Low power boats

Also if my choice is Wader I can avoid the pilot house. Or not?

 

Yes I don't see why not but of course the boat as an open skiff would be light fwd. I considered that for the boat Marcia.

Is your 10hp engine an inboard?

 

10hp is too small. Only suitable for a harbour chug chug

A good rule of thumb for a seaworthy skiff in the 16 to 22 foot range , that can make its way to windward and do useful work, is 20hp per person.
2 man skiff 40hp. 3 man skiff 60hp.

 

I still thinking to adapt an stationary air cooled diesel engine. I got an idea about the hp but I can buy from 5 to 22 here (I will buy the engine before began to build the boat). The adaptation comes in very detailed manuals at FAO papers. Also can be used in boats designed for outboards- is very interesting the called "bob drive" when the rudder and propeller can be lifted toghether with different options. And the diesel properly installed can work underwater (I seen lots of outboards sink and then never works well).
I'm looking for cruising for the cheap and as I read in the net is an extended interest -mainly about the mpg. To be honest- I know the reaction to my opinion and is not good ever- I think sails are obsolete for practical uses more than pure sport mainly in coastal navigation and for the people with the proper craft for long passages as well.

 

I will put a SMALL auxiliary sail in my boat. I used before and is good as this.

 

Michael- this depends wich use and speed you like. In a 19 feet boat I was good (but almost at full trottle with) a 4.5 old outboard with inappropiate screw. The traditional Saint Pierre used a 5 h.p. with big propeller and low revolutions and was much bigger and able to take the bigger seas of the grands banks.
I'm not a fisherman. I found easyer the fish in the supermarket or doing friends in the dock but sometimes I throw a line as currican. I use the weather previsions- the tidals and winds and ever I consult it in the net. This is important to me cause I think technology can be interpreted to do the life easyer: par exapmle in the England of the early 1900 one good powerboat represents the salary of years for a worker- but today with new materials one boat can be done much cheaper and reliable. For me is nothing technology if will do my life harder: more hours of work to be able to buy the better four strokes engines in an expensive boat. The simple the better- I use canvas converse shoes and I got the time for go from point A to pint B.

 

MP I hear you but I think Wave's going to be good w 10 or 20hp. The older Albin 25s had 22hp and would carry 4 or 5 people at 7 knots just fine. They are not as efficient as a lot of FD hulls like Atkin's Wader being plastic (heavier) and not having a narrow entry fwd. And as wave points out the big Saint Pierre dorys did fine w 5hp. Speaking of the St Pierre .....http://www.spirainternational.com/hp_newf.php

 

Thanks Easy Rider and other fellows in this thread. I take my time to choice but I will build Selway-Fisher Power 1.3. I can enlarge if I like, but what I will do is a simple cuddy cabin as I draw in the second image. I will use a 4 strokes 20 Mercury. Is a good design and also can be sculled under certains conditions, and I believe is able to carry a small sail for downwind and the sculling oar be as a quarter rudder. This boat is very similar to that one I owned (Michalak's Dorado), a bit wider and shorter, with a better bow to my taste and some flare. The only drawback I think the S-F design doesn't have a splash well, but can be easy to do and probably don't need it.
The boat in the last image was my own, and Charlie the sailor appeal in there. The guy in red jacket is the british skipper of another boat, good fellow. In the back you can see the blue launch of the custom agents that hit me 20 miles off shore.

 

Long and thin means they roll badly and are unstable in a little rough water. a compromise is needed.

 

Tom, as I read from Atkins, the lenght-beam ratio of 4 to one is seaworthy in the semidisplacement boats, and 6 to 1 under Marchaj theoryes for light displacement as the Aran's curraghs. Probably they talks about the limits, I don't know. For a planning hull is better going wider. The Dorado boat was something as 3-1, looking narrow and was very seaworthy at displacement mode. I´m interested in having the response from experienced people. But I tink the momentum of a wider boat with beam sea is greater if going slow. My tought is for narrow boat the rounder the bottom the better, cause if is light the water pass down bellow the hull, not hiting the beam.