Spec. for coastal cruising boat

I would like to get an idea of some of the specs(min., max., or a range) for a boat carrying two adult passengers cruising ocean coastlines and making an open water passage of no more than 50-100 nautical miles.
The on board accomodations on this hypothetical boat would be minimal. The spec.'s I am most interested in are:
1. Minimum freeboard(ft.)
2. Minimum total displacement of hull-w/o passengers, motors, or rigging (lbs.)
3. Minimum LWL
4. Minimum HP of motor/auxiliary
5. Minimum/Range for Beam

 

It probably depends what area you have in mind, what distance between safe anchorages, whether you have a barred inlet to worry about, and dozens of other things, not to mention your budget.

 

OK, I'll bite . . .

Depends on how brave you are, if you are using it for yourself . . . but if I were me,

I'm thinking a 27-28 foot cuddy cabin or walk-around.

1. Minimum freeboard(ft.) 2 ft.
2. Minimum total displacement of hull-w/o passengers, motors, or rigging (lbs.) 5,000-6,000 lbs
3. Minimum LWL 25-26 (28 ft LOA)
4. Minimum HP of motor/auxiliary 300hp (Twin 200's would be better for open ocean 50-100 km)
5. Minimum/Range for Beam 8-9 ft

If you want a bit more creature comfort, I'd go 32 feet LOA with twin engines, enclosed head, small galley, 9-10 foot beam, 8,000 lbs bare, etc.

 

FROM: STRANGEIDEAS2:
I appreciate your response to another one of my "strangeideas'. This idea came after reading an article in a small boat magazine at a Barnes and Noble. The boat in the article was a 19 ft. sailboat with 1 rowing station with a sliding seat. It had a forward , covered compartment for sleeping either 1 or 2 people. I was thinking of lengthening and widening this design some what to the following "spec.'s"

1. Minimum freeboard(ft.)-1.5 ft.
2. Minimum total displacement of hull-w/o passengers, motors, or rigging (lbs.) 500 lbs
3. Minimum LWL -20-21 (24 ft LOA)
4. Minimum HP of motor/auxiliary-20-25 hp
5. Minimum/Range for Beam-3-4 ft

I would like to know what coastal cruising capabilities a boat with the above spec.'s would have, if any. I appreciate your patience, as I know this might still seem a bit vague, but that's about all I can remember from this magazine article.
STRANGEIDEAS2

 

Some neighbors lived on and cruised a Peep Hen for three years. Peeps are 14' LOA. It was the smallest craft to get a CCA cert. They cruised the US east coast, the Caribbean, and Central and South American Coasts. The Peep was customized as far a sails and electronics, but that's about all. Owner was about 5' and 100#. His wife was about 4"8" and 70#. A stock Peep weighs 650#.

Another friend, Gene Espy, ran the great loop and cruised the Caribbean in a 12' Jonboat with a 25hp OB. That was in '48 or so - the first year they made 25hp outboards.

A famous old canoeist died recently. He and his sons had canoed much of the coast of North and South America and explored the Amazon and many other big rivers.

For what it's worth, I ran across a family of seven cruising a Rhodes 21. They had lived aboard for several years. I bought a Cal 28 off a live-aboard family of five (youngest child was 15) that had outgrown it and were moving on to a Morgan 33.

With a 20 or 25 hp motor, you are looking at planing speeds with some care to design. But you will want a bit more than 4' beam and less length. Lets call it 4'4" min wl beam and 18' loa for a 500# build with 1000# of cargo capacity. If you want a row-type double ender 21' long, you just need a kicker like the std 3hp everybody makes. You can't use more than that. But if you can find an old Johnson 2.5, 3, or 4 CR3 block motor, they had a fuel pump and would draw from a remote tank. You can run for about a week on 6 gallons. That's what's in the picture below.

 

I meant to mention - ShortyPen is a good source for pocket cruiser info.

Pocket Cruiser ShortyPen Sailboat Guide http://www.shortypen.com/?type=p

 

Wow.
What a difference in specs from 300hp to 25hp.

The obvious question is - what Coast is it you want to cruise ?

Surely the typical weather and water conditions dictate the boat.

 

Beam of 3-4 feet on a 24 foot boat is a glorified canoe or kayak, you will get no forgiveness from the open sea for that kind of parsimony. You need to specify how much you are willing to spend, as an initial outlay, and how much you are prepared to budget, per mile of usage. Also, what minimum range you will require. Then you can sort among the options, and see if what is affordable, is up to the job.

 

Why do the work all over again? Just buy something like a Sea Pearl 21 for a camp cruiser or a Core Sound 22 for a cuddy cruiser. Hard to beat either of those. FWIW, the real issue is provisioning with fresh water being the biggest issue. Provisioning can be 4-7 lbs/per/day (think of it this way...an MRE is 1200 Kcal and weighs 1.5 lbs packaged so you need 2/day for the average person to not starve) plus water which is 8-40 lbs/per/day (i.e. 1-5 gallons with ~2 gallons being normal hydration and MRE cooking). Even if you are making your own water, you still need to carry enough to get home in the event of a water maker failure.

 

Thanks to all of you for all of your feedback on my coastal cruising boat inquiry. I have a few more questions regarding this hypothetical boat. Would it be possible to modify the 19 foot Sailing Row Cruiser by Angus Row Boats(see website-https://angusrowboats.com/pages/ sailing-rowcruiser) to:
1) accommodate a small outboard positioned on the stern or
2) inboard in a "well",
3) be lengthened 4-5 feet, widened 6-10" to accomodate a 2nd
rowing station and slightly larger sleeping berth
4)add a small chamber for removable water ballast(<=150 #)
Note: for the outboard Q-specify maximum HP
Apparently this boat was able to complete the 750mi. Washington to Alaska human/sail power race. I was wondering what the open water crossing capabilities would be in nautical miles.

Thanx.

 

It would be possible for someone with suitable knowledge to create a new design starting with the 9 foot Sailing Row Cruiser by Angus Row Boats and incorporating these major modification:

The structure and scantling would need to be redone. Whether the boat would be suitable for your purposes is a different question.

 

I decided modification #3 was not needed-I do not think accomodating a second rower is necessary and would create "interference" issues with 2nd set of oars with the akas connecting the amas to the main hulls. In addition, the capability to add an outboard motor with as much as this hull configuration will allow is more important to me than the removable water ballast. The water ballast idea arose from the fact that this boat is so lightweight-I thought a small amount of removable ballast might add stability in rough weather.
Thanx again for your feedback.

 

Whoa...whoa...whoa...You never lead this in as wanting a human propelled catamaran with outriggers (i.e. 'oars" with 'amas' and 'hulls' implies an outrigged catamaran) I will assume ignorance over everything (like trolling)... so a ROWING cat is so inefficient as to boggle the mind. Do not continue in this (rowing cat) direction... those who understand the physical issues can inform you why this is a bad idea.

 

When you have time, could you visit the SailingRowCruiser website-https://angusrowboats.com/pages/sailing-rowcruiser and tell me if this sailing rowcruiser, as is,they offer can perform as well they claim(8 kts unders sail, etc.)? The said this boat won the race to alaska in the under 20' LOA small boat category. Thanx.

 

No, that is a sailing canoe with training wheels, and realistically making the waterline wider and getting rid of the amas would increase the capacity and safety of the vessel. I responded you your comment in post #12 where you specifically say "main hulls" and "2nd rowing station" from post #10 which implies a catamaran or double canoe.