cyclonic holes and alloy centerboarders

During the past weeks we got a lot of cyclonic alerts around New Caledonia (Vania, Zelia, Anthony and of course Yasi, all packed in one month)

I take time during the current cyclonic pause for explaining one of the advantages of an alloy centerborder. You know, these strange french designed blue water cruisers you can see in QLD or Darwin on their way around the world. Usualy you noticed them only when they are anchored in places so shallow you can't imagine a cruiser there. They are very popular in Europe, but not so much known in Australia.

Of course these boats are perfect for going close to the beach or enter in a very shallow lagoon. However I think that for cruising in the tropics, their main advantage is safety by allowing you to pick your place in narrow cyclonic holes.

In New Caledonia, there is no port with a total protection to cyclonic conditions. For example in Nouméa, most of the marina poles are only one feet below the high tide level. If a cyclone strikes at high tide, I let you imagine...

The two good cyclonic holes in New Caledonia are in Bay of Prony (20 miles south of Noumea) and Port Laguerre (12 miles north), where rivers allow to access inland protected waters. However in case of a cyclonic alert both of these shelters are overcrowded, with most of the boat crews having a moderate to low standarts of cyclonic anchoring. The real dangers in these places are the other boats.

We choose Port Laguerre because of its mangrove shores (better than the rocky shores of Prony for an emergency landing) and because part of the place is accessible only for shallow draft boats. Accessing to this place at any time of the tide allow you to arrive first and to pick the deeper place in the mangrove, with no other boat around. We spend three cyclonic alert safely in this place, and without our 3 feet draft our position would have been much less secure.


all details on our 42 feet alloy centerboarder design on :
via42forsale.blogspot.com


for sale 122000 AUD

Your yacht is very similar to the Kelt 39 (now known as the Feeling 39).

They are actually only 36 foot long but feel a lot bigger.

One of them (a Kelt39) passed through here in Bundaberg quite some years ago and was being sailed mostly single handed by this Welsh guy who had a mane of hair like a lion.

I was quite taken with the boat as it is the only yacht I have seen that had a sunken lounge. It was directly under the cockpit in a U shape around the engine box which had drop leaves for the table. Behind that was a double bunk (more like bed) across the transom.

It was a fibreglass production yacht with the fit out style very similar to a Benetau or Jennau though I think of substantially better quality.

The ballast was provided by a huge moulded cast iron plate that was bolted and moulded into the bottom of the hull and it had a swept angle parallel centreboard for when sailing on the wind.

It also had a small stub bilge keel each side at the turn of the bilge plus another stub keel forward of the propellor to stop it grounding. Twin rudders of course.

The beachable boat concept is brilliant especially for areas with big tidal ranges.

Alumium I believe is the ultimate hull material. Many people fear it because they think if they lose a copper coin in the bilge it will eat a hole in the hull in no time.

I had an alloy Peterson 42 with a bolted on lead keel. It was correctly anoded and never had a bit of electrolysis. That boat is now 29 years old and still going strong.

Assuming your yacht is in top condition, AU$122,000 seems quite a reasonable price. Unfortuneatly for yacht sellers in Australia the market is probably the most down it has ever been.

Fair Winds, Following Seas and the Best of Luck to You. Cheers Cisco.

There is such agro on this site sometimes............what skin off your nose is putting a plug in for a boat that one has for sale?

If you're going to insult people, please, at least learn to spell correctly.

I think grainedetoil's original post was promoting the benefits of that design (not common in this country) and in passing that his yacht was for sale.

That he has mentioned that it is for sale is hardly something to get excited or uptight about.

It is the job of the forum moderators or administrators to regulate that scenario.

have a look at the PAID classified ads section of the site ,,now tell me how clogged up these disscussion forums would be if each of those ads where pimping there stuff on the disscussion forums??

my opionion only ,............... on other websites this behaviour is not tolarated at all.

Hi torch,

Thank you for your questions concerning "Graine D'étoile" design

There is no weight in the keels : they are just light aluminium centerboards, with a NACA profile. All the weight is in fact inside the hull which make the swinging centerboard easy to move. The ballast weight is 3 tons.

Just be warned that the euro weakness seems to be over, and the price of all these european boats should go up in AU$ during the coming months.

.........including my Triton 721 for $11K..............anyone interested??