Why is my S2 26 grounding in 6 feet of water?

[Eihli]

Hi, I'm new to sailing and I'm confused about something and don't want to have to take my boat out of the water to figure it out.

I just bought an 26' S2 and sailed it from Kemah, TX to Lake Charles, LA, but I still can't figure out which model it is. The S2 8.0A, 8.0B, 8.0C, and 26 are all very similar.

The boat came with a manual almost exactly like the one you can find online if you do a google search for S2 8.0 information.

The boat matches up with that manual in almost every aspect I've seen except the fact that it gets grounded in 6' of water. This means that it has a centerboard? If so how do I raise/lower it? I don't see a wench anywhere. Does the boat have to be taken out of the water for the centerboard to be removed?

Thanks for any help.

[merlin2375]

This may not be very helpful but I'll try as I don't know anything about your boat. Is it possible to talk to the previous owner or whoever you bought the boat from to ask them?

Perhaps taking some pics of the boat will help others help you.

Either way, welcome aboard, hope you get it figured out

[Eihli]

Originally Posted by merlin2375

This may not be very helpful but I'll try as I don't know anything about your boat. Is it possible to talk to the previous owner or whoever you bought the boat from to ask them?

Perhaps taking some pics of the boat will help others help you.

Either way, welcome aboard, hope you get it figured out

Heh the owner told me he thought it was 4.5' draft, so that's not much help. I don't have any good pictures of the entire boat yet, I'll upload them when I can.

[tommyt]

You seem to have bought a boat without knowing too much about her. The good news is that you survived the first trip in spite of that. Congratulations and welcome.

You are going to have to figure out if you have a centerboard or not pretty much on your own or have someone experienced around you take a look. They are pretty hard to miss!

My first question would be, how do you know there is six feet of water? Have you measured it, jumped overboard to push off, or read it on a depth finder?

[Eihli]

I've read it on a depth finder and then dropped a weighted line down to double-check. The depth finder was pretty accurate.

[Giulietta]

Eihhli...sorry to be the one bringing the bad news to you...but your boat grounds because it hits the sea bed bellow you....

Sorry about that, the only cure is to sail where the boat doesn't hit the bottom....sorry

[knothead]

Eihli,
I really want to make some sort of joke about the wench, but I will restrain myself.

How cold is the water there in TX now?
You may just want to jump over the side and take a look.

If you do indeed have a center board it should be quite apparent, even from inside the boat. But a look at the bottom of the keel will remove all doubt.

[timangiel]

I own a S2 8.0B and it does not ground in six feet of water. I don't know a lot about the A's and C's but I believe the C version is a center cockpit. From what I can see all three versions were available in both shoal draft and deep draft versions but none of them seem to have had a draft of 6 feet. I can't understand why your boat would be grounding in six feet of water. Check out these links:

S2 8.0A Meter
S2 8.0B/26' Meter
S2 8.0C/26' Meter

either it is not really 6 ft deep or your boat is sinking. Or the keel is falling off, or it is not really a S2 8.0. I'm not sure what is wrong but it should not ground at 6 feet. I would try to stay out of 6 ft of water anyway if it can be avoided.

[Eihli]

I wish I could post links, there are a few S2 8.0's out there on some of the used sailboat sites that advertise as "shoal draft 2.5 ft, w/ centerboard down 6.1 ft" or something along those lines.

I made a post with some pictures at this website, let me see if I can get around this no-link thing...

h tee tee pee ://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?p=3975176#post3975176



*here is an ad with a boat that has a shoal keel with centerboard
h tee tee pee :// 3xdouble u .sailboatlistings.com/view/8829

but again, with that i imagine it wouldn't be too hard to find the "winch" to raise/lower the centerboard, and I can't find one.

[camaraderie]

On one version...the centerboard wire spool is located in the interior on the bulkhead as you face aft just by the companionway steps between the counter top and the entrance. . If you find a wire spindle there, with most of the wire off of it...your centerboard is down.
The crank mechanism should be on the exterior of the boat in the same place in the cockpit.