Alerting other sailors to our lifting keel, shallow draught!

[fisherman]

Reminds me of the story about the boat that ran aground on the Pye Sands (Dovercourt Bay). Seems the skipper saw a small motor barge crossing the sands, concluded that he must know what he was about and followed, hoping for a shortcut into the Walton Backwaters. The barge ran aground and the sailing boat followed suite a short distance astern of it. The barge skipper sauntered aft and called to the sailing boat skipper - "I'm here to load gravel. What are you here for?"

Tee hee. Never heard that before.

 

[Simondjuk]

Another thought. Standing in the water next to your boat is a giveaway. Perhaps you could have a mannequin for the purpose.

Like this...

 

[Seajet]

I can't help thinking, in my early sailing days I prided myself on recognising most boat designs - I was the sort of youngster who bothered boat salesmen for brochures - which automatically meant I had an idea which boats it was wise to follow in shallow water !

Maybe there's a case for some sort of International Code for ' this boat floats on a damp lawn ' - I'd be happy to do this as my lift keeler goes from 2' to 4' 6" draft - but I can't help thinking most of the time an observer should know his boat recognition, or have a good idea just by looking at designs.

Any ideas for a ' we draw 2' signal ?

 

[rob2]

It is quite surprising that in Poole harbour which is notoriously shallow in places,...

Just reminded me of coming out of Salterns in a Co26, turned into wind to hoist main, knowing the width of channel would only give us a minute to hoist. Of course, the main jammed for the first and only time and we were pogoing across the shallows, bouncing off the bottom on each wave. The skipper's only reaction was to require me to whistle something as we'd be stuffed if the chop died down! Doubly so if the pogo action neaped us.

Happy days... Latest grounding was OK too as the crew had sandwiches and beer in his kit bag.

Rob.

 

[rob2]

Not always possible to recognise which keel option a boat has fitted! The Varne 27 (later Varne 850) was offered with a lead/antimony fin keel although a few had deeper iron keels. The Weston 8500 was developed from the Varne and I'm sure many would not know that they were offered with the original depth fin keel, bilge keels or a lifting keel option. There are to my knowledge 5 examples of the lifting keel, wouldn't you be tempted to lift and cross a bar if you knew the sister ship hauling you in must be a fin keeler? I trust that all those in the owners' association would show more sense - anchor the fin outside and get to the pub in the lift keeler.

Rob.

 

[Seajet]

I suppose one could always radio a boat one was following, ' I say old chap, what sort of keel have you got dangling underneath ? ' but I for one wouldn't want to bother someone who might have their hands full at a harbour entrance; there's also always the chance of a smartarse with a sense of humour saying ' Oh yes we draw 10' !

Maybe there really is a case for some sort of recognised sticker on boats saying ' we draw X feet ', but what if there's no boat to follow or approach, aren't charts, watches, depthsounders, dowsing rods and tide tables supposed to be of some help for this sort of thing ?

 

[ghostlymoron]

On one of the courses I went on, I was advised not to follow other boats without checking the depth on chart and with a depth sounder. One place in Greece we visited has a nice little anchorage with a sandbank in front of it - its approached from the other side

 

[Seajet]

When all's said and done, I don't think " it only came up to here on the seagulls " ever really cut it at a Courts Martial !

 

[TSB240]

I suppose one could always radio a boat one was following, ' I say old chap, what sort of keel have you got dangling underneath ?

I had this very conversation on the VHF recently. I was using my own knowledge to enter Caernarfon very early and two of the local dazed kipper training boats using the marked channwl were hard aground on an incoming tide. A third boat noticed I used an a different route asked what keel I had. I was happy to respond that I had a fin keel and had seen a minimum depth of water of 2.6 meters. They followed and were in the Pub an hour before the others!

 

[arawa]

If you're concerned, call them up on the radio.

The trouble is plenty of skippers do not seem to listen on VHF. I live above a small harbour. A few weeks ago I saw a yacht (with I now realise a well known forumite on board!) heading for the entrance when I knew there was insufficient water. I called the boat by name several times with no response and it went aground on the bar with a falling tide.
A few days later a visiting yacht arrived and lassoed a race mark which has a 5kg grapnel anchor. I called him several times on VHF with no response. He left the yacht empty and rowed ashore; he rowed back quite quickly on being told the news.

 

[Seajet]

I had this very conversation on the VHF recently. I was using my own knowledge to enter Caernarfon very early and two of the local dazed kipper training boats using the marked channwl were hard aground on an incoming tide. A third boat noticed I used an a different route asked what keel I had. I was happy to respond that I had a fin keel and had seen a minimum depth of water of 2.6 meters. They followed and were in the Pub an hour before the others!

Depends on the sense of humour of the boat they were following though, as to which harbour they ended up in !