Swift 18 Owners

Hi Malcolm,
The brochure quotes the max headroom as 4' 3".
I thought I'd seen the seated headroom somewhere but can't find it now, so measured from top of seat cushion to headlining just behind the cooker is 2' 8", slightly more further aft. I'm 5' 10" and that's plenty for me.
Hope this helps
Rob

Hi Geoff,
Give me a shout if one of your 'gentle jaunts' is to Ullswater!
You can't miss Vega with the multicoloured sails!
Cheers
Rob

Hi Geoff, The shroud attachment to the mast that you describe sounds to be the normal method, mine is like that. I think the fore-stay is normally plastic coated as well, mine was, but I replaced it with plain (stranded) wire. I think the plastic coating is to protect the fore-stay from the ends of ...

Hi Dave, Here is a picture of my masthead, there are two pulley blocks as you can see, the centre one in the masthead with the wire is for the main halyard. The lower one with the red line is the topping lift. I think some boats had the topping lift secured to the masthead crane and fed through a bl...

pmasters wrote One question to throw put there, where have people mounted a speed sensor? I'm looking at whether to put it under the sink off the center line, or to put it somewhere kickable in the main cabin? Not looking forward to cutting the double hull either. The other thing I was wondering, a...

Andy, The cast aluminium fitting on the top of the foil should knock off, not sure if the eye needs to come out first. It was very tight on mine and needed some force to shift it. Inside is a nylon bush which was very worn on mine, I replaced it with a short length of washing machine hose and packed...

Hi Artemis!
750kg is the max for any unbraked trailer, I doubt you would be able to get any Swift (including trailer) under that. You really need a braked trailer.
Good luck fining a boat!
Rob

Hi Malcolm, I just checked on the Micro Class website and the rule quotes a minimum weight of 450kg but no maximum. http://www.microclass.org/page.php?page=part4 I think we should always treat displacement figures in particular in reviews etc with a pinch of salt. Did you weigh your boat with or wit...

Hi Malcolm, I think we had a discussion about displacement back on the old yahoo group some time ago. I certainly remember agonising over whether my car at the time would tow a Swift ok. It coped ok as it turned out and my current car, Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI certainly has no problem. It looks like th...

Malcolm, I know the early boats, up to No. 95 had a lighter keel than later boats. I have a couple of magazine reports from 1982 and JCA brochure which list the displacement as 660kg with 190kg ballast. I suspect this is with the early keel. I also have a very similar brochure from Swiftcraft, (same...

Hi John, My boat, Vega, is No. 191 so the next one out of the mould after yours. I have a builders certificate dated 22nd March 1985. There are 48 turns to wind the keel fully down and there should be a stop on the end of the thread to prevent the keel being wound down too far, you should be able to...

Tom,
Try contacting 'Mikeprojectboat', he built a new Swift from the molds recently and must have had the keel mechanism fabricated.
The keel is angled back by 15degrees from the vertical when fully down.
Hope this helps, good luck.
Rob

Mic,
Simple answer is yes! Mine are attached between the pushpit mount and the aft mooring cleat, then to jammers on the aft deck.
Hope all goes well with your first sail, enjoy!
Rob

Tom,
Here is the keel, I thought this was on this site somewhere but I've found this in the old Yahoo group files. Someone was asking about the rudder dimensions back in November and we could'nt find them then!
Sorry
Rob

I've got an old magazine report on the Swift when it was first launched in 1982 which quotes the keel weight as 375lbs and the displacement as 1450lbs. I know later boats had a heavier keel and on the home page of this site the displacement is quoted as 1520lbs, 70lbs heavier with the later keel? So...