deep keel cruisers in the UK

[Guest]

Now you is talking! Ireland is on my hit list for this year, seems silly, seeing as where me home port is, that I have never been there, well not in me own boat anyway, been up the north, but that was in more troubled times. I was thinking of flitting across to Tenby, then over to Cork? Everybody tells me that it's a great place to visit? I was then thinking of maybe swinging around the bottom and spending a bit of time in Dingle Bay.

Speaking of your sailing requirements, and it must apply to a lot of other folk too, yes I would say you have made a good choice, especially if you only have a limited time at your disposal for your annual cruise. I have looked many times at buying a long fin keeler, I quite like the Halcyon 27's, and I am very fond of the "Stellas", but keeping a boat on beaching legs around here is at best difficult. You see, there are not many quiet spots that have not been nabbed already, and we have very fast tides with a huge range, so I am sure you understand what I am saying?

Antipathy towards Solent sailors?.........Hmmmm, no not really, I have a healthy antipathy towards snootyness, and if I think I detect it, I tend to react badly /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Unfortunately, the Solent seems to have more than it's fair share of snotty yotties, as do other large sailing centers, like the South Devon coast for instance, just the way it is I suppose. My initial post on this subject was by way of a bit of light hearted humour, but was not taken on board by some in the way it was intended........Ho-Hum /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[tome]

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Marinas are an ugly blot on an otherwise pretty seascape.

If people were offered more choices especially those newer to sailing and not drummed into them that fins are the only way to sail we would not be losing every safe anchorage to pontoons.

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Much better point to make. It's sad to reflect that when I was a young lad with my first sea-going boat which I'd worked hard on for over a year to make her seaworthy, I was able to berth in many places for free or nominal payments. Which was all I could afford then. Sad because a similar lad with shallow pockets couldn't do it now

Most of these places are now marinas - a blot on an otherwise pretty seascape

How's that?

 

[oilyrag]

daft, tw@t, synonyms to me - but sorry I didn't realise that you are allowed to call me daft just because I sail a deep fin cruiser and I was being overly touchy.
FYI, my boat is a 25 year old 6' draft fin keel cruiser that lives on a swinging mooring and sails out of the East Coast where the sea actually comprises 45% mud, 45% sandbanks and 10% water. Not yet found any of the local 'beauty spots' that I can't get to, and park up overnight afloat, using a modicum of basic navigation skills and a tide table.

 

[tome]

So we're on the same wavelength perhaps? SWMBO and I sailed 2 up to Ireland from Weymouth, stopping Falmouth en-route. The only ports of refuge would have been Padstow or Miilford Haven. You'll have many more options for stops en route, natch being shallow(!)

First stop was Kinsale, then on to Crosshaven

So I hereby nominate myself as hon ambass for Solent and deep keel interests. Any more comments about us and I'll buy a shallow draft RIB and come and bash you all up in yer drying creeks

 

[Robin]

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But I think you take the speed thing a little too far to be fair, although I see your points. My hypothetical situations were just that, I can pick holes as easy..


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We sail at 7kts hard on the wind at 28degs to the apparent wind as an optimum, or 6kts at 22 degs apparent. We can sail in VERY light winds (50ft mast, big sail area, small wetted area) and yet still sail upwind in a gale if we have to. Waterline length being the key to speed on a monohull, we can keep up 7kt averages easily, 8kts with a little effort and with just white sails. We have kept up 8.5 -9kts (our hull speed more or less) many times over long periods and our record surf stands at 19.1kts. Again I'm not trying to score points but there is no way a small cruising cat would stay near us on any point of sail let alone a bilge keeler.

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But ignoring all that, the emergency bolt hole is a red herring anyhow, the point is you restrict yourselves from visiting wee little harbours and end up holidaying in more industrial marinas. I know you have (well those against my argument) said that there are plenty of deep water berths available, but it is still a fact that you have to carefully select every stop over you make.

When you pick up Reeds Almanac or spread the charts on the dining room table planning the summer cruise, you have to disregard maybe 3/4 of the available harbours or anchorages because you can't dry or cross the cill.


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Well our main cruise last year was our usual one from Poole to Southern Brittany, leaving Poole end July and returning 3rd September, so around 5 weeks in total. During this time we spent just 5 nights in a marina and 4 nights on a visitor berth (in Dartmouth waiting for a weather slot), the remaining 26 nights were all at anchor or at sea. We may well have passed some drying harbours along the way but none that we wanted to visit as we were on passage to greener pastures! Our cruising area does have some, but not lots of drying harbours but none I really want to visit or especially do not want to make a detour to just because they are there. We are very fortunate in that in our cruising grounds deep water harbours and anchorages abound.

There are shallow draft monohulls about, as someone else has mentioned like the expensive aluminium OVNIs or Jeanneaus with lift keels and we see a lot of these as well as lots of cruising cats in our trips to West France. The strange thing is that with a few exceptions most of these still anchor the same distance off the beaches as we do - why? Yes some do go right in, even far enough to dry out but it is only a few.

We too CAN dry out alongside a quay wall if we wish. We have a deep keel with a long flat bottom and we would sit very comfortably without being in the bows down praying position of some long keelers. However unless we had a problem and absolutely had to I cannot think of anywhere on our circuit where I would want to from choice.

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But what if you lost your mast, all those advantages have just dropped to the sea bed. Lets say a mechanical failure rather than sat out in a F10. But the forecast is F10 imminent and you really need to find a bolt hole, I bet the 60 miles would not seem so short then.


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The only time on our cruise example outlined above that we are 60 miles from a safe haven is mid-Channel between Dartmouth and Chenal Du Four (between Ushant and NW France) and this crossing has deep water harbours at both ends. There are no other options even shallow ones.

 

[Guest]

Nomination accepted, Mr Ambassador!..............but if ya come around here with your RIB, misbehaving yourself, we will take very stringent recompence, involving bending you over anything handy and a very large diameter fender! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Daft thing in all of this is, we are all (whoever we are) on the same wavelength? It's just that we all have different ideas as to how want to do things. (To Dogwatch) I too am no lover of Marinas, but at least they do a useful service in keeping the riff-raff out of the way! They give the Mobo jockies somewhere to take their secretaries for a weekend bonk, they give somewhere for the AWB drivers to congregate, and waffle at the bar, which leaves a lot of free water for all us MAB derelicts to play in! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

In the well known words of another forumite, "I'll get me coat"! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Guest]

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After a long hard bash to windward we arrive 1 and a half hours after the larger cruiser racers

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So the anchorage was only quarter of a mile away then? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Lee_Shaw]

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Not very sensible are they?

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I don't think that "sensible" can be applied very well to buying and runnig a boat, hence a myriad of responses listing seemingly endless completyely unsensible/dangerous scenarios and sailing ambitions.

So in essence a bilge keeler being out in an F10 is a little bit more mad than a fin, and crossing the atlantic in a 41' deep fin is not as nuts as crossing the atlantic in a 26' cat . IMO.

And an east coaster cruiser with a 3.0m deep fin with a bulb on the end is about as mad as a box. Great, i love it.

 

[marilynch]

Is your 'very loaded' question pertaining to 'owners' of comfortable deep keeled yachts, that choose to cruise in the uk local waters say - within 0-10 nm within shore usually returning to home port after each trip?

Or - do you mean 'owners' of deep keeled cruisers that enjoy local uk sailing with an ability to make frequent extended passages in reasonable comfort, without having to (as much as possible) get a ferry or big flying thing back due to shorter weather windows a shallow draught vessell may be restricted by? - afterall the UK is a Gate way to many places cnest pah?
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