Dufour 2800 - Will she take the mud?

[Peter Smith]

Hi
I am very close to buying a Dufour 2800 with a shoel fin keel. I have a swinging mooring in Portsmouth just past Hardway which will keep her afloat most of the time. However during very low spring tides she may go into the mud by a foot or so which I don't think is too much of a problem.
However there will be times when she is on the club pontoon when she will fully dry in very soft mud.
Has anyone tried this with a Dufour 2800 with a bulb keel? Anyone got any ideas if she will take the mud OK or should I keep looking for a bilge keel yacht?

 

[Pitterpatter]

D31

Hi,

I had a D31 (predecessor to 3800) with a deep fin on a drying mooring for a season and it worked fine. As long as the mud is deep enough to take the whole keel I wouldn't see a problem at all. Not just a duffer thing, true for any fin keel I would imagine.

I only moved it from that harbour as my boat lifted its mooring and then a friend died trying to save his and another boat when they lifted their moorings.

 

[Seajet]

As long as it's a bulb, not 'wings' which can tip a boat over alarmingly, and you're going into soft mud a foot or so it sounds fine.

She would take a while to make her own soft spot to settle more upright; I've found standing at the mast and rocking the boat vigorously as she dries out speeds up this process hugely.

 

[Stemar]

There's many a fin keeler that dabbles its toes in the mud north of Hardway with no ill effects and, if it's the Hardway pontoon you're talking about, plenty of big deep fins & long keelers dry out there with no problems.

Your only real problem will be that the mud prevents antifoul working and they have man-eating barnacles (got the scars to prove it!)

 

[prv]

Lots of fin keels drying out completely in the mud near me. Their owners don't seem to have a problem. Bear in mind that in really soft mud you don't so much get lowered into it as have it solidify around you as the water runs out.

Pete

 

[30boat]

The only problem with allowing a fin keel to sink in the mud will be the stresses imposed on the hull when, as the tide goes up,the hull is hit by waves.It tries to move with them but the keel is still solidly stuck.I had my fin keeled Westerly Fulmar in the mud once and as I sat in the saloon waiting for the tide I could see the saloon table move in relation to the berths everytime a boat went by.That was once and nothing bad resulted from it but I wouldn't want it to happen twice a day.

 

[Seajet]

Yes, but think of the stresses on two splayed keels as they go up & down in mud; not surprising a lot of twin keelers like Centaurs require reinforcement in the bilges !

My father's and a friend's Centaurs ( and they're both excellent engineers & sailors ) both had this - well known - problem, and neither ever really cured it.

I'm certain it's a lot worse on some other twin keelers.

I wouldn't fancy fully drying a fin keeler even in very soft mud too often though, in case one day she decided to lay the keel flat instead of digging it in vertically, as in the crosswind mentioned...

 

[corinthmistral]

Kept our Hustler 30 with a shoal draft (4'7) bulbed fin keel on a semi drying mooring. Seabed was soft mud (East coast.) On a number of tides she would dry right out and lay over at 50 degrees or so. She lay on that mooring quite happily for 5 years with no adverse effects at all - except for a curved streak of mud on her topsides! That was easily removed with a sponge, or Starbrite hull cleaner (oxalic acid based) for any residual brown staining.

 

[Peter Smith]

Thanks to everyone for their ideas. I am getting the feeling she will be OK as she will only fully dry when next to the pontoon so she will most likley stay upright because of the fenders and warps.
When she is on the swinging mooring she will (should) only go in 12 to 18 inch.

Just need to decide to buy her now.


Pete