I am a new owner of a Catalina 25 swing keel and I am wondering how stable the boat is at varying wind speeds with the keel up
Stability of Catalina 25 Swing Keel
- Thread starter Anthony1
- Start date
The keel should only be up if the boat is on the trailer or if you have to raise it because you have run aground. Do not try to sail it with the keel up. A friend of mine tried raising the keel on the spinnaker downwind leg of a race (this is cheating, by the way) and got the dreaded death roll sans keel. After retrieving the boat from the bottom he renamed it the "Red October".
I am sure Jackdaw will be on here shortly. Not all retractable keel sailboats will roll if the keel is raised while under sail. I owned a Clipper Marine 26 for many years and you could adjust her 600 lb keel to various desired levels to suit your sail set with no adverse effects. Bear in mind that I never had the keel up when sailing broadside to the wind! (Not well known but Clipper Marine 26's are fast.)
Chief
Chief
Are you asking because you want to know if you can sail it like that?
For swing keel boats (like the Catalina 25) where the keel mostly rests along the bottom of the boat, raising the keel for sure effects stability, but not as much as you might expect. Under sail you will loose lots of directional stability, and under sail and power you will loose some righting moment and that will also lower your AVS (Angle of Vanishing Stability). But because the bulk of the keel/ballast is in the same general low location, it has much less effect than would raising a lifting keel into the cabin, like a S2 7.9 does.
Congratulations on your new boat. In addition to the great gang here, you should get to know these guys: http://catalina-capri-25s.org/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=3
As far as the keel up? I wouldn't. Why do you ask?
We had a C25 for 12 years, fixed keel. Before that a swing keel C22, never moved the boat with it up.
Also consider if your rudder is longer/deeper than your keel if the keel is up. Not good for the rudder.