By Paul Shard, Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.

Are you planning an extended cruise? Is "bluewater cruising" in your future? If so you may be planning to bring additional crew along on some of the offshore passages. Read on!

Planning our ideal passage-maker I have been looking at other layouts in the 45-50 foot range. Here are a few of the best known names in offshore monohulls. Hallberg-Rassy, Oyster, Hylas, and comparing to our last boat, the Southerly 49. We're looking at planning a passage with the two of us aboard, and planning to have extra crew join us on some longer passages. Let's see how the boat would accommodate the extra 1-3 people on passage, as well as how the boat could be set up for extra guests on routine sailing and exploring.

In these images below I have labelled the preferred berths as I would assign them to my passaging crew. We need to look after our crew!

Oyster 475

Above is the Oyster 475 with a lovely large aft owner's cabin. The galley is nicely located near the centre of the boat for reduced motion. On passages I would plan to use the aft cabin with lee-cloths to keep off-watch crew secure. There are 2 more sea berths just forward of the mast, and if a fifth person was aboard they could use the saloon settee. If going downwind of course you could use the forward cabin, but on many passages that berth will have too much motion for this watch keeper :-) So the Oyster layout will give you an extremely comfortable boat for the typical cruising couple, plus accommodate 3 additional crew for passages all in their own bunks.

Hallberg-Rassy 48 MkII

Here is an interesting take on an interior designed to look after 2 couples in style. The forward cabin is called a "Super Cabin" by Hallberg-Rassy who correctly suggest most cruising boats are sailed by 1 or 2 couples. Instead of a lot of small cabins common to ex-charter boats, they propose 2 very nice cabins and a smaller 3rd cabin forward. Seems like a good idea. For passage making there are great bunks for 4 people, but the 5th would need to climb over the 4th in my picture above. Both the 2 luxurious cabins have separate showers - nice!

Hylas 49

The classic Hylas layout again has 2 people in the luxurious aft owner's cabin (separated by a lee cloth). The 3rd crew have a private cabin just forward of the mast, then 4th and 5th crew get to curl up a bit on the saloon settees. This is another nice layout for a couple, and there is a luxurious forward cabin for guests up forward, although they would likely not want to sleep there on passages unless downwind. Neither heads appear to include a separate shower. The large galley is nicely positioned near the companionway and narrow enough to keep the cook in place and comfy on passages.

Southerly 49 Distant Shores II

Distant Shores II - our Southerly 49 has the main owners cabin forward so we always moved out of it on passage and slept in the aft cabins. A third crew slept in the saloon, and finally the 4th could sleep forward, or divide one of the aft bunks. These cabins are a bit low to make access for the second berth bit difficult, so in practice we only did this a few times. Downwind I (Paul) used the forward cabin on our last downwind transatlantic passage. The galley is nice at sea… although there is a bit more motion than if the galley was aft. The forward shower is a dedicated unit.

Aft Cockpit or Centre Cockpit

I think many people will agree the main aft owner's cabin is a good feature. Aft cabins are great as they allow spacious headroom above the aft cabin, but this centre cockpit design means a smaller cockpit. We enjoyed the large forward stateroom on DS2 but did not like that we had to move aft for passages. Our 49 had that nice large cockpit, but paid the price with lower headroom in the 2 aft cabins.

What do you think?

Would you prefer an aft cabin, or aft cockpit? Or something else?

By Paul Shard, Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.

Do you dream of escaping the cold northern winter on your boat?

For sailors on the American East Coast the Intracoastal waterway is a great resource and fun trip south. For boaters on the Great Lakes, the first step is to get out to the coast. Our favourite route is to use the Erie Canal to get to the Hudson River and New York City.

What Time Should We Start

We have done this trip Southbound 3 times, leaving Canada from August 29 up to September 21. If you then take your time enjoying the trip south you will not arrive in the Hurricane Belt before the finish of the hurricane season in November. BTW you should check your insurance policy to see what their dates are for hurricane season (often finishing November 1). We recommend arriving at the Erie Canal early to mid-September. So if you come from further up the system you can work the dates back from there.

