Hi Steady,
I would take a strong look at the French
aluminum centerboarders: Boreal, Garcia,
Ovni.. In that order, depending on
budget. Van De Stadt also has
lift keel variations of many of their stock plans.
My previous
boat, a 48'
aluminum cutter, had a variable
draft from ~3'6" to ~7' (I never measured precisely). It had a hydraulic vertically lifting
keel with a lead bulb on the bottom. I believe the advantage of this, over a
centerboard, is that the
boat has the performance of a normal boat at sea.
We loved the variable
draft. It was fun to be able to
anchor super close to shore, in the crowded
anchorages of the
Caribbean we went right up to the 'front of the pack', where there was plenty of empty space, and had an easy swim or row to the beach (without needing to bother with the outboard). But, by far, the biggest thing we miss is the view when anchored close; it's fun to feel 'in the trees' and have birds flitting around the back porch. Additionally, it's also nice to
haul out with the keel up and have a very short ladder to climb.
Shallow draft also opens up many options for
hurricane holes: one can enter protected inner lagoons that many other boats can't.
Our
current boat has a 9' draft (which we also love, for the mellow and powerful ride she yields at sea), but it does limit us. We can't go into all
marinas or
fuel docks, or in some cases only can if we watch the tides carefully. Also, since most boats have less draft, I have to double check the
depth at many docks, to be sure that the dude who says "Bro, it'll be OK" is in fact right. It's more stressful to so often be playing it close with the
depth, to sometimes only have 1' of
water under the keel. Here in poorly charted
Fiji, cruisers share their track files, but with our draft we can't be sure what worked for them will
work for us. And maybe I've been spoiled by being able to come unstuck by just hitting the 'up' button on the keel: on our previous boat we ran aground in the poorly marked mud
passage on the French side of the
St Martin lagoon, and it was a non-issue to bump the keel up and drive away. Now I worry more.
However, one caveat is that our previous boat did not manoeuvre well with the keel and
rudder up. Without anything sticking down into the
water, she tended to skid along sideways to the
wind, and would make wide sweeping turns. Think of driving a
dinghy in a strong
wind, but only being able to tilt the
motor about 10 degrees to port or starboard. So we only went super shallow in light wind or when there was plenty of space to manoeuvre.
Also, for negatives, there is a new kind of
maintenance. The bearings wear, and when they do the keel will knock slightly as the boat rolls. I've met swing keel folks who had a heck of a time replacing the bearings in their keel, to get everything lined up again but also to make them tight enough that it didn't knock but loose enough that it still moved. I don't know if some designs are better than others. Our vertical lifting keel had slightly worn bearings and would move a tiny fraction of an inch, but this was easy to
work around by shoving a delrin board in from the top. I believe the Van De Stadt
lift keel designs have a clamp that you tighten inside, to eliminate this problem.
Some people prefer swing to lift keels, the theory is that they can swing up if you hit something. Some of the French centerboarders have a hydraulic pressure relief valve, or some other mechanism, that generally keeps the keel down but allows it to swing up under force. I'm not sure how well this works in practice: a boat went aground in the Tuamotus this year, and the swing keel evidently only partially retracted. I don't know the details (only what I heard on the radio), but they were very worried about it and this limited their options when trying to pull off.
Photos are of the lift keel mechanics, as seen from
deck, and the keel down when
on the hard.
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