Cigarette to centre console

Hello everyone,

Has anyone done or looked into the feasibility of changing an offshore racing hull like a cigarette into a centre console fishing boat or even just converting it to outboard to gain rear space?

I saw an article on wavetowave and they did it with a 35ft cigarette and triple 250hp yamaha 2 strokes but this wouldve been a long time ago.

I looked at the Glen-l bandido but couldnt get clarification if the hull front section would have to be redesigned to suit the open front area rather than the designed enclosed.

Any feedback, thoughts or information is appreciated.

 

Can't see why it couldn't be done, the lack of a long foredeck increases the possibility of shipping water, you would be taking weight out of the boat with outboards replacing sterndrives, how that translates into a good fishing platform with a 24* deadrise is questionable.

 

Offshore racing hulls are probably one of the worst designs for fishing. They are designed to go fast. At low speeds they roll and oversteer terribly.

 

The current CC offshore designs are sort of a hybrid between racing and fishing already.

Going to a full on racing hull would be a downgrade.

Not that you couldn't do it though.

 

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. We dont have any cigarette style hulls in Australia with the exception of rare imports and the scarab 29ft hulls from the 90's so I'd have to bring a hull in from the US.

The current centre console designs aren't really available in Australia like they are in the US due to various factors so to get a yellowfin, regulator etc would be astronomically more expensive than what they are there.

So the issues I'm seeing that you guys raised are:

1. Weight distribution with hull internal redesign
2. Hull is not stable at low speed/rest (dont believe this is due to deadrise but other hull design traits).

 

There are not many planing boats that are drivable at low speeds so don't worry too much.
The distribution of weights is a very important issue. Another issue is the stability at rest because, as they are boats with a high length / breadth ratio, their stability is somewhat lower. The balance at rest is likely to be more uncomfortable than desired.

 

The combination of high deadrise and relatively narrow beam will make it flop around a bit, and worse if you take weight out of it, but there are gyro-stabilizers available for around $30k that will fix that problem right up, so I guess the whole deal depends on your budget

 

I think the little 24' Cigarette was sold as a centre console years, if you fast troll it will steady them up somewhat. Depends on your intended usages.

 

Yeah think that'll be outside my realm of finance. At this stage I'm just looking at a way to get into a decent sized boat that will ride really well though the NQ waves and chop so the wife doesnt complain without having to drop new boat money. Used to have a cat but she didnt like that you had to be going quick to get the good cushioning effect and cats arent good at going slow so wanted a mono that would make her feel comfortable while being able to carve through the waves. Also something that I can fish off with a few mates or the kids as they get older.

Reason I looked at cigarette hulls is they are fairly cheap for what you get and width isnt oversize for Australia on trailer. Any other hulls you recommend looking at/into?

 

US boats ? Be a little careful there as a lot are 8' 6" wide, where the limit here is 8' 2 1/2", to be strictly legal. What was the cat you were using ? A Cigarette is a very large and unwieldy thing to be towing far. Is there a minimum length you have in mind. FNQ was once the home of a lot of Formula 233 and Haines 773, which are about as good as it gets ride wise, in trailer boats that aren't "ships". The Bass Strait 24 was one that performed well too. A lot of those boats are getting a bit long in the tooth, or have been re-built.

 

And really none of the boats that handle chop well are capable of being backed off to sedate speeds that well, those deep vees would be in much the same category as the cats in that regard, except the monos have the ability to deploy tabs.

 

The cigarette measurement for beam I keep seeing are 2.42m wide so under the 2.5m for roads....although you can go to 2.9m wide easy enough in QLD but wouldnt want the stuff around for the .09m extra of a standard American boat.

We had a 6m sailfish cat we borrowed from my old man when he worked away. I had been out in big seas down southern australia in it without issue but she didnt like it jumping off the waves although it didnt bang or ride unwell. She preferred it to be low speed when rough as she felt more comfortable and confident then.

That is true about the size. Ultimately my goal would be something 20-30ft that I can tow around twin outboard. If I can get something decent in that range I'll be going back to sub 20ft and stay near coastal.

Looked at the formula hull style but people want an absolute mint for them and I dont see the value for money in 100k+ refurbished boat that will depreciate again from there....almost like a new car I guess.

Maybe I'm better off looking at something else to fit the bill of what we want rather than deep vee or cat.

 

I think in the overall picture, the cat is the better boat, if you are going to have twin engines on the boat. I don't know much about Sailfish cats, unless it is one that has pretty "fat" demi-hulls ? The Shark Cat/ Kevlacat I would say would ride better. And sit on the water a whole lot better than deep vees, at rest, troll straight, and I thing women feel more secure aboard. It is not a good time to be looking at second-hand boats, the market is very bouyant for quality stock, and there is not much of it around to be had. To be importing boats has lost a fair bit of gloss with the exchange rate, but certainly looked attractive a few years ago. The general run of plate alloy boats are in a league behind cats and deep vee glass boats for ride, what you have to pick from is pretty limited in alloy boats that ride well. I was talking to a bloke that had a Fisher, he thought it went well, but I have never been in one. If you get interested in a boat, ask for a test run on a choppy day, and sling them $100 for the fuel. I'm sure many who are disappointed in a boat, wish they had done just that. You don't want an expensive 'kidney relocator".

 

I’ve done just that, and it worked quite well for its intended use, which was a kind of “run and gun” commercial fishing that didn’t involve hours of trolling or drifting in the trough, and covering ground rapidly was the main criteria.
I won’t say the ride was smooth, Cigarette hulls are designed to go fast in crappy conditions, but smooth is not part of that equation!

 

"Smooth" compared to what might happen in a lesser boat, these things need to be quantified to be really meaningful, the accelerometer is an under-utilised tool in assessing fast boats in rough water, 3G is tolerable, 5G is not. These things should be the first port of call in comparing boats for ride, they also are a good way to compare the ride at various positions along the boat length.