Personally havimg done a bit of inland sailing, I am curious about what was sailed at the yacht clubs. While incollege I sailed a bit summers at an inland lake where I was a lifeguard. The last half of my last summer
there the "sailing master" job dropped in my lap. Inland boats, at least smaller ones, often do not have a
keel, but use a dagger board aka center board, that can be pivoted up out of the water or pivoted down
into the water. This is a convenient arrangement when beaching a boat or putting it on a trailer without
worrying much about propping the hull up in place. The boat I mostly sailed wass a "scow" design, hull a bit like a soap bar, using two angled "bilge boards", not a center board. It was 28 feet with a 32 foot mast. I took payingcustomers out for rides. Between rides I worked like a fiend to manually pump out the bilges. It had a leakwhenever heeling to the starboard! This was a fast boat that sailed nicely when heeeled high up. Crew couldgrasp a "monkey rail" and stand on the angled bilgeboard when it came nearly up level, its twin doing thejob of a keel on the other side of the boat. This boat would be murder on the waves and wind of an ocean!
I am wondering though with the usual light winds of the HK bay, if all the boats had those heavy unremovable keels? The scow was fun to tip over, actually (not with paying passengers). The cockpit did NOT fill with water/Swim the sail around, lift up the edge, and the mast would swiftly pop erect as wind took the sail edge. This was on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, USA
Don Ady
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