Thank you to kate, peter and greg for your welcome and encouragement. I have read the handbook and their are certainly some interesting modifications and good advice. At present i am carrying out some simple improvements that should make life easier/more habitable for me and my needs.

This leads me to my question, having read the manual, does anyone keep their Seal on a drying mooring. My one at Poole Harbour is but I am having doubts about the damage the keel may do to the bottom of the boat. Any views or opinions most welcome!

j.williamson

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There are 2 Seal 22s and a Sinbad on drying moorings here in Stanpit and Mudeford and they dry out fairly upright in soft mud.

There was one case I recall many years ago (and I thought I'd put it in the manual?) on a drying mooring on a pebbley bottom and rather exposed off Whitstable where a pebble got between the keel bulb and the hull and pounded its way through making a leak. I think all the moorings in Poole are in mud so you shouldn't have the problem. Wind the keel right up and there won't be any room for pebbles anyway.

Geoff Harwood ex Sinbad 287

We keep Moonspinner on a drying mooring in the River Blackwater where the bottom is a mixture of soft and not so soft mud over an underlying strata of gravel/ballast. She does heel a bit when dried out but the ammount of heel depends on whether she settles in a soft spot or on a harder patch. Heeling is limited and the worst I have seen is about 25 degrees. I saw the report on the boat that sank after the keel land was holed by (probably) a stone and when we lift her out at the end of this (our first) season, i'll check very carefully and if necessary clean back the keel land area under at the bottom of the hull and apply a few layers of glass tape in epoxy or polyester resin just to make sure that she is able to withstand the repeated grounding action. Whilst our moorings appear relatively exposed at half tide and higher, when the water recedes and the depth reduces, there is hardly any significant vertical movement and thus no pounding of plate on hull.... (hopefully). Also, as is characteristic of our moorings (apart fron the few on gravel banks), boats tend to dig themselves a hole, or rather a crescent shaped soft-spot around their mooring after a month or two resulting less apparent heeling than at the start of the season.

I would suggest similarly just keep an eye on things during the season and check carefully and beef-up the keel land if necessary over winter. You could also fit a float switch to an electric bilge pump as a backup - as long as your battery(s) are up to it and/or if you have solar or wind recharging set up....

Greg

Seal 22 Moonspinner

Greg...

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