[C38] catamarans for the Gulf coast and Caribbean

Don Strong drstrong at ucdavis.edu
Wed Jun 8 10:44:55 EDT 2011 

We lived in Tallahassee for 20 years and sailed the length of Florida as 
far as the Dry Tortugas. First we had a Catalina 27 and were repeatedly 
aground. It was light and we always got free, with some work. Then we 
"downgraded" to a Stiletto 27, what a boat for the Gulf Coast! Many 
great stories of anchoring for the night in shallow water, tide goes 
out, high and dry at 5 am. Cooking breakfast while watching the tide 
come in, then walking the boat back to the channel in 4" of water. Drop 
the rudders, and off we went! The Stiletto 27 was a bit dicey in the 
Florida Straights with 10' swells and 30 knots of wind. But it ws great 
for anchoring in fresh water creeks where the bottom growth was gentle. 
The big gators on the mud at low tide always smiled at us. Young and 
foolish, we were.
Don

On 6/8/11 7:30 AM, Chuck Finn wrote:
> Marci,
> You are correct that 6' 9" is a bit troublesome in the Caribbean and 
> even in the Great lakes.  I too have considered a shoal keel and 
> actually did all the homework to shorten my keel (see the discusssion 
> thread from 2-3 years ago).   Obviously, I did not make the change, 
> but here is my thinking.
> First is performance and this of course is a preference.  With all do 
> respect to our C38 shoal keel folks, the long keel really does make a 
> difference.  I get around on other boats and like on mine, the 
> skippers like to see someone else steer.  And the fact is that our 
> deep keel allows for performance to wind that other boats simply do 
> not have!  Six feet seems to be the magic number, with significant 
> performance differences.  My calculations supported by the folks at 
> Mars Metals (the folks who make the short keel modification) is in 
> order to go to 5' 6", I would have to add five hundred pounds as a 
> torpedo.  I would lose about 3-5 degrees of performance close hauled.  
> Even more problematic for me is the reduction in the "transversal 
> metacenter" calculation that makes boats with shoal keels far more 
> tender over the first 10 degrees of heel, which is one of the reasons 
> our boats accelerate so well.
> Second was the question of what is shoal enough?  4.5' seems to be a 
> good number and perhaps a good compromise.  But, why not a centerboard 
> or a Cat?  I have sailed both in the Caribbean, and honestly don't 
> know which one I would prefer.  Seems like what I really need is two 
> boats!  But the fact is that no matter what draft you have... you 
> still have to be always considering your depth!  The S&S C38 does 
> things that no other Catalina does and while I always want 
> everything....  this is as close to who I am as I have found!
>
> Chuck Finn
> Mighty Quinn #114
> Great Lakes
>
> On 6/8/2011 9:17 AM, Don Strong wrote:
>> That deep keel gets all caught up in bull kelp when you arrive at the 
>> farm house on Santa Rosa Island at 2 am in driving rain. We really 
>> didn't have to anchor. Don
>>
>> On 6/8/11 12:20 AM, Joseph Launie wrote:
>>> Steve,
>>>     In Southern California we have a different problem with depth, 
>>> anchoring in deep water.  In Pelican Cove on Santa Cruz Island for 
>>> example, if you get there early ( in the summer that is Thursday) 
>>> you can anchor inside in only 25 feet. Get there on saturday and you 
>>> will anchor in the center in 45 to 60 feet.   Years ago when we used 
>>> to race to Catalina on saturday and arrive at Two Harbors in the 
>>> late afternoon, I have anchored in 100 feet of water. Don't get too 
>>> much scope. Joe Launie/Macavity
>>>
>>> On 6/7/2011 9:03 PM, Steve Smolinske wrote:
>>>> NW does have some issues with depth, but they are not soft bottoms, they are usually rocks.  The San Juan Islands publish a chart "The twelve most hit reefs"
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________
>>>>
>>>> From:listserve-bounces at catalina38.org  on behalf ofdavid at dlrfilms.com
>>>> Sent: Tue 6/7/2011 8:38 AM
>>>> To: Catalina 38 Listserve
>>>> Subject: Re: [C38] Deep keel - 6'9"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> INTEMPERANCE has the deep keel. We bought boat in Georgia I think the deep
>>>> keel is part of what was keeping the boat from selling and helped us get a
>>>> good deal on her.
>>>>
>>>> I grew up on the West Coast. To my west coast way of thinking, if you've
>>>> got a bottom reading, you're in the surfzone and losing your boat. Sailing
>>>> INTEMPERANCE down the GA/FLA ICW was *extremely* stressful for me. A
>>>> couple of things have helped me learn to relax:
>>>>
>>>> 1) A miss is as good a mile. It takes time to get used to this. But the
>>>> water is 8' deep, it might as well be 1000. Sailing over the Little Bahama
>>>> Bank, watching the keel knock over conch shells was a head trip!
>>>>
>>>> 2) If you have a dinghy our boats are really easy to get unstuck. Tie a
>>>> halyard off to the dinghy, gun the engine, boat tips, off you go.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>    
>>>>> I'm guessing that those of you on the west coast don't have any issues
>>>>> with
>>>>> shallows. On the east coast however, it seems like my eyes are glued to
>>>>> the
>>>>> charts (instead of the water) too much of the time. While I love the way
>>>>> Checksy handles, her 6'9" draft makes it hard to relax! What percentage of
>>>>> the C38s were produced this way?  How many of you have the deep keel, and
>>>>> do
>>>>> you like them?
>>>>>
>>>>> Marci J. Brown
>>>>> Check's In The Mail
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>>      
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>>>>
>>>>    
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>> -- 
>> Donald R. Strong
>> Professor
>> Dept. of Evolution and Ecology
>> University of California, Davis 95616
>>
>>
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-- 
Donald R. Strong
Professor
Dept. of Evolution and Ecology
University of California, Davis 95616

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