lift keel boats

[tyce]

which in your opinion is the best lift keel boat, req's are-

able to dry out upright
25 -28 ft
less than 20k (alot less hopefully)
good performance for racing and cruising

 

[Guest]

Used to have a Superseal. A really nice boat - and fast!

 

[William_H]

Ihave an Oz boat called a Castle 21ft. The keel 100kg lifts vertically. It has no stub keel so when the keel is up the bottom is very flat like a sailing dinghy. It has several huindred kg under the floor. It isd supposed to be self righting with keel up. I keep the keel locked down. it is definitely self righting with keel down. Tested too many times under spin. It floats in about 6inches of water and will sit flat on sand.
The rudder swings up although many of this type have a lifting rudder.
The performance is brilliant. I think the very clean interface between the hull and the keel give good pointing and speed. Perhaps the fractional rig and light weight help also. You of course won't find a Castle in Cumbria but look for this kind of keel design. My immpression is that the boats with a long shallow keel with swinging plate out of it have very poor performance especially to windward. olewill

 

[FullCircle]

Evolution 26. Recent thumbs up in PBO article.
I had an Evo 25, the cruising version for about 6 or 7 years. Lovely boat. Avoid or haggle if it still has a BMW D6 engine.

 

[PIGLETSDREAM]

Trapper 300 or TS240 /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[seumask]

Hunter Delta 25
40% ballast ratio all in the keel, i.e. it really goes to windward in a blow, and will surf well down wind on the waves, well built on the whole, keel comes up completely flush with the bottom so really does sit flat on hard sand unlike some. It has a simple and effective hydraulic lifting system, in addition it has a good system for bolting the keel down so it can stand on the hard keel down if necessary, or survive hitting the bottom reasonably hard as I can attest to. 4/5 birth and 5ft8 of head room, Price around 12K.
Yes I am biased as I have one.

 

[Nautorius]

I'll probably get blasted for this but my dad has a Jeaneau Sun Odysey 24.2. They come in around 20k with an outboard (which saves considerable weight). It is a good size for cruising and can sail well if pushed hard. Not completely sporty but a fair compromise and I am the one who has sailed it the most (I now have a sportscruiser and miss sailing). He has had it three years and was going to move bigger but it is just great value for money and only 6 years old so he is keeping it and moving it to spain.

Good luck with the search,

Paul

 

[graham]

The Anderson 26 is a good boat. Lifting keel and built in drying out legs.

More info here http://www.anderson22class.co.uk/anderson_26.htm

 

[Tarka1]

If the budget could stretch to just over £20K the kelt 850 is worth considering. The boat dries out on a steel plate rather than the GRP hull, 2' 4" draught, excellent performance and "Tardis" like accomadation for a 28 foot boat.

 

[billmacfarlane]

Super Seal 26, Kelt 850, or Beneteau 285 if your budget will stretch a tad further. My own personal preference would be for the Kelt which is a lot of boat for your money.

 

[tyce]

kelts an interesting one, never considered them, so will do a bit of googling.

 

[Avocet]

We had an Evolution 22 but didn't like it much for Morecambe Bay. Too flat-bottomed and light. Used to go backwards with every wave. and "slam" quite hard.

 

[yachtbits]

Gibsea 242 or 262

lifting keel & rudder, steel grounding plate.
Lots of room below considering the boat size.

downside, outboard in offset well.

kev