What's the 'softest' hull design?

[Robja]

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Gringo,

Growing up my dad had a wellcraft like Gettinwet describes as I remember it was a soft riding boat. I often rode on the bow and it wasn't that bad in 3 ft seas.

[Fortunate One]

For what it's worth I agree with a Downeast style boat.

Billy Joel just had one built to fish while he's in Florida. He said he went with that style to get relief from the days of constant chop.

Gringo, I imagine you see your share of breeze days.

Now the issue is to get on with a low draft and to get one down to the islands.

[seapower]

my last commercial boat was the first lobster hull around here. The guy's laughed until they saw me working day's they wouldn't. Great ride, wouldn't slam, economical, 18 knot boat.You don't need alot of horsepower, forget all that. Don't let the speed worry you, they may be 16 to 18 knot boat's, but that's in pretty much any sea. If you try a downeast hull I'm pretty sure you'll never look back. Frank, SeaPower

[Gringo]

Well, I have been looking into it. I contacted the Duffy people, asking about draft. Got an answer already, from a guy named Bill Sweetland. He emailed me:

"Thanks for your interest in our boats. The draft of the Duffy 26 is 2'-10". It is a boat you can travel on, this past year we built a 26 for a couple from St. John and they traveled home, 2500 mi, in their new boat. "

Now, 34" is workable. I just don't know if 26 feet is workable. I am still looking, but this whole concept has got my attention.

The Contender will probably do between 50 adn 60 mph with that 300 HPDI on it. I don't know, because in the five and a half months since we launched it, we have not been able to open it up long enough to find out. I typically run it just fast enough to stay on plane, which is probably around 20 kts or so. And even though it is a vastly superior ride to the Andros panga ( the panga has other good qualities) in two feet of chop, bottom line is anything going that fast across the tops of waves is going to beat you up. Anyone who says otherwise is just choosing to ignore the truth.

I have looked into two shock absorbing pedestals, with shock absorbing seats, to the tune of around $ 2300 plus shipping plus 33% Import duty....but I have to wonder if perhaps changing the whole philosophy would be the better approach.

I really like the idea of something we could take to another island, and sleep and cook aboard for a couple days at a time, too.

We pay almost $4 a gallon for gasoline. I like the idea of a diesel. I never liked the idea of gasoline on a boat. GIves me the willies.

Anyone wanna buy a nice Contender 25 with a 300 HPDI and a Rolls Axle trailer??

Or trade for a displacement hull?

[seapower]

but a 28 ft BHM (SeaWorthy) is a very nice boat as well. If I owned a place to tie it up, that would be high on my list. Frank

[Deep C]

Originally Posted by Gringo

Wife and I moved to the tropics four years ago, and started running small boats hard on day one. We have run a Whaler Montauk 17 ft., a Whaler Dauntless 18', then our Andros panga 22 foot, and now a Contender 25 foot.

All of these are planing hulls. We drive em standing up, and two foot chop is pretty much the norm for average conditions, on top of whatever the swells are doing.

The pounding is killing us. I hate to admit it, but my knees started going to hell, and her back started going the same direction, after the first year or two of us running boats here. Now, I have just had one knee replaced, and she has had a steroid injection into her spine.

Lets face it, this doesn't fix the problem. The problem is that we engage in high impact boating.

We don't want to give up boating. Its a big part of the reason we moved to a small island nation. IF we didn't love boats and the ocean, we might as well be snowmobiling in the mountains somewhere. But we love boats.

SO, I am looking for ideas. What hull design would allow us to continue boating without the pounding? A catamaran? A displacement hull? A (gulp) blowboat? I am serious about that, too. A sailboat would work, but we would be giving up a lot of fishing.

Does anyone make a shock absorbing seat, like the long haul truckers have in their rigs?

Any constructive ideas greatly appreciated.

