Keels

[Bob Morrison]

I just put in an order for a new Catalina 36 at the Fall Boat Show. (Yes, I am very excited!) I ordered the winged keel because of the draft. I sail on the Chesapeake and and the 17 inch difference in keels is huge. My experience in the past has been with fins and full keels. Since I signed the contract, I have heard some disparaging comments about winged keels. I can still change the keel if I want to although I am inclined to stick with the wing. Does anybody have any thoughts one way or the other?

 

[Keith]

I think that in the area that you are going to sail,the wing keel is the only option that you have. I have a fin keel 36 and have sailed it along side of a new 36 wing. I point a little better and seem to be faster. I am only faster as long as I have deep water. When it gets shallow, I am sure he will pull away very fast as I am trying to get unstuck. This last weekend, I checked out several marinas on the Ches. Bay. Most said that my fin keel would fit fine in the slip, when talking to sailors that had boats in those marinas drawing 4 1/2 to 5 feet they informed me that they bump all the time but can get off. Their bump would be my hard aground. Needless to say, I am thinking about looking into seeing what a keel switch out would cost. (My boat is on an inland lake now, looking to move it to Ches. Bay in acouple of years) Yes the fin is faster and points better, if it didn't, every boat out there would be wing keels. But if you want to cruise and visit more coves and private anchorages, the wing keel seems like the best choice to me.

 

[Jon W]

It's a priority issue

If you aren’t a diehard racer type, you probably won’t even notice the slight performance compromise with the wing keel. If you tend to constantly tweak your boat and controls to get the best speed out of her, then you may want to think twice on how important is the shallower draft is to you. The PHRF ratings difference would be somewhere around 10 seconds per mile to give you an idea.

 

[Stan Rogacevicz]

Stick with the Wing

Even though most of Narragansett Bay is deep some of the neat little places I like to anchor in and out of the bay would be a big tide watching hassle if I had a fin. From what I hear most of the Chesapeake is shallow and I'm sure there are many places you might want to go that you either can't or have to plan your schedule around the tides. I'm no racer, but most times I don't notice any big difference in pointing ability when the usual "not really racing" thing happens when I happen to be going the same direction as someone else and start to try a little harder.Stan"Christy Leigh"c320 #656 wing

 

[LaDonna Bubak - Catalina Owners]

A word about your interior

At our local Catalina rendezvous, I talked with a couple of folks who ordered their boats new. Now, they *were* 280's or about that, but they were very unhappy with their interior finish. These folks were "varnish" type folks and hated the color of the finish Catalina uses. It's apparently a low-impact (environmentally speaking) finish that is water based, has low emissions and sorta just sits on top of the wood. The teak ends up looking more like pine and the stuff is a huge bear to get off. One guy stripped his wood 2-3 times and there were still spots left - and he's meticulous!In other words, check out the interior finish on a new boat. If you don't like it, you can order that no finish be applied and then you can finish it to your taste when you get it. Now that will lengthen the time before it's *finished,* but at least you'll end up with what you want (IF that's what you want).It's all a matter of taste, but I just thought I'd mention it since you *can* do something about it at this stage. Have fun with your new mistress!LaDonan