"Paul Cassel" wrote
.... Time after time I was frustrated at how often interesting places
were closed to me.


I don't know who to attribute this to, but here's one of my favorite
quotes: "Shoal draft allows one to run aground in much more
interesting places."


That got much worse when I got to FL / Caribbean. I never even tried the
Keys or the west coast of FL either which I suppose would be just that
much more annoying.


The funny thing is that many people just assume these areas are closed
to cruising, whereas in fact many old time cruisers & even the early
mass-rpoduced racer-cruisers (modelled after the hot CCA-rule ocean
racers of the day) where shallow draft vessels.


"Edgar" wrote:
I think you are right. My boat was in Florida when I bought it and I do not
think it had been much used there since it was brought down from the Great
Lakes area, because it draws 7' and they even ran it aground going to the
shipyard to haul it out for me.
Now in Norway the problem is more often finding somewhere shallow enough to
drop anchor.
People in many places here can moor a 40' deep keel yacht to a small
pontoon at the bottom of their gardens and just step aboard.

I understand that a lot of cruiser up your way carry pitons so they
can tie up overnight, rather than anchor.

The Great Lakes are deep but have a lot of shallow spots, and lately
water levels have been dropping & many channels are restricted. There,
and places like the Pacific North-West, the water is deep and shores
mostly cliff; however I have cruised some in both areas and have come
to believe that there are always a few coves & creeks around that
would be nice to explore *if* your vessel can get in there.

Just to be fair, I'd like to mention the benefits of an old fashioned
deep full keel.
1- strength, the keel member can be an enormous girder that gives the
hull near-infinite rigidity. Impervious to grounding damage and can be
set up on a sloping shore at high tide for hull scraping or other
maintenance.
2- seakindliness, a full keel with a long ballast casting distributes
the weight such that the boat will have a nice slow pitch (although it
will pitch more & thru more oscillations, all else being equal). And
of course having the ballast weight down low gives stability & sail-
carrying power like nothing else can.

My ideal is the lifting keels with ballast bulb, even with ballast
ratios of 30% they can generate the same righting moment as fin keels
with BR~50% and go to windward like Roger's boat with engine
running

Fresh Breezes- Doug King