Your contender should be softening the bumps . She carries like 24 to the ass... Learning to run Contender for me involved throwing out a lifetime of what I had come to know and think about boats. Instead of going slower to soften it the contenders are best run way hard and fast. I know it sounds like a bunch of baloney but it softens them up a lot. At 22 kts they ride like any other boat at 30+ they get really comfortable. Try it.

[Gringo]

Well, I must be doing something wrong then. Because pounding waves harder on plane just seems to make the ride rougher. reminds me of physics, or something. I wish I could say it being a Contender was some kind of magic bullet, but it seems to be basically a boat with a planing hull.

Bouncing it off something at 35 or 40 hurts my knees more than hitting it at 20.




Meantime, have any of you guys seen the Ellis 28 Flybridge? That has kind of caught my attention. I am sure there must be similar boats

[Deep C]

Originally Posted by Gringo

Well, I must be doing something wrong then. Because pounding waves harder on plane just seems to make the ride rougher. reminds me of physics, or something. I wish I could say it being a Contender was some kind of magic bullet, but it seems to be basically a boat with a planing hull.

Bouncing it off something at 35 or 40 hurts my knees more than hitting it at 20.




Meantime, have any of you guys seen the Ellis 28 Flybridge? That has kind of caught my attention. I am sure there must be similar boats

The contender gets more "dig" at speed. It goes against my thinking process too. Our 31 rides like crap at 22. At 32 she has enough power to dig in and soften it. The 25 we have rides far better than the 31. The 27 my buddy has is an absolute rocket and the 23t which is really similar to the 25 is a true sweetie... All of them though have that strange habit of being smoother faster. And we are running 70-100 miles in slop to the fishing grounds...
We have to play with trim a bit but almost all the way down and 4700 on the 250's or 4400 on the 150's is the magic numbers for ride and fuel economy. Any faster and they start to go the other way again. Much slower and they suck.

[alex n]

You need something heavy,that goes through the waves rather than over them, I believe the Ocean master is a very heavy center console and could help you, or a heavy cat.

[Gringo]

Well, I have been thinking about this a lot. I don't know if it's just cause we are getting old, or what, but these CCs have been beating us up pretty regularly for four years now. The two whalers, the Andros panga, and yeah, now the Contender. To be fair to all of them, chop is a way of life here. We live on the side of the islands exposed to the oncoming Trade Winds, and maybe get four or five 'glossy water' days a year. And so far, it ain't this year.

Today is a normal day. Wind blowing out of the ENE at 17 knots. And four thousand miles of fetch. Its just always like this.

We are going to run yet one more little experiment this afternoon, and take the Contender out and see if we can't pick up some conch ( we're out). We will be running pretty much into about an honest foot to foot and a half of short chop. Just good enough to rattle lower backs and knees when standing, and we have only a small leaning post. I will try one more time going faster, and putting the trim all the way nose down...and see if it makes any difference. But I know I have tried this a hundred times before, and always back off the throttle because it just beats us up, and at some point it gets hard to hold on. BUT we will really pay attention and see if we can't find some sweet spot. Today is good conditions for trying it out. Not REAL choppy, but enough to rattle yer bones.

I have a quote from Seaspension pedestals for a couple good shock absorbing posts and seat combinations.

But I am not ruling out changing our boating philosophy altogether, and going for a semi-displacement hull.

Where we live, we just don't really need a 60 mph boat that we can never run wide open anyhow. The reef is a mile offshore, and the whole country is only 92 miles across, anyhow. But there are 40 something islands, plus the Bahamas are only fifty miles away, the DR about a hundred and fifty, etc. The idea of something like that Ellis 28 ft. Flybridge set up for a weekender is getting to be pretty appealing.

I just got one knee replaced, with the other one planned for later this year. I really would like these replacements to last a while, like for the rest of my life. Beating the crap out of them boating is not really very smart. Getting them replaced is no friggen fun at all.

Sounds like I am talking myself into a cruiser, doesn't it.