a bulb/wing configuration.

So, either find Simoon III or buy a F34! The keel cannot be retrofitted.

Hubbly Bubbly was a standard 34 modified with the wings/bulb from the F34 keel using lead shot in resin glassed onto the outside of the encapsulated keel. Basically it worked but still draws 4'10". I am pretty certain that there is only the one V34 with the external lead keel but it was a long time ago so do not be afraid to ask!

Thank you both Mike and Bob for this information.

#1 2013-09-28 14:30:42

V34 Wing Keel

#2 2013-12-04 11:52:57

Re: V34 Wing Keel

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