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Fiona Bennett - 6/3/2019

Hi Alex
I have just seen your post to OCC Forum. We are just putting our Southerly 38 on the market. Let me know if you are interested and I will send you some more information.
Regards,
Fiona

Thanks Fiona
do, by all means send me the information.
Just please understand that we are not starting to look for a new bot before our current boat is sold.

OK thanks. Will send via email.
Fiona

I posted the same query on the Facebook group page and got the following responses, re-posted here to keep from losing them. 

Bob Hathaway
Bob Hathaway Alubat Ovni range are very tough and sail well
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Gorm Gon
Gorm Gon Pogo, more performance oriented compared to Ovni. Garcia is also an option similar to Ovni
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David Zaharik
David Zaharik I purchased a Boreal 47, they come in models starting at 44. Draft is 1.02m board up and 2.48 board down... super strong, great sailing vessel.
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David Zaharik
David Zaharik We plan on taking down the Brittany coast in the spring and then into the canal system at Bordeaux to the Med
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Daria Blackwell
Daria Blackwell David Zaharik I'd love to hear how that goes as it has always been Alex's dream to do that.
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Jeanette Liljekvist
Jeanette Liljekvist We have an Allures, it is with centerboard up 1,05 m and down 3 m - we love our boat - Jeanette on s/y Bushpoint
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Neil McCubbin
Neil McCubbin We have sailed our Garcia Passsoa 47 from the high Arctic to the Caribbean over the past 14 years. 1.1 m draft board up and 2.5 down. We beat most cruising boats our size. Shallow draft is good but biggest advantage is sea kindly motion and does not broach when the board is up. Sailing to windward is OK and off the win she flies. A bit heavier and stronger than Boreal or OVNI
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David Zaharik
David Zaharik I think I would argue the strength between a Garcia and Boreal... I spent two years examining both... they are both beautiful but I went with all aluminum... Boreal.
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Neil McCubbin
Neil McCubbin Lots of photos of Passsoa 47 at http://McCubbin.ca. Feel free to email if you wish to discuss
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Caroline Woodhead
Caroline Woodhead Whitby is only 1.5m so we have even been through French canals

Vice Commodore, OCC 

Our current boat, a Bowman 57, has an 8.5-foot draft which has limited our ability to get into some places we'd like to visit. Hence the query. We're also looking to downsize a wee bit to about 40 feet. Those sails are getting heavier every year.  

Vice Commodore, OCC 

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Daria Blackwell - 6/19/2019

Our current boat, a Bowman 57, has an 8.5-foot draft which has limited our ability to get into some places we'd like to visit. Hence the query. We're also looking to downsize a wee bit to about 40 feet. Those sails are getting heavier every year.  

Our OVNI 395 - 12.3metres LOA - 2.1metres centreboard down, 0.7m with centreboard up and the rudder folded, and hard chine with flat bottom means you can take the ground.

Hi Daria,
As mentioned above, our Southerly 38 has a lifting keel and can take the ground. It is also now for sale - see boats for sale on the OCC main website. Happy to supply further information if required.
Fiona & Michael

In the last forty years, I've owned four cruisers - and the one thing that they've had in common is a draught of about one metre. I've come to believe that this the optimum fixed draught, if there is such a thing. Enough grip of the water not to get unduly blown around when trying to berth in a marina, for example, but not so much grip of the water as not to ride the punches when those big breaking seas are coming at you. In the smaller boats, that was all that was needed, as they were twin-keelers. Getting nearer to the size under discussion, Tystie is a 35ft bilgeboarder, co-designed by myself and David Thomas, with a 'V' shaped midship section. I'd like to put in a word for the bilgeboarder (two boards, either hinged like centreboards or up-and-down like daggerboards). They are made asymmetric and slightly toed-in, so actively lift to windward when the lee one is down and the windward one is raised. And they are not prone to getting jammed with stones when you take the ground. On Tystie, the deepest fixed part is the skeg, and this means that in wild going downwind, she feels a lot safer and more manageable than deeper boats that tend to trip over the keel and broach. I sailed her 85,000 miles in all the oceans except the Indian, and and also gunkholed in places barred to deeper draught boats. She is Cat A rated, so getting that rating in a 40ft boat wouldn't be a problem. I think that David Thomas designed a bigger one, after Tystie, but otherwise, a new design would have to be commissioned, I suspect.

Anyway, now I've downsized to a 23ft twin keeler, a Hunter Duette. I'm currently cruising in the Isles of Scilly, where I enjoy the ability to scoot over the shallow sandy flats between the islands at minimal rise of tide, demonstrating the advantage of shoal draught very well. The deeper boats have to wait for HW, or go the long way round.

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Alex Blackwell - 4/26/2019

Has anyone got good, bad or ugly experience with shallow draft yachts?
We are looking at doing more coastal cruising and want to get into places with skinny water (our currrent boat draws 8.5 feet. Ovnis have come up as have other makes.

Maybe replying a bit late to this but I have a Koopmans 46’ Yacht, Dutch built in aluminium with hydraulic lifting keel. With the keel up you can sit her on the bottom not that I’ve needed to do that as with the keel up the draft is only 1.5 metres and with the keel down 2.5 metres, very useful in Denmark last year where many marinas were in less than 2 metres and in The Scillies the year before that where some passages are even less than that.

No experience with Ovnis, but I've circumnavigated the Americas in a 15m/50' Damien II steel lifting-keel (all the boat's ballast is in the centerboard/lifting keel) boat.

I really like being able to get into shallow places (draft with the board up is 1.3m(<5'), sailing draft is 3.2m/10.5'). This has helped in getting into many marinas, and has been most useful when in poorly charted areas, as going slowly and relying on the centerboard to lift if it hits a rock helps avoid going hard aground.

I like the ease of drying out upright and being fairly close to the ground.

As I see it, the main downside of a centerboard or lifting keel is the additional complexity. There's nothing to go wrong with a (welded-on) keel, and painting a keel is straightforward--either hauled out on jackstands/cradle, or drying the boat out against a wall or on it's side on a beach.

As well as a locking pin, my lifting keel has 4 screw pads that hold it in place, horizontally, when it is down, to keep it from slopping around in the centerboard case underway. I don't know what other centerboard boats do to hold the board in position when down, but that is a complication in the process of raising and lowering the board--something a keelboat never needs to consider.

I've painted the centerboard in a marina that had a pit for deep keels & centerboards, which was very handy, but I've not seen many of these pits. I've painted the centerboard by having a crane lift it out (it weighs about 5 tons, and the centerboard trunk goes to the deck, so after some unbolting of brackets, it can be lifted out). I've painted most of the centerboard with a roller on a stick while the board was simply raised, but I can't reach all of it that way. I've not yet careened (leaned the boat over) on a beach to paint the centerboard.

I really like having a centerboard/lifting keel, but no matter how one does the maintenance, it will be somewhat more complicated with a centerboard. I think whether that's worth it or not depends where one sails (most popular places are well-charted, so no need to "go slow and let the centerboard hit any rocks" as is useful in poorly-charted areas) and how much one enjoys going into shallow places.

Thank you very much, Richard
your boat sounds interesting, though a good bit bigger than what we would eventually like to have.