Waypoints - Where to be When

Leave before it gets too cold crossing New York via the Erie Canal. The Erie closes mid-November but that would mean a cold trip. Our late-September trips were very nice with frost a few mornings and fall colours on the trees.

Insurance

Hurricanes - some insurance want you to stay north of 35 degrees until after Hurricane Season - That's around Oriental North Carolina - and partially explains the popularity of this destination :-) Of course other companies insure boaters south of this zone. Check your policy!

Annapolis Boat Show

Many sailors try to get to Annapolis on the Chesapeake Bay in time for the US Sailboat show early October. Annapolis is about 250 nautical miles from New York City. We plan a week for this at least - more if you plan to explore along the way. Remember there could be weather delays on this route as you go out in the ocean to the Delaware Bay. If you get in a few days early you might snag a mooring in Spa Creek right by the show (or in Back Creek nearby). Then you can spend the time at the show buying those last minute must-have boat purchases.

Erie Canal Attraction

One thing we learned from our first trip South was to prepare a bit more time for the Erie Canal. This first leg is often done in a hurry, but we have spoken to many who rated it as a high point of the route South…

Ideal Itinerary

Planning this trip in the future this is what we would do…

• Leave Toronto first week September
• Mast down at Oswego Mid-September
• Arrive Hudson River 3rd week September
• Enjoy New York
• 8 Days to Chesapeake Bay
• Annapolis for US Sailboat Show October 8

Erie Height Restrictions

You need to take your mast down to allow for the clearance in the canal (http://www.canals.ny.gov/about/about.html#heights) Basically 20 feet clearance for our Route from Oswego to the Hudson, or 15.5 feet if you come the Erie Canal all the way from Tonawanda (Buffalo).

Preparation for the Erie Canal

Sailboats have two options but must take down the mast to transit the Erie Canal…

1. Carry the Mast on Deck
2. Have your mast trucked overland to meet you

We have always carried the mast. Plan a sturdy system to support the mast. Waves on Lake Oneida will not look large compared to ocean conditions but even a small bounce can get a harmonic motion going if your mast isn't well braced and supported. Note above how I have made a tripod so the forward leg stops the mast moving for and aft.

Get Protection - Fenders and Boards

Transiting the locks means you'll come up against the rough lock walls, docking and moving up and down the side many times a day. Your regular fender strategy probably won't offer sufficient protection. We recommend a fender board to keep allow your fenders to slide easily up and down rough lock walls. This can be as simple as a couple of 2-by-4 boards 8-feet long. Drill a hole vertically so you can put a line down through the board and it won't chafe rubbing on the wall.

Prepare to Enjoy the Erie Canal

So you have designed a secure way to mount the mast, made a couple of fender boards, and designed a schedule to get you south. Now prepare to enjoy the canal journey!

Check out our How-To video below for more hints and a taste of the trip through the Erie Canal.

Paul & Sheryl

By Paul Shard, Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.

What sort of mainsail setup is best for long-distance sailing?

On our first cruising sailboat - the 37 foot Two-Step - we had full battens and a rudimentary single-line reefing system. You can see the deep first reef in the picture below. By pulling the single line in the cockpit you would bring both reef points down to the boom using a pulley system hidden in the boom.

Unfortunately the sail-slides were just plastic and regularly broke. Also the single line system tended to get tangled inside the boom since the pulley system would spin around and add friction. Regularly we had to try to untangle the lines.

Both these shortcomings were eliminated by the clever setup in the Selden masts we had on our 2007 Southerly 42 Distant Shores. The sail slides are replaced by Selden's excellent roller car system … check out the link here

We also have this on the Southerly 49 and this system works VERY well. The cars slide easily, never bind and are quite strong. We carry a couple of spares, but in nearly 50,000 miles with this system we have only broken one car.

