19 feet deck boat plans

[gordanm]

I'm looking for outboard deck boat plan of around 19 feet long for amateur building. Something similar to Bayliner 197 SD or Glastron GT 205 but with outboard propulsion (Bayliner 197 SD or Glastron GT 205).

So far I haven't been successful in finding such plan (I checked Glen-L, Bateau, Hartley etc.).

Here is the summary of desired characteristics:
LOA - approx. 19'
Beam - 8'
Deck layout similar to previously mentioned boats
Outboard engine
Plywood construction

I would appreciate any info on such plan (or. perhaps, reasons for non-existence of such plans).

Thanks

[rasorinc]

You might have missed this one from Glen-L --- Flats Flyer

https://www.boatdesigns.com/products.asp?dept=740

[gordanm]

@rasorinc

Originally Posted by rasorinc

You might have missed this one from Glen-L --- Flats Flyer

I'm not sure if we mean the same thing for "deck boat". I was thinking about a lot of space for benches (seating) all aorund the boat (as in examples I mentioned in my first post), rather than huge deck in the example you posted. And far more freeboard.

But thanks anyway.

[rasorinc]

https://www.boatdesigns.com/20-Jet-S.../products/832/
might consider this for open seating. Glen-L full size plans make building quite easy.

[PAR]

Deck boats are a fairly new "innovation" if you can call them this. They are not the result of a wise old designer making an honest new design. They are the result of a marketing team developing a new, cheap boat that will take advantage of the majority of the pleasure boat market place.

What they did was take a hull mold and designed a new deck cap to fit it. The hull mold may have been a design that doesn't sell well any more, though it could just as well be a current model. Then the marketing team took the seating and general layout of a pontoon boat and molded this into the new deck cap. Presto a new type of boat, one with ridiculous amounts of seating, at least a dozen cup holders and molded in seating. Now the folks that liked the open seating and space of a pontoon boat, but didn't like the pontoons or preformance can have the best of both worlds. A new market, hot damn!

Since the "deck boat" is such a narrow market and of course fairly new, you'll have trouble finding designs for one from the "plans houses" like Glen-L, etc.

The reality is the interior arrangements in a boat are generally wide open to a builder, for the most part. So long as they provide similar stiffness and support as the original arrangement, they're good to go with a new arrangement. This is so often the case that my plans generally don't include a very detailed interior plan. What I usually supply is details on how to build furniture and the locations I like to see certain types of stiffness. This way they can build what they want (which is what they'll do anyway) and it'll probably be stiff and supportive enough to serve well in the hull.

I guess my point is, you could easily convert a hull to one that has the deck boat look with a new interior accommodation. If this is out of your realm of comfort, then a semi custom design is probably in order. Most of my stock designs end up being a semi custom design, as the client wants "changes". These usually don't cost much and can offer just what you want, depending on the depth of involvement you have with the designer.

The deck boat was intended for the segment of the pleasure boat market, where they sit on the boat and drink. Maybe they'll go swimming, maybe they'll tow a inner tube, but mostly the boat serves as a cup holder for partying. These types of boats receive very few hours per year, once the "newness" wears off and the marketing team that developed them know this. So, they placed as many built in cup holders, beer coolers and as loud a stereo as possible to appeal to the buyer. Of course none of this has anything to do with being a boat.

[alan white]

It is often difficult for the novice to understand how much of modern corporate boat marketing and design is nothing more than a sales pitch---way to get a person to buy a boat based on what the salesman says and not what will serve actual usage over time. As a result, many if not most recreational above-water boat designs are pure nonsense geared to maximizing first impressions while downplaying long term pitfalls.
People understand:
Horsepower
Top speed
Price
Features like cup holders and built-in coolers and stereos
Seating capacity
Warranties

These are talking points they can bone up on by surfing the web comparing competing boat manufacturers. Similar to buying a household appliance.
It gets confusing because there is a huge rift in the design protocols of the corporates and the serious home-built and small shop designers. This all leads to a confusion in the minds of emerging enthusiasts here on the forum.
For example, it has been seen that carpeting the inside of an open boat causes all kinds of long term problems. Yet the public has been trained to believe such things are "how it's done" and newbies, until redirected here on the forum, often decide to fix up an old boat with a rotten plywood sole by repeating the carpeting idea.
Of course, carpeting is how marketing people present (cover up) in the best light the crude and unattractive work of low-wage factory workers who throw the boat together in the only way they can.
A recent phenomenon in design is the use of overlapping (always humped) curves and certain color appliques. This is similar to the way motor homes and travel trailers all look like they have been "painted" by the same Spanish modern artist. Lord knows who began this horrible "style" of silly "la-la" sweeping "brush-strokes". I think it began with running shoes years ago. The idea was to confuse the eye I suppose. Put enough overlapping curved layers on something, whether boat, motor home, or running shoe, and it begins to look like more than what it is, which is exactly what sells to the consumers in the showroom.
It's an exaggerarion of the idea of facade dominating the product rather than substance, or a more pure and organic design. The facade becomes the place where the marketing team concentrates their efforts.
The result is a new design that attempts to turn the entire above-water boat into a big facade. Not just the topsides but the interior too. The more seamless the better. Aesthetics, if you can call it that, are about surfaces only, not restful or elegant but brash and arrogent. Not self-contained and reliable but forever new and maintainance-free (like formica or carpeting).
The idea is to say, "boat design has progressed so far that we no longer concern ourselves with the fundamentals of construction techniques and materials, which have been perfected. The modern boat has become a kind of canvas upon which the corporate artist has nearly total freedom".
This isn't a reality, but it is how boats are marketed nowadays.
Anyway, I've said my piece. Carry on.

[SamSam]

Here's a big space you can arrange different ways...


http://www.svensons.com/boat/?p=HouseBoats/BayouBelle


.

[gordanm]

@ PAR & alan white

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject. It really makes sense (at least the part about absence of stock plans for deck boat because of narrow market).

Originally Posted by PAR

The deck boat was intended for the segment of the pleasure boat market, where they sit on the boat and drink. Maybe they'll go swimming, maybe they'll tow a inner tube, but mostly the boat serves as a cup holder for partying. These types of boats receive very few hours per year

Well, if you take out the drinking part, it somehow describes exactly what I want. I need an "island" to get away from crowded beaches (and they are getting crowded more and more here in Croatia), put the anchor in (semi)empty bay and spend all day just laying in the sun (or under the bimini top), ocasionally taking a swim. Boat has to be stable (while being anchored); it's very unpleasant when one person moves and the other one has to grab first handle in order to stay upright. I would also like to be able to make a step or two ocasionally (it's very boring sitting in one place all day long).
Those are reasons why I was attracted to the deck boat layouts.
Of course you can have all that in a "classical" boat layout but not at the same length.

Anyway, In the meantime I've found one or two designs ("classical") that will (with little seat layout tampering) fit the bill.

Thanks again four your opinions.