[C38] catamarans for the Gulf coast and Caribbean

William Knowles whk1965 at gmail.com
Wed Jun 8 10:55:47 EDT 2011


Don We had a Stiletto 27 too. What a fun boat, used to love sneaking up and
sailing by power boaters. We sailed her on Erie and was pretty rough
sometimes very hard on the body. I miss being able to grab a dock line and
stop the boat on a dime. Tried it docking the 38 the first time docking and
almost pulled me over the side.
Cheers
Bill Flying Goose

On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 10:44 AM, Don Strong <drstrong at ucdavis.edu> wrote:

>  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 of david 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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>
> --
> Donald R. Strong
> Professor
> Dept. of Evolution and Ecology
> University of California, Davis 95616
>
>
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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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-- 
W H Knowles
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