Reefing is similar to our original "single-line" system but with an important difference. The Selden system involves a car in the boom that cannot become tangled as it could on our older system on Two-Step. Basically the car moves back and forth inside the boom such that it can't rotate and twist. Clever solution to the problem. Here's link to Selden's website describing the system.


This system allows you to have 2 reef points, each reefed with a single line from the cockpit. We also have a third reef, but this can't be done the same way. We have that as a traditional jiffy-reef.

In-Mast Furling

We have never sailed offshore using an In-Mast or In-Boom furling solution, but I confess I have often wondered if its time to give them a try. In-Mast systems seem the most time-tested, and many boats have circumnavigated with this. On our last crossing there were numerous boats on the ARC with in-mast furling and I envied how easy it would be to reef in our out so easily. Here is a big Hallberg-Rassy 54 with a Selden inmast furling system and a full batten mainsail.

Our crew Anthony, an experienced offshore racer, has the Selden "In-Mast" system on his Bavaria 50 and has done a number of offshore races with it and thousands of miles. He got me thinking more seriously about giving it a try…

Disadvantages include added weight aloft and the potential for a jam if something goes wrong.

Advantages are ease of operation when sailing short-handed, your spend less time furling and covering the sail, and you're more likely get the sail out and set up on a light air day. We SO OFTEN see cruising sailors just motoring with the mainsail cover on when they might be able to sail. We might have been guilty of that ourselves on occasion…

If anyone has experience with this please chime in! Comments Please :-)

If you want to cruise, but cruise FAST... read on!
I got a chance to sail on a Pogo 50 last week in the Anguilla Regatta. For the first day of the regatta there was lots of wind, and we photographed the race from the press boat. On the second day I went out aboard the Pogo 50 for the race. Thanks very much for having me aboard guys!!

In case you haven't heard of Pogo, they are a French Boat builder (not a child's toy :-) specializing in very high performance monohulls. For years they have built Mini-Transat boats, 6.5 meters long (20 feet) and then grown to 30 and 40 footers. Always high-performance! But now they have branched a little more toward cruising with the new Pogo 50.

A Pogo 50 is still very much the high performance craft, but set up for cruising. Appropriately Pogo 50 Maremosso (which we met in Anguilla) was on an Atlantic cruise, and just entered the regatta for fun with their 4 crew.

Swing-Keel

Did I mention the Pogo 50 is a swing-keel boat like ours (well… somewhat like ours)
Comparing our Southerly 49 to the Pogo 50 they are surprisingly similar in a number of respects…
Both the Pogo and Southerly can raise their keels for shallow water. The Pogo's draft with the keel down is just a foot more than ours at 11'5. Raising the keel for shallow water our Southerly draws just 3 feet, the Pogo less than 5. The difference here is she keeps much of her ballast in the bottom of the swinging 3 ton keel. We have a 3 ton plate in the hull which we can sit on when we have swung up our 2-ton keel and are beached. The Pogo must not be grounded like this I think or would risk damage as the keel is external even when swung up. (Image from YBW.COM) Both the Pogo and Southerly also have twin rudders.

Pogo mast is 6 feet taller than our Southerly. She has quite a bit more sail area in the main however, with the high performance "fat head" sail configuration.

Even the interior layout is similar with the main cabin forward and two aft cabins. The biggest difference is the displacement. The Southerly 49 is nearly twice as heavy!

Inside they have simplified to keep it light, but do have a workable cruising interior. Here in the well-organized nav station, co-owner Guido describes their successful Atlantic ARC crossing (finished 17th).

The interior (shot here from the Designer Finot-Conq website) is quite light and airy, and light-weight as well.

It was unfortunate that we had very light winds the second day of the regatta when I was racing aboard Maremosso. I had watched her roaring around the course the previous day, only to find light flukey winds for my day on board. Nevertheless it was obvious that this is a VERY fast, fun and responsive boat to sail. When even the slightest puff stirred the water we zipped along, but the crew was frustrated they couldn't really show her stuff!

