Okay, how many will admit to ever wanting to put a crow's nest on your sailboat?

Discussion in 'Sailboats' started by souljour2000, May 21, 2012.

  1. souljour2000
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    souljour2000 Senior Member

    Okay...you heard the question...we've all see a sailboat here or there with one...and I'm not talking about the last "Pirates" movie or Columbus Day parade float....There was one on a local charter sailboat I crewed on a couple times last year...It was not some KFC chicken-bucket basket thing but a nicely-done little platform. Was a nice boat overall and I think was a Formosa 43 or some such ...can't recall...it was very Pirate-looking and with a nice long bowsprit and yes..it had a small platform recognizable as a "crow's nest" at the spreaders.....I also once saw an old islander 32 or 33 in St Pete once with one but it was really,really badly done and concieved...basically it was a piece of ply with a ladder below...anyways...I think they are kinda cool...if done right...maybe if a removable one could be designed..so you could put it away when your making a passage....and now that I got a good solid oak tree of a mast on my new boat...and plenty of belly-lead to counter the weight up high...well.....Nah!


    But you never know...If there weren't so much stuff to do first....But afterall, I live in Florida and it's so flat...whenever I drive over the Sunshine skyway bridge the view from 300 feet up or whatever is a real treat....and the idea of a perch maybe 20-25 feet (30 feet off the water ) up that you could look around a bit from is a bit enticing...Come on...I know some of you will admit it's crossed your mind...
     
  2. Me Tarzan
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    Me Tarzan Junior Member

    Boat hell I want one on my house! Would look cool up the mast I gotta say. Maybe a modern light-weight carbon fiber aerodynamic version would sell? Great place to get your sea leg on...
     
  3. souljour2000
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    souljour2000 Senior Member

    Okay..I'm taking notes..let's see...things to do...examine commercia/one-off viability of a carbon-fiber crow's nest....hmm...check wind loading/ lever moment load variables of KFC chicken-bucket style vs." plank" or flat round tabular platform...okay..I think I got it...You think one of those big bronze swivel-mounted telescopes up there would be too much?
     
  4. yipster
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    yipster designer

    admit it's crossed my mind and imagined a sort off see thrue plastic badtub in the ceiling of the salon
    that can go up with the wing masts as winglet nest on my fantasy motor sailer
    have a look into my gallery to say coockoo(ksnest)
     
  5. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    If you can't mount a gun in it, what's the point . . .
     
  6. souljour2000
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    souljour2000 Senior Member

    PAR...I thought of that too...the swivel mount could be multi-use...telescopes...machine guns...flame-thrower, bovine launcher, etc....the problem with machine guns is it's always conjures images of the guy in the tower, sniper nest, crow nest, etc. that always gets lit up with a rocket-propelled grenade it seems...and/ or hit with the perfect bullet shot that buckles him where he falls out..in this case onto a FRP deck 20-plus feet below...which has never been one of the ways I want to go out...
     
  7. souljour2000
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    souljour2000 Senior Member

    Hey...it just dawned on me that the chicken-bucket could also be a viable rain-barrel of sorts and you could have a valve with a grav-feed hose for showers/bathing on the coachroof....would have to be spare drain somewhere or have a y-valve one for the shower,one for drain...a painted black tin/aluminum chicken bucket would have hot water in winter fuel/electricity-free. Oh...and with problem sea-birds you could place a good mean-looking John McCain blow-up doll or some life-size dummy as a scarecrow...they'd stay away from the boom and cabin top at least given the dummy up there'd have the swoop factor on them...
     
  8. yipster
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    yipster designer

    mounting your gun in a transparant yacuzzy nest should be possible offcourse but there are more luney idea's
    Tad forexample sketched a terrace on a phony chimney on bigger cruizeships i think it was..
     
  9. souljour2000
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    souljour2000 Senior Member

    It could be a remote operated gun up there...video feed down to you while you stay below in a titanium/kevlar cabin box watching Maury ....smoking marlboros and sipping some Cuervo gold and lime...and working the joystick like you did on the old Atari while taking out some Somalian sandpeople in yamaha-driven dhows ...but I think were getting a bit off-thread now...

