Type of hull ?

[David Cowen]

This is my hull project that I finally picked up last week. Can anybody tell me the type of hull? The provious owner could not. I am converting it to a fishing boat(private use) adding a forward wheel house etc. My best guess yet is cruiser. She is 27ft long,8ft across the transom and 10ft at her widest beam point. Bottom of hull to gunwhales approx 3.5 ft. Its difficult to see the bottom because of all the crud which is now removed but any ideas?? Sorry but not up on the boat jargon yet. Incidentally is there any reference for boaty terms for us laymen???

[Buckle]

David,

If you ask me, I would say its a semi displacer. Basically its can plane and cruise at low speeds economically. Its very similar to my family's big boat (minus cabben).

We bought the boat for only a few hundred pounds, given its poor state. The boat was very wet and heavy. We gutted the boat back to the bare hull and refitted everything once dry. We heavily over engineered the hull. Shes got a 70mm transome, and hundreds of glassed foam ribs. The boat weighs about 2.75 tonnes. But its got a 6lt 302.4hp cummins turbo diesel in it, and planes after a few seconds. Given good conditions she will reach 46mph. The best thing about this type of hull is thats its very stable even in rough seas on plane.

But having the opportunity to refit a boat to my own spec, and given that all my family are engineers, we designed the boat with performance in mind. The C of G is very low, thus giving its a stability.

My advice is, take your time, and do everything spot on. If not it will always haunt you. Buy a lorry engine (my came out of a dustbin cart which had been in an accident) because the are cheap to run for the power. And get a decent stern drive. A stern drive will give you the ability to trim your boat and gain speed in rough seas.

Good luck.

Buckle

p.s. we thought it would take us 2 years, it took 5.

[Buckle]

In layman terms, there are 3 types of hulls.

Planing hulls - I.e. speed boats designed for high speed cruising only.
Displacement hulls - Boats designed to cruise at low speeds.
semi-displacer hulls - a hulls designed to plane and crusie at low speeds.

[PAR]

Looks to be a classic shallow "V" planning hull. She should be able to plane off at reasonably low speeds and quickly, because of the flatness of her aft sections. This quality will also roughen up the ride in a chop.

On the transom (if the hull was manufactured after the very early 70's) there will be a HIN (Hull Identification Number) and can be usually found in the upper right hand corner when viewed from behind. You may have to dig through some layers of paint, but the number will provide you with the manufacture's code (first 3 letters) which can be looked up on the USCG web site. They may be in business or not, but a better starting point as someone may know of the hull or at least more information may be available for you to look over.

If there isn't a HIN on the transom there may still be an ID number somewhere on the hull, typically on a large structural member inside the boat. It may have been cut out during the stripping process, but the look may prove fruitful.

There are a few good books available for nautical terms, try a search for same in an on line book seller web site.