Swift 18 Owners

I’ve been using the Tohatsu saildrive for a bit now and am in a bit better position to give an opinion. First of all, there doesn’t seem a great deal of difference, if any, between the power of my old mariner 4hp 2 stroke and the sail drive but the prop wash on the latter makes it a nightmare to rev...

Does anyone know about foam luffs and can you retro fit them to an existing sail?

Don't know if anything just slots in. You've probably done this already but can I suggest you check out "which Engine" in the outboard section. I hear what you're saying, we used to have a transom mount transducer on a dory we owned, with a 30hp. I figure if it'll cope with planing and all the inher...

Dan, My hull is, as most, single skinned in the locker under the sink and both transducer and impeller are mounted here. Their position is critical though because they need to be as close to the centre of the boat as possible. The only problem with this is that the paddle can now be damaged by the t...

Hi Dan Mariner /Mercury / Tohatsu 4,5 & 6hp – their all the same outboard with different carburation the only difference for you is that they now all have to be 4 strokes. The 4 stroke has the same length shaft as your mariner 4 but the engine its self is taller (original short shaft is now no longe...

I think a Hawk 20 is! The other thing about a swift is, that if one did completely invert, the keel would drop back into the keelbox with, probably, damaging force. Terry John, Almost no boat, and certainly no sailboat of less than 20 ft is self-righting. You mean probably self-righting at 90 degree...

As you correctly assumed, Swifts will start to round up once the water hits the gunnels and if you manage to push it far enough the rudder will lose grip anyway. Other than being blown flat in thunder storms and the like, I don’t know anyone who’s managed to capsize one (I bet someone will write in ...

I think ram's horns are fairly standard on most swift. What you've got sounds like something that might make reefing single handed a bit easier (depending on how it's set up.)

Hi John, I find that in order to get the trailer out (with the wheels on) I jack the boat up on two old RSJ's. It takes 8 concrete blocks for the wheels to clear and that allows the keel to be almost fully wound down (enough to antifowl all the keel and inside the box anyway). I've done this for the...

Hi Gary & Ruth, When lifting the boat out at the end of last season I was convinced I was going to bust something, in spite of squirting oil down the winder. Taking on board Mikes comment, I drilled a hole anyway and have now fitted a small dingy drain cock. When I unscrew the bung I can see the thr...

Does anyone know anything about new swifts under construction? Apparently they are being made by a firm called Boats4fun. They have acquired the moulds and are currently fettling them for production and are filing for RCD certification.
Looks like they are serious! I wonder what the price will be.

For some time now I have been thinking about introducing a small hole/drain cock in the top of the keel box about 2" aft of the winder. This should be above the water line and allow me to poke a grease gun down to the screw. Can anyone see any problems with this? I'm just a bit conserned that it may...

Hi Mike, Just a small point. Do you have a bolt rope or sliders because, if the latter, you'll have a lot of sail bunched up just above the boom which will need to be accommodated in your design. Trying to make myself a sail cover, have made a template but seems to require a bulge,rather than a tape...

Hi Mike, I'm not that hard! I've noticed this noise (when rocking side to side) over a few years. I'm only bringing it up now because, as the spring approaches, I was beginning to think about doing something about it. Thanks for suggestions. I have a tame local engineer who will supply the plastic b...

When I’m sleeping down below, if there’s a bit of a swell running, I can hear a bit of a clonking sound from the keel box. Do swifts always do this is or is my keel bolt bush wearing? If it is wearing, I thought I might whip the keel off as soon as the weather improves and see if I can get another m...