Question About Draft

[flabrewer]

Hi folks, new sailor here looking at a '83 30' Tall Rig with 5'3" draft.

I plan on doing most of my sailing out of Palm Beach but will be in the Keys fairly often.

In your experience, will draft be an issue? We'll go to the Bahamas a couple times of year. I have no problem using the tender a bit but would rather wait for a shoal draft to come along before making a mistake..

Experiences are appreciated.

 

[Nahart51]

I have the same keel on # 65. I sail in a shallow lake and go hard aground on a regular basis it seems. I tie a line to one of my halyards and give it to a passing boater. They motor athwart ships until I heel over enough to motor off.

The fin keel allows me to point so high, I sometimes feel I'm sailing in the "no sail zone".

If you go aground with a shoal keel, you'd better have a Boat US policy so you can call for a tow, and they point lower than a fin keel, but better than a catamaran.

 

[shipwreck66]

My C27 states a 4'6" draft, but it's amazing the times I seem to hear bumping sounds when passing the 8 ft. mark buoys. Only hard grounded once, unfortunately right in front of the restaurant at marina where I was on youtube within 5 minutes. You shouldn't have too much trouble around Key West as long as you follow the charts "very" closely. I've sailed a bit from there to Bahamas and I wouldn't want shoal draft, maybe a wing keel. There's a lot bigger, deeper draft boats sailing around there that make it, you'll do fine with a good depth finder.