Cabin designs for small long range cruiser

Here is my boat less cabin. I'm looking at ideas for a cabin for long-range cruising. I don't need much back deck. Enough for a couple chairs and boarding. Hull length is 27' 2".

Design me a cabin, please.

 

You will have to provide a lot more information. Do you have a statement of requirements (SOR)? If not then you need to do one. Long range cruising is also kind of vague. Give us all the details of your boat and of your intended use. People will then be able to give you some suggestions.

 

Semantics. I'm just looking for a quick and dirty cabin design. I'm not liking the original cabin look. I need more forward for the V birth and more cabin aft for a small wet head in the rear starboard corner. I'm also looking to push the cabin sides out to the gunnels. I can do everything I need to from the V birth hatch.

Long-range as in 500 miles unsupported.

Quick and dirty drawing on the original pic I posted is what I was looking for.

I believe this will give the info needed.

 

You need a six inch toe rail on the side decks and grab rails on the cabin top.
You say "I can do everything I need to from the V birth hatch."
Maybe. That crap will get old fast and I'll be there to mock you every time you try to dock in a breeze.

 

Well that helps. I went to Boat Builder Central https://boatbuildercentral.com/wp/ and copied a couple of their interior layouts.




From my experience full sitting headroom is pretty much a must have under the forward cabin top. You can achieve this in basically 3 ways. First you can raise the sheer line over the forward portion of the boat. 2nd you can bring the cabin sides out to the gunnels. If you do this I would leave the pilot house portion of the cabin inboard so you have a narrow side deck to get forward. Or 3rd a combination of 1 and 2.

I brought your drawing up in paint and made a few changes. I made the pilot house portion longer. And extended the forward cabin top to the bow and brought the forward cabin sides out to the gunnel.



Have fun with your project.

 

Thanks. I like that cabin reconfig. I have the basic layout pretty much done. I'm just hoping to spread things out a little when I start on the interior. Currently there is 6'1" in the main cabin and 4'8" in the V birth area, less V birth, if building strickly to the plans. I'm 5'8" but my sons are 6' and 6'2". It would be nice to have 6'6" but that is pushing it hard and windage would be way worse. With a draft of roughly 30 inches, she's not going to have much air draft. I would like to keep it low.

 

Just skimmed your thread.
There is nothing worse than 1/2" too little headroom for standing.
Either make it high enough for all involved or go with sitting headroom.
Cheers

 

If the displacement is 16200 lbs, the waterline will be much further up. If the boat was a box, the volume would be 24 (length) x 7.5 (beam) x 1.2 (depth)=216 cubic feet. Multiply by 64 lb per cubic foot = 13824 lbs.
Since the boat is not a box but gets smaller towards the ends and has a vee bottom the waterline will be about half way between what you drew and the lowest part of the sheer; maybe more.

 

A lot of boats have 6'3" headroom. You could raise the pilot house to accommodate your son if he is going to be cruising with you a lot. If only an occasional guest then I would leave it 6'1" as designed. Boats are often down by the stern. Especially underway. I didn't mention it in my previous post that I also extended the hull aft to make a swim step. You will be really glad that you did this. If you only want to travel at displacement speeds a Yamaha 9.9 high thrust outboard is all you will ever need for power.

 

The pics I posted are the designer's specs. This is good to know. Thanks.

They will be weekend guests from time to time. Probably overnight or a full weekend. I'll have to see how I feel on cabin height once she's upright.

I am torn on the swim step. I don't know how well that would work. I'm thinking about davits for a dinghy. It's a about 175lbs with motor, fuel, oars, lines, and small anchor. I could tip it up on the swim step after offloading everything. Dink alone weighs about 60lbs, or will. It's on the build list.

My plan is to go with an all-mechanical Beta/Kubota diesel. I'll be sporting a large alternator to charge the house bank, start battery, and windlass battery. No room for a genny. A 9hp Honda 4 stroke would be quite buried in a box back near the transom.

 

Hanging a 175 lb dinghy on davits off the transom will have a dramatic effect on the fore and aft trim of your boat. I would ask the designer about this.

When I was cruising on my sailboat I initially relied on a 105 amp alternator for battery charging. Keeping the batteries charged was a never ending problem even with a smart regulator. I was very conservative with my energy usage. I first went with one 65 watt solar panel. This would keep up with the electricity that I used during the day but would not bring the batteries up to full charge due to the electricity used at night. I was having to run my engine every other day to keep the batteries charged. I then added 3 more 65 watt panels and have never had an issue keeping my batteries charged since then. You might want to consider having a couple of solar panels on the cabin top.

In setting up my electrical system I used 3 on/off switches. One for the house bank which consists of 4 six volt golf cart batteries, one for the engine starting battery and one to combine the two banks. All of the charging current whether from the engine, solar panels, or a battery charger goes directly to the house bank. I have a battery combiner that keeps the starting battery charged from the house bank. The battery combiner has to be rated at more amps than the amp rating of the alternator. This has been a simple trouble free system to keep my batteries charged. Just a suggestion for what has worked for me going on 10 years.

 

“We’re gonna need a bigger boat!”

 

I would seriously consider the transom extension/swimstep. You will find it really useful. And it will help with having a 175 lb dinghy hanging off the stern. My sailboat had an almost vertical transom. It was always submerged underway whether under sail or power. I could tell how fast I was traveling by looking to see how deep the transom was in the water. I finally said enough is enough and did a 30" transom extension the last winter I was in Mexico. The extension made a world of difference in many ways. It smoothed out the water flow and I gained a 1/2 knot in cruise speed at the same rpm. But by far the biggest gain was the ease of getting on and off the boat from my dinghy. Or getting out of the water after a swim. Here are before and after pictures.






The lines from the stern pulpit are to keep the seals off the swimstep.