It is striking (no pun intended), how few sailors care to know about fundamental design and construction details of their boats’ underwater appendages. Not only are there obvious handling differences between mini keels, daggerboards and centerboards – but also various ways they are constructed. This knowledge might save your life one day.
When shopping for your multihull, make sure you know exactly how the foam filled keel is attached to the hull. You do not want it firmly laminated or bolted, as in case of an impact it could compromise the water integrity of your catamaran. Similar on a daggerboard multihull, make sure that the lower end of the trunk is massively braced and heavily reinforced. The myth that daggerboards brake before the trunk is not always true and similar to ill designed keel multihulls, many daggerboard cats have swamped after collisions.
The best of all worlds are high performance centerboards. They give you the superior upwind speed and pointing ability of a daggerboard, but safely retract on impact.
Keels, daggerboards and centerboards all have their place but in case you are looking for a centerboard catamaran, the McConaghy range of multihulls are the only catamarans to employ centerboards.
watch some of the tutorial videos:
- Episode 3 – Daggerboards vs. Keels vs. Centerboards. Which one do I chose ?
- Episode 1 – Introduction to our mini series, Catamarans Art & Science
- Episode 11 – 3 Key Features of the McConaghy 50 catamaran
- Episode 17 – How to search for your perfect catamaran
- Episode 12 – Sunreef Yachts
- Episode 7 – catamaran steering stations, Whis is best ?
- Episode 10 – Bavaria Nautitech catamarans
- Episode 2 – Catamarans vs. Monohulls. The age old question analyzed.
