Visit our Popular Forums

Weyalan · 02-11-2006, 21:14

Heh Dave, no offense taken... I could mention something about people not being able to afford a cat until they are too old to even bother pututting sails up any more, but that would be cheeky, so I won't

Tropic Cat · 02-11-2006, 21:18

Hey, my cat handles my wheelchair just fine.

OK, I'm Kiddin, what it really does is attact young women and at my age, that can be dangerous.

Rick in Florida

Tropic Cat · 02-11-2006, 21:23

oops... I meant attract

mudnut · 02-11-2006, 22:15

AudreyK,Lets see how small a world is>Suburb,One mile.Mudnut.

swagman · 03-11-2006, 13:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Aloha Audrey K,
Hope you get a chance to do the meets and greets section of the forum. Anyway, welcome aboard. I see twin keelers every now and then on eBay and they seem mostly from the UK. You can always get whatever you think is a wonderful boat and then cut off the center keel and add your own bilge keels or just get a shoal keel boat and add two more on each side.
Kind Regards, JohnL

I know every one likes giving advice but as a newbie, you'll need to appreciate 'cutting off a centre keel and adding your own bilge keels' as suggested above is NOT the kind of task one would normally consider. The work involved in such a modification is, in my opinion, far to great to justify the outcome.

Re your orginal question. Practically bilge keelers do not sail as well as a fin keel boat, but they are popular especially in the UK where owners do not have deeper water berths. Many UK small harbours dry out at low tide, so a bilge keel boat is a good compromise that allows for such mooring. In Oz you'll tend to find a shallow draft or swing keel monohull fits similar needs. There are lots of those in the small boat end of the Oz market.

My tuppance worth says if you can get a floating berth then try to do so.

With a new boat you'll want to spend as much free time as you can on it - and in a drying berth you'll not only have restricted sailing times, but difficulties getting to the vessel when the tides out.

And if you can get that floating berth - then you may as well go for a shallow draft fixed keeler..............

Good luck with whatever you end up with, and ENJOY

JOHN

hellosailor · 03-11-2006, 21:42

On the ex-racing boats, I'm sure some fit the bill for conversion but many othes simply won't. Typically, the engine will be a "docking motor" only, so a $12,000 powerplant will need to be added. And the rigging will be set up with running backstays, a bit inconvenient for the solo or short crew owner. So rerigging may be needed. Then there's deck layout, what fits a racing crew usually can't be handled short-handed either. And while a bare interior is a good chance to "build it my way" a lot of ex-racers also just don't have the interior capacity or payload capacity to haul around a cruising interior and stowage. And racers built lightly, well, sometimes those are the boats that have lost their keels, etc. because they were built for limited conditions and light weight.

Still, if you find something that can be made to work, and hasn't been abused too badly in the days it was racing...by all means.

AudreyK · 05-11-2006, 15:35

Thanks for all the advice guys

, I hadnt really considered a cruiser racer - there are plenty of dedicated cruising boats in my potential price range, and I dont want to start by making such serious modifications to a boat as cutting of the keel - the question about the twin keels was more curiosity than anything else as there a not that many around, but they would still be an advantage - especially up north around darwin and the kimberlies where the tidal range is so large that even with a floating anchorage you still might have to walk over a kilometer at low tide dragging a dingy just to put it in the water!
oh mudnut - north ippy bout 3 or 4 k
Audrey