HA...not lately around here..all these hurricanes have been giving us some pretty high tidesDuane Dunn, Allegro wrote: The charted heights are at mean high high water which is rarely acheived in reality.
I know what you mean about the optical illusion though. I try to eyeball the clearance on my 40 footers and it seems like about 4 feet. According to this page, the M mast height above water is 35'. And according to the old 26X literature, the mast is 28' which should indeed make it about 33' above the water. Add a 3 foot antenna and that makes your clearance right at 36' depending on the tide...which would make my guess fairly accurate. Another thing to consider is whether the boat is planing or not cause that will lift it up some.
Anyway Duane, your charted height must either be very conservative, or you are just barely clearing it. The best bridges are those with the depth displays right in the water where you can see exactly what the clearance is. We have a 60 footer like that on the ICW here and I've gone through it a few times at various numbers. Sometimes it says 58 or 59 which makes me wonder if in fact the clearance isn't really in fact over "mean low water level". Of course, they may have put in a little fudge factor too..like the little green nav light that probably portrudes 2-3 feet lower than the actual bridge.
Kevin, although I think its great that our boats have such an easy capability to lower the mast while underway, that is just plain too much hassle for me to undertake in normal sailing areas. Sure, I might do it once to get to some place really exotic. But so far, I've been far too lazy to ever try it..
