[C320-list] 320 Draft

[Amiraults Family]

Jeff:

It sure made a difference to me. When I bought Bear, she had a fixed cradle
not allowed at my club. So I ordered a new folding cradle from The Cradle
Shoppe in Toronto; telling them that the boat was a C320 (a boat they knew)
and that it had 4'10" draft. They ignored this and supplied a cradle for a
4'4" draft. The cradle was delivered to Ottawa a week before the boat
arrived in early April of 2007 - when the harbor was still ice-filled. I had
to hire a crane to lift the hull from the delivery truck to the new cradle
to discover that not all the pads would extend far enough to support the
boat without additional blocking between the pad and the hull. 

Once the boat splashed in early May I returned the uprights to the
manufacturer for correction.

In dry summers following a winter of little rain the river level drops
sufficiently that Bear has been known while travelling the harbor entrance
to knock the rock ledge which crosses it. In these conditions I have crew
move to the bow to raise the stern and better protect the rudder. Six inches
CAN make all the difference.depending on where you sail.

Regards;

Brian Amirault
797 Waltzing Bear, too