Hi, my boat Awara a parker 235 sits on a pontoon at the moment but will be birthed back where the level of the lake is shallow. It would mean I would get the boat out and in with the keel up under motor. It is based on lake windermere so the biggest waves will be from the Ferry. My question is about the stability of the boat when keel up for the purpose of birthing the boat? Can anyone give advice? Would it be safe or should I always have the keel down even under motor?

Hi Graham,

I used to have a Parker 21. Its berth was a trailer and each weekend in the season I would launch and recover onto the trailer on a slipway. In this way, the boat was frequently going about its business with the keel fully up. You will be fine for your application. Just like the 275 I now have, they have ballast within the hull itself. These boats are frequently moored with the keel fully up. The stability is fine. The tricky bit is steering. Without any keel down, the hull can slip sideways like a hovercraft. The trick is to try to leave a little keel down until the last moment. Line up early and proceed slowly. Sometimes under motor I have the keel fully up and proceed at speed. Going in a straight line is easy. Only turns need a bit of care, a slow speed and gentle turns. You can be confident that your proposed berthing will be fine.

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Hi Ken, thanks fir the advice. I think if Ibtake rhe pontoon moring if offered it sounds fine for the Parker 235

I could fend of the boat ahead of me as well .

Hi

I can agree about the difficulty of steering with the keel up, frequently missed the trailer when there was wind and current to mess things up.

About stability, yes the P235 is perfectly stable with the keel up, however they are very buoyant, and can be flattened past 90 degrees in a very strong gust. I believe this happened to one on moorings with the keel up, the problem is that the keel then slid up (or down as it became), and the boat inverted! As there is no tide on Windemere, I would recommend leaving as much down as you can, and perhaps loosly tying the center rail to the pontoon.

Jim Hamilton

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