34' Merryman surf boat

Looking for further information (particularly offset table and or construction drawings ) for this 34' surf lifeboat or similar design. Have searched extensively to no avail.

Any leads would be most welcome.

Thank you!

 

You can make a table of offsets from those lines. They are detailed enough.

 

Thank you that is underway via background .bmp via CAD.

But I am looking for some details of the design itself that are not in this particular drawing. These were designed for some pretty rough stuff and I am simply steepening my own learning curve for other applications.

 

Are you looking for building details? A lot of the scantlings are included in the drawing. The ones that are not can be calculated by different methods, including studying similar boats.

 

It looks like there is one in Maine in the museum of the Life Saving Association. A road trip with a measuring tape and a camera will give you all you need.

 

Not quite enough in this one drawing for what I want to do.

Not to build one but to better understand the design. I want to know everything about what made these able to take the nastiest of sea states in order to better understand and incorporate appropriate inherent safety and design features into future open water wooden designs.

The idea being to precisely reconstruct one in 3d CAD and study the underbody shape, CG, and static stability in various loading scenarios. Then to approximate various dynamic scenarios mathematically or via simulation. To do this right, I need precise dimensions and densities of the various materials used.

Details such as the water ballast system, scantlings, penetrations, free surface mgt, etc.

Details of the sail rig, keel, species, dimensions, attachment, etc.

Details of precise method of construction, hardware, scantlings, species, dimensions, etc.

The museum is a fine lead, easy to contact and inquire thank you!

Joe

 

Greetings,

When you get cross sections, do show, have always liked those type of boats but nevery saw one that big.

 

Nice surf boat. Agree visiting that museum is your best bet. From the layout profiles it appears everything is kept balanced fore/aft, low & centered port/starboard. So long as you kept track of weight & balance while laying out the structure & components you could easily have a nice surf boat on your hands (with modern ammenities to boot).

 

One problem though...I don't like the rudder. For cruising through the surf you'll need a weedless rudder. The rudder profile in that example will trap enough sea weed to feed the sushi eating people of Okinawa for two weeks.

 

Joe,

I am sure that your study will be awesome. Do post the link when you have something.

These boats boats are so legendary I think everyone is expecting to find some magic in the design. My opinion is that years ago when someone wanted to apply the latest technology to a standard design they went down to the shed and asked "what's the toughest design you have?" and the woodworking tradesmen gave them the oldest, most proven design they had -based on viking landing boats developed over a thousand years before. Then the 19th century engineers fitted the ballast tanks, self bailing and such and redesigned the fittings for modern wood mass production.

 

I am pleased to see that as a non-engineer (informal student of engineering), that my thought processes are on track with those of a retired engineer.

You've hit the nail on the head! I'm perusing the issues of the laws of similitude in downscaling a Viking Longboat. Bravo!

Having determined that practicality wins the day over authenticity, I am researching various approaches to modernization of a viable design for a hobbiest on the shores of a lake somewhere.

http://www.uslife-savingservice.org/education___resources

In doing so I've discovered the existence of a portion of our maritime history that had otherwise escaped me. These boats and crews are the ancestors to the Augusta helicopter crews of today.

Joe

 

You might find some relevant information by researching the Monomoy surf boats. The Coast guard used to have a whole mess of them in their basic training facilities and a few of them in regular service. They were still using them in the 50s Monomoys did not have water ballast, but they were very capable in surf landings when handled skillfully. This was basicly a row boat with ten double banked oarsmen and a coxswain manning a 16 foot sweep oar. (I was a cox on several of these in the days of yore. Aahh nostalgia).