Swifts in Wirral / North Wales

An area for general chit chat on any old subject
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jon777
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Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:20 pm

Swifts in Wirral / North Wales

Post by jon777 » Tue Aug 12, 2008 12:54 pm

Hi

I am currently thinking about "trading up" from my current cruising dinghy at the end of this season and have been doing a lot of research about 18-20 foot trailer sailers. After looking at loads of options (from a new West Wight Potter to Shipmates etc.) it seems that the Swift 18 seems to tick all of my boxes (good sailing performance, swinging rather than lifting keel, "inboard" outboard in a well, active class association and reasonable price).

This isn't a "wanted" ad as such as I won't really be in a position to buy a boat until later this year, but I wanted to get an idea of whether there were many Swift sailors in the Wirral / North Wales / Anglesey area and how they rate the boat for coastal cruising in this area. I have seen that Cherry Pie is based on Conwy, but it seemed from other posts on the forum that there may be a few other Swifts around the area.

If anyone who does own a Swift around here would be available for a quick chat and some pointers on what to look at when buying a used Swift that would be even better!

thanks in advance

Jon

Terry
Cruising
Posts: 229
Joined: Thu May 18, 2006 8:56 am
Location: Gwynedd, North Wales

Post by Terry » Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:14 pm

Hi Jon,
Welcome to our site. There are currently two Swifts based in Conwy, ‘Cherry Pie’ which you have mentioned and ‘Anna Georgie’ sailed by Justin. There is also myself with ‘Seren’ and Simon with ‘Arabesque’ sailing out of port Dinorwic, a little further along the coast in the Menai Straits. I’ve also seen one boat at Beaumaris and at least one at Abersoch but I don’t know anything about them.
Swifts were well made boats built using quality kit but things to look out for when buying are:
Problems with the keel winding mechanism, crack around the keel box caused by keel impacting the ground, leaky windows and water getting into the buoyancy chambers (also caused by delamination around the outboard well). My anchor well leaked water into the cabin through bad finishing when the boat was being built. Quite a lot of boats are in need of new head linings now but generally all of these problems are relatively easy to fix. It’s generally agreed that the outboard mounting point is too low which I believe slows the boat down a bit and a lot of owners have raised theirs (mine is now about 4” higher.) These are all the things I can think of off hand but I dare say others will add to the list.
Regards Terry

CHERRY PIE
Cruising
Posts: 143
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:04 pm

Post by CHERRY PIE » Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:38 pm

Hi Jon, In addition to Terry's sound comments I would be inclined to take into account the state of the trailer which would arguably account for 20 to 30% of the purchase price if in good condition. Some Swifts were built with a wooden toerail and some in aluminium, Cherry Pie has an alluminium toerail which requires minimal maintainance and is pleasing to the eye, we added a pushpit which makes the cockpit feel a safer place to be in extreme weather conditions and is usefull for attaching dodgers. Gary
Gary/Ruth & Skipper who used to sail a Swift 18

jon777
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Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:20 pm

Post by jon777 » Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:49 pm

Thanks very much guys - most helpful.

nick
Run aground
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:22 pm

COMMON Swift 18 PROBLEMS

Post by nick » Fri Aug 15, 2008 9:58 pm

To TERRY
I too have experienced problems with my windows but I think I have solved it. eventually !! I used SIKAFLEX which forms a gasket, applying it with the screws slackened off then after about 24 hours tightening the screws. The problem was that the screws were not long enough.They went tight but had not fully pulled the window in.The holes in the GRP side of the cabin were also worn ,so rather than use excessively large diameter screws I peeled back the vinyl suurround of the window on the inside and using"sticks like **** " stuck strips of hardwood approx 4mm thick 2cms wide over the holes level with the window aperture,then I tightened up again with slightly longer screws pulling them down evenly No leaks via windows this season.I used wooden strips rather than another layer of fibreglas so that I could reseal in the futureusing the same diameter screws

Terry
Cruising
Posts: 229
Joined: Thu May 18, 2006 8:56 am
Location: Gwynedd, North Wales

Post by Terry » Sat Aug 16, 2008 12:32 am

Gary
Were some swifts were built without pushpits?
Terry

CHERRY PIE
Cruising
Posts: 143
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:04 pm

Post by CHERRY PIE » Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:42 am

Hi Terry, When we first aquired Cherry Pie 1992 we had no pushpit, we decided a pushpit was a "must have" following on from a very nasty line squall and managed to buy one from a boat jumble in Bangor. We are keeping our fingers crossed for some half decent weather this w/e long range does'nt look to good but the wind looks to be calming down a bit.
Last time we were down the thrust race bearing gave up on us and the keel was stiff winding up, I guess a bit of metal got trapped inside the nylon bush, we will need to dry out and sort it out, in the meantime I purchased the more heavy duty bearing (the one featured in the old newsletters and more recently pictured on the website, thanks martin) all I need now is a lathe.....a job for winter I think, for now I'll grease it. Gary
Gary/Ruth & Skipper who used to sail a Swift 18

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