Swift 18 Owners

It is common sense both for draught and mast height to use a "pilot's foot" clearance. The mast should be approximately 25 ft or very slightly more, roof height above sheer 1.5 ft, sheer 2.5 ft so I think 30 ft should be enough except for top mast light, VHF aerial and wind indicator. A good place t...

I'm afraid there are several bad guys within there new "members"... I found that, by experience, you can find reports about their actvity, just typing their e-mail adress on Google. Then you have a list of "anti-scam forums" and I'm afraid most of them should be banned. However Germany is not imposs...

The formulas used are taken from an old study, from a time when one couldn't imagine how light the boats could be with modern materials and building techniques, and how high the ballast could be installed. Phil ----- Original Message ----- From: Terry ( forum-general@swift18.org ) To: forum-general@...

Gives 113.39 for my boat in present condition, lifts just 10kg/22lbs on mast top (15kg/33Lbs required for Cruisers) With the numbers of early 2009 when the boat capsized, 112.1 The effective ABS (live tested) is 102.2 I'm preparing a dedicated tool for Micros (coming soon), based on same data, but s...

When I'm stating that Class Rules for the stability of a Micro Cruiser are at the low side, it's taken from a long experience. Last year I measured for certification a new Russian boat 'Elektra 18' (very nice but expensive, see also http://www.go-neptune.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1411 (in Frenc...

I use to trust only my sails. Engines may seem reliable, but anything can happen at any time. When I'm sailing in the Thames Estuary and other East Coast rivers, I use to install the engine on the tender. If there are two, the most reliable one is in the tender. Then if the boat goes aground (and a ...

Target weight for Micro Cup is 560 kg (1235 Lbs) in Cruiser division... But only new designs from Poland, Latvia and Russia manage to gather minimum weight, stability requirements and performance. three years ago, weights of 600 kg (approx 1320 lbs) or more were common on new productions. Stability ...

What about privacy. The Google car was visiting a village where I should never have been, at least my wife says so. Hope she will never have the bad idea to and see on Google Maps. Wait and see, this region is still not available on the Web. ----- Original Message ----- From: Terry ( forum-general@s...

Very low clews are for racing boats. The purpose is to increase performance by reducing the opening between deck and sail. It is bringing very high stress on the deck at the block fitting. On the contrary, for cruising, the high clew reduces slightly performance, but also allows to furl several turn...

Genny, force 6... don't be surprised if something wrong happens. Such a rig is weak when you need to have control of the forestay tension, and a genua should be furled soon. Only the Challenger Micro has a similar ratio genua/main A 7/8 rig can usually sail properly with mainsail only. The furling w...

This is a known problem. A German manufacturer, Sailart www.sailart.de has a keel retracting under the hull (like the First 18) and the boats are over the stability limits. Some boats inverted with a lot of noise and some damage when the keel hit the hull. So on request of some customers, they devel...

John, As you could see in my gallery, my boat was correctly foamed, but my crew on board found it was uncomfortable as he had wet feet, so I added another 100 litres at the transom. The Micro Class rules are old, I'm in charge of improvements, but most of the nations are reluctant to accept more com...

John, Almost no boat, and certainly no sailboat of less than 20 ft is self-righting. You mean probably self-righting at 90 degrees heel. They should indeed, it is commonly accepted that all boats of this category should have an angle of vanishing stability of 103 degrees. As a Swift in this uncomfor...

All boats are becoming hard on the helm when they are over-heeled. The difference is only that when the rudder is compensated, you feel it lighter, but it doesn't meen the rudder is submitted to huge forces. It is common that you loose control in that case if one tries to control it only with the he...

See http://www.boats4fun.co.uk/ Swift 18 Trailer Sailor http://www.boats4fun.co.uk/info/swift18.jpg Boats4fun have recently taken possession of the production moulds for the Swift 18 Trailer Sailor, the moulds are currently being re-furbished ready for building the first boat for RCD certification. ...