retro fit of bulbus bow to 23 foot boat

1 have a 23 foot Colvic that i have converted from a motor sailor to an in shore fishing boat.
due to the deep after draft shallow forward draft the rake of the stem as well as a forward wheelhouse the boat lies with her stern into the wind. this makes maneuvering in close proximity to the shore or other boats difficult.
my thinking was to fit a bulbus bow to increase the underwater area forward this slowing the speed the head blows down around.
i have installed a 3kw thruster which is a great piece of kit when in action to take the head back up through the wind, but i would like the boat to lie broad side too for rod fishing
speaking to another boat enthusiast, he though the construction of a bulbus bow could be made from fibre glass moulded around a sewer pipe and fishing float, I have seen these small bulbs on Buccaneer 21's.
could any one advise of optimum sizes to construct this too, shapes of bulbs that would be best to used, also positive or negative effects fitting a bulb may have on such a small boat.

 

maneuvre

 

Don't. Waste of time and money.
Lister

 

Agree with Lister 100%. Don't think it will do a thing for your problem also big disadvantage it will snag ropes when motoring.Why not fit her with a simple small spanker sail and adjust it to keep her diagional to the wind. --Geo.

 

Once upon a time, it was commonplace here to see fishing boats with a small sail set right aft on a mizzen mast to keep them head to wind. Often this sail would be trimmed to set the boat at an angle to the wind, so that gear could be hauled over the stern quarter on the up wind side of the boat, whilst the boat drifted slowly downwind.

A small mizzen mast, maybe something like a cut down windsurfer mast, fitted into a suitable socket on the aft deck or transom and fitted with a small sail would be safer and easier to fit, plus it could just be removed and stowed when not needed for fishing, having no effect on boat performance under power.

Jeremy

 

One of the probs with bulbous bows is anchoring when the wind is against the tide.

If its cosmetic it will rip it off.

 

Jeremy, In Newfoundland we fishermen (West county boys i might add mostly Bristol) called it a Spanker as we still call the auto parts bonnet and boot but have americanized tyre to tire Geo.

 

Interesting the way the terms for sails get re-used. Many years ago, when I was a young and penniless student, I crewed on a barque (as a film extra, and she wasn't really a barque, but a re-rigged Baltic Trader I think). She had a spanker (a fore-and-aft rigged triangular sail) that was rigged between the main mast and mizzen, as I recall (the mizzen was added as part of the film conversion). I'm pretty sure the sail was loose-footed, rather than fitted to a boom.

I do recall that every time the film crew wanted to re-do a shot we had to wear ship around in a bloody great circle in the bay, with a great deal of rope work for us poor extras who were working as deckhands. It gave me an appreciation for the work needed to sail a square rigger and an admiration for the guys who had to do it in all weathers.

It seems that the term spanker probably got re-used for these stabilising sails used on fishing boats, presumably because these sails were rigged the same way.

I spent some time working in Nova Scotia (Dartmouth and Halifax) and quickly realised that practically everyone there seemed to originate from either Scotland or the West Country. As a lad from the West Country I found it odd to have another Truro, Tiverton, Dartmouth etc so far away from home.

 

Didn't happen to bump into a guy from London, Mike Williamson, while you were here. One of my best friends for years. Great sea captain qualified to drive anything that floated. Ya the spanker as we fishermen on the rock knew it was attached to a boom but it was just a flat piece of heavy canvas no pocker built into it. Just finished another book on Captain Cook, now there was a chaggenge for all those chart makers, keeping control of those old vessels while so close in to land. Mainland Nova Scotia,being settled late in the game primarly by the English and Scots does have alot of the old country names. Newfoundland while always claimed by the British as their territory was of course settled, claimed, fought over by just about every European country of the time and as such has names from all over Europe. My family settled there in the early 1600's on my fathers side and mid 1800 by my mothers family.-- old family-- old history---Geo.

 

Can't recall the name. I was working with Hermes Electronics in Dartmouth (on a UK government contract), but stayed in Halifax every time I was there. I did acquire a taste for Moosehead and really enjoyed some of the music bars in Halifax (I still have a CD by McGinty - they played virtually every night in the bar over the road from the Sheraton in Halifax every time I was there).

Jeremy