Wing Keels?

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I have one and I've seen an identical boat sitting on one in Guernsey. It would take stronger nerves than I've got though. One soft spot, one rock, one gust of wind... No thanks.
 

E39mad

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Parker 31's, 325's and 335's are designed to

True although they are lifting keels with a wing on the bottom.

Back to the question I would not wish to sit a wing keel boat on the ground even one with twin rudders such as an MG Spring 25. The main reason being they were not designed to do it and therefore the area where the keel is attached may not be substantial enough to take a few "poundings". Also without legs I would not be trusting how stable it would be.
 

TSB240

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We have sat on ours quite a few times.
On only one occasion without the benefit of either legs or a wall for support.
My world slowly ended up at 45 degrees until the tide came back in.....
The mud wasn't deep enough to keep us upright.

I will happily run aground an hour before low water on harder ground to perform a mid season unsupported scrub off. I can walk around in waist deep water with the deck brush with absolutely no fear of toppling over damage.
 

anoccasionalyachtsman

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True although they are lifting keels with a wing on the bottom.

Back to the question I would not wish to sit a wing keel boat on the ground even one with twin rudders such as an MG Spring 25. The main reason being they were not designed to do it and therefore the area where the keel is attached may not be substantial enough to take a few "poundings". Also without legs I would not be trusting how stable it would be.
Actually, they were designed for it. Within sensible limits though, and they were stable enough to walk around on without fear.
 

mikegunn

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I have a Starlight with a wing keel and it's quite happy to sit on it, provided that the ground is firm. Haven't tried it on soft stuff, lest I suffer TSB240's experience.
Mike
 

mikegunn

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And if you go aground you have to wait for the tide. No use heeling over to reduce draught, it only serves to increase! Mind you, i suppose bilge keelers have that problem too.
 

Sharky34

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And if you go aground you have to wait for the tide. No use heeling over to reduce draught, it only serves to increase! Mind you, i suppose bilge keelers have that problem too.
I experienced that on a friends Centaur, just got all the crew right up in bow to tilt the keels & reversed off, a variation on heeling over.
Common sense really.;)
 

E39mad

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Actually, they were designed for it. Within sensible limits though, and they were stable enough to walk around on without fear.

When I worked for Northshore and they took over the MG range I seem to remember that the Spring owners were told not do this on a regular basis or leave on a drying mooring. An occasional dry out was fine but the purpose of the design was to keep draught down to 3ft instead of 5ft and the twin rudders were there because of the wide stern to grip when heeling and not to dry out upon.
 
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Once you forget trying to stand up on them, which is not what they were designed for, they're great. Four feet draught, very little drag. 6 knots under genoa alone the other day, close hauled. I would have put the main up but I had three large dogs on board for a spin.
 

anoccasionalyachtsman

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Once you forget trying to stand up on them, which is not what they were designed for, they're great. Four feet draught, very little drag. 6 knots under genoa alone the other day, close hauled. I would have put the main up but I had three large dogs on board for a spin.
Pretty much all fixed keels should be strong enough to stand the boat on, wing or not. Some wing-keeled boats with twin rudders were definitely designed to dry out upright on them.

I'd agree that they're a great shallow draft option, but I've not seen one a production bot that could genuinely claim low drag in comparison with a standard deep fin. I'm lucky enough to have a fair few miles on otherwise identical boats and found the wings noticeably better in heave offwind, slightly less likely to stall at low speed in a crosswind, but once stalled much harder to get the flow re-attached. Unfortunately I never got to sail one against the other, and so can't comment on relative speeds.
 
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