Deep or Shoal Draft

[Jasen]

Beginning the search for a used hunter in the 40 foot range, moving up from a 27. We do most of our sailing on the Chesapeake and wonder if we should consider a deep draft keel any drawback.

 

[Brad Cavedo]

Shoal Draft

We have a 1997 H P42 with shoal draft of 5 feet with wings. Love it. We are on Chesapeake Bay, too.Boat points close to the wind and leeway is not any greater than our old H 37C. GPS plotter shows use tacking within crisp 90 degree or less angles.

 

[Clyde Lichtenwalner]

It Depends

How deep is deep. I've been sailing with a 5'-6" draft for quite a few years on the Chesapeake, and find it to be no problem. A friend finds 6' to be just fine. There are plenty of places to go even with a deeper boat. The performance of a deep keel will always be better to weather, but a winged keel Hunter may be more weatherly than some older deep keeled boats. As I said, it depends on the design of the boat. In my opinion, 5'-6" is about as deep as I would go for the Chesapeake.

 

[jw]

shoal draft

The shoal draft on my Hunter 40 works fine for me. I sail the northen Gulf Coast mostly but have had this boat in the Florida Keys as well. The project depth for the southern part of the ICW in the keys is 5FT so dont try that in a 40 without a shoal draft.When i pull out this next year I plan to shorten my rudder by one foot as it is currently the same length as the keel and to prevent damage from grounding I like the rudder shorter than the keel. I know another 40 owner that has done this and it works well for him.