What really happened to Mooron
In article , katysails
wrote:
Thanks, I'll have to look the different keels up on the internet to see what
they look like.
LP
Remember, preference of keel is an opinion. Us deep fin keelers know how to
row our dinghies into those shallow areas without having to take the whole
boat in...if you want to go swamp stalking with a boat, then you should get a
pontoon picnic boat....and our deep fin tracks fine. set the sails
correctly, lock down the wheel and sit and watch the scenery/
Yeah, sure, Katy. It's possible, just not as forgiving and every boat
seems to have an autopilot these days anyway. What you can't do
anywhere near as easily is haul out in odd places which doesn't matter
to you, where you are, but does matter if you want to go cruising in
backwater places in the Pacific. Ditto if you hit something or snag a
line; the full keel offers better protection to the prop & rudder. You
can also tuck into a protected corner or get over a bar where the
water's too shallow for deeper draft boats. Everything's a compromise,
it's just a matter of weighting the tradeoffs.
The front of my place is tidal, but there's deep water 400m offshore
and a private marine railway a little closer than that. I can park
something that draws 1.5m or less a lot closer than something drawing
2m plus. In fact I can park a shoal draft full keel boat on the tidal
flat to do bottom work without any dramas or expense. It won't point
as high or go as fast, but what the hell. If I wanted max speed I'd
have a multihull or a displacement diesel powerboat (aka 'trawler') and
if I wanted something that pointed as high as possible I'd buy
something like Navvie's Farr and change headsails every time the wind
speed changed by 5 knots while resigning myself to always sailing with
a crew. Tradeoffs and if my goals change so will my tools (ie boat).
Christmas Eve and time I was drinking. Packed another 4 crates of
machine tools, castings & accessories to ship south. Good thing freight
companies charge by volume & not weight, one of the crates has 3 cast
iron cannon barrels in it and they weigh about 75 kg each, plus another
250 kg of castings for future projects. Only another 8 tonnes of
tooling to go.....
Peter Wiley
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