Having searched through the forum, I can find lots of references to, but no clear indication of what people actually do.

My first season, so really just getting used to my 235 and at the moment I tend to ‘day-sail’ probably 2-3 times per week, depending on weather– the joy of retirement!

The boat lives for the summer on a swinging mooring in a sheltered part of Poole Harbour and although it tends to wander around a lot, it doesn’t really get overly choppy.

The handbook recommends that the keel is lifted every time it is left, but this seem a lot of fuss; I anti-fouled it prior to the season.

For those in a similar situation, do you raise the keel after each session; if not, were there any serious or other consequences as a result?

Many thanks


John
Diamond/07

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I would prefer to lift it up, if only to keep the barnicles at bay. As a matter of fact I lift it up when leaving the boat in the marina berth. As for wandering about, I think that I read on the forum a good idea about fitting a short piece of flat plastic alongside your rudder that you could push down to provide some steerage to the current when left on the mooring with your rudder up.

Gary/Ruth/& Skipper the Working Cocker Spaniel
Crew of Juicy Blue P235

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Thanks Gary/Ruth/& Skipper.

Pretty much my thinking; be interesting to see if there are any other views

John
Diamond/07

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The only problem I have found with having the keel (up when anchoring) is that sometimes the chain can take a turn around the keel and you get moored athwart the current/wind. Provided the mooring chain is heavy/short scope so it goes more or less straight down I would not think this a problem.

I have heard of problems with wiing keels getting stuck in the mud and causing damage when the boat lifts on the tide, but I would not think this would be all that likely with the 235 keel.

I have also heard of boats (a Jaguar 21) being blown over and sunk in a winter gale with the keel up, but I would have thought this much less likely with a 235...

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John,

We keep our 235 on a swinging drying mooring at Woodbridge and have had no problems with the "drying out" bit - it is relatively shelterd although wind on tide can set up a bit of a chop that can make boarding a bit of a challenge. We keep about a foot of keel down and raise the rudder. However, the boat does sheer about quite a lot in the fight with wind and tide when it is floating. So much so that in the first year the mooring that had taken my previous boat (that was twice as heavy) failed. In order to counteract this excessive swinging, we have tried several things:-

(1) a bucket (with large hole in bottom) streamed behind the boat. This seems to work a bit but the bucket only lasts a few tides and gets squashed or otherwise breaks
(2) a car tyre streamed behind the boat - this works partially but has the disadvantage that the tire needs to be taken on and off and gets extremely muddy; we don't do this anymore! Others use a half tyre which might be better (as it might be self cleaning.
(3) Twin mooring ropes to the port and starboard cleats/fairleads and not over the stemroller - this dampens the swing more than a single mooring rope but not that much more. Some people say that each rope should be taken to the cleat opposite the fairlead - we haven't noticed that it makes a difference.

We haven't yet tried a proper "canvass" drogue or using a short immersed rudder. The latter might also be useful to steer the boat when motoring in shallow water with the keel is raised. Reducing the windage, i.e. lowering the boom and sprayhood (we haven't got the latter).

If your boat doesn't dry out and you can be satisfied that there will be a good depth of water at low tide,I would leave the keel and rudder down - the boat is much more stable. You may get fouling on these but the hull will get fouled anyway and needs to be cleaned regularly throughout the season unless you use eroding anti fouling (and even with this sometimes). Leaving the keel up is really only for sheltered waters. In the great storm of '87 boats with raised keels, like the 235, moored 6 mile from the river mouth inland turned turtle and sunk - those with keels down tended to survive.....

Hope this helps.

Regards

Chris Cobb

235/48 "Tarakihi"

James & Chris,

Thank you both for your informative and helpful replies and sorry for my tardy response - taking advantage of the recent good weather.

I guess it is a question now of trial and error to see what actually works for me.

The boatyard were very helpful earlier this year and raised the boat on a forklift with slings for about 4 hours so I was able to clean and anti foul the keel. It will be interesting to see the state of the keel when if comes out of the water in the autumn.


John
Diamond/07

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