Lifting keel on Seaward 26RK wonder if they give any trouble

[videorov]

Im looking for a shallow water sailboat and wonder if the electric lifting
system gives you any trouble. Can it be lubicated and can you get to all
the pulley system that lifts the keel?
Im also looking at a Santana 23D boat which has a manual lifting keel and
gets into shallow water.
What is the draft of the 26RK, Ive seen a few diffrent numbers.

[benesailor]

We have a 2012 seaward 26rk in the marina. Nice boat. Don't know how it sails. 15 inch draft. It will pretty much go anywhere. It seems to be very well built with first class components. It was very pricey as well. 100k+ I believe the older seawards are of a different style. More around 2 foot draft. Seaward swears buy there keel lifting system. The motor and winch is at the base of the mast (deck stepped).

[videorov]

Yes its to bad the prices of these boats are getting way to high for most people get into a new boat.
I found the Presto 30 too and it gets into real shallow water and its over
$100,000 when you finish with it. Its to bad these prices are getting so
crazy.
I wonder when these companies are going to bring out boats at lower prices
and get people back into sailing again.

[SHNOOL]

I'm not defending high prices here... but sailboats don't sell like they once did. More directly though, the process to make fiberglass boats is "EPA restrictive." Frankly unless you are making water based pancake batter the EPA/GOV breathes down your back while you manufacture (I am not saying that's bad or good)... but it's fact. Which makes it pricey and time consuming to do business. I also suspect it makes manufacturing in this country safer than it's ever been.

Long and the short of it I believe the boats are likely priced where they can JUST barely make a profit, I don't think any of these builders are making a fortune.

If you want to see what has to be done to make a modern sailboat, watch the Left Coast Dart on FB, or that other board. They are pretty open about their processes and you'll also see that it's a very labor intensive process with some highly skilled labor. I am quite sure Seaward is the same way. It's a wonder we have any small production sailboats being made at all.

Again, this is just an opinion.