Swing Keal..good or bad

[Lesmusic1]

Thanks everyone...I've made sailnet my home page! I've learned so much from you all just in one day! Thank You! I think I'm going to stay with my 28ft Newport for awhile, I'm going to take her out MYSELL next week...couldn't do that with a 42ft boat.

[svsirius]

A swing keel on a big boat properly designed works GREAT !!

We have one on our Moody 47 and it stiffens the boat up and we point pretty well for a big old cruising boat. You can really tell the difference when the board is down vs up -- we only use those two positions -- raising it is easy - hydraulics...

Key is a well designed system.. can't comment on the Maple Leaf.

[chucklesR]

I've pointed my asymetrical, dual centerboard equipped Gemini to 35 degrees off the wind, measuring only 5 degrees of leeway (per my Lowrance GPS). Rather than weighted mine actually float as catamarans are not lead dragging mono hulls.
Consider not only the shoal draft, but downwind performance increase you get due to the decrease in wetted surface - combined they make a swing keel or centerboard boat a perfect cruising platform (provided the rest of the boat is up to that). They are perfect for anchoring where no one else can go and maximizing miles per day on long downwind passages.
Up creek from me (in thinner water) is a Nightwind 35 centerboarder that could only make it to it's slip if it was a cb boat - and it regularly terrorizes the local (Magothy river) wednesday night racers.

[SailorPam]

Lesmusic1,

We looked at the same boat I suspect, at The Sailing Life? Spent a couple of hours crawling all over her. You may have already seen this thread

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showth...ght=maple+leaf

which is about the same boat. It's got some excellent info about that particular boat and ML 42's in general. We really like the ML42, tons of storage, they purportedly sail very well, built solid, very livable except the berth in the aft cabin seems like an afterthought.

I'd be interested to learn if you end up on one. We're still a couple of years off, but seriously looking all the same.

[LakeEscape]

If that centerboard is clunking, it's time to check for wear.

LakeEscape
Lake Norman, NC

[eskfreedom]

You can install a clamp to stop the banging

[7Psych]

Originally Posted by eskfreedom

You can install a clamp to stop the banging

Really.........How?

[dodgeboatguy]

I stoped the centerboard from clunking in the up position on my macgregor 22 by instaling one of those rubber v shaped snubber blocks like are used for the bow of a boat on a trailer up inside the keel trunk I just crank it up until it goes a little snug. if it is clunking in the down position you have a lot of play in your piviot bolt or the piviot hole in the keel and should take a look at it. its no fun to drag your keel home on a leash under the boat. and no joke about macgregors falling apart thirty years of little to no maintenance and any boat will start tossing parts off.

[saildork]

Y'all, I sail a Catalina 22 with a swing keel. These boats have a long history with 'keel clunk' and now have wothwhile solutions. The spacer kit is a couple of pads fixed to the upper part of the keel which will hold it fast in the keel trunk. A new hanger kit has a wider profile, eliminating the side to side motion of the keel on it's pivot pin. The Catalina 22 website has a great deal of info on this subject.
BTW, the swing keel can and should be faired to a foil shape, making it a true keel and not just a big heavy centerboard. See the C22 site.

[chef2sail]

Our centerboard is foil shaped also and is quiet and never clunks. We use it for the most part when the wind picks up over 12 knots as it helps decrease weather helm to windward as well as helping pointing abilty.