Check out this video on Shallow Water Piloting

Down here in the British Virgin Islands we see a LOT of catamarans cruising around. Many of them look specifically designed for the charter trade with MANY cabins and heads and opening patio doors. But some are much more purposeful and look like they might make a good "Around the World" cruiser. One that has caught my eye recently is Outremer. Might this boat be good for our round-the-world journey?


Popular Caribbean Charter Cats - Lagoon, Leopard, Fontaine Pajot
Fast Cats - Outremer, Catana
Cruising Cats - Antares, Privilege
Are there more?

Pricing

Comparing catamarans to monohulls is difficult. Catamarans cost more to build for the same length. Two-hulls, two engines, more accommodation, etc. so it is usually better to compare, say, a 46 foot monohull to a 40 foot catamaran, since pricing will be more similar.

Performance

Comparing boats on a price basis (rather than boat for boat same length) most monohulls will have a longer waterline length and might be better upwind. Cats might well be faster off the wind and make downwind passages faster. This is not a given though. A former charter-cat, set up for the windy Caribbean, then laden down with all the toys for cruising might be slower than the average monohull…

Motion

Monohulls heel over when sailing upwind. Although cats do not heel over they do bounce around in a seaway. Motion is different, and for some people, mono-motion is preferred. And some people prefer the motion of a cat. Of course within monohulls the motion of different boats is quite different. Although there are other factors, a longer waterline generally means a smoother motion. In my experience cats tend to have a slightly more complicated motion as you have two hulls each in different waves.

Storage

Catamarans definitely have more interior space. So if you like big spaces, the cat will be great. But be aware you shouldn't necessarily fill up all that storage space. Any boat will suffer from overloading and may even get dangerous. No boat likes to be overloaded but catamarans suffer perhaps more. Moving onboard with "all the stuff" lowers speed and performance on both mono's and cats.

Are you a Cat Person?

In some cases it comes down to what you feel is right. Do you like catamarans? I have even heard people say a catamaran is "just not a proper boat". And of course catamaran people refer disparagingly to monohulls as "half-a-cat". I have always like monohulls, but was quite happy on our week in the BVI chartering a Lagoon 380 (which we filmed in Season 5 here).

Sailing Cats

Catamarans do not heel over when sailing. Of course as the wind increases there is a point when they will lift a hull. For a racing boat this means an increase in speed, but for a cruising boat this is not recommended. Best to reef before the wind reaches the force where the boat is overpowered and "lifts a hull". For those of us used to sailing mono's there is an adjustment to sailing style. You need to be sure not to overpower the boat. Charter cats sometimes are built with shorter masts to make them safer to sail. Owner-Versions might have a higher performance rig. In either case you may need to get used to "sailing by the numbers". So if its up over 20 knots its time to put a reef in even if you're sailing quickly, since its hard to tell how close you are to the edge. In the mono, your rail would be in the water and you know its time to reef :-) Sailing by the numbers may not be for everyone.

Could Distant Shores III be a Cat?

From our quick look around the Outremer 45, I was impressed. Racy and seaworthy looking, she apparently racks up some impressive runs offshore. Who knows??

What do you think? Would a catamaran suit your cruising style?

How can you get weather updates while at sea? What is the best day to set sail on a passage to get the best conditions en route? How do you choose the route for the fastest and most comfortable passage?

Getting good weather information at sea used to be one of our biggest challenges over our 26 years of cruising internationally. That has changed dramatically this past year as we have been testing PredictWind.

PredictWind is a subscription weather routing service that integrates with the IridiumGO satellite communication network. As we were doing over 6,000 sea miles and 2 transatlantic crossings this year it seemed a good time to try it out.

Although PredictWind can be accessed through a website, what caught our attention was their IridiumGO interface and app. This means we can access weather forecasts and routing information while we're at sea using the IridiumGO unit.

We run the PredictWind app on our Mac laptop connected to the IridiumGO by wifi and ask to download a forecast. It takes a couple of minutes to connect and presto - we have downloaded a GRIB with the weather and routing data. The app has a very good GRIB reader so you can immediately check out the PredictWind forecasts.

