Development Class for Wind and Human Powered Ocean Racing

Ocean Rowing Boats

Just worth adding that we* build mostly pairs ocean-crossing rowing boats - this is the 'standard' Phil Morrison desigh. [We also build various one-offs] One of the pairs boats was also fitted out with a two mast lug rig and a small inboard diesel. Obviously as an ocean rowing boat it is capable of handling all weather conditions. As a sailing boat it has proved remarkably good - the owner has achieved 9 knots! He has rowed round Sardinia, the Songefjord in Norway and the Croatian coast.
So for an ocean-capable, pocket cruising boat, this design has a lot to recommend it.
*Rossiter Rowing Boats

 

thanks &

Thanks for your post.

Life intervened last year and I still have not started building the boat I've designed . . . Just as well in that I keep refining the design.

The ocean rowing boat with sails sounds very interesting. I'd love to learn more about it. I've been aware of the Phil Morrison designed ocean rowing boats for several years and they have been a significant piece of the inspiration for what I've wanted to create. For what I want, personally, they tend to be a bit big and heavy, and the hull shape, while excellent for their purpose is not, I think, ideal for mine.

I've looked at your facebook pages and find your lightweight ocean rowing boat particularly interesting. Still, I think it would not be ideal for me, even adapted for sailing.

I suspect the design I've developed, properly built, would suit my purposes. If I had enough money not allocated in other directions, I'd be very interested in the possibility of hiring you to build my boat. Unfortunately I suspect that would cost more than I'm currently ready to spend on the project.

If you'd like, send me an e-mail message (scotdomergue@yahoo.com) and I'll send current drawings to you. I'd be quite interested in a rough idea of what it might cost to have you create it. I would also be very interested in any thoughts you might have about the design and ways it could be improved.

Scot

 

Looks really good to me.

Planing should be incidental in a concept like this. To make a hull primarily for planing requires design compromises that make low speed travel more energy intensive.

The hull you have drawn will semi-plane or even plane in certain conditions. It has nice gentle lines and a very slight rocker.

It seems you have answered most of the preliminary design questions with this drawing. This boat seems like it would go together quite well with taped seam plywood. Using really expensive (high quality) thin sheets, with carefully laid out web framing, could get you quite close to your weight goal.

I hope to see one built someday.

Here's a drawing of something that would meet most of your requirements, but is only for a single crew. A boom tent could go over the cockpit for sleeping.

Its propulsion method is a bit unusual. It will use one very short oar, which I call a 'short sweep' and its rudder, to keep it going straight. The waterline would be lengthened by intentionally heeling the boat. I hope to build a slightly modified version of this boat some day.

It was primarily designed for day sailing, but only when the wind was strong enough to make such fun. On lighter wind days, the short sweep would be used to get out on the water to drown a few worms.

(See attachment)

As for your rules. I think you should have a minimum weight limit rather than a maximum one. One can make something quite light and strong, if there's enough zeros in the checking account. Nobody is going to make a large and heavy boat, if they know they will probably have to paddle or row it for great distances.

 

latest design

Thanks for thoughts! And interesting design.

Here's my current design, a little wider and double chine. If all goes well she'll be on the water by the end of the coming summer.

 

By making her wider on the bottom, you're making her more a sailboat than a rowboat.

Nothing wrong with that, if that's what you want.

My design is definitely mostly sailboat.

 

Exactly, though I hope and expect she'll still row pretty well. Sliding seat rowing can provide significant power.

 

has the op thought about just putting a cabin on a caledonia yawl?

sorry, but 200# limits you to water ballast or a multihull, either way self righting prob won't be happening. the rowing requirement makes most sailing hull forms impractical, especially any with dreams of planing.

The Berque brothers crossed the atlantic in a 12' sailboat, and then did it in a 6m outrigger canoe. Both boats had small cuddy cabins. I think an outrigger canoe with a safety ama is about the fastest, most seaworthy boat that can be built for a given dollar amount. Just youtube what those oc6' do in hawaii it is pretty amazing. Put a small cuddy on one of those and you can do what the polynesians did, sailing and paddling to the most remote parts of the pacific ocean.

 

There are many traditional style boats like the Caledonia yawl, and your thoughts (don't plane, limitations on combining sailing and rowing performance, won't self-right, etc.) apply.

Hence my interest in alternative designs and possibly a development class to encourage them. There are various reasons that I'm inclined toward mono-hull . . . note that having fun and exploring (minimalist cruising, primarily island and coastal), usually solo, rather than maximum speed and racing, are my personal intentions.

My current design is experimental. Crew weight (rather than ballast) will provide righting moment to counter sails, as is normal in dinghies. Cockpit is designed to make hiking out easy (as with non-trapese racing dinghies). With low weight and fairly flat bottom aft, I expect she will plane reasonably easily and well when lightly loaded if crew weight can be far enough aft - probably into cabin with hatch open for downwind, hiked out at aft end of cockpit for broad reach (though I don't know whether this will be far enough aft given cabin limitation of crew position, perhaps throwing whatever gear and supplies are on-board into the back of the cabin could help . . . ).

Rowing when lightly loaded, the transom should be out of the water. I suspect that resistance (with minimal gear and supplies) will not be much greater than the rather heavy 18ft wooden canoe with sliding seat rowing I tried a few years ago. I hope that 4 to 6 knots for extended periods will be easy enough.

When lightly loaded and sailed with crew outside the cabin, it should be easy enough for crew to right her as is done with dinghies. Heavily loaded for voyaging, with water and other heavy stuff held in compartments in the lowest parts of the hull, I think she will self-right as do ocean rowing boats. Since she's much flatter in cross section than ocean rowing boats, this is not certain. Foam cored carbon mast(s) may help keep her from turning turtle or staying there, and I think weight distribution would make her self-right from 180. Crew position within the cabin could contribute to getting her back to at least 180. It will be interesting to experiment . . .

Of course, I won't really know how well she'll do any of this until she's built and I can play with her. If a similar boat already existed there'd be no need to create this one to see what might be possible.

If I find an appropriate heated shop space to use this winter I may have her on the water by late spring. I currently estimate cost at about $5,000 (initially I'll re-make a salvaged sail; labor is free as I'm retired).