|
|
|
|
|||||
|
||||||
From: Jeff Smith (no email)
Date: Sat Jul 05 2003 - 19:43:56 EDT
I owned a swing keel 27 foot sailboat for quite a few years. I kept it in
Georgian Bay (incidently one to the FINEST cruising grounds in North Amerca)
Description - the boat had keel that was about 2.5 feet deep. It was lead
and hollowed out. The hollowed out section was called the trunk. The swing
keel was a steel plate that was very heavy. It was attached inside of the
hollow keel, and held in place with a pin at the front of the keel. Think of
a jack knife blade. The steel keel folded up and down inside of the hollowed
out trunk much like the blade of a jack knife. There was a small winch in
the cabin on the table leg that was used to raise and lower the swing keel
from inside of the cabin.
For downwind sailing, I left the swing keel up, as there is very little
lateral force needed to keep the boat upright on a downwind run.
On a beam reach or close reach, I lowered the keel fiully. When the keel was
all the way down, the boat drew 6 feet, up it drew 2' 9".
It was SUPERB for anchoring. I could sneak into skinny water and anchor
where other boats could not. In Georgian Bay it is VERY rocky. The swing
keel lessened the worry somewhat. In fact, I did once hit some rocks with
the keel down. It simply bounced up and down over the rocks. No harm down.
In a full keel boat it would have been awful.
At anchor we often watched full keel boats pass by and when they noticed
that we were in close, they'd decide that if we could get in there so could
they. We'd wave them off as best we could, but usually they'd just wave back
nicely and head in...and cuss like crazy when they ran aground. At anchor,
if the weather piped up and we started to rock too much, we'd just drop the
keel and the boat would settle down (of course, we needed to be in deeper
water to do that though).
In the last 2 hears that I owned the boat, I had a great deal of fun playing
with the keel. I was able to partially raise the swing keel under some
points of sail, depending upon the wind speed, and slightly alter the center
of balance of the boat...giving more or less weather helm. I was actually
able to set the swing keel depth to gain a little (.25 or so) increase in
speed. I wasn't racing, just learning and playing. Great experience really.
It gave me a better insite into the dynamics of sailing.
I would not consider a swing keel boat for blue water, but for Toronto and
the great lakes, it would be ideal in my opinion.
>From: Ean Kingston <>
>To: Arild Jensen <>
>CC: , live aboard list
><>
>Subject: RE: lv-ab: My Sailing Lessons
>Date: 04 Jul 2003 15:29:25 -0400
>
>On Thu, 2003-07-03 at 20:19, Arild Jensen wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Ean Kingston
> > I do plan on buying a boat eventually. I would like to get one that I
> > can go cruising around the lakes on overnights with friends.
> > Unfortunately sailboats big enough to weekend in comfortably are
> > more expensive than houses.
> >
> >
> > REPLY
> > With that attitude you will likely never get a boat.
> > You should try looking at something more realistic which will get you
>out on
> > the water and sailing.
>
>I am getting out on the water without owning a boat. That is why I
>joined the sailing club. As for never owning a boat; you may be right. I
>will also have another look at both smaller boats and used boats.
>
>Next spring I will be revisiting the 'eventually' part of my earlier
>comment.
>
> > I have run into that "keel boat" bias several times with the Toronto
>crowd.
> > Unless you are into racing the difference between a fin keel and a
>swing keel
> > is not likely to matter.
>
>That might have to do with watching all the dingies spilling their
>passengers in the inner harbour.
>
> > The swing keel gives you a number of advantages including the ability
>to tuck
> > into coves and places where a deep draft keelboat cannot go.
>
>Is a swing keel somehow different from a dingy with a dagger board? If
>so, how does it work. It's one thing to tip over in a boat under 10 feet
>long but what do you do with one that is 20 feet long and has a cabin
>that could be filling with water?
>
> > As for not being able to cruise on a week-end comfortably in anything
>but a keel
> > boat, I beg to differ on that account also.
>
>I'm new to this. Please explain. I'm willing to change my idea of a good
>boat.
>
> > During the day you spend almost all the time in the cockpit so cabin
>size is non
> > relevant. My Sirius had the pop top so I did have standing headroom.
> > Much to the envious looks from my Tanzer owning friends. The MacGregor
>26 has
> > much more room, a swing keel and water ballast.
> > A friend cruiised that boat with his family of four plus dog.
>
> > --
> > Ean Kingston <>
>
>___________________________________________________________________________
>|| The Live-Aboard List : send a "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" request ||
>|| in body of message to: ||
_________________________________________________________________
Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
___________________________________________________________________________
|| The Live-Aboard List : send a "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" request ||
|| in body of message to: ||
|