Multiple Forecasts

A feature for the true weather aficionados - PredictWind uses four different weather models. GFS CMC and two special PredictWind algorithms. I have been using them to compare and average the forecast models. Having the side-by-side display of the different weather models definitely helps raise your confidence in the forecast, or make you aware if the different models are disagreeing. A very good feature!!

(note in the lower left the key for the 4 models with the PWG forecast route highlighted in blue)

Weather Routing

Getting weather and GRIB files at sea is great but then you need to work out the best route for a fast and comfortable passage. For most of our 26 years of cruising I have done the job myself, "guesstimating" our performance and stepping off our daily run on the paper chart (remember those 😀)   

Nowadays sailors have a couple of options: 1) Retain the services of a professional weather router who can email, phone or radio you with daily reports and suggestions or 2) use PredictWind to do the routing with their powerful computer and send you reports on demand. We've been testing PW routing this season and it's been excellent.

To calculate a route you need to know how fast the boat will go given different wind strengths and headings. PredictWind lets you put in a custom polar table for your boat, or choose from a number of tables they have already set up. Then when you want a route suggestion you just click on your start and destination and input your planned start time. The PredictWind central computer sends back a detailed report with suggested routes for each of the weather models and tables showing the conditions to be expected along the way. The file they send back is very small - just a few KB - so it's easy to receive at sea over satellite or SSB pactor.

Here's a sample of our passage routing file from the leg across the Atlantic. Depending on which weather model is used, we might expect to take 12-13 days. Of course weather forecasts 2 weeks out are not going to be that great, but we are updating it at sea whenever we want! Nice.

Departure Planning

Looking for that "weather window" for a tricky passage? When should you set sail to get the fastest or most comfortable passage?

Running through the scenarios for the best departure date used to take me awhile and was a bit of a rough estimate, as I would quickly step off estimates of our daily runs given the weather forecast. PredictWind has a great feature that does this for you! "Departure Planning" allows you to quickly compare a set of departure times and see what the passages would be like. In the example below we are comparing 4 departure dates a day apart - leaving December 8 at 12:15 and 24,48 and 72 hours after…

Note how it summarizes how much time will be spent upwind, downwind and the percentage of time in which wind strengths and swell heights….

Extra Features

In this review I haven't been able to cover all that PredictWind can do but before we finish, here's one nice extra for the cruising sailor who has a website (like us :-)
This is a nifty tracker page that PredictWind has coded. You can put it up on your website and the folks at home can see where you are. This uses an IridiumGO feature to track you, and PredictWind updates the positions on this map… and makes the folks at home feel better…

The Verdict

PredictWind is an excellent solution to the cruising sailor's basic need - reliable knowledge of the weather at sea. Plus it does a remarkable job of providing weather routing. Paired up with the IridumGO unit it is an amazing combination for the offshore sailor.

Read More

Check out the PredictWind website for more information here…

How do you get your weather information when at sea? Have you ever tried PredictWind or used other weather routing systems? How did they work out for you? We value your opinions. Please leave your comments and/or questions below…

And please share with a friend you know who might enjoy learning about this weather routing system. Thanks!

You may also like:
IridiumGO! - Review for Cruising Sailors

Transatlantic Passage Planning

When to Abandon Ship

The O Words - Offshore, Ocean, Overnight

Are you planning an ocean cruise? Perhaps even an "around the world" sailing adventure?

Sheryl and I have now sailed over 100,000 miles on 3 different boats over 26 years of cruising. We plan many more ocean miles and "sailing around the world". If you've followed our exploits you know we like poking into cute places, and crossing oceans as well. The next boat will do all of this, even better than before!

Sailing Qualities - Upwind ability

All 3 of our boats have been quite good upwind. Our Classic 37 Two-Step was pretty good at pointing but was also a wet boat to windward and pitched too much with her short 27 foot waterline and long overhangs. Those are wet decks!

