Practical Boat Owner – September 2019

Twin-keelers under 23ft

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter K Poland crossed the

Atlantic in a 7.6m (25ft) Wind

Elf in 1968 and later spent

30 years as co-owner

of Hunter Boats. He

is now a freelance

journalist and

PR consultant

Twice the appeal

➜

M

ost sailors enjoy wandering
around boat shows,
marvelling at the never ending
advances in electronic
wizardry and gazing at the ever bigger
and slicker GRP production boats that
now seem to dominate the market.
But I am always struck by the
disappearance of what was once the
bedrock of British family cruising – the
humble bilge keeler.
Of course the proliferation of large
marinas has a lot to do with this. When
Westerly started mass-producing small
bilge keelers in the 1960s, marinas were
rare. So a cruiser that could dry out on a
tidal mooring made a lot of sense. And the
ability to take the ground in a secluded

creek on a family cruise also had a lot of

appeal. As it still does today.

But although there’s now a multitude of

marinas along our coastlines, not

everyone has the budget (or the

inclination) to park their boat there.

Indeed the annual cost of a marina berth

for an elderly small family cruiser can

often exceed the yacht’s actual value.

So there’s still a healthy demand for a

sailing boat that can literally stand on its

own two feet.

But where do you start? Which bilge

keelers do the best job?

PHOTOS BY DAVID HARDING

http://www.sailingscenes.co.uk