Looking to buy or build a live-a-board!

Hello, I have not been around blue water boats in a very long time. I want to buy or build a live-a-board based on a hull model that we seized back in the late 1970s. The reason the USCG took the boat is unimportant but her hull design struck me as being very exceptional for a motor cruiser. She had a deep v hull the first quarter or third of her hull and the rest was almost a catamaran hull! She pulled about 4 feet 10 inches on the v part of the hull but the cat part only pulled 4 ft 6 in. and all her tankage was in the Cat hulls. The length was about 45 feet. Depths and lengths are approx. since it has been in excess of 30 years. I was really surprised at the boats speed and stability of the ride. I was part of the prize crew and we hit a class 1 gale with the kind of wind and waves that make the High Endurance Cutters rock and roll the Chief Boatswains Mate who was in charge (we had an Ensign fresh out of the academy but he was smart and let the Chief really run the show) was really impressed. I think we had a much easier ride with that storm than the Cutter did. According to him the boat had fuel bunkerage enough to cross the Pacific with careful navigation to refuel at the right islands. This boat was very well thought out and obviously a comfortable live-a-board. I can not for the life of me remember the manufactures name. I do know the hull was fiberglass resin!
Can some one help me with a name or a direction to look?

Thanks in advance!

 

Where do you intend to cruise...

How many on board (as fellow live-aboards)...

Do you intend to be marina based (shore-power/water/phone) or independant and freerange hanging off the pick...

What is your budget... (that 70's design may be vastly improved upon by this time)

Mine, in materials and equipment was about $350,000, a sailing cat without a mast & sails but ready to mount/install same - UNDER 40ft LOA has certain advantages in several Pacific Countries... Ability to sit on her bottom, shallow draft and light weight are other advantages I found desirable...

 

A picture would certainly help a lot.

I'd put money on Chris Craft if asked to take a wild guess but if it is, it should have a number of name plates.

Pictures?

-Tom

 

What was her length?
Any other hints at what might ID her??

 

"The length was about 45 feet."

-Tom

 

"She had a deep v hull the first quarter or third of her hull and the rest was almost a catamaran hull! She pulled about 4 feet 10 inches on the v part of the hull but the cat part only pulled 4 ft 6 in. and all her tankage was in the Cat hulls."
Boy, I do hope this memory exercise bear fruit, because Coasty's description is enticying! Am I very wrong to imagine she would be a very creative "trimaran"?

 

It was there in plain site....my eyes must be failing me

He was comparing her to their 'high endurance cutters' that I believe were much larger ships, that's why I ask about the length.

 

Creative Tri Hulls, Stabilized Monohulls

How about a look thru these subject threads for creative tri-hulls:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/trimaran-motorboat-stabilized-monohull-29665.html

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/general-catamaran-discussion/2701-trimarans-bladerunner.html

 

No worries Brian, I missed that it was a memory from the 70's, so no pictures...

-Tom

 

Sorry No pictures my van got stolen just before mustering out with six years of slides in the footlocker.

 

Nor was she a trimaran but a purpose built hull. She was made somewhere in Florida and while I want to call her a tunnel boat she was completely enclosed in the forward third or quarter. I think I saw something on her class about 15 years ago on the learning channel again out of the Florida area but I could be pulling that out of my grey hair. What was so amazing was at speed 30 knots there was almost no rooster tail and the turbulence in the wake normal in a vessel of her size was almost nonexistent. She handled like a sailor's wet dream in 30 to 40 foot waves and when we got to the run in SF harbor the coxswain did not get off the throttle fast enough and at 8 knots she was legal in a no wake zone. I have never seen a boat like her before although the Tomcat 45 by C-dory boats comes close.

 

Wasn't there someone building some 'strange' alum fast ferry boats down there in the Ft Laud (out state rd #84) a long number of years ago??

Opps I screwed up again....you said it was made of glass.

Why don't you try posting another similar message over on the Yachtforums as well? You never can tell who might have know of such a vessel...and there are a lot of powerboat guys over there.

 

@ Brian Eiland
I should have said I thought it was made of glass! My puddle pirate time was as a Sonar Tech and like most callow twenty-somethings I paid more attention to my electronics than anything else! I was sent in place of the Radar Operators who were mostly off at schools. Also the aluminum ferry boats may have been the show I was thinking about!

 

I do remember the Chief Boatswains Mate being really really surprised at how fast she was. He and the Ensign were discussing it but I did not pay close attention I was too busy trying to keep us in the Rush's lee by giving the Coxswain his bearings to the Rush. It was something about draft vs hull length in the water