Affordable seaworthy cruiser

Goodwill,
Present name I believe WHITEFIN, ex-RICHMOND. Built 1917 almost all of Douglas Fir and iron fastened as an ocean-going tug for Crowley, probably to pull log rafts. Typical for tugs of the time, sailboat derived lines and maybe 4:1 beam ratio reminiscent of German pilot schooner WANDERBIRD. These early "gas tugs" used 6 and 8 cylinder in-line gasoline engines, though WHITEFIN had an Atlas diesel fairly early on. When the clever fellow who converted her found the old girl she had a huge ugly ply house and fly bridge and no engine. He saw her for the hydrodynamic and slippery girl she is, and had the common sense to put the right rig as well as a rebuilt Cat diesel he salvaged from a recent wreck off the coast by logging helicopter (long story).
Her easy midships section shows maybe 18 degrees of deadrise which gets the ballast low, the run is long and beautiful and the rudder is quite large so she sails well despite big prop and aperture. Of course all ballast is inside. This is not a hull with great stability so wouldn't suit a brigantine or big schooner, and the present rig suits her well.
She has a typical 3-masted schooner Chinese lug rig with many clever details in hardware and gear. I can't find any other pictures but if you find the cult movie "Last Free Ride" on YouTube or somewhere, the conversion of the vessel is the background story of the movie so there are many views.
I did some planking and caulking on her at one time. This boat was rigged Chinese before I built mine and I copied some of his hardware designs when I saw how well they worked, like the use of a landing craft ramp winch for a halyard winch. WHITEFIN cruised to central America and Hawaii and is now a live-aboard in Sausalito CA I think.
SEA GIANT, a shapely 50 foot harbor tug from the late '20s, was made into a very nice gaff ketch and cruised the S. Pacific for years by a boat carpenter I was in the USCG with. Both these conversions were done in the '70s.
Before engines got so powerful since ww2, tugs had quite "sailing vessel" lines often, like the MikiMiki class of 130 footers. One of these was hard on the bottom off of town some years ago with a dreamer aboard making beautiful drawings of his sailing ship conversion.... It could have worked if he'd had money and help, but the old girl went to pieces on the mud and her bones lie there still. Conversions are possible, but most of the old tugs and fishing boats with low-powered lines suitable are now so elderly that it's not a good idea.
Here is a 1910 Collinsville gillnetter converted to a little Chinese lug bay cruiser. Not pretty, but sailed like a witch and had room below.

 

Thanks Bataan,

Peace.

 

Peace is the only alternative in life.

 

Read at cruisersforum about a guy that bought a Formosa as they are known as bottom barrell used sailboats. Was told it would take 5years/$150,000.00 to fix. He put in about $1,000.00 and is happy with it and its capabilities. This is not acceptable to most, but if it can help get some people cruising with a decent boat there's nothing wrong with it. Same applies to your example.

Also, thats the first time ever hearing of a tugboat with good sailing lines. Never would have thought that.

Peace.

 

A boat is a boat. Modern tugs today have very different underbodies and propulsion systems, but long, long ago (it seems now) their lines were quite like sailing ships, with the added aperture and big wheel. Here's your typical coastal trader type in use for at least 300 years in modern guise with an engine added. A MikiMiki or other pre-war wooden tug is very similar in shape below the water, bigger wheel and rudder is the most obvious difference. WHITEFIN sailed quite well, but was unusually long and slim. LADY WASHINGTON, despite her apparent clumsiness, sails very well on all points, is extremely maneuverable and powers nicely. This is to be expected in any design that has many years of trial and error development under economic pressures. I learn so much every time I seriously study and sail on one of these old types. Of course she's nothing like a modern vessel, but then how many of them can load a hundred tons or so of cargo and take it around Cape Horn. Personally, I love Sharpies and think they're a wonderful type. If you want to build one Goodwill, you're well on the way to understanding them from the many and varied responses to your original idea. This has all been a wonderful essay in communication and design and I hope a good boat and many years of happy use result.

 

Greetings,

Bataan, thanks for the kind words. What would you use instead of bronze screws or nails? Did see a post about costs of different types but dont remember thread.

 

Bronze is a wonderful fastener but if you're burying everything in epoxy, other less expensive metals can be used.
Again, Goodwill, I urge you to read Ruell Parker's "The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding". I'm sure a used copy on Amazon is very cheap and will really open up your design ideas when you see what some others have done with Home Depot materials and the nuances and subtleties of using what, where and when.

 

Do have Ruell's book, will look at it again.

Peace.

