I sailed a Westerly for 25yrs on the Chesapeake. Great boats. The shallower
draft allowed me to access areas that I cannot today in my
single keel
CSY. Let alone the issue of being caught on a falling tide.
I was looking for a
center cockpit twin keel 36ft - a Solway - but they are beyond rare in this hemisphere. I went to
Grenada to look at one, but it was in sad condition. Another in Trinidad looked worse, for more
money. Then I found this
CSY and fell in love. But I’ve had to give up gunkholing.
I am skeptical of claims of performance suffering vs
single keels. When told they are slower I ask, compared to what in what conditions? On a calm surface in light winds a
Catalina 27 would readily outpace my Centaur. But in 12kts gusting to 15 and up in a real chop it would be different. The Centaur was designed for the North Sea and would still have full
sails up when the
Catalina would be steep reefed. The Westerlies liked the stiff breeze and chop.
Once a fellow from the list serve I started came through the bay in a single keel Centaur aka Pembroke. We went out and compared. My conclusion was that in average conditions the quality and condition of
sails, skill in trimming, and overall skippering mattered more than a single vs twin keel.
At best, even a potential slight advantage in pointing was of no real value in the typical distances sailed on this bay. We detected no apparent different in leeway. After all, when heeled the leeward keel was near vertical down in the
water, much more resistant to being pushed to the side than a single keel at an angle.
I could go two to three years on
bottom paint as it was easy twice a season to plant on a bar as the tide began dropping. Then walk around and wipe off the
hull. Float off again as the tide returned. And nice to be able to
anchor in water where we could go over the side and stand up while swimming, wade to shore.
I love my CSY. But still wish I could have found a Solway.