sailboat recycling

[rickc]

A 1970 21' macgregor destined for the chipper followed me home yesterday sans her sails and rigging. I have been wanting of a small low power cruiser for the canals and rivers here in Upstate NY.
looking at the attached pic you will see I have enlarged the cabin to make it a bit more liveable and more traditional looking.
I think the modification looks ok and appears proportional to the size of the hull, but I would like to hear some other opinions or ideas.
The picture is not of the boat I have.

Thanks

Rich

[gonzo]

I think a bimini top with enclosed curtains would be good.

[Guest]

While I normally like eliptical ports, I think that on a cabin side, they are not just right. Something more rectangular would look better and give far more visibility. Agree with the bimini idea.

Neat way to get a little power cruiser cheap.

What do you plan to do about the lifting keel housing encroaching on the interior space? Will you add ballast to take place of the old keel or keep it light?

[Willallison]

yep - I'm with Gonzo too. If you can be bothered with the complexity / cost, you could make it collapsable, like a pop-top caravan. That way you could lock it up when not in use, you might be able to make it a little taller when raised, giving additional headroom.

[rickc]

I'm pretty excited about this project .I have been agonizing over plans for a year trying come up with a small trailerable cruiser that would run efficently on a 7 hp outboard and sleep 2 . Then I saw a thread here a few weeks back where a couple of people had mentioned turning old FRP sailboats into launches. I like the idea of recycling a plastic boat that still floats.

The bimini is a great idea and will probaly be done provided the boat meets expectations once the modifications are done. The bugs are so bad up here you just about have to screen in the cockpit anyway

The swing keel is missing. The boat was stripped of everything but the outboard mounting bracket. In place of the swing keel I will mould in a skeg to help the boat track better in a chop. The boat is light and narrow in beam so I'm sure I will be adding ballast to slow down her motion

I like the idea of the square windows I doodled a bit more and came up with a 3 lite window(#1) that seems to fit the style of the boat better. what do you all think?

[Willallison]

I like the middle one the best, but what Gonzo was talking about (or at least what I was talking about!) was a bimini (or in my case pop-top) enclosure for the cabin itself.

[rickc]

Originally posted by Willallison
but what Gonzo was talking about (or at least what I was talking about!) was a bimini (or in my case pop-top) enclosure for the cabin itself.

A bimini cabin would certainly be a practical idea. But not as asthetically pleasing IMO.
One of the ideas I worked on last winter I made a pop up type cabin that was rigid and telescoped into the hull. It lowered the trailering height by 20"

rich

[Guest]

I also like #2 best also but think that it might be more pleasing to have the window follow the angles of the fore and aft ends of the cabin. Making them as a sliding pair would give better ventilation which is sorely needed in a small cabin.

I second the thought of some kind of pop top on the cabin. We used to cruise in a Catalina 22 with a pop top and found it to be a great advantage with full standing headroom. The Venture is quite a bit smaller but you could still get a lot more headroom. There are a gazillion ideas on making more height from a long hinged cabintop hatch to a canvas dodger affair to a slot top. All are better than none.

Can't remember if the Venture 21 has a foredeck hatch but it would be nice to be able to handle mooring and anchoring chores without having to go over the deck on such a small boat. Some make a slot top long enough to walk all the way forward (Skiff America, AF3, Af4). do this also. Otherwise, a hatch of adequate size will work.

Tom Lathrop

[Willallison]

One of the ideas I worked on last winter I made a pop up type cabin that was rigid and telescoped into the hull. It lowered the trailering height by 20"


That's exactly what I was suggesting.

[Guest]

Will,

If I understand you correctly, the suggestion is to make the whole cabin telescope up and down on or into the hull.

This was done by Columbia Yachts on a 22 or 23 footer in the 70's. It did not prove to be very popular in competition with the much simpler fixed cabin with a pop top. More complicated, required some kind of mechanism to get it up and down, more costly and detracted from structural rigidity of the hull. Lots of things will work but, in practice, the simpler it is, the more useful it will be.

The basic idea of reclaiming a tired sailboat as a low power displacement powerboat is intriguing. There are lots of them around that could be adapted and I have seen a couple that worked out satisfactorily. On one that did not, the owner built up too much cabin structure and it was a great roller. Without the keel and mast to help damp the roll, the moment of inertia was reduced so much that it was like a washing machine. This is very common on converted navy whaleboats too. Of course, they will roll your breakfast out in stock form too.

Tom Lathrop

[Willallison]

Ah Tom! You've made excellent points - and they concur exactly with the provisos that I made when I 1st suggested it. However, I see no reason why the pop-top needs to be complex, heavy, or expensive. I am suggesting a roof section that is no larger than the one proposed by Rick (I envisage a 'lip' around the cabin extremities which the lid drops down over) so say a roof 6ft long by 3 or 4 wide. It could be made of relatively thin ply or even canvas. It would be lifted manually, supported by a couple of scissor / concertina arms and a pole or something to hold it in the up position. I wouldn't lift it very high - for the stability reasons you've suggested.
Another (simpler) alternative would be to have it hinged at the front edge and lift at the back.
I saw a go-fast low profile speed boat like this many years ago. The foredeck popped up to give additional headroom for the under-foredeck berths and have always wondered why the idea never became even a little more popular....

BTW, the additional high-up weight of a mast would increase the moments of inertia on a sailboat wouldn't it....?