Steel Boat

[zenman]

Hello everyone!

BoatDesign.Net forum is such a great place.
Well, as you can assume, I'm into boatbuilding. I want to build economical, dry and safe vessel for crusing for a couple or three, max four persons.
I live on the river of Danube (largest river in Europe), so I can travel to Istambul, Greece, Italy, Croatia etc. etc. or (over the river Mein in Germany) to Amsterdam, London, France etc. etc.
I was thinking to build full displacement vessel in steel (8-9 meters) with 20 - 30 inboard HP engine, but then I met Mr. Jeff Spira. So right now I'm looking for plans.

I have experince with displacement vessels, but this is the first time I saw plans for DORY type of hull. What do you think of this type of hull.
Here is the link for the boat I want to build: http://www.spirainternational.com/hp_newf.html .

My question is: do you think this boat (I mean this type of hull) is capable for cruising (for long distance like crosing the North Sea from Amsterdam to London for instance), do you think it is safe? I want to cruise with 7-8 KNOTS, so it is going to be very slow, but I suppose that is in common with trawelers!? I want to put 20 HP outboard/saildrive with one 20HP emergency engne on it.

THANKS IN ADVANCE to everyone!!!

ZEN MAN

i think it is an excellent choice for the rivers,,
I know theDanube, sometimes it isfast, so you need enough boogie to stem the current, same with the Rhine, some places the rhine is very very fast
Good cheap way to build
You mentioned the Channel? As you know that can be a mean place, but pick your weather pattern and its ok
I personally would not like to cross the Sea in her,
But if you made her totally watertight and had big w/t stowage areas in cockpit she would float if capsized,
Which town are you?

[Brent Swain]

Sounds doable. Experiment with models, and with the buoyancy contained n a wheelhouse it should be easy to make it self righting.
Dorys tend to be a bit tippy, having a lot less flare in the topsides will help a lot.
Brent

[eponodyne]

8 knots isn't really that slow. It'll move you almost 200 miles or ~375 Km in 24 hours.

[zenman]

Jeff Spira is building this boat - and I think this type of hull is known by that - only for seas. I think this boat is good for the rivers 'cause it's doubleended, so it gives you good wind protection, but this is also good characteristic for seas!?

Draft, of course, is only problem with this boat for crusing on rivers (it's more than 1m. I have an idea for my first cruise: from Belgrade (where I live) to Delt of Danube and over the Black Sea (about 30-40 hours on the open sea) to Istambul, and than back Istambul-Constanca (over the channel to Danube again) - Belgrade.

Black Sea, of course is not mean as North Sea, but it is also known by choppy waters.

Here are some details about boat:

Lenght: 8.2m, Beam: 2.7m.
Headroom with two berths, pilothouse with galley, and third extended cabin for w.c., shower and table. (Basicly it is going to be for a crusing couple or max 3/4 persons.)
Fuel 600 litres and fresh water cap.: 200 litres.
Engine: outboard/saildrive: 20HP (with emergency engine)

Do you think this type of hull is safer in comparation with full displacement hulls?

THANKS

ONE M OK
a SAILING YACHT i ONCE OWNED WENT FROM uk to med VIA RIVERS AND CANALS of France, she had 1.83 draft
this is the boat bhnautika and I have designed for your river sustem with some coastal, she draws one metre and has range of 5500 miles at 4.5 knots, (over 2000 l fuel tankage)
the render is by bhnautika from the forum

[Milan]

Zenman, You are on the good path but I think that you should build your boat few meters longer. Same draft and beam, just stretch the length. Make length / beam factor at least one to four, one to five would be better. It won’t be much more expensive to build, just a little bit more steel for the hull, engine and everything else stays the same. Longer boat with finer entrance would have much easier time going upstream, especially in the places where river flows fast.

You plan to do quite a long passages so economical fuel consumption will be important issue. Longer boat will have considerably higher average speed burning less fuel. Additional expenses for more hull material would be quickly compensated by savings in the fuel costs.

George Buehler have very similar design to what I’m talking about.

http://www.georgebuehler.com/Pilgrim.html

[colinstone]

Hi Zen man,
Great to hear you live on the Danube. That is a trip I want to do one year - from France/BE/NL to the Balck Sea. A gaggle of Dutch barges have done the trip this year.