Can somebody pro/con a full vs. fin keel for a newbie (will learn to sail on said boat) and taking it thru the Caribbean? All I can seem to come up with so far is fin keel is better to the wind, and a full keel will protect your rudder.
Thank you Jeff, I read and reread that post several times, and could not understand any of it. Glad it is not just me!Sea Hunter- Could you please explain what you are talking about? It may be a linguistic issue...
Respectfully,
Jeff
"Reserve of Buoyancy" is a term that come from time begin of yacht design. Sometimes shortened to reserve buoyancy. There are a number of chapters in this subject and the importance of reserve of buoyancy in yacht design. Here is a quote from page 12 of "Naval Architecture" printed 1877.Sea Hunter,
I am glad that you clarified what you are thinking. At least as you are describing it, (i.e. "Reserve buoyancy is a hulls ability to carry a load over and above displacement".) that is not in keeping with the way yacht and ship designers use the term, "Reserve buoyancy". What you are describing rarely if ever is considered as a part of yacht design.
+1jeff_h:905984 said:and just to be clear for someone trying to follow this, as the terms are normally used, displacement and center of gravity have little to nothing to do with 'reserve buoyancy' either. But when evaluation motion, carrying capacity and stability of a vessel, weight and buoyancy distribution are far more critical than the overall displacement of the vessel, or its keel type.
You might want to tell that to what is very likely the majority of successful ocean crossers, who have fin keel boats.Based on what I've read of this thread,
Fin keel boats are only for special cases, such as racing, powersailers and marinophiles.
Well, if you take it that way it is rather simple: Naval Architects, I mean reputable ones, have long abandoned full keel configuration even for blue water cruising purposes, even the ones that once, far in the past, designed full keel boats.I agree,
I have a cutaway forfefoot keel and while they turn on a dime when the wind is just right, they are sluggish at low speed and I have had a few problem tacking when the wind was really strong just like I had on cape cod mercurys so it's not just the shape.
I approach my boat rationaly, it's a machine with nice features and flaws too. It's a little disconcerting to see people swear by the design they happen to have (sometime by luck) and get into pissing contest about the shape of their keel. All this talk is nonsense, the only persons I would trust in this matter are boat designers and naval architects. Let them discuss the merits of such and such configuration. The rest is legend and fable.
Yes, amazing, isn't it??I can't believe this went on for 50 pages.
Is it a secret what kind of boat you have?We could go for 51 pages.
Agree with Faster that its about compromise and priorities: rarely does a single parameter, like the keel, decide the matter.
My wife was enamored of the Island Packets we have chartered from Florida to the Caribbean for quite a while. She liked the roomy cabins in particular and the large galley and all the storage. Our own boat, by comparison, has a narrow cabin and wide side decks and a keel trunk that splits the main cabin and runs all the way to the coachroof. Our storage is probably a third that of an IP of the same length (35').
Our boat has a retractable, weighted fin keel that allows us to go from 5'11" draft down to 1'10" (with keel and rudder retracted), but normally she is sailed with everything down until we come into a shallow anchorage or negotiate a "shortcut".
What really makes the difference worth it is that we can keep the boat at our shallow water dock, yet we can sail to weather better than most. In our area in southeastern New England, weatherliness matters when you are heading west against the typically southwesterly breeze.
Well, we were beating from Cuttyhunk to Mystic (about 50 nm) several years ago when we passed a larger Island Packet that was motoring in the same direction. The IP skipper saw us, unfurled his sails, and took up the challenge. Unfortunately, he could not point as high and soon enough had to come about, unable to maintain a competitive velocity made good to Watch Hill Passage. He rolled up his sails and continued to motor. The difference was primarily the keel (full vs. my fin) and the fact that the IPs have outboard shrouds and don't allow sheeting the genoa as close. We made it on the same tack all the way to the Mystic River. My wife--who would rather sail and absolutely hates to motor--stopped bugging me about the IP accommodations after that.
That said, we continued to charter IPs in the Caribbean, where she can enjoy the bigger cabins and larger water tanks (we like our showers at the end of the day). The longest legs we've motored are about 15 miles--she can put up with that. (You really don't want to sail a full keel boat from St. John to Virgin Gorda.)
200 years of yacht Architects would vehemently disagree with you. The IP is not as wide as most big cruisers, and coupled with the full keel tends to make the hull less stiff. As we all know the lower the stiffness, the better the rough water capability.One of the LAST boats I would want to be on is an IP in higher winds......but that is me.
Marty