Fishing Chair Envelope

I am starting a concept design for a small fishing/camping boat for freshwater and fair water inshore saltwater use. I want it to be as small and light as possible, and I am planning an aluminum construction. I am thinking of a low speed displacement hull.

One of my key starting requirements is to have two fishing chairs, side-by-side, near to the stern. I want to be able to turn each chair outboard and have knee clearance for landing fish over the side, and have enough space between the seats to allow inboard rotation to face forward.

I have an office chair that would be a great dimensional baseline for a comfortable chair design, but when I roll up the dimensions based on this, I need a 7.5 ft beam inside the boat to meet the above requirements. Assuming this is approximately equal to the maximum WLB, some books I have suggest this will be a 20+ ft boat. This is longer (And probably more importantly, heavier) than I think I want for handling over a beach, etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions for reducing the boat size whilst maintaining the required beam? If not, then does anyone have a source for smaller chair dimensions that would still be comfortable for all-day use? Or should I just abandon the side-by-side and accept a fore/aft seat arrangement?

Thanks

Ed

 

Side-by-side fishing is almost never seen either in large sportfishers or small bass boats. In bass boats one person fishes at each end. In big sportfishers one sees one chair aft, sometimes two smaller chairs just forward of the big chair, but they are for sitting, not fishing. Only one person (usually) is fighting a fish at one time, hence the one centrally located chair aft. The only exception I have seen is when two people will use belt-mounted rod sockets so they fight standing up and can maneuver around each other if both are fighting fish at once.
In his book "Small Boats" Phil Bolger shows a 16' X 4' sailboat for fishing in the Gulf Stream off Palm Beach, as a singlehander. It looks rather like a large Sunfish boardboat with a deep forefoot and small rig. The idea was if the owner fell off, the boat would tip over and not sail away. This might be a little adventurous, but it gives an idea of what might be a lower size limit.

 

My aim here is be able to fish at anchor in a decent flow (An estuary, for instance) with one line streaming out each side of the back of the boat. With a Bass boat, I suppose you just align the side of the boat with wherever you both want to fish, and things are OK. I could do a similar thing with my planned boat on the drift, but I want to be able to anchor up in a flow also, for which being able to both fish out the back is a benefit.

If I have to go to a fore and aft arrangement, then I will, but it will be a little harder for the front person to fish, so I want to see if there is anything that can be done before abandoning this requirement.

Another thing that drives the beamy design is that I want to be able to fit two bunks in the boat, side by side. The idea is that I can beach the thing, prop it up level, set up these bunks and roll side sheets down from the sun shade to make a kind of tent. I'm thinking this would drive an ~5 ft width.

Ed

 

I suggest, using your office chair as a test envelope, check the resulting beam requirement if you stagger the chairs a bit (one farther aft than the other). Another possibility is the use of a bicycle seat/leaning post arrangement which you sometime see on bass boats.

 

I'd suggest a pontoon catamaran to have wide beam with minimal LOA..

 

A very simple bridle on your anchor line would allow the boat to turn 30-60deg from the stream.

The one on the bow would no longer foul the fellow fishing aft.

Low cost too!

FF

 

You know what happens next? Stream drives the boat sideways from the anchor until it's allmost upright again, and then, if the stream is strong enough, drags the anchor of untill it stops smth and boat starts a "bullride" and possibly sinks.
Anchoring in streams has allways some risk and rode better to be easily cutted type and running throw an eye at the bow and fastened somewhere close the stern for obvious reasons .. Do not rely on any knots or shackles to be easily opened under drag..