Bilge keelers verses long keel cruising yachts info please

[windjami]

Hi guys does anyone know of impressive voyages of long distances, done in bilge keel boats, and can any one or all of you give me your opinions of long distance cruising in a bilge keeler verses a a long keeled boat stability?? sea kindly??? possibility of pitch poling or over, i obv know of the advantges of shallow draft and being able to stand on her keel

im in south africa looking for a small steel sailing boat to go cruising and i have found a new zealand designed bilge keeler

i have sailed around the world ina wooden laurent giles virtue, and want to go again,

help please

[barnakiel]

Bilge keels are pretty common with French cruisers. In the UK you will find many too, just smaller ones.

A friend of ours sailed his small Biloup (it sounds Biloup anyways) to West Africa and then across.

We met big bilge keel cruising boats and never heard any negative comments.

I cannot recall any outrageously positive nor negative things people would say about them. I bet this is good news.

b.

[jak3b]

Heres a blog of a voyage from BC Canada to Cape Horn and back in a 36' Brent Swain designed bilge keeler
s/v silas crosby

[NeilBraun]

I have a 1966 Westerly 25 that was sailed across from England to the US, it seems to me that in this case they were done right, however Westerly's are the only boats of this type I have any experience with.

Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, NeilBraun.

There are actually two types of keel arrangements that sport multiple fins:
Twin-keelers, which typically have two heavily ballasted fin keels,
and
Bilge-keelers, which usually have two lighter fins and an additional heavy center stub keel.

A couple of interesting articles:
➥ Bray Yacht Design and Research Ltd. - The Advantages of Twin Keels
➥ Roll Attenuation and Bilge Keels

[NeilBraun]

Thank you Gord, its a neat place.
Those articles are great, and I think explain a lot possibly about Denis Ryner's ideas while making the first Westerlys.
Mine has three keels, but most of the weight is in the bilge keels, not in the center, the difference in stability between this arrangement and a full keel boat of the same approximate size is surprising and while I feel more weather helm I don't seem to have any speed loss. In my case it seems that the weather helm issue could be easy to fix, and is mostly a mater of sailing slightly differently. Partly this is by letting the main out slightly and having a little more headsail. I read about a Westerly 22 who had been re-rigged as a cutter with a bow sprit and apparently this eliminated the problem if it could be considered one. The 25 is a scaled up version of the 22 supposedly. At any rate, I think that bilge keels can be fantastic, if they are done right it appears that they are as good as any other type and a lot better than some. That and they can sit up with out help. Its always nice to be upright if the water goes away.


Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app