The main danger is keel spread. Most prevalent in older boats such as the
60's Westerly's and when the boat is on the dry for extended periods. What
you have to do is put cleats on the outside of the keels. Not realizing
this my heretofor always dry Centaur developed leak problems where the keel
joined the keel stub but only after being on the dry for three months. The
inside of the early keel stubs was a long hollow trough like area. In later
models transverse stiffeners were built in which served to stop this
problem. On the dry you still want the outside cleats as it's supporting
it's entire weight 24/7. In the tidal situation the problem is far reduced.
In tidal water you want to pick a spot where the bottom, if possible, is
fairly even and does not have large rocks littering the area underneath,
rememberingthe anchor is the center of a circle while the diameter of same
is described by the stern. In my current boat a Westerly Berwick we've
applied all the lessons learned and so far no problem.

M.

"ChrisR" wrote in message
...

"Terry Spragg" wrote in message
...
root wrote:
My 28ft bilge keeler bounces around a good deal when the tide has moved
to
be settling or lifting the boat. Not only does it get damn noisy but it
can get a bit frightening when wind
& wave combine to cause it to pitch up on one keel. But thats not my
main
worry, I'm more curious to learn from folk who permanently moor in the
shallows and effectively have their boat on the dry once or twice a day.

Does this long term bouncing about cause any strutural damage? I'm
thinking it cant be doing my radar dome any good either.

I've just done an ad-hoc solo 2200mile voyage from southern New
Zealand to north Queensland. Conditions went as bad as 55knot gales with
7m seas the boat handled it a damn site better than I did.

cheers
bruce


I had a Westerly 30 Bk on a thames estuary mud berth near tilbury for many
years where there was a strong tidal flow reasonably rough water in gales
and very heavy wash from large ships in close proximity. The boats on
swinging mud berths rotate about the mooring root twice a day and point
direction is influenced by tidal flow, wind and river current. After a
boat has been on its mooring for a while the boats sit in a circle of very
soft mud surrounded by harder mud that hasn't been affected by the boat.
In severe or unusual conditions the boats are thrown against their
moorings and outside the usual circle of soft mud. The rudder is then very
vulnerable and I have lost one before in these conditions removable or
lifting rudders can help. The replacement for the grp spade rudder I
fabricated out of stainless steel rather like a model aeroplane wing and
it lasted fine.