Bottoms, Keels & Rudders Is there an optimum keel shape?
Class rules leave little flexibility about the profile shape of the keel , although the foil shape is restricted only in terms of a maximum width. This leaves Rhodes sailors in two camps. One holds that the width of the leading 1/3 should be fattened to the maximum allowed and tapered aft from there, optimizing the lifting shape of the foil. The other camp holds that the hull shape isnt fast enough to take advantage of such an optimized foil, and that adding width to the keel only adds frictional drag. This camp holds that thinner is better. For what its worth, recent national championship boats have had thinner keels.
