Sea Sled madness. It’s in my brain.

Me too!

 

Too fast. 15 batches in this area, I mixed a batch with the wrong ratio. That's twice in just 300 batches.

 

DC, i am sure you have stated and I have overlooked it but what will be your power source?

 

I'm on a merciless budget, so whatever I can find. Ideally a pair in the 100 hp range. A pair of 60's would work, slowly. Serenity could handle a pair of 300's, but I couldn't afford the gas.

 

Every boat has its pro's and con's. No boat is perfect.
What it comes down to..which many fail to recognise... is you, the client. Your SOR... if the boat, whatever it is, satisfies your SOR... that's it... job done.
Whether it is too heavy or too much bow wave or too draggy or just plain old 'not popular' because "some people" don't like it, ...so what?

If you like it and it ticks all your boxes... 'nuff said.

 

BOAT SINKS @ JUPITER INLET https://www.facebook.com/billfish.inc/videos/941057972728942

Not sure why you would want an open front bow on a boat designed for long trips in the pacific northwest.
One good wave ingress and depending on the volume of the front open deck you could submarine the boat. The scuppers if high enough would have to have a very large cross sectional area to get rid of the next wave that you bury the bow
into. And the Steering with a ton of water on board will be a little sluggish.
If you want the steps to get people off the front of the boat, fill in the bow, gain a Vberth, or storage for light items. If you are concerned about the safety of people walking around gunwales, add a raised toe kick, maybe 6 inches high, with a high
stainless rail to keep the person in. Alternatively, if you are trying to maximize interior cabin width, you could consider a flip up gunwale/walkway used when you need it.

We have often taken waves over the bow in a 40 footer that we owned, not by choice but sometimes the wind, waves and tides can throw stuff at you that the weather/wave channel cannot predict.

The first video was 90% operator error but note that the www.facebook.com/billfish just shows the mechanism that can happen pretty easily

 

Good question, Barry. Work boats gotta work. I understand the dangers. Canadian Coast Guard regs dictate scupper location and area, based on area and volume of the vulnerable space. And my bow is about 2' higher than that boats bow, and hopefully not loaded as far forward. My foredeck, as designed is 3' from the ram to the open cockpit,with that space being weathertight cabinets, or sealed foam flotation.

 

I realize you have a landing craft on your mind, but Barry is a wise fellow. It would be much easier to get rid of water in an aft cockpit.

 

I know, butthe aft area has the dive platform. Forward the tunnel intrudes on the space enough that you can't do much with it.
Draft is 8" forward, and the floor of the cockpit is at 24". Thats enough space for a seriously sloped sub-floor, and massive scuppers well above the waterline. And unless I have 3000# of cement aboard, can't be made to sink without dynamite and spite. There's so much volume under those soles, to be filled with foam, should be okay.

But how do those Munson boats pass US Coast Guard inspection? They have far more vulnerable volume and area than I'm planning, and less buoyancy. After all, mine is wood.

 

Actually Barry has some great stuff there.

 

Yeah. We were in a 24' Hurricane rental in Cape Coral and came up onto a massive double wake from a large pax vessel and I was just above idle and we took about 10 gallons of water over the bow. There was nothing I could do other than alert people to hold on. Another large vessel slowed until I gabe a thumbs up. It can happen. Scuppers on prototypes are a bit of a pita to locate. More so aft than forward. Easy to get the waterline wrong and if you are close; you end up wet feet or moving scuppers.

In that video, a boat goes flying past the vessel that was struggling. A clear maritime no-no to fail to render aid.

 

You would be surprised about economy. The bigger outboards are often more economical than smaller motors. You aren't pushing the throttle as far.

 

I can't see a problem; water is not going to hang around long with large scuppers. A picture of bow rider without a self draining deck putting the bow under a standing wave really has nothing in common with your boat.

 

Interesting. And the engineering is so obscured in marketing lies, no one seems to notice power/weight ratios.

 

+1 re Brendan's comment re bigger outboards being more economical - the cat in my avatar saved a lot of $$'s on their fuel bill when they moved up from 2 x 115 hp O/B's to 2 x 150 hp O/B's, as they could then achieve their desired cruising at much less revs.