A classic long keel traditional yacht, surveyed in Eastney Cruising Association in Portsmouth. This classic yacht had been modified with a skeg hung rudder, rather than the original design that had the rudder on the aft side of the keel, where the mouldings clearly show where the rudder heel fittings would have been. Such modification of a yacht’s design is not normally to be taken lightly, affecting the balance and the steering.
This particular yacht had also undergone major rebuild and upgrading, including removal of the previously end grain balsa cored deck structure – modifications included replacing the balsa core with Nidaplast core, a honeycomb cellular structure with reinforced polypropylene which is lightweight and rot proof, although can suffer from reduced bonding properties compared with balsa. In this case, some debonding of the new structure was found to the deck and the companionway bridgehead.