The Southerly 42 was better and much drier. But our Southerly 49 Distant Shores II is the best. She draws 10'2 with the aerofoil keel down and she heads very close to the wind. The new boat must be as good as this…

Comfortable Motion

All three of our boats have been on the heavy side, and this means softer motion at sea. But the 2 Southerlies have had long waterlines for their length. This translates to a good motion with good speed as well.

180 Miles a Day

On the last transatlantic passage we averaged nearly 200 miles a day. After 26 years of sailing we have come to believe a faster boat offers the ability to avoid bad weather, make passages in shorter weather windows or divert away from bad weather. 200 is difficult to achieve but 180 mile regular runs are possible.

Light wind ability

More common than storms, light air conditions are often overlooked when buying a boat. We quite enjoy light air passages (such as our very light transatlantic passage last spring). Our Southerly 49 is pretty good in light air but we do not have a bowsprit to accommodate a code-0 sail. That will be on the list, as well as tankage for 800-1000 miles of motoring.

Downwind Ability

With her swinging keel we can go very well downwind with the Southerly 49 (we swing the keel most of the way up).

Our only real complaint with Distant Shores II for downwind work is that her spreaders are too far swept-back. This means you can't put the boom all the way forward as we could on Two-Step. Jibing is difficult to prevent if the boom isn't all the way out (as when we jibed and broke the traveller car mid-atlantic). DS3 will have less swept spreaders.

Tough Construction

"Around the World Project boat" will be extremely tough. You never know but we might end up rounding Cape Horn or transiting the Northwest Passage (last one less likely). I will ruggedize the bow with additional kevlar to toughen the boat. Our friends John & Amanda on Mahina Tiare III recommend that a boat should be able to withstand a 6 knot grounding. Good advice. Many modern hulls will not survive this. DS3 will for sure!

Cockpit and Helm Position

Both our Southerlies have had traditional fabric dodgers - which we almost never fold down. We had this on our Classic 37 Two-Step but replaced it with a custom hard-dodger project. The new boat will have a hard dodger. Although centre cockpit boats have many advantages, moving the cockpit forward tends to mean its wetter with more spray. The aft cockpit is easier to sail, and with a hard dodger there's also a comfy place for rougher weather.

Accommodation - Passagemaking

Our most pleasant long passages have been with competent friends along as crew. For passages we need comfortable and safe sea-berths for 4 people. We have done 4 ocean crossings and numerous 1,000 mile passages with just the 2 of us, but having crew comfortably aboard is a great option.

Accommodation - Coastal Cruising

We like having guests aboard. At a minimum, a really nice extra cabin for a visiting couple is a must.

Galley

Our ideal is a U-shaped galley near the companionway with plenty of storage and good ventilation.

Shallow Draft

We just really love exploring, and have found the shallow draft works for us. DS3 will be shallow draft for sure - able to poke in rivers, the gorgeous Bahamas, canals, inland waterways etc. We have now sailed 40,000 miles in our swing-keel Southerlies. Done properly this has very few drawbacks - mainly added complexity and some expense. Swing-keels offer benefits of access to cruising grounds out-of-bounds to others, plus the ability to have a VERY deep draft with the keel down.

In the next few weeks I will be putting up posts with much more detail on the new Distant Shores III, design, systems etc.

I welcome your comments and questions … and if you're considering a shallow-draft world-cruising boat in the future I hope following our boat-building project will be helpful to you.

Dusseldorf

I just got back from the Dusseldorf Boat Show in Germany (Boot 2016) and my head is still spinning with all the "boat overload"!! It is a really big show and I am sorry I didn't have a few more days to talk to more suppliers and see more! There was really a lot more there than I had imagined - more boats, more equipment, more toys, more of everything to do with boating. Check out this video I made at the show…

I went aboard a number of boats looking to see what's new … Beneteau, Jeanneau, Dufour, Hallberg-Rassy 43, Sunbeam, Oyster 575, Garcia 52 Exploration, Faurby, Nordship, Bavaria Nautitech 40, Delphia 46DS, Allures 39, Linnsen and more!

