Andy and Jane are on the trip of a lifetime to the Caribbean on board their 12m cruiser racer Ambition with two crew.

They are currently in Las Palmas preparing for the passage to Antigua. On the way down they met strong winds off Portugal, but Ambition weathered the storm and they arrived safely in Gran Canaria. However, there is a slight ingress of seawater in the bilge.

Ambition is eight years old. She was previously owned by a charter company and was used for skippered and bareboat charter. She was certified and inspected for commercial use. Andy and Jane have fitted her out for ocean sailing with all the safety equipment. The sails and rig look fine.

Because the boat was fairly new and had been used commercially, Andy and Jane decided to save by not having a survey but an experienced friend looked over it out of the water and reckoned it was fine. By chance they meet a fellow sailor who recognised the boat and informed Jane and Andy that he bareboat chartered Ambition to enter a regatta in the Solent.

Jane has inspected the bilge for damage. The fittings look OK and it’s hard to know where water is entering. The keelbolts look solid but on lifting the floorboards and table she notices that the area on one side and also aft of the keel looks as if it has been repaired. They are victualled and ready to go. Should they depart?

Even a strong keel structure can be damaged by a grounding or collision. Get a survey if you are in any doubt. Photo: Richard Langdon

Would you sail if you found this in the bilges?

They would be taking a big risk if they set off across the Atlantic, even though the yacht previously went through some rough weather.

Yachts used for bareboat charter and particularly bareboat charter for racing have probably grounded. Some charterers are less than honest about how hard they went aground. Clearly there has been a serious incident requiring repairs to the keel area.

This should always be a matter of real concern when buying a boat. Andy and Jane should have had a professional survey, which would have picked up this problem.

It requires considerable skill by the boatyard to repair damage caused by grounding. There are a number of well-known accidents where catastrophic failure has occurred on yachts with keel repairs or alterations including Cheeki Rafiki, a Beneteau 40.7, which capsized in the North Atlantic in heavy weather with the loss of its four crew in 2014.

The 10m racing yacht Hooligan, whose keel had been redesigned, capsized off South Devon in 2007 with the loss of one of the crew.

Commercial yachts are surveyed every five years and inspected regularly but can still suffer damage between surveys which might not be reported. It is a really tough decision for Andy and Jane to delay after so much expense and planning, especially as they are 1,500 miles from home in the Canary Islands, but abandoning the voyage until the keel problem is solved is really the only option.

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