Sailboat with an inclinable keel board

A sailboat with at least one inclinable keel board, said sailboat including:

• a hull defining a longitudinal direction which extends between a stern portion and a stem portion;
• a keel board which includes a blade which projects beneath the hull to reduce sideways movement of the boat;
• a boomed mast on the hull, for carrying sail so that the action of the wind on the sail(s), in conjunction with the action of the water on the blade makes the boat move;
• and
• means for inclining the keel board to allow the blade to incline sideways due to the thrust of the water by rotating through a limited angle about at least one inclination axis which is substantially parallel to the keel blade and above it, so that the transversal component of the movement of the boat generates an upward lift due to the action of the water on the blade,
• characterized in that wherein the inclining means includes means to set the axis of inclination of the keel board in such a manner that as the blade rotates about the axis, the axial direction of horizontal cross-sections through the blade are inclined to said longitudinal direction of the boat at an angle such that the forward end of said axial direction moves, with respect to said longitudinal direction, in the same direction as the bottom end of the blade moves with respect to its top end, whereby the longitudinal component of the movement of the boat generates an upward lift component from the blade and whereby the direction of movement of the boat is close to the direction of least resistance to the forward movement of the hull, and wherein said inclining means is such that the inclination axis of the blade is disposed in a vertical longitudinal plane of the boat and is inclined with respect to the horizontal rising towards the bow of the boat so that the axial direction of horizontal cross-sections through the blade are inclined with respect to the longitudinal direction only when the blade is inclined outside the vertical plane of the inclination axis, and wherein inclination of the blade is directly caused by the pressure of the water and is around an inclination axis extending substantially above the blade.