Many thanks for your explanation. I would, however take up a couple of issues.

I suppose, firstly there is growing empirical evidence that many people make ocean passages in boats that do not have long keels or skeg hung rudders.

Secondly the reference to "lightweight", which I am not sure whether the reference is to the construction or the displacement - in which case it needs to be related to some other characteristic such as length. Weight per se is largely irrelevant, it is how it is used as I pointed out in an earlier post. Simply having a lot of weight in ballast does not necessarily make a boat more seaworthy. Indeed the first consequence is heavier (but not necessarily stronger) construction and heavier gear to deal with the larger sail area and bigger motor to move the weight. As to strength of construction, modern boats use materials in an engineered way, rather than just adding more in the hope that the structure will be stronger.

Thirdly, keels and rudders do not fail with the frequency you suggest. The three recent reported keel failures, one in South Africa and two in the English channel were all extreme racing boats (at least one with a fundamental design and construction fault, the reports on the other two are not out yet). Of the two recent reported failures of rudders, one was a composite stock of a type that is rarely used in cruising boats. The other, well investigated by the Irish authoriities involved a mass produced German yacht. Its aluminium stock was made by a company that supplies most of the major European boat builders. Not only could the exhaustive investigation by a German metallurgical consulting firm not find a definitive cause of the failure, but there are no other reported failures of this design, even though thousands are in service all over the world. Incidentally the yacht in question was a commercial sail training boat and had successfully crossed the Atlantic both ways without any problems.

This does not mean to say, of course that there are not failures, and in the early days of "modern" boat design and construction a lot was learned, but a statement such as your last line "spade rudders and keel bolts can fail - and do so fairly often" is an "urban myth" that is not supported by any credible evidence. Such statements gain credence if they are made and not challenged as they take on the appearance of a "truth". If you are going to make such statements support them by documented independent evidence.

I am pleased you like your heavy displacement steel boat - there was a time when I hankered after just such a beast. However the world has moved on and as many other posters have said in this thread, based on their own experience modern boats are quite capable of doing more than "day sails and a few overnights".

Happy sailing in the boat of your choice!