A great post Sunday’s BYM about the latest twist in the AC debacle. According to BYM, Golden Gate Yacht Club’s challenge was to race a 90’x90′ keel yacht. Technically that’s a very big barge. I used to try to cross these in the Houston Ship Channel with my little Cape Dory. Let me tell you, these babies can shift!
Apparently, I am not alone in thinking a keel yacht is a monohull. There are a lot of people wondering why no one picked on this till now. GGYC’s Commodore goes to great length to dispel this as a pedantic quibble. Nigel Irens says not:
The terms ‘Multihull’ and ‘Keel Boat’ (or less commonly used ‘Keel
Yacht’) are used to differentiate between two types of boat that are
fundamentally different. A ‘Keel Boat’ derives its stability from the
use of ballast whereas a ‘Multihull’ carries no ballast and derives its
stability from its width. The term ‘Keel Yacht’ could, therefore, not
be applied to describe a multihull.
I say they should compromise and start sailing these:
If you go to this site:
http://www.skutsjesilen.nl/pagina/ontstaan.html
you can have a look at the keels – or lack thereof.
Locally we have a competition with 14 boats, so that should fit AC perfectly
Those kind of barges were sailed around the English east coast, crewed by a man, a boy and a dog. The dog was to deal with rats and bite the boy if he touched anything he shouldn’t.
Thus I’m familiar with importance of the keel, it’s still not clear to me the exact function of it.