Posted by Gil Burns (Gil.Burns@…>)
I am considering purchasing a F 28CK. I would like to hear owners
experiences about performance and maintenance. Also, I would like to
know how much water gets below decks through the steering cable opening.
Posted by tanton37 (davidhanson@…>)
— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, “Gil Burns” <Gil.Burns@…>
wrote:
I am considering purchasing a F 28CK. I would like to hear owners
experiences about performance and maintenance. Also, I would like to
know how much water gets below decks through the steering cable
opening.
Hi Gil… I am a recent F28CK owner with all of one seasons
experience under my belt but so far I am in love with this rig. Yes…
for all the reasons you typically hear from cat ketch sailors… but
mostly because my wife is very comfortable with this rig compared to
the sloops we have owned in the past. Very easy to single hand with a
very steady motion. Feels much larger than a typical 28’er both when
sailing and down below. (Mine is a centreboard version which is much
more open in concept than the fixed keel version and nicer IMHO )
As far as performance goes I am pretty satisfied and have had the old
girl up to 7.2 knots on the GPS. This boat loves to sail off the wind
and I have put faster boats to shame going downwind with the board up.
Upwind in light airs…forget it…drop the sails, put your feet up
and have a beer. As far as maintenance…shouldn’t be more than any
other g.r.p. boat…in fact less…theres no rigging to bother with.
But then you are asking the wrong person about maintenance with this
particular boat as ours was the victim of a hurricane and took a years
worth of work to make her beautiful once again.But beautiful she is and
we continually have people coming by to comment and ask questions. Back
to performance…I was ready to take a bit of a hit with regard to
tacking angles upwind (after all I had read about cat ketches) but have
been pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as bad as I feared as long as
the wind is up a bit…we have a slipmate with an Alberg 29 who
told me back at the dock after a great afternoon of sailing that he had
been chaseing me up the lake and not only couldn’t catch me but couldn’t
tack up any higher. One thing I don’t like but am slowly getting used
to is the feeling that the tack is taking all day… I’m still in
the old head up, cast off, and crank it in as fast as you can mode from
our sloop sailing days. With regard to water intrusion around the
cables to the quadrant…I’ve never seen any …but one thing I did
was was to (first grease the cable for a few inches either side of the
thru hull hole) and then added a gob of sealant and let it harden
thereby forming a bit of a grommet/seal. One thing that I would caution
you is to check carefully for balsa core problems. I was dismayed and
took many hours of labour to correct problems that could have been
avoided by proper techniques used at the factory. To sum up…My next
boat will be a cat ketch!! Cheers & Good Luck…Dave