Twice the appeal
Most 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?
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