    I had myself envisioned a fairly peaceful platform or KFC colonel-bucket that one could simply sit atop...a vantage point where one could stand up in while drinking in the soothing views of sapphire waters, perhaps some Sapphire gin and the surrounding aquascape and maybe a few sea-critters....
     
  10. messabout
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    messabout Senior Member

    Souljour, when driving across the skyway bridge you need to watch where you're going, not the scenery in the distance. Sometimes it's breezy up there too. That thing is scary man. Well at least there are no reckless drivers to beware of when in the crows nest.

    I have never thought much about a crows nest but I have wanted a tree house ever since I was a kid.
     
  11. souljour2000
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    souljour2000 Senior Member

    :rolleyes:
    I love the Sunshine Skyway....it's a beautiful drive....usually a big ship coming in or going out...it's flat in SW Florida as you know but just another reason to get on the water...but we have nice clouds in Florida..I call 'em cloud-mountains...they give you a sense of distance where you can usually only judge the distance to the nearest tree-line...In Denver I could see a peak 80 miles away in Colorado Springs...here I can see a cloud 80 miles away in Ft Myers....okay maybe see a cloud 60 miles away here...

    At least in a crow's nest you can be up there looking down on on some people..and isnt that what it's really all about...?:rolleyes:
     
  12. brian eiland
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    brian eiland Senior Member

    Crow's Nest

    I like crows nest as well. They are great in shallow water areas looking for coral heads or scouring the ocean for fish or whales etc.


    I’ve written in the past;
    “One particular design has haunted me for years. It was I think a Phil Rhodes design somewhere around 60'~70', a ketch, with a sizable twin engine room, over which was located a grand main saloon with portlights above deck level. This main saloon had great comfort and expansive vista's, and opened onto a sizable aft deck with a fishing chair at its center. There was even a mini-flybridge helm station and a crow's nest. What a great all-around design to liveaboard and travel the world. She could do anything and everything!! I have in 30 years only seen one or two comparable designs, and sadly I lost those clippings and the pictures of the original design, but the concept has remained with me all these years.”
    http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/motor-sailers-philip-rhodes-john-alden-16721.html

    ...on the spreaders of Virginia Reel
    http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/motor-sailers-philip-rhodes-john-alden-16721.html#post132857

    ...or on this Alden 57
    http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/motor-sailers-philip-rhodes-john-alden-16721.html#post133008

    ...or on the spreader of this gamefishing catamaran
    http://www.runningtideyachts.com/gamefishing/profilesailplan.html
     

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  13. CutOnce

    CutOnce Previous Member

    On the East Coast where I grew up crow's nests on houses were called Widow's Walks. The Mrs. would climb up there to try and spot the men/whalers returning from the sea (perhaps to send the boyfriend safely on his way and start dinner on time).

    You can still see lots of them in old Gloucester and along the Mass, RI and CT coast.

    --
    CutOnce
     
  14. souljour2000
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    souljour2000 Senior Member

    good stuff...nice pics Brian...I think Crows nests can be engineered into existing designs or from the beginning as they are a desireable feature for a vessel ...

    Shoot...look at all these fish towers/mini tuna-towers/funky fly-bridges you see now on 15-foot center-consolers ...on up!
    Having pure upwind capability with low freeboard/cabin has it's place but...I ain't a racer and most of the time...you can motorsail off a leeshore if not outright sail or you didn't plan your passage correctly with an eye to the weather...I got enuff low lead in my girl and she's stable enuff...heck a watchtower mid-mast might be a blast...we'll see though...I would to engineer it well...a refined lightweight design that was removable...and not a barn-door in terms of windage...
     

  15. brian eiland
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    brian eiland Senior Member

    Now here is a more elaborate one on one of Jim Clark's boats. This one was an electric powered elevator.
     

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