Such a shallow draft is going to be hard to find without going to a centreboard yacht and I don't think I could do that. Perhaps a cruising cat might be the answer. 6-foot draft is OK on the South Coast as far as I can see. For the sort of boat you're looking at I think one of the American cruisers that pop up occasionally is what you're looking for. This is an example yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sail-monohulls/morgan-west-indies-38-centre-cockpit/271329

That's a hard one - Australia basically didn't build shoal-draft offshore boats. There's pretty much only the Austral 30, Noelex 30, B30, RL34, some Adams and Arends, aren't there? I understand the issue; we were on the South Coast with 4'8" draft and then switched to 6'2" and it did limit our cruising from BB. Can you knock out the Arend's "linen cupboard" and extend the vee berth to that area? What about lifting the vee berth and extending it into the anchor locker?

For what it's worth, being old enough to have started offshore racing in the '70s and having a tragically retentive memory for such things, I don't know of a single boat with a bolt-on keel losing it before about 1988, when elliptical keels arrived and boats like Planet X and Drum started to drop them, unless you count boats like the Db1 Luv that surfed onto the bricks at Falmouth (UK) and somersaulted about 1983, and that's an impact that probably nothing would have survived. The "modern" boats that lose keels are very different from the older ones that didn't.

From about 1876, when the first boats with all-external ballast arrived like Watson's Five Tonner Vril, until about 1960 just about every keel was bolted on, and losses were basically (perhaps entirely) unknown. Boats like the S&S 34, Miura 31 (apparently a claimant to the design with most circumnavigations), most Swansons, all (?) Swans, etc etc etc were built with bolt-on keels and they don't drop them.

There's quite a few horror stories about encapsulated keels, and doing a proper repair after a grounding that has scarred or holed the glass on the bottom doesn't sound like an easy job.

EDIT - If you're moving from a 25' TY with a bulb it sounds like you're used to something fairly sporty. I can't recall the headroom in a Noelex 30 but they are a great boat that would handle the south coast pretty happily. At the other extreme I used to know a guy about 6' who had an Adams 13.

I like the idea of an Adams 13 or 11 with CB but I was told they didn't have standing headroom for 6ft?

Bit of a aside. I did work experience with Joe Adams when I was in Year 10, and they were having a great laugh one morning tea.

Apparently a new yachting journo was interviewing Joe and asked him about his boats not having standing headroom...

"What do you mean they don't have standing headroom?" he says. (He was about 5' tall)!

This one has sold but draft is 1.5m and so very close to your criteria 1.4.

www.boatsonline.com.au/boats-for-sale/used/sailing-boats/catalina-30/266509

Jethrow said..

I like the idea of an Adams 13 or 11 with CB but I was told they didn't have standing headroom for 6ft?

Bit of a aside. I did work experience with Joe Adams when I was in Year 10, and they were having a great laugh one morning tea.

Apparently a new yachting journo was interviewing Joe and asked him about his boats not having standing headroom...

"What do you mean they don't have standing headroom?" he says. (He was about 5' tall)!

He was the opposite of lanky Lach (Crowther) who never designed a boat he could stand in!

Headroom and airliners are where we short arses get our revenge for all those times we couldn't see the stage at gigs because of tall people.

EastCoastSail said..
I should explain the draft requirement. Currently have 25ft'r with bulb on fin daggerboard. 0.7m up, 2m down.
We live 2hrs from the coast, having a low draft allows us to go down for the weekend (Batemans Bay) and go over the bar on a falling or even low tide. We want to be able to keep the ability to not be effected by the tide too much.
Watching the 1.7m yachts anchor outside of the bar waiting for the turn of the tide is limiting when we have short windows of opportunity.

Thanks for the link, will do some research on how they sail. I have difficult requirements, I don't really want a beach ball that can't got to weather.

The obvious answer is to change your homeport and buy a 34 to 36 footer with 1.8m draft. Two hours from Batemans Bay sounds like Canberra. Plenty of boats in Jervis Bay and Greenwell Point owned by Canberra people.

Thanks for the help. Got a good lead via PM, talked to the owner today, given photos and inspect next month.