economical coastal cruiser

Just a quick followup on the cruiser hull and its initial float and seatrial, I ran the boat with a 40 hp four stroke and the boat lifts right up on plane and runs great. The initial speed at 5500 rpm was 18 and at 4800 it was 16. I do have some cosmetics and some tweaking of the controls. But the boat performed well, stable and draws six inches of water while sitting idle with the motor trimmed up. I will load it a bit more with water and fuel and provisions. But I feel that is plenty of bottom to not make much of a difference.

 

Oyster,
that's one very nice looking boat, great work! Enjoy your summer!
cheers - Brian

 

Nice boat, nice performance!

Have fun!

Regards
Richard

 

Well this thread is a bit dated and worn. But I thought I would refresh with some numbers. Its possible to have your cake and eat it too in a comfortble cruising hull. The numbers are in after five day trips, most averaging 6 hours. I took it on an extended hard cruise trip using the 40 and at an easy crusing rpm I burn about 1 plus a couple of tenths gallons of gas. The boat loaded made over ground 15 mph in semi open water bay.

The boat beaches, mamma steps off and the boat can rest upright if you let the tide go out on the bottom. This shot shows the boat in another water as it was able to be pressed back off the pebble beach requiring six inches of water. This is the ideal style boat if you really want to go wading ashore and extend your trip to enjoy the nature along the the coastal marshes.

 

Looks sturdy and nice mate! Congratulations.


Not to bother you, but you are aware that beaching is one of the worst stresses to the designed structure?

You are aware that you most probably impose hair cracks in the outer shell? Poly or epoxy alike.

These have to be adressed immediately when you like to enjoy your boat for long.

Which I wholeheartedly whish you will.

Regards
Richard

 

Actually towing the boat on a trailer down the highway is probably the worse of the worse in the area of stresses. But thanks I will keep the advisement under consideration.

 

Nahh, not really.

Though, you are right, the trailer load is a killer.

Water intrusion (on a microscopic level) is the second best. And that was what I tried to explain.

Have fun, than worries.............

you have produced a very attractive boat!


Regards
Richard

 

Oyster: Beautiful boat. I'm glad she appears to be working out well so far; it sounds like her performance is pretty comparable to that of Tom Lathrop's "Bluejacket" (similar size, power and hull shape, so not at all surprising). Have you had a chance to take her out in rougher conditions yet?

 

Hum, while there maybe some common characteristics and features, for the most part the bottom of my boat is flat by comparison to his boat. I don't think its fair to say that the boat operates in open ocean perfectly on cruise since there really would be no need to do so or any intention, crossing inlet or months of inlets yes.
I have taken it out as late as today and the trip last weekend was a bit challenging in any small craft, but with due care of operating the boat, it did just fine.

I made good 12 running off the bow quarter in 20 knots of reported wind in in a heavy tide againsted a heavy wind with a foot distance between the seas without any water on the rails or over the top. So for the intended use, shallow creeking and crusing the ICW, top shelf, IMO. The one feature that has been batted around with Tom for several years was the walkaround. That was the key element that I built around above the rails and cannot say how pleased I am and man is my wife more than happy. Anchoring and tying up is a breeze, easy to get foward and stand upright without fear of going over.

 

Our boats are very similar in intent but quite different in details. Bluejacket "Liz" is 10 degrees deadrise aft while "FishnChips" is about 3 degrees aft. Deadrise of both boats rise forward but Bluejacket is much finer at all stations. Weight of the boats should be a wash and both are much lighter than anything on the market. Liz has 10 more hp and should gain a few knots more top speed but that is kind of meaningless since we will seldom run full throttle much of the time. Mike and I have several things that we have discussed over the years. Mike prefers a trunk cabin while I like the raised deck forward. Both boats offer fairly wide side decks for fore n aft passage. On Liz, almost all mooring and anchoring work is done through the forward hatch and the interiors of the boats are more different than alike.

