Suffolk Sailing - River Orwell - Deep Draft Keel vs Shoal Draft Keel

Capt Popeye said:
Yea them modern Pansies , we used to use a long timber Pole suitably marked up in Feet n Inches , when in deeper waters , we used a 'Lead line' also marked in Yards ; that was before them Foreigners started t building them Boats in Meters , foreign currency i recon ; thought that the East Coast waters got much shallower then {:)#
Click to expand...

Completely agree. Give me depth of water always. Then you don't need to start adding / subtracting to work out the depth before doing any height of tide stuff ( which is hard enough for my overtaxed brain most of the time. )
We draw just under 2m, so I always say 2m. If we're at 2.5m, tack. if we're at 1.5m something has gone horribly wrong. Simples.
 
I belong firmly to the other school: depth of water under the keel for me (keel is 2.1m).
When you have to feel your way into a shallow place, or when you are tacking into the shallows, zero means you can’t continue. If ever I was interested in how deep the water actually is, I simply add 2.1m, but for practical purposes, what really matters is the bit between the bottom and the keel.
 
westhinder said:
I belong firmly to the other school: depth of water under the keel for me (keel is 2.1m).
When you have to feel your way into a shallow place, or when you are tacking into the shallows, zero means you can’t continue. If ever I was interested in how deep the water actually is, I simply add 2.1m, but for practical purposes, what really matters is the bit between the bottom and the keel.
Click to expand...

Me too.
 
No longer boat owners, but I was happier with indicated depth being depth below keel - plus a small safety margin - if it gets to 0.0 then time to stop!
The boat I raced for about 20years did not allow depth sounders when racing, far too new fangled, and in any case the Seafarer became pretty unreliable when you were down to a depth of 4ft, the RHOD drew 3ft. If we were running against the tide we would want to stay in the shallows with perhaps 3 - 6" at most under the keel.
The depth instrument consisted of a calibrated 7 ft bamboo cane. It had a foot of red tape from 3 foot to 4 foot, then another foot of green tape. The crew who was poling just had to call, "Top of the green" or "middle of the red" or sometimes, if we were beating close in against the tide, just scream "Tack!!" The cane was weighted with lead at the bottom so that it went down cleanly. With a pole you can be absolutely certain of the depth.
 
westhinder said:
I belong firmly to the other school: depth of water under the keel for me (keel is 2.1m).
When you have to feel your way into a shallow place, or when you are tacking into the shallows, zero means you can’t continue. If ever I was interested in how deep the water actually is, I simply add 2.1m, but for practical purposes, what really matters is the bit between the bottom and the keel.
Click to expand...
Don't you just hate it when someone reports that they had minimum Xmetres under the hull when they quote the day and time of tide crossing a bar but not what they draw. ?????????? Death to all of them.
 
As a yoof I often crewed on a racing Stella at Burnham. Usually, the wifey stood in the hatchway calling out the depth from a Fairway Echo sounder [spinning neon]. One day I was assigned that duty and called out 6ft, 5ft, 4,ft, 3ft Gordon!
Slither to a stop.
"Why didn't you tack at 4ft?"
" Oh I don't listen to what she says, I just go by her tone of voice. You were too calm!"
 
The distance between the keel and the sea bottom is critical to stop running aground. If you have a new crew onboard, that is very easy to understand. If you have to let them know the number of when you run aground, this is a route to definitely going aground as it depends on their memory at a critical moment.
 
Might just mention , that a Pole or Lead Line can also tell you what the botton is made up of , so might be usefull on comparing with one's chart ; if a soft muddy bottom then the water colour will be evident from the disturbances so made
 
Concerto said:
The distance between the keel and the sea bottom is critical to stop running aground. If you have a new crew onboard, that is very easy to understand. If you have to let them know the number of when you run aground, this is a route to definitely going aground as it depends on their memory at a critical moment.
Click to expand...
Many millions of us managed to sail or chug without an offset for years before they became available. Are you suggesting that we grounded more often than today’s pampered youngsters?
 
Concerto said:
The distance between the keel and the sea bottom is critical to stop running aground. If you have a new crew onboard, that is very easy to understand. If you have to let them know the number of when you run aground, this is a route to definitely going aground as it depends on their memory at a critical moment.
Click to expand...
They can surely understand “if that number goes below 2 we’ll bottom out”? Or tell them exactly what the depth alarm beeping means?
 
Last edited:
johnalison said:
Many millions of us managed to sail or chug without an offset for years before they became available. Are you suggesting that we grounded more often than today’s pampered youngsters?
Click to expand...
That may have depended on the boat you sailed. On the traditional Dutch barge on which I crewed in the Wadden Sea, we simply watched the leeboard. When it started to come up, it was time to tack. If you sailed a fixed keel boat, that approach would see you aground.
 
With regard to ADW (actual depth of water) being shown on the instrument, it was much easier following a 2m or 5m contour out of trouble . Particularly when tired, cold and wet . One of the first things delivery crews do is to check for offsets on the instruments.

I don't think it really matters what you do as long as everybody knows what the setup is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top