Van der Stadt 34 - tracking

[chicky]

What a great forum.

I am planning to buy a Van der Stadt 34 - steel, with a deep fin keel and a free standing spade rudder. I've been told that the version with the shallow - longer keel, and with a skeg before the rudder, will track much better. Can anyone tell me whether there is a substantial difference here, or whether this is really tinkering? I had a sail on her a few days ago and there seemed to be a lot of weather helm in the 20 kt breeze, but that might be put down to poor sail trim. A second reef in the main may have helped. I would like to eventually install windvane self-steering and I want to single-hand. So tracking is fairly important to me, but I don't want to be spooked off an otherwise good-looking boat at a reasonable price.

Thanks,
Chicky

[Gilbert]

There may be examples of deep fin keel boats with spade rudders that track well with wind vane steering. But I am skeptical about just picking one and having it work out well. Most examples I've heard of either need someone at the helm almost constantly or an active autopilot setup. They tend to do best upwind.
Why buy a boat that is going to wear you out physically? That's not a good reason to go sailing in my book.

[Faster]

Go to Sailnet.com forums and look up a member "tdw"... he has one of these in the land of Oz and might be willing to fill you in.