Your $.02 please

[bestfriend]

Here's the specs: LOA 35.8, LWL 29.11, Beam 12.5, 11243 displacement, 4078 ballast, 49.25 mast, 530 sail area, 4'2" draft.
Question: How is she going to fare in the windy conditions of SF bay with the shallow draft? Anybody have any first hand experience with something similar?
obviously, the 5'1" keel would be better, but thats not whats up for sale.

[Chuteman]

EBLB:
You left the make of the boat off...........guess that was not to poison the jury pool.
I'm not a fan of shoal draft boats, especially when coupled with an area of strong winds like our dear bay & coast.
My vote in your last post was to get the deepest keel possible but if you don't you will have to compensate with sail trim/reefing.
Also be careful in slow maneuvers with windage.......you will get pushed sidways even easier.

[bestfriend]

Yeah, I didn't want this to be a discussion about boat brands, I already have a post about that, don't I? Just settling a discussion between friends. I think the answer is obvious, but to what extent may be a better question. I have never sailed a shoal draft so have not been privy to feeling the difference.

[bestfriend]

BTW did you get out to the circus, I mean fleet week? A collegue of mine was out on the SFPD boat and said that you could see where all the Federal 9/11 money went. She said every agency in the Bay Area was out there with one kind of new boat or another. Even one with a gun mounted on the bow (and it wasn't Coast Guard). More agency boats than spectators! A boat with a Raider's sticker hit a Navy boat and took off! A hit and run on the Bay. Can you believe it?

[Gene T]

For SF Bay - My rule of thumb for a boat with a 29' LWL would be almost 6'. A performance keel would be even deeper. A 5' keel works for about 24' LWL. The boat you are looking at will be tender, will need to be reefed early (probably has a short rig anyway) and won't go to weather very well. That's an east coast boat.