Sailboat Hull (Cal 25) with no rudder but outboard

I am looking at the possibility of rescuing a derelict Cal 25 and making a river cruising boat powered only with a 6-9.9hp outboard.

I don't anticipate it ever sailing again and would strip rigging and all sailing gear and modify the interior for maximum low speed cruising ability with the outboard.

Since the rudder is missing, I am wondering whether I would have adequate steering capability only with the turnable outboard tied to a wheel steering system.

Any ideas on whether this is feasible?

Greg Murphy

 

Yes, steering will be fine, in fact greatly improved over a rudder, if the outboard is turned. As you strip her, count up the weight you remove stuff, as you'll want to put this back in. Also don't remove the ballast, the boat will need it so it can motor on it's lines.

 

Has to be better for the purpose than the gutted sterndrive boat !

 

Agreed, I didn't realize this was the same poster with the I/O conversion ideas. As a rule, if you want to travel at displacement speeds, you should use a displacement hull form. A powerboat (most of them anyway) are full plane mode hull forms and not at all well suited for displacement speeds. A sailboat on the other hand is and may also have the potential to go a bit faster, depending on the shapes employed.

The Cal 25 is very well suited for displacement speeds, maybe a touch more. On the other hand, the later version of the Cal 25 (Cal 2-25) has much more potential for higher, easily busting into double digit speeds, with modest power. The original Cal 25 will be hard pressed to see 10 MPH.

The conversion of a sailboat to a powerboat is fairly common. I've done it a few times and there's lots of documented cases available online about this type of thing. Again, the key is to keep the weight about the same, so the boat motors on her designed lines.

 

Thanks for the input. While I knew that this hull would be much more suitable for the intended use than the one in the other posting, I appreciate confirmation that the absence of the rudder wouldn't really hinder maneuverability.

Except for the weight of the mast and boom, I don't really anticipate the weight of the boat changing much. And, if there is any added, it will be at or below the waterline.

The possible exception may be a glass, wood and/or fabric pilothouse to cover the existing opening for the (long gone) pop-up hatch. My hope would be that, if I remove the mast tabernacle and made the forward edge of this enclosure go all the way to the hatch and making a dashboard on deck. With a small platform built up on the cabin sole, I could have a mid-ship steering station with engine controls out of the weather.

 

Some 1/4" plywood will make a fine little pilothouse. Typical poptops are quite heavily built, so you have some wiggle room.

 

Here is an excellent article about a Cal 25 which was gutted and re-built for a circumnavigation (by a couple, who were joined along the way by 2 kids).
They built a very neat doghouse where the pop top used to be, and they also have a very neat dodger in way of the companionway.

http://www.goodoldboat.com/pdfs/jf05martindream.pdf

They also wrote a book about their adventures with Direction

https://www.amazon.com/Into-Light-F...F8&qid=1475335320&sr=1-1&keywords=jaja martin

 

Wow! Thank you, thank you.

I had heard about this boat but hadn't been able to find this article. I will link to it in the blog I've started about the project.

Turning this Cal 25 into a looper boat can be found at Cal 25 Looper Boat Project

At this point, there isn't much there except the rationale for selecting this boat and pictures of how much I need to clean before I can size up what is next.

I am, by the way, going to sell off all of the sailing gear including the mast, winches, jib tracks, pulpits and anything else I'm not going to use.

Greg Murphy
sailorman@mascom.com