Give or take a few inches, depending on the specific year's model.īut by no means take these numbers for granted. Staying with the same line but moving up to a larger size, the Beneteau Oceanis 45 has 5.9 ft of draft. To give you a specific example: the Beneteau Oceanis 281, which is 28.5 ft long and has 4 ft of draft. A piece of steel you gotta be mindful of when you get close to the shore. While the keel is a necessary component of a sailboat and makes your life much easier and your boat much more stable, the price you pay is that there is a long piece of steel below the boat's belly. The reason this category has a rather deep draft is because of its keel. Its draft will probably be between 4 and 7 feet. A classical sailboat, some 30 to 50 feet long. This is the kind of boat you will most likely find yourself on if you go on your typical cruise. Now let's get back to the categories mentioned above. To tell you the truth, I start to sweat nervously once the depth goes into single digits. If I, by any chance, don't have a depth measuring device and am operating on just a map, I am even more careful. I usually double that value and never go into places where the plotter shows a lower number. If not, consult the boat's manual or the internet at the very least. Therefore, whatever boat you get on, know your draft! You can find this number often in the cockpit. Simply put, not respecting your draft can put a dent in your pocket and turn a nice cruise into a logistical nightmare. Getting towed to a safe depth can also be expensive and dangerous to your boat. Ok, that might have been a bit too dramatic.īut depending on whether the sea bed consists of sand, seaweed or rocks, you can either get beached and become immobile, or your propellers might get tangled in whatever is down there, or you can pierce a hole into your boat.īoat repairs are expensive, even if you got lucky and just scraped the surface. While scraping some paint off of your car when you misestimate the distance between you and the lamp post will mostly just cost you the repair fee, 'getting in touch' with the sea bed can cost you much more than that. You absolutely must know the draft of any boat you are driving. Go any shallower and you will scrape your boat's bottom. So practically speaking, the value of draft is equal to the minimum water depth required for smooth floating. What Is Draft And Why Is It So Super Important?įor those who haven't encountered this term before - draft (or draught) is the distance between the water surface and the deepest point of the boat underwater.
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