#14
Post
by kmorin » Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:11 pm
Making a cat look 'nice' or even well proportioned is a very hard until the LOA gets big enough to overcome the almost plumb stem, and the cabin/house/helm being so high off the water.
Narrow long hulls move well with less resistance so pairing them together with a nice wide rigid deck make for a faster hull with less resistance. But, those narrow long hulls need to be heavy on the long, so the stem is rarely raked out too far because the designer needs as much waterline as possible to float the boat in less than a half fathom of water.
Rake of the stem helps a boat look more appealing to the eye and really compliments a nicely curved sheer. But, when the bow is nearly 10 wide (!) the curve of the sheer is sort of 'lost' in the turn to the stem and that is another design headache trying to make a cat look sleek.
Also a well raked stem gives the sheer ahead of the cabin/helm more 'hood' or bow. A car with decent long hood looks more appealing than the volks' beetle where there is no horizontal line ahead of the windscreen.
A work boat is a deck work area that moves around and floats reliably. To that end moving the cabin aft competes with the purpose of the boat- to provide (most) working area afloat. So the cabin gets stuffed into the eyes of the bow and left there. Hard to look stylish and sleek with your hat pushed down over your eyes. Which looks better the cab-over truck or a long hood old Peterbilt?
Monohull skiffs have the most difficult time looking proportional because the cabin is too tall for the length of the average skiff and until the LOA gets close to 26-28' a 6'6" cabin just looks like an outhouse in the middle of a nice hull. At that length the flush deck cabin/weather helm/dog house begins to look like it belongs with the rest of the boat. A sitting only cabin would provide a beautiful looking skiff, but nobody will accept that point of view while at the helm of their skiff, so the 'outhouses' have to prevail.
But, the poor cat hull has its deck that is nearly at the gunwale of a monohull of similar length- they start out higher and go up from there.
So the cats' cabins end up 'stuck' up in the air just because they're on a deck that starts by being somewhat higher off the water than a monohull's deck of similar LOA. The cabin of a larger boat (40+'er) begins to appear less tall, and more in proportion to the hull but they begin life so high up its not easy to put a stand-up helm in this size hull without getting tall.
I have not seen any stand up helm cat of this LOA that have as pleasing lines as the comparable monohull's but that is the nature of the design elements to use the gain of huge stability, higher speeds with lower power, greater working area and eventually (depending on waterline) an increase in all up displacement for hauling huge loads.
It is a work boat, but I'd have raked her windscreen just to get that extra 3' of cabin close in to the screen for instruments, electronics and helm. As long as she's going to be 'work boat looking' a raked windscreen wouldn't have hurt her any more than her natural features do at this size hull, in my eyes.
Chris which design package do you use, Maxsurf ? or another ? or a combination of applications? If that is something you don't mind remarking about?
Surely looks strong enough.
Cheers,
Kevin Morin
kmorin