That said, we have almost identical intentions for the use of our boats except that Mike and Linda will be catching a lot more fish that we will. We may be able to bum a few fintails from them

We do need to take a trip down to visit and get the boats out together for a cruise among the islands. It is not far and we can either trail down or take the ICW.

 

Oyster, A beautiful craft, and congratulations on the performance number

Tom, how is the BJ28 coming along?

Duane

 

The first BJ28 has been an essentially complete boat for some time now. The owner is completing interior details at his own pace. While we might wish that all who build boats were working faster, it is clear that that is not practical or desirable for all.

Edited

 

In regards to the bottom deadrise, if I was to change anything a second time I would still not add much in the way of deadrise at all. After running six good trips now in weather and the surroundings that this type of boat would be used in along the eastern coast and the gulf region, its not really objectionable at all. The boat settles in nicely at 12 knots, the last time out when it was so bad, and we still have never had any saltwater over the decks and anything other than a bit of splash spray on the windows from the quarter sea.


The stability is super as it should be and loading and unloading in the worse of the worse boat ramp, I am personally fine with it. I fgure that if I can launch and retrieve in one of the ramps I use, there is very few places that I cannot launch with the present bottom and get out, even with huge tidal creeks too with my push pole. The walkaround for our particular use and climate has not interfered with the interior space and moving about.


We are outside boaters since we do fish more than we cruise with the boat and with a duel station setup we never go inside during our fishing trips except to get lunch or to get some provisions thats stored inside out of the unobstructed deck space. Of course some of that will change when the weather changes, but we still need to be aft when fishing. At that time the cabin will block most of the nasty winds.

We did additional ventilation in the front of the cabin and used fixed windows foward with sliders in the foward sides. Even on the hotest days, ventilation and even cross ventilation has not been bad or a problem. I think in part this is also a direct result in using 3/4" close cell foam board for the cabin cores.

The lady does ride inside coming home as she is a fanactic about staying out of the sun as much as possible being an Oncology specialist.

If you look closely, you will see four pvc holes which is mounted with loops in a storage box for lines foward and air flows nicely through them and no water or even washdown gets in. This set up beats the rigging and mess with seals on flip out windows for air.

 

He's baaa-aaack!

It must be the weather. Once again I'm sitting at the computer with a hot cup of tea, a miserable, cold, blustery view out the window, and the idle thought that it would be very nice to be cruising south to warmer weather on something comfortable that doesn't require a lot of work, doesn't cost very much, doesn't look silly, and can be occasionally loaded on a trailer to go somewhere else.

Oyster, you have created a jewel.

But I started this thread with a different vision; very close, but a bit more home-like.

Tom, I wish you would get your builder to post some pictures!

I have learned a lot from you guys, but two times zip/nada/niente is stil two zips. Correct me here:

A four ton 30 something by 8 something trawler-ish boat can be built to run 8 knots at 8mpg on diesel or outboard power. Cost, weight and build complexity push an outboard engine into the run-offs. A two cylinder kicker/trolling motor/get-home engine would be nice, and could be dropped in the water to get another knot in a medical emergency or a Gulf Stream crossing. a portable generator could be used to good effect, reducing the weight of the house battery bank if a lot of electrical demand emerges, such as air conditioning.

Room to fish is not a priority for me, and a flat cabin roof would provide all the au naturale I think I need. But easy line handling, good footing space at both ends, and safe movement fore to aft are important. That narrows the superstructure on an already narrow boat. I need some help here.

I think its important that the cook can have lights on that do not blind the helmsman.

The helmsman should be able to see all four corners. by taking a very few steps away from the wheel.

The boat should be able to survive and prevent injury to crew in four foot waves.

What else?

 

http://www.boat-links.com/Atkinco/Cruisers/Jabberwock.html

http://www.boat-links.com/Atkinco/Cruisers/BettyCarroll.html

http://www.boat-links.com/Atkinco/Cruisers/TatterHat.html

by the way I like atkins