Do blue water cruising sailboats require a deep keel?

[Darcosailing]

Originally Posted by rvich

Yes, that winch is part of the mechanism for raising the centerboard.

Most likely the "centerboard" is a "swing keel" in that it is held in place by a pin on which it pivots. The cable goes to the heel of the board so that when it is pulled by winching it raises the back of the keel with the front/top pivoting on the pin. The keel is then raised far enough to hide inside its trunk.

The benefit of this system is that you can change the balance of the helm by partially raising the board and changing the center of resistance. It is also preferable to a dagger board in that if it strikes bottom it swings up (aft) and frees itself. Because it is heavy it does not require any force to push it into place, rather the cable is used as a braking mechanism.

I'd still like to know how the boat is ballasted if I were to go cruising on it. For the coastal areas around Europe and potentially canals, it seems that it might be perfect.

That sounds good, I don't know yet how it is ballasted, I have sent off a few questions but the vendor doesn't seem too motivated as far as emails go.

Cheers, Darco.

[Darcosailing]

Originally Posted by HappyGuy

In 1998 I crewed on a 36 foot low deadrise hard chine steel gaff ketch of 2foot 6 inch draft with centreboard, from Auckland NZ to Savusavu Fiji, to Suva, to Kadavu Island, back to Suva, to Lautoka.
Then to Port Vila, Vanuatu.
The design is called a Fishing Gaffer by Dennis Ganley, NZ.

He and his partner carried on to New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Queensland Coast and back to NZ without any issues.

This boat was the most comfortable boat I have ever sailed on. Never ever got a rhythmic roll and always sailed at a shallow angle of heel and didn't pitch a great deal either.

The passage to Savu Savu took 10 days - a reasonable passage time I think
.
Going to windward was a bit slow - but once the sheets were cracked she had reasonable boat speed.
Being shallow draft we could go where a lot of other boats couldn't.

So to answer your question - Yes - a well designed shallow draft boat can go blue water cruising.

They look like great times to me, very encouraging information.

Specially this.

"This boat was the most comfortable boat I have ever sailed on. Never ever got a rhythmic roll and always sailed at a shallow angle of heel and didn't pitch a great deal either".

Cheers, Darco.

[HappyGuy]

Originally Posted by Darcosailing

They look like great times to me, very encouraging information.

Specially this.

"This boat was the most comfortable boat I have ever sailed on. Never ever got a rhythmic roll and always sailed at a shallow angle of heel and didn't pitch a great deal either".

Cheers, Darco.

I would like to say that the boat you are looking at is considerably finer in the lines than the boat I sailed on to Fiji and Vanuatu from NZ. It also is not a gaff rig which puts the centre of effort of the sails higher up.
It would therefore I think sail at a greater angle of heel and roll a bit more probably - and probably be a bit faster as well.
But the only way you will ever know is to sail it and see how it behaves in different conditions.