Your ship is very, very nice...impressive looking!! I know you spent a huge amount of time, energy and effort on that!!

Yes, some of my ships are RC like the USS Constellation shown in this photo attached.


On the keel issue. Do try a keel, the first good gust of wind and your hard work could disappear. Try a metal keel and you will be amazed at the stability. Go to Home Depot or Lowes...they have a section where you can buy plate steel in various sizes.

Cut a piece (you will need a band saw, but I have done it with a metal blade hack saw), that will run down the centerline of your ship about 12 inches first by a depth of about 10 inches. You can tape that on the bottome of your ship first using double sided tape first.

Put it in your bathtub and test the balance, fore and aft AND how much it pulls the ship down into the water. Adjust fore and aft as necessary still using the tape.

Once you get the right position, you can used angled metal supports to bolt this piece onto your hull and fiberglass in the bolts through the hull. If the ship accepts this size piece of metal without pulling the ship too far under the water, you can add lead to the BOTTOM of your sheet metal. You can buy lead strips from your local bass pro shop. Tape it on first to get the right quantity...after you determine the amount of weight, you can gorilla glue the lead strips to the piece of sheet metal equally on both sides of the sheet.

USING a MASK, you can sand the lead to shape like a bulb. Then you can paint black the entire piece. Bolt this to the supports you've fashioned to your hull and you have a weighted keel. If you sink a bit over your lower gun ports with the keel I wouldn't worry about it. Lower in the water to a certain point will add stability. But, make sure your gun ports are siliconed to enclose them with clear sealer. I couldn't tell if they were enclosed.

Wonderful job on your ship..I'm impressed!!
Hope that helps.