ABOUT ORIYO
Length: 12.86 m. / 45 ft.
Beam: 4.06 m. / 13.32 ft.
Draft: 1.74 m. / 5.70 ft. originally, 2.07 m. / 6.79 ft. with the new keel
Genoa: 62 m² / 667 sq ft.
Main sail: 36 m² / 387 sq ft.
Fuel tank: 230 l. / 60.75 gal.
Water: over 530 l. / 140 gal.
In 1989, ORIYO was built. It took place in the north of France within the WAUQUIEZ manufacturing plant. Edouard DUBOIS was the architect who made the drawings.
Right after having produced the Centurion 42, the builder launched a new version with the centurion 45, which is the same boat completed with a stern platform.
Build a Keel
A broken keel
One of the first thing we noticed on the boat was her broken keel. It was in a pretty bad shape and we immediately know we’ll have to remove it and do some big work on it. After a meticulous look and a professional opinion, we had to get to the conclusion: we need another keel.
And so it happened! We heard about people who did their own keel by themselves! And so begun the DYI a keel. The new keel has to answer several critical and very precise So we are relying on a couple of professionals, an architect, who is also a ship engineer, and a welder from the boil making and ship industry.
Design
First of all, we worked with the architect who drew a new keel perfectly adapted to ORIYO. We wanted a more efficient draft. The old one was 1.74 m. (5.70 ft.), whereas we knew the exact same boat had been made with a 2.35 m. (7.70 ft.) draft. So we might do something to gain efficiency when sailing upwind with a longer keel, hence draft.
As the architect is a friend’s father that we’ve known for a while and who had helped us a lot with our previous boat, we were feeling trustful.
He spent quite a while doing the drawings and the math calculation before presenting an awesome layout. We loved it already. ORIYO was going to have a new keel with a 2.07 m. (6.79 ft) draft!
Building
To build a keel is a huge piece of work that requires specific knowledge and skills. Of course, being realistic, we could not achieve every steps through the new keel building just by ourselves.
The first and major reason is definitely the importance of this part for the boat performances and safety. That’s where our welder came into the project.
We started by making the steel sheets cut at the good size and protected from corrosion by a spray of hot zinc. The structure was then welded and the firsts sheets afterward.
We took care of the melting and pouring of the 4 tons of lead required to fill in the structure. After the welder closed the top of the keel, we covered it with a protective resin, fiberglass and another resin loaded with talc to make a hard waterproof coat.
To finish with, when the keel has been attached under the hull, we worked on the front and back ends to improve the general shape, protected as well by several layers of fiberglass and resin. Finally, we added a primer paint and a first layer of antifouling to get done with it.
What a challenge it was!
