Annie Hill wrote:Finally I've got a bit of time to look at your design, which is a very nice-looking little boat. I think the rudder might be a bit vulnerable, what with two boards to deal with as well. It's a long reach aft to grab it and haul it up. In addition, I'm not sure how I could fit a trim tab self-steering gear to such a rudder. Are you considering using the lee-boards as 'legs'? Otherwise the boat won't dry out upright, which is a necessity. You say that she is very lightly constructed, but I need a boat that will beach happily on such things as oyster shells and pebbles: I'm not sure a very lightly constructed boat would take this. But I do like that fact of the joinery being structural and saving on initial framing.
How and where does the outboard motor fit in? Is there room on deck for both the dinghy and the solar panel? Is there a bridge deck - there doesn't appear to be, and what is the entry arrangement?
The interior: You've put the scale as 1:20, but unfortunately, I don't have a printer, so can't print it off and am having to guess. What's the headroom? If the forward berth is 1.8, then this would imply that neither of the saloon berths could be used as a guest berth, or for that matter, a sea berth. I think I'd rather have the forward berth slightly narrower at the shoulders to supply space for outboard stowage. I think the proximity of the heater to my head might be too much of a good thing, I'd be inclined to put it next to the heads. I've never had a hanging locker and think I'd rather have a longer settee, there.
Can you explain what comes between the starboard settee and the heads? I notice you show a standard sea toilet: I would use a composting one. But I'm afraid we need to do something about the galley: I like to cook and I couldn't manage in the little space you've given me, although I do like the athwartships stove very much. But I need more stowage in the galley: it's really annoying having to go round into the saloon and back again whenever I need something and even worse if I've got someone on board for dinner. I don't want to keep asking them to move so that I can reach things. On a boat of this size, you do need to keep a lot of the food in the saloon, but I want most of the ready-use dry goods to hand, together with pots, pans and plates. I don't see room for my galley drawer(s). I think we'll just have to shorten that cockpit.
Where does one do one's chart work - and store the charts, pilot books, etc? And a bit more room for books would be nice.
You will now have some fellow feeling with David that I am quite impossible to please!
Hey Annie.
I'm quite busy myself so don't worry about taking your time. Yeah, you would have to reach back to pull the rudder up. Depending on what system you use to connect your trim tab to your airvane it could be modified to work. I have experience both with the trim tab type of windvanes and servo pendulum types and I find the servo pendulum to be superior. In all fairness though, I have used them on very different boats so the comparison might be flawed. The trim tab version was on a 15 ton 12 meter ketch and the servo pendulum was used on a 6 ton 9 meter Scandinavian double ender. A rudder that folds up would be OK as well. Preferrably with a locking pin that brakes if you hit a log or whatever else.
Using the leeboards as legs would require a locking mechanism which wouldn't be too difficult to accomplish. If you dry out on very soft bottoms they would sink in though as they are vertical. I've actually seen fin keeled boats sit absolutely straight with their entire keels sunk down into the mud in Holland and Germany, enough to make you wonder if they'll float free when the tide comes back in. On the other hand while being more effective as supports and also hydro dynamically, canting leeboards would be quite vulnerable unless heavily built as they could be subjected to significant shear stress if you were unlucky enough to settle on or float free from the bottom with a swell coming on. One option would be to make the bottom very flat. The downsides would be that the you would have more slamming while beating into a chop and also added whetted surface which is undesirable. The worst downside would be that we'd have to loose the skeg which would indeed reduce the whetted surface but you'd also loose the protection it provides for the rudder which, in my humble (or perhaps not so humble) opinion, would render the boat unsafe for anything but close coastal cruising in sheltered waters. Another option would be to add small bilge keels so that the boat would rest on the keel and the bilge keels. This would also increase the whetted surface but it could to some degree be compensated using a smaller skeg. They would also produce some turbulence which will create drag.
The construction is light in a sense that when measuring strength/weight it will actually rival steel in some aspects. It is by no means weak. If you plan on hitting a lot of hard objects though steel would be the way to go as while most other materials found in boats would crack, steel will just buckle, and with a decently sized sledge hammer you'll be able to unbuckle it :)
The outboard would go on a mounting bracket offset to either side of the rudder. Using a well for the outboard would take away the big advantage not having an engine using up a lot of space that could otherwise be used for storing... beer? or Beans perhaps? There would be plenty of space on deck for both dinghy and solar panel. No bridge deck but a threshold to keep the water out. I put a new picture with some measurements here. With an arrangement like this there would be, literally, tons of storage in the cockpit so shortening the berths would not be necessary.
I used a standard toilets as I was lazy and reused something from my library of previously modeled items. I hear you on the composting toilet though. Standing headroom at the galley would be just shy of 1.7 meters. I was thinking of a chart table folding down onto the sink counter from the aft bulkhead.
Yes, the cockpit should be shrunk in favor of galley space. This will however require a redesign as the appearance of the boat would be altered quite a bit and I'g have to come up with something different. I'm happy to do that though.
Now a few questions:
- What would you like the entry arrangements to be like? They don't affect too many other parameters so you are quite free in choosing as long as you don't want the vault door from Fort Knox.
- Did I get it correctly that you don't need the bunks to be longer than 1.8 meters? while this is fine it would severely reduce the number of potential buyers should you ever want to sell the boat.
Impossible to please? We'll see about that :)
/Hampus