a few questions

[Tad]

Water,

It seems I'm as reading deficient as everyone else.... It's post #3 where the elimination of the ballast keel is suggested.

Ironmater,

Yes, you can have all inside ballast and little or no outside keel, but the boat will not sail to windward without something (keel, centerboard, daggerboard, bilge keels, etc) to counter the sail force. Various scenarios can be trialed in a VPP (velocity prediction program) program called PC Sail. Create a hull and rig and try different keels. Or create a rig and keel and try different hulls, or create a keel and hull and compare rigs.

[brian eiland]

My original posting here on the subject of supply vessels for Cuba has been reposted as a new subject thread here

I felt it might be a 'stand alone topic' of its own

[ironmatar]

thanks for the program suggestion and yes i admit my posts are sometimes hard to read ,
as for the keel, i just have a issue with something that just begs to get hung up on everybody and his brothers uncles flotsam out there and at the depth of most bulb type affairs not a simple job to just cut something loose even with scuba gear.