Bilge Keelers taking the ground

[Lundylad]

A couple of questions.

My new, to me, Jaguar 27 went in the water the other week and onto it's swinging mooring when it takes the ground it sat bow down with the bow resting on the sand.
Noticed some other bilge keel yachts sit slightly bow down but not to the extent that mine does.
Is this a characteristic of Jaguar 27s?

Also on the latest neap tide we had a wind over tide situation and the boat sat on the mooring causing the sinker to be pulled from the sand and almost losing the buoy.
I am told that this does happen occasionally and if I look on my keel I will see where it occured.

Anybody had this happen and is it a rare occurance?

Thanks

Steve

 

[ghostlymoron]

No experience of Jag 27 drying out but some boats do dry out nose down which makes it impossible to sleep on board on your mooring. It may be possible to alter the fore and aft trim by transferring weight aft.

 

[maby]

I suspect that it is mainly due to it being a swinging mooring - think about the physics of it - as the tide goes out, it will drag yout boat away from the buoy and, since the mooring line is attached at deck level, it will tend to pull the bow down a bit. If the current is strong, your mooring line will still be under a fair amount of tension when the keel touches down and that will help to keep the bow down. As suggested, trimming her by moving weight aft may help a bit.

 

[ghostlymoron]

Not ideal but you could try mooring from the stern to see what happens.

 

[theoldsalt]

Here is an alternative explanation.

The keels on some yachts are a lot narrower forward and wide aft so the forward ends of the keels are more prone to sinking into a soft bottom than the aft end thus resulting in the boat settling bow down. If this is the cause then ballasting aft will have little effect.

If drying bow down only happens occasionally this would indicate soft and hard areas on the bottom.

 

[[10753]]

In our group of drying moorings there is a Trapper 28 that always dries nose to the ground - handy for draining the bilges but as already said not much cop for snoozing on.

Occasionally boats land on their own chains causing one keel to sink in. However, most seem to sit on the level.

Sinkers tend to be buried quite deep - I've never seen one exposed although I do check my chain to the sinker

We sit in firm gravelly mud so not much sinking - can walk around at Low Water. Guess sand behaves very differently.

 

[rob2]

People have already covered the nose down problem, but I would suggest you get out on a really low tide and undercut the sinker by digging until it topples into the hole, then dig the other side. Unless the sinker is buried it will drag! You don't say what type of sinker it is. On our club's moorings we use either concrete for heavier boats or pairs of wagon wheels. On the one occasion when a member "forgot" to dig his in, it dragged a boat length and it took some work to drag his boat around ours to get his riser chain from around our keel!

Rob.

 

[Lundylad]

Thanks for the replies so far.
Tend to think that it is the design of the boat, several people have told me and I have read that the Jaguar 27 is fast and points well for a bilge keel boat, one of the reasons given is that the keels are only 6" shorter than the fin keel version.
It will be interesting to note which boats sit level and which ones don't and compare the keel configuration when in the yacht club in the winter.

We had strong winds on Saturday and the wind held the boat against the tide such that it was sitting level with the mooring but it still sat bow down
but I understand the point made about the boat being pulled down by the chain.

Also slept on the boat the last two weekends and was suprised that it was not as bad as I thought it would be and apart from the wind slept well.

 

[Lundylad]

Hi Rob,
The sinker is a lorry wheel and it was put in by the guy that does all the crane lifts in and out and does all the moorings.

Spoke to him this morning and he said that they had dug it in well and that it had bilged ie ended up landing on the chain and had wraped itself around the keel which had then pulled up the chain and wheel.

I recall seeing the buoy close to the keel last week so what he says seems to be the case.

So in future if I don't see the bouy in front of the boat I will check to make sure it hasn't happened again.

Boat is to be put on a spare mooring this afternoon which with the weather forecast giving strong winds is a relief and the mooring dug in again when the tides are right.

 

[misterg]

You could try trailing a bucket, etc. from the stern to help keep the bow off the mooring.

0.02p

Andy

 

[jellylegs]

it was a characteristic of the Jaguar 27 I was invovled in many years back.
Take a look at the boat and look where the keels are, well aft.
it rarely sat level, I am afraid.
I think storing heavier items aft helps, ie, inflatable, water carriers etc etc in the quater berth or aft locker will help. Just move them forward when sailing to help her point.