Monday, September 06, 2010

Elizabethan 23

'Serenade', an Elizabethan 23

Certain boats have been in the Hullbridge area for the past thirty years. Year in and year out they turn up on their moorings at one or other of the four yacht clubs along that stretch of the River Crouch. One of them, an Elizabethan 23 with the name ‘Serenade’ was owned by a member of the Up River Yacht Club in the early 1970s. For all I know, she may still be in the same ownership, because she is moored to a mooring supervised by the Up River Yacht Club. I remember crewing aboard her for a cruise to the River Blackwater.


She had an inboard engine and her accommodation was to a high standard. Although she had a beam of 7’ 1” I felt she was cramped, probably because she lacked standing headroom. She sailed very well on all points, but she was wet when on the wind in a Force 3 and upwards. Because of her lifting keel and shallow draught she was a good boat for East Coast cruising, except she settled on her side and there was the potential for muck to get into her keel box.


For more information about Elizabethan 23s visit the links below.



Dimensions

LOA 23ft (7m)
LWL 18ft 6in (6.6m
Beam 7ft 1 in (2.2m)
Draught 2ft 6in to4ft 11 in (0.8m to 1 .5m)
Displacement 3,8081b (1,727kg)


Links

Elizabethan 23

http://www.eoa.org.uk/class23.htm

1971 Brochure

http://www.eoa.org.uk/forms/E23BrochurePW.pdf

G. Drummond Bayne (Marine) Ltd. Brochure

Elizabethan Yacht Builders Brochure

http://www.eoa.org.uk/forms/E23BrochureSpecEYB.pdf

2 comments:

Baddaddy said...

Hi Bill - I've been looking around at swing keel boats of around 22-24ft and the elegant Elizabethan is one of the contenders. (The Anderson 22 must be another, of course.)

I gather you didn't like the Liz too much, so I wonder: which boats that are an affordable step up in size and comfort from our Prelude should we look at, do you think? I'd like to avoid having an inboard engine, and after enjoying the swing keel hugely I would be rather reluctant to to to bilge keels...

Cheers, Gav

Baddaddy said...

PS - It's good to see you're enjoying your new boat!