turning a sailboat into a motorsailor

Definately here we need our heated wheelhouse -- It extends the season 2 to 3 months without freezing one's *** off. Been there done that, not interested in any more tee shirts.

 

BTW, there is a 39' Roberts steel pilothouse cutter on EBay that appears to be going cheap, needs interior built, engine available cheap (VW Diesel) with mast! If I could I would and then change my crusining grounds to fit that boat! LOL

Money dictates all kinds of things. My costal and inter-costal/river stuff is basically to see the country and is a means to be near civilization at all times, reducing financial requirements for a vessel to cruise the 7 seas. If you are daring enough I guess many small boats will make the Bahamas and further south and such would not be cost prohibitive.

 

As much as I hate to say it, a Roberts Spray with pilothouse, if well built of steel or aluminum and professionally outfitted with top notch equipment, comes close to the ideal motorsailor since the SPRAY model on which it is based does very well with modest power and can bash through the most gnarly conditions due to its floatation and steel build.

 

I have a triangle 32 pilothouse, I suppose I would classify it as a motorsailer although it is built on the hull of a center cockpit sailboat. The centerboard in mine was removed and a 50 hp perkins installed. here is a pic of the center cockpit boat and then ours. More info at this link

http://www.cameojewelrysupply.com/1964-Triangle-Pilothouse-Motersailer-W9C96.aspx

 

Very nice vessel. I might steal your windshield design for my present build. Center panel transverse and the two side panels angled back. That old school hand layed glass hull will be bullet proof. That underwater hull /keel shape has some traces of Ted Gozzard's work,(Gozzard/Bayfield fame) wonder if he played a role in the design. One of the nicer motorsailer designs i have seen. ---

A yacht is not determined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner---

 

No bridge deck ? Is that door your only safety if following seas throw in some water . . ? ?

OK, little room for a bridge deck, but nevertheless . . .

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- click pics to enlarge

Well she's OK for 48 years now, so it might not be a big problem . .

Cheers,
Angel

 

Angel -- while I posted above I liked the design I should qualify that I also feel it does have it's limits. In addition to your observation, All that glass would make it more risky as a blue water ocean crossing vessel. For coastal and Island hopping down south it is a nice piece of machinery. My own build will have less plus bullet proof wheelhouse windows and in addition to a strong cockpit to wheel house door it will also have a watertight door between the wheelhouse and the main cabin. While I may never make an ocean crossing these northeast sailing waters Maine-Nova Scotia-Newfoundland-Labrador are always a challenge and as rough as any in the world. Chadden she's still a fine looking craft and i bet receives alot of compliments in any port.

 

Yes the large windows too. By this kind of the house she has lost a lot of seaworthiness compared to the one she's based on. Which is OK as long as these limitations are respected. She also gained a lot, you can't have it all.

Good luck !
Angel

 

A well built companionway between the pilothouse and main cabin below will replace some of the lost comfort factor in big seas. You can lose the house, but the boat is still tight. Storm shutter also will help a great deal assuming the pilothouse structure is able to tolerate considerable storm abuse.

 

About 3 yrs. ago I bought a damaged 34ft. wooden motorsailer that had fallen over on her support stand and damaged an area in her hull about 3 sq.ft. She was in fair shape and I could have easily made repairs and used her. While her hull was well built the 1500lb. of trim ballast stacked as far and as tight as possible back in her stern didn't impress me.That combined with the high maintenance of wood in this damp and high temperature variation northeast climate convinced me to salvage everything I needed from her and sell the hull and remaining fittings. A very successful salvage it was quadrupling my purchase price. Two aspects of her construction did impress me.(photos) (1)Her wheelhouse windshield windows were arranged in a rounded pattern to help deflect any green water. (aft slanted will of course do the same). (2) She had as PAR pointed out above a set up between the wheelhouse and main cabin to keep out or greatly reduce water getting into the main cabin if the wheelhouse suffered damage and flooding. In this case a sliding hatch and a very strong oak door.

 

Nice -lookin' motorsailor...very salty...briny with loads of NaCl.....no Mrs. Dash here...the long chainplates add an extra dash ...

 

Hey guys,

The Salar 40 seems to fit the bill:

http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/core/li...access=Public&listing_id=74807&url=&imc=pg-fs
http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/core/li...access=Public&listing_id=45786&url=&imc=pg-fs

 

SoulJour -- she was local built by a mister Barkhouse who was one of the more well known old time wood builders. However like alot of these old guys they could do fantastic work but had limited design knowledge. I suspected he got the outside ballast well too far forward. I suggested to the guy that purchased her from me to diagionally cut about 500lb. off the leading edge of the lead ballast casting and move the twin watertanks farther aft. This would have been easy to do as the casting's leading edge was somewhat vertical. 1500lb. of internal trim ballast literally crammed into the sterm is a bit much to say the least. Other than that she was a nice old school looking vessel.

 

Yeah..I'd say that was a really good find...to be sure...I really like the idea of a nice dry instead of the wet exposed cockpit..it has it's merits...Even here in Florida where you dont see many motorsailers...it would still be nice to have the cockpit area enclosed and dry and out of the rain during the rainy season...which is right now btw...and my cockpit is a wet place without much room to walk around due to the binnacle...no big wide floor like a wheelhouse..You can't have it all...I wonder how much windward abilty would be lost sometimes in a design like my Columbia 40 i.e.,though if a wheelhouse was added.I can see how motorsailer is so popular in some areas...especially cold regions where there are strong tidal flows...PNW, N Europe,etc...

 

It depends on your age. When your young, you think all you need is just a foot well, but as you get older you want a bigger cockpit with seat backs and bimini or dodger, then as time matches on, you say screw that, give me a dog house and eventually a fully enclosed pilothouse, with duel steering stations and A/C controls at the fingertip.