That Looker boat is fascinating for a lot of reasons, mitchgrunes. Where did you come across it?
I still think putting the glass behind the step of a Caymas might be workable and give you a boat with some seakeeping ability.
I haven't come across it. I just did an Internet search for "glass bottom boat" and "v-hull".
I'm betting the Looker is very expensive, since they list no price - and it has a pretty limited window size, for 6 tourists. And since you need shallow water, it would be nice if the pilot could see a clear view too, though maybe a depth finder would be good enough. Also, there is a somewhat smaller Looker available too.
I was also looking online for a transparent submersible, which would give tourists a better view - and companies like Triton make them - but for amazingly high prices.
I guess transparent materials behind a step in a boat like that might work. Looking at it as a theoretical intuitive physics problem, the water surface wouldn't be completely smooth, so it would be somewhat hard to see much, especially if you are moving. And you still have the total internal reflection problem, that you can only see fairly close to directions at right angles to the transparent surfaces. But in shallow water, say, over a reef, it might work pretty well (as long as you don't run into the reef). Ideally you might want to coat the top and underside of the transparent surface with an anti-reflection coating, but compared to the cost of a customized boat, that's not a big deal.
Can a one-off custom tourist-certifiable boat like that be affordable enough for the o.p. to make a profit? Would it be cheaper to build a wave break, and use one of the commercially available flat bottom boats?
