Super Seal 26

[Guest]

We are looking at a Super Seal 26 with a removable centerboard keel. Has anyone out there got one or have experience with them. We want it to cruise with and wonder how stable and tough these small boats are for offshore sailing.

Our email is xcaddict@hotmail.com

Cheers

Mick & Jenny

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[chriscallender]

I have a Seal 28, not sure how similar the Super Seal 26 is. In the case of the Seal 28, the lifting keel weighs ~1000Kg and is only held in the keel box by gravity. So if you ended up inverted in one, what would happen doesn't bear thinking about really.

I believe that it would be possible (but maybe not simple) to engineer a mechanism to lock it down. If the Seal 26 has a lighter keel plate then perhaps it would be easier.

Chris

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[Guest]

Hi Chris

Not sure how similar the Seal 28 is to the Super Seal 26. Ours has a unweighted centerboard keel with the steel ballast set into the bottom of the hull. That way if the boat does turn upside down the ballast is suppose to stay where it is. The other option with SS26's was a plain fixed keel.

As we are wanting to sail offshore the ability of the boat to turn back up is our question. With the ballast not being in an extended keel we wonder if it is enough to correct the craft. The big plus side is the very shallow draught of the vessel.

With your boat there must be some modifications that would ensure more security with the weighted keel should you turn turtle.

Cheers

Mick

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[chriscallender]

Ah I see, I didn't realise Super Seal 26 has an unweighted centreboard... thats a rather big difference.

I have thought about making modifications to lock the keel down, would need to be made pretty solid though. Although I got the weight wrong - I meant to say 1000lbs, not 1000kgs! Anyway, as I'm not going too far offshore (channel crossing at most), I figure on avoiding any really nasty waves and weather.

Well, good luck and I'm afraid I've got no idea the answer to the orignal question

Chris


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[jleaworthy]

Seal 28 is a Primrose design and quite different from the Seal 26/Super Seal which was designed by Ron Holland. She is a very fast cruiser with all internal ballast. At least one took part in an early AZAB race and did very well - a good recommendation for any offshore cruiser. The only draw back to the drop keel design was difficulty in anti fouling the boat and the need for a folding prop behind a small bronze skeg to preventing the boat being supported on its propeller if it took to the ground!

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[Seal_surfer]

The Super Seal is an extremely versatile cruiser racer which is generally highly sought after. The 26 was built by the original Seal range (22' to 28') builder John Baker. The keel/daggerboard is the key feature and allows high performance & yet easy & quick raising to explore shoal water. This is combined with a simple kick up rudder - needs careful inspection for damage/weakness, especially the aluminium stock corroding.
Later Super Seals were made by Parkers and were renamed the 27 when they were given some ballast in the keel & more freeboard/headroom.
My preference would be for one that has an O/B in a well as this allows exceptional manouverability & the option to lift the prop out of water for less drag under sail.

They can also make excellent, roomy family boats, doubling up as a beach hut!

Have a look at the Seal Sailing Association at www.sealasc.org.uk.

There is also a good archived set of pics at http://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/index.html

Look in the archive section.

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[Seal_surfer]

The Super Seal is an extremely versatile cruiser racer which is generally highly sought after. The 26 was built by the original Seal range (22' to 28') builder John Baker. The keel/daggerboard is the key feature and allows high performance & yet easy & quick raising to explore shoal water. This is combined with a simple kick up rudder - needs careful inspection for damage/weakness, especially the aluminium stock corroding.
Later Super Seals were made by Parkers and were renamed the 27 when they were given some ballast in the keel & more freeboard/headroom.
My preference would be for one that has an O/B in a well as this allows exceptional manouverability & the option to lift the prop out of water for less drag under sail.

Since ballast is internal, reefing in good time is important. There were some decent features in PBO & Sailing Today a couple of years ago - worth getting reprint reports?

They can also make excellent, roomy family boats, doubling up as a beach hut!

Have a look at the Seal Sailing Association at www.sealasc.org.uk.

There is also a good archived set of pics at http://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/index.html

Look in the archive section.

I hope you find a nice one.

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[Guest]

This one we are looking at is a Baker built. It has an outboard (not a long shaft) on a drop bracket mounted on the back on the boat. It has an internal diesel engine but it is siezed and has been for many years so we believe (it is a BMW 6hp), I doubt it is worth working with.

The hull does seem to have a crack in the forward section in front of the keel locker, the keel locker also has a crack running up its length. It can only be seen from inside and is a bit of a put off to buying the boat. How strong are these boats as far as grounding them is concerned ?

Thanks for the knowledg on the keel topic, it has helped put things into perspective. We had looked at the seal assc site, the yachtnet site did have some excellent information on that particular boat.

Thanks

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