If Philippe Brabetz bought the Meta shipyard in March 2020, it was also because he was looking for a shipyard that would allow him to offer a ballast system of his own design: the TurboKeels. This innovative patented system allows ballast to be passed from one keel to the other on a twin-keel sailing boat.
The idea of the TurboKeels is to literally shift the centre of gravity. This is already used on sailing yachts such as IMOCA's with their canting keel. By tilting the keel to windward, the mass of the bulb is moved. But a canting keel requires a complex mechanism that is costly and above all fragile for use in cruising. In addition, it does not favour shallow draught, as you cannot tilt the keel at anchor without seeing your boat heel over.
With the TurboKeels, Philippe Brabetz takes up this idea, but by applying it to a twin keel. He uses the 2 keels as "tanks" and plans to pass ballast from one keel to the other. Beware, he does not talk about ballasting water with a density of 1 as is already done on racing yachts. No, he's talking about lead ballast!
In fact the principle consists in creating a closed circuit between the 2 pins. A liquid consisting of a mixture of oil and lead shot with a density close to 10 circulates between the 2 pins. By remaining in a closed circuit, the lead shot never passes through the pump, only the liquid passes.
This system offers many advantages. It is simple to set up and does not require very high-tech equipment. A simple large pump is sufficient with an electric motor no more powerful than that of a windlass. This concept retains the advantages of a double keel (grounding possible, good anti-drift surface), and gives a righting torque equivalent to a pendulum keel with a draught reduced by half.
Initial studies show that this system would be effective for fairly large boats (from 40 feet upwards). For the moment at the prototype stage in the workshop, Philippe Brabetz hopes to be able to quickly propose a future Meta 45 which would embark the TurboKeels.