 

Spot on. There recently was an article on a re-fit on one of his boats, hard used, ten years on from building, which was most revealing. In general the boat held up very well but there were some small rot pockets. Most problems had to do with poor bonding of hardware and untended small breaks in the epoxy/fabric sheathing if I remember right. It was either in Woodenboat or Classic Boat mags I think. All around, a very sound and interesting way to build some designs, Sharpies of course for one. His use of diagonal ply wood lams on the bottoms of some of his boats makes for a very easy way to get a strong, arc-bottom shape, lowering the ballast and increasing displacement. A dead flat bottom, no rocker at all, will obviously work, but if one is to put a great deal of thought, time and some money into a project it's wise to really think through the entire wholeness of the design.
I always ask people who want me to magically recommend a boat for them, "what do you want this boat to do for you?". This they can sometimes answer.
The next question is "why?". I'm always surprised at how few can answer this for me other than some Vague Nautical Fantasy(tm).
I'm as guilty of being a nautical romantic as anyone as is obvious by looking at BERTIE, and I think in my youth the VNFs involved Mint Daquiris and Dusky Maidens under Tropical Skies...
We must all be honest with ourselves with this one as it's a question for the self, not the many. Why do I want this boat and what will it do for my life and what am I willing to pay (materials, time, moorage, maintenance, more time, headaches and disruptions to life) for that?
Peace back to you friend,
BATAAN

 

Greetings to all and blessings to the Christian men.

53' LOA, tried this out for coldmolded hull. It works out as there are no issues with the chine. Extended to 53' to allow minimun sitting headroom height. Basically same overall helm/cockpit problem is solved by extending cockpit 2', this allows passsage through with out having to obstacles. Did have whipstaff setup and it worked well but this is much better.
At last minute added centerboard worrying about hitting something with daggerboard and not being able to lift up after its jambed. The extra little centerboard was also quickly drawn and not sure if its necessary, it would move CE aft and fit in at chart table/sink counter.

Still contemplating using regular 2x4x16's with two layer 1/4" ply for overall hull thickness of 2". Bulkhead frames would be similar and 2x4's would have polyurethane bead in between them after epoxy saturation, this would allow for differential movements and ply sheathing for watertightness. 2x4's working as longitudinal strength as well as being strong enough laterally because of thickness. This idea is for the Alt. boat.

The skeg would go up through bottom of hull to cockpit floor and attach at bulkhead, should provide enough strength if something hits it. Engine setup is not ideal but will work as auxialry. Do miss not having the 90 degree chine as it added stability for narrow hull but this should work as well. In the flat panel shape the bottom was kept at 8' for full sheets of ply and is a little stronger.

Peace.

 

morning all

just woke up on a Saturday morning here, got my dose of light entertainment.

Centerboard looks small, especially compared with other centerboard boats I have seen.

The outboard is very far aft, as the boat pitches in a seaway, it would be out of the water a lot of the time, I suspect there is a lot of places available where is could be placed more forward.

The hull, well mostly it is flat sided, The flat sided bits could be made out of plywood, and the curved bits made by cold moulding or via strip planking.

is there any reason for the shoal draught. I am sure that you realise that getting more draught, would allow you to place the ballast lower down.

Double enders are nice, yours is so long and narrow, that I suspect if you chopped 5ft off the end, it would make hardly any difference to its speed or fuel economy.

 

a couple of other things

your maximum beam is approximately 8.5ft. This is very narrow.

Looking at Sam Delvin's long narrow motor cruiser, Czarrina, that is 43ft x 11ft beam. The 11ft beam is maintained over quite a length, whereas your max beam is found just amidships.

Now sailing boats tend to have more beam than equivalent sized motor boats, as they need the beam to balance out the turning forces of the wind on the sails.

Thus, I think it would be very prudent, to increase your beam, at least to 10ft, but this is a sailing boat yes, so in reality a couple feet more. Otherwise, add an outrigger.

One little thing, your diagrams are jpeg. line diagrams are generally best stored as GIF images, result is lower file size and clearer images.

I think you may be starting to get an idea as to why the boat that Bataan has, is 14ft of max beam.

 

BERTIE sails at about 10-15 degrees of heel when sailed right. Here she is on SF bay 3 years ago in about 12 kts.
In 25 knots under single reefed main and whole jib it's the same. In a screaming gale under 4 reefed main it's the same except for the waves.
As an iron fist gust hits her she heels to 20 degrees, stops and charges away on her course. Goodwilly's boat would be more wholesome and stable if he carried 90 percent of the extreme beam over 50 percent of the length. It's possible to get adequate form stability from this type of hull if the beam is carried out well fore and aft, but as drawn it's far from optimal.

 

Point I was looking for and missed is BERTIE's beam is carried out very far fore and aft, giving her a tremendous "shoulder" of displacement to lean on.

 

it's a bolger as39 copy