I actually have a steel knife and gave up my bear skins a few years ago. I do, however, have a keel that seems to stick around. No matter what I do to it, and its taken a few hit over the years, it still seems to hang around. I guess "you are what you are because of where you were when". I've had a leaking fin keel boat. I've also been involved with dragging a full keel boat off of a reef and seeing it sail away. It took a couple of weeks of work but she still sailed away. I just don't see that happening with a fin keel boat. But to each his own, it's all a trade off. The picture is the inside of my friends boat still floating with the full keel still attached and a hole in her side with the attached rudder beat out of her gudgeon and bent over to the side. The wires are hard wired extra bilge pumps.