Re-designed Hickman Seasled, video.

I saw a sea-sled once. It was in a boat-yard, there was no brand name, but it was welded aluminium and looked well built, and in good condition. Probably built by some poor sap who fell for the hype. The asking price was the worth of the outboard sitting on the back. Aside from considerations like prop ventilation and digging in in turns, the main issue is ride quality in rough water, and it is always going to be rubbish. Just like those cathedral hull offshoots. How they morphed into vee-hulls with vestigial wings is a study in evolution.

 

Sea Sleds have very good rough water performance. In military tests they did exceptionally well compared to Vee hulls. The problem was not the design but the personality of the designer. He was a control freak that wouldn't allow anyone else's input. The Boston Whaler was built to bypass his patents. They ride well in rough water too.

 

The modern Boston Whalers do ride well, but are a far cry from the early cathedral hull types that didn't. Once those early cathedral hulls had evolved into the Wellcraft Airslots and the current Whalers, any resemblance to a sea-sled was strictly co-incidental. I don't buy this story of an excelent rough water vessel, given the obvious advantages of a rectangular-plan hull with great load carrying ability, tremendous static stability, etc., were they any good in a lumpy sea they'd have saturated the market.

 

Having been in several at speed, including actual Hickmans, in all types of sea states and having worked with the design through a few phases of development, to address issues, I can assure you they preform very well in all states, better then comparable V bottoms, for the most part. They are the softest riding of any hull form I've been in and in some areas of this country dominate the "flats" areas among fisherman.. Once tripping and sneezing issues are addressed, they become very serviceable. You need to take one for a ride before spouting off about what you want to "buy" into.

The concept has been well developed by several noted designers in the last 60 years. Atkins was one of the more notables after Jackson. The cathedral hull form bears little resemblance to the sled, being little more then a V hull with sponsons. And you comments about the Whaler, clearly shows a lack of understanding in the type's history. The original Whaler was Fisher's way for an end run around old man Hickman and plainly stated such. So much for your coincidence . . .

 

Got it this time ? I said ONCE the early cathedrals had evolved.....etc

 

Not really. I mean I can follow your logic: if it was great, someone would be knocking them out already.

I'd argue a new adaptation won't need to be the best at all conditions to have a place in the market, if it has some advantages.
Plus things change. Old things do recycle around again. Look at cars. In the 70s families had station wagons. Then the 80s suburbans everywhere. Then wind-tunnel testing became the tool of the trade - and minivans replaced surburbans. Few actually took them on bad roads anyway so goodbye 4wd. Then the fad made the minivan look uncool, so we went the other way again to humvees and SUV's for safety, go-anywhere, hauling anything. Then the new fuel crunch, SUVs are slimmed down to a lower profile... and we're back to what look like station wagons but are now called eco SUVs. Old things do sometimes come back around a little different.

Mainly I defer to those who have actually ridden aboard one.

I hope we get to see a closer video of the new sea sled to get to see what it has.

 

I found an old thread and many photos in the gallery by Tony in the UK
http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/4887/ppuser/5234

 

Thanks for posting that.

 

The cathedral hull form had a short, less then inspiring run and really no significant development. The first ones looked like cathedrals as did the last ones. They added all sorts of crap to fix the ills they had. Steps, anti trip chines, pads, strakes, but they couldn't make them any less draggy, which limited speed potential and their sponsons let them track like freight trains, but turned like crap as you would expect.

The cathedral was a marketing ploy more then anything else, in an effort to weasel some market share from Whaler. Every cathedral I've seen, has been a warped bottom, modest V form with sponsons. Show me one of the "undeveloped" early versions, where it had reversed deadrise or dead flat transom bottom and was still marketed as a cathedral.

 

(Somewhat) modern aluminum version of Hickman inspiration:

http://duckmasterboats.com/lagunatiger.html

 

As I stated previously, in some areas of the USA, this particular hull for dominates as the choices among certain types of boaters. They're fast, very stable, comfortable and very shoal.

 

I still miss @PAR , and he died right before I joined. Serenity would have benefited greatly from his insight and experience. As would everything everyone else did.

 

And, sadly, wojtek86, the OP, hasn't been seen since the day he posted his video in 2011.

 

yes, sad. I just purchased plans to build a boat, that evolved from the Hickman Sea Sled, based off informed post by folks like @PAR.

 

Fantastic!
Can you post study plans or a link?