If you are interested in buying a sailboat, this show has got to be a "must-stop" on your tour. In fact, if you get to Annapolis and Dusseldorf you'll probably see most of what's worth seeing.

Catamaran

I did get aboard the interesting Bavaria 40 foot Nautitech and was impressed. It has an interesting layout with a smaller cabin and large after deck, nice quality build from the quick look I had. But I guess my heart just isn't into catamarans… sigh… they sure look perfect if your plans are mainly Caribbean/Bahamas/tropics. For us the difficulty of getting marina space or through small canals with cats is a big factor. Motion on a monohull is usually better, and certainly upwind ability is important for me too. I guess a cat just isn't in the cards for us. But if you are in the market for a 40'ish size cat, the Nautitech is worth looking at…

Cool Keels

I was keeping an eye out for interesting keels - extra good when the boats are out of the water at indoor shows like Boot Dusseldorf.
Here is the Sirius 40 with a twin-keel. Twin keels are not renowned for amazing sailing performance but they are a very good solution for sailing in a tidal area where you will need to beach the boat often. But if you need shallow draft (like Bahamas) they aren't such a good solution since they are about halfway between a regular keel and a flat bottom keel version. More of a "shoal keel". For the Sirius it draws 1.4 meters VS 1.5 or 1.75 regular keel.

Here is the Delphia 46 shallow winged keel with centreboard. The boat is beachable as Delphia say the keel is plenty strong enough to rest on the wing. She is pretty shallow as well drawing just 1.3 meters (4'4"). The centreboard swings down from the keel to extend the draft to 7'.

I filmed this review of the Delphia factory and a quick test sail on the 46 a few months ago.

Allures lovely hulls are made in aluminum by Grand Large Yachting, the somewhat redundant name of the company that also owns Garcia (below) and Outremer catamarans. Allures have very fair aluminum hulls, but the decks are made of fibreglass. This allows for the toughness of aluminum in the water but the versatility of fibreglass in the complex shape of a deck. They have a very shallow centreboard so this 39.9 footer draws just 3'6" or 1.1meters.

Garcia have made a new line of rugged high latitude sailboats called "Exploration". First a 45 footer was built for Jimmy Cornell, now a 52 has been made in that same style. The keel is similar to the Allures above. The Exploration 52 draws just 1.27 meters (4'2") and can be beached sitting on her belly. Note the incredibly strong stemhead plate protruding from the bow. Ready to push through sea ice on your way through the northwest-passage :-)

Here is something different. It's a swinging keel that stays outside the boat when you swing it up. It doesn't disappear into the hull or centreboard casing as most others do. Presumably this is so the interior can be the same for versions of this models.

Higher up on the ladder is the lovely Gunfleet 58 with shallow bulb keel and deep centreboard. Gunfleet was founded by Richard Matthews (who also founded Oyster) and are built in England. This keel will put a reasonable amount of weight quite low in the bulb, and also has a VERY deep draft with the centreboard. On this 58 footer the airfoil shaped board reaches down nearly 12 feet, but with the board up she is just 5'8". She's not beachable though. If lying over on the side I imagine the rudders would be vulnerable (and your drinks would spill :-)


Here is one of our first times beaching the Southerly 42 in the remote Bahamas.

Southerly's keel arrangement. This is the keel from our current Southerly 49. It uses a 2-part system total ballast 5200kg. The swing keel (weighing a hefty 2 tons) is in the raised position in this photo below. The rest of the ballast weight is in the grounding plate, which will bolt into a recess in the bottom of the boat.

Sitting on her belly at the pub! The grounding plate takes the weight. We would only do this in a very sheltered area where there would not be waves. After a nice pub dinner we climbed back aboard and headed out at high tide when we floated off. (Filmed in Season 7 of Distant Shores)

In areas with high tides many boats "take the ground". This is a beach in Chichester England where tides reach 5 meters (16 feet).

A Beneteau with a standard deep keel who shouldn't have anchored so close to us… oops.