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Another interesting discovery, at least to me.

3K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  StarwindMango 
#1 ·
So I tore apart my new to me DS 22 today. Now bear in mind that I'm just getting back into sailing after the warden set me free (warden=ex-wife), and I have never owned a swing keel boat before. This may be normal, but I was surprised to see that the bilge and sink empty into the keel housing. Just seemed a little odd to me, perhaps it's normally done this way.
 
#6 ·
Congratulations on your freedom and new boat. :)
As others have said, it is a good thing, mostly at least. Sometimes when these boats are sailed hard (heeled and bouncing off the waves), some water from the CB housing may splash inside (if the CB housing is not fully sealed. That is nothing to worry about either, unless the boat gets seriously swamped and loses a lot of it's buoyancy. Then the boat' waterline may be below CB top water inlet and the boat will sink, unless you have a good bilge pump.
 
#9 ·
Women (or men for that matter) who don't let their spouses sail are selfish and self-centered,
and should be replaced.

My spouse is great - supports all of my crazy dreams . .
And I try to do the same for her.

This probably deserves its own thread.
Amen to that ajoliver. Sounds like you both hit the jackpot as relationships go. I'm glad to hear it is actually possible to find someone that supports your dreams.

I think you are right, spouses that support and encourage each other are worthy of a thread of recognition. I'm a little jaded right now, so I will leave it to someone else to start the tread.
 
#13 ·
I think you've got the same number of holes for the drains, they're just holes in the centerboard trunk instead of someplace where you could see them, and need to fair the outside of them. Convenient and far cheaper than installing a proper garboard drain in a bilge, too.

Swing keel, lifting keel, centerboard...These are all the same thing, aren't they?
 
#14 ·
Swing keel, lifting keel, centerboard...These are all the same thing, aren't they?
The French boats with the lifting keels are most often hard chine, which gives the hull a completely flat bottom. Their whole keel comes up into the boat so the bottom of the boat is flat. The rudder is no deeper than the bottom of the boat when kicked up.
Our boat has a centerboard. It pivots on a pin forward and is shaped much like an inverted shark's fin. We go from 6'6" to over 10 feet with the board down.
On sailing dinghies the centerboard is exactly the same configuration, with a trunk to house the board when it's up, because there's no keel for it to retract into.
Though I've never seen one, it is possible that some manufacturers build trailerable sailboat with a keel that actually comes up into the hull for easier trailering. As the mechanics of having the keel lift into the boat vertically, in this case, would be pretty complex, it could be arranged like a centerboard and pivot on a pin. This would indeed be a swing keel, but a centerboard is not a keel.
 
#18 ·
On my Starwind 19, the main lead ballast is concentrated in the stub keel- 400 lbs or so. There is an approx. 75 pound or so fiberglass centerboard that is housed inside the stub keel and pivots on a pin mounted inside the stub. I go from about 2' draft to about 4.5'. I consider this boat to be a keel/centerboard, similar setup to Capta's boat- but on a much smaller scale :D When running downwind in a calmer sea, I regularly raise the centerboard to reduce drag. I can sail upwind without the centerboard down but not very efficiently.

I'm sure there's some official definition but to me any boat that has most of it's ballast in the swinging appendage (keel), is considered a "swing keel" (Cat 22, SJ 21, etc.) and boats with main ballast in a stub keel or non-swinging appendage (keel), is a keel/centerboard.
 
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