deeply disturbed over draft????

seadaddler · Nov 3, 2011

4'

Yes 4' draft in Florida would be great for sure and I keep my Hunter 36 with 5' draft in Punta Gorda and know other Salboats in Punta Gorda with 5'6'' draft that sail to the keys and Bahama's every year for 3 or 4 months and do OK.
Nick

kloudie1 · Nov 3, 2011

Many of the Hunter 34 boats were made with a shoal draft keel. 4 feet 6 inches if I remember correctly. There should be some in Florida and Houston and the gulf coast.. Mine is a deep draft boat but there are two in my marina that are shoal draft.. not for sail..

Bill1565 · Nov 3, 2011

Draft over 5 feet will keep you out of Florida Bay, but not much else.

We have run aground with 4-2 draft on our O/I 41, 3-3 on our swing keel morgan 34 and 4' even on our 37 cutter. It's no big thing, but you want to wait for the tide , not call for help in the Keys national whatever.

med2463 · Nov 4, 2011

With our 4' draft, I worry less, although everybody goes aground in FL. Try to avoid it in the Keys though because of their huge fines. Many times, while anchored, we see sailboats try to come into our anchorage and go aground because they have a deeper draft. They figure if we got there, they can too. Also, some come by our boat in their dinghy and ask how we got there or ask how much we draw.

Ed Schenck · Nov 4, 2011

Maybe a nice centerboard Pearson? If you want to point up wind you want the draft. I have the same boat as "Mary" above, four feet. I can't count the number of times we stuck in the ICW or had to wait for high tide to cross an inlet on the way to Florida. Twelve years now and I have never been concerned that she doesn't point well.

Dan Johnson · Nov 4, 2011

Steve...

Claude is correct--Hunter made a number of H34's with the shoal keel. I have one of them. It's draft is listed at 4' 3", but when loaded it's more like the 4' 6" Claude cited.

The shoal keel weighs a bit more than the fin keel, giving the shoal keel boat a bit more displacement. The only significant difference I'm told is that the fin keel boat points a bit higher. Other than that they are the same.

When I bought it, my H34 had a Chesapeake Bay PHRF rating of 162, a couple of points higher than my dock neighbor's H34 with a fin keel and folding prop.

Ed H · Nov 4, 2011

4 foot v. 5 foot Draft

You will run aground just as much with the shallower draft... only you will be closer to shore... (A variation on the famous advice on getting 4 wheel drive- you still get stuck, just further from home)

Ed H

eliems · Nov 7, 2011

This is what you want ...

MrUnix · Nov 8, 2011

Ed H said:
You will run aground just as much with the shallower draft... only you will be closer to shore...

So funny, and so true. We kept our H27 on the bay side of Key Largo and it had 4'3" of draft. Oceanside was not a problem.. bay side was fine as long as you stayed to the ICW and marked waterways. You could do some island hopping if you knew the waters, but you could never get very close. Going on the hard now and then wasn't exactly common, but it did happen. Usually you can work your way back off without too much problem when it did.

Cheers,
Brad