Coastal Cruising under Power: How to Buy, Equip, Operate, and Maintain Your Boat
320
Coastal Cruising under Power: How to Buy, Equip, Operate, and Maintain Your Boat
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Overview
Coastal Cruising Under Power is your ultimate companion for exploring the coastal waters of North America with confidence in your powerboat. This beautifully illustrated guide provides countless tips on anchoring, piloting, weather, and more, along with in-depth, step-by-step instructions on numerous specific skills and techniques.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780071445146 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | McGraw Hill LLC |
| Publication date: | 05/31/2006 |
| Edition description: | List |
| Pages: | 320 |
| Product dimensions: | 8.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Gene and Katie Hamilton write the Do It Yourself . . . Or Not? column syndicated by Tribune Media Services, and are regular contributors to Chesapeake Bay magazine.
McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide
Read an Excerpt
Coastal Cruising Under Power
How to Buy, Equip, Operate, and Maintain Your Boat
By Gene Hamilton, Katie Hamilton
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Copyright © 2006 Gene and Katie HamiltonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-144514-6
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Choosing a Boat Design
Over the past 35 years we've owned seven boats, from a J/24 racing sailboat to a 42-foot wooden trawler—and just about every type in between. We didn't start small and work our way up the food chain with larger and larger boats. Each boat was perfect for us at the time, but every time our life situation changed and the boat we had no longer fit our needs, we went shopping.
No boat can be all things to all people and no matter how clever the naval architect, all designs are at best a compromise. Only a finite number of objectives—such as adequate accommodation, good boat speed, and adequate fuel and water capacity—can be achieved with any given design. A change in one area will affect other aspects of the boat, and some compromises prove better than others. Successful designs are the ones that meet or exceed their stated objectives.
In the following sections, we'll present our take on the types of powerboat that we think are suitable for coastal cruising—boats that meet or exceed their stated objectives.
But before we get into the particulars let's make one point clear: it's not the boat that makes a cruise successful, it's the attitudes of the people on board. Anyone can successfully cruise coastal and inland waters in almost any boat. We've met people on modest boats enjoying the cruising life to its fullest, and those on elegant yachts not having any fun at all. Life and boats, as they say, are what you make of them.
IS THERE A BEST BOAT?
The answer is no. Every boat has both its qualities and its limitations. When you evaluate your present boat, or shop for a new one, it's important to envision how you will use it.
A slow-moving displacement hull (we'll explain what that is in a moment), for example, is relatively inexpensive to operate, but the deep draft (depth of the boat below the waterline) can limit your choice of cruising areas, especially in the shallow waters of the Bahamas and Florida Keys.
High-speed cruising boats generally have a shallower draft and a wider choice of cruising areas, but they are expensive to operate. As technology evolves, however, boats are being built lighter without sacrificing strength, and engines are becoming more fuel efficient. These developments could result in lower operating costs.
Tank capacity is another major consideration when choosing the right design. If you plan to cruise where fuel, water, and food are readily available, then tremendous load-carrying capacity isn't necessary. However, if you plan to cruise in remote areas where facilities are limited, then fuel and water capacities are a serious consideration.
There are dozens of questions that you must ask yourself before you decide what type of boat is right for you, and there no simple answers, but the more you learn about boat design, the better you'll be able to select a boat that truly suits you.
WHAT'S IT MADE OF?
Most production boats these days are made of fiberglass. Few wooden boats are built anymore, though there is usually a selection of older ones on the market. Whether an older wooden boat is a wise choice depends on the maintenance it has received. Some are still solid and seaworthy, while others are really only suitable for firewood. Aluminum and steel cruising boats are also available, but usually only in larger custom or semi-custom models. Here's a quick rundown of the characteristics of the major boatbuilding materials.
Wood
Wood has long been an excellent material for boatbuilding. It still is, and you can't beat the quiet ride of a wooden hull. But few builders currently have the knowledge and skilled labor to produce a quality wooden boat by traditional methods.
Modern epoxy coatings and adhesives allow a skilled builder to create a boat that is essentially wood but is more durable and requires much less maintenance than traditional wood construction. These contemporary hulls are usually described as cold molded, and we'll have more to say about them later.
A wooden boat can have a long life expectancy if it's maintained properly, but will quickly deteriorate if it's neglected. There are still good used wooden boats around and they can represent good value when compared to a fiberglass boat of the same size, though they will require more expense and effort when it comes to maintenance.
In the mid-1980s we bought a 21-year-old, well-maintained wooden Grand Banks 42, Old Grand Dad. She'd had only one previous owner, she had a good survey, and she cost us about a quarter of the price the fiberglass version was selling for at the time. For five years, she served us well. We lived aboard her during the first year and then cruised on long vacations for another four years. We sold her for what we had paid, but during those five years we did most of the maintenance. We had the yard do some major repairs (like new shafts and engine work), which came to about $20,000.
All boats require maintenance but you can skip buffing or waxing a fiberglass boat for years with little but cosmetic damage. If a wood boat is neglected for any length of time it will quickly deteriorate. All protective hull and cabin paint must be maintained on a regular schedule. Wood is constantly expanding or contracting so chasing down small leaks around ports, doors, hatches, or in the deck is a continuing process. Most of the maintenance you can do yourself and if you keep on top of it, it's not overwhelming.
Fiberglass
The introduction of fiberglass construction to the mass marine market in the 1950s and 1960s revolutionized boatbuilding. The evolution continues, as new combinations of materials are introduced to make boats lighter and stronger. Today, fiberglass boats dominate the cruising boat market. The boats are strong—but not indestructible—and require far less maintenance than most other materials, though they are far from being "maintenance free."
One of the big advantages of fiberglass construction is that this material can be molded into just about any shape. Fiberglass boats can also be quite roomy inside, since the structure doesn't require frames, as is usually the case in wood, steel, or aluminum construction.
A typical fiberglass laminate consists of layers of different types of glass fabric bonded together with polyester, vinylester, or epoxy resin. This construction method allows builders to lay up thicker, heavier laminated sections where the hull stresses are the greatest like under the engine mounts, and thinner, lighter sections where the stresses are lower in the side portions of the hull.
Fiberglass, however, technically known as fiberglass reinforced plastic or FRP, can have its problems. Variations in quality are introduced by the builder's selection of the types and amounts of reinforcing material he uses and the type (or types) of plastic resin he chooses to bind them.
Quality control doesn't stop with the selection of materials: critical care in their application is important too. Unless the builder precisely controls the mixing of the resins and their application to the fiberglass reinforcing structure, small air voids or areas of uncured resins are created, which reduce the strength of the entire laminate. If the voids are large enough, the structure can delaminate under stress.
Another problem with fiberglass is that laminates thick enough to withstand high stress can become quite heavy. Builders are conquering this drawback by introducing lighter cores, such as end-grain balsawood or closed-cell PVC foam, between thinner skins of reinforcing glass. Today, many boats are no longer "solid" FRP from the waterline up. The hull sides, decks, cabin sides, and interior bulkheads (walls) are all cored.
In a further effort to maintain strength without weight, builders are now using other materials besides fiberglass for reinforcing various areas of laminate. Carbon-fiber rods, with a tensile strength six times that of a piece of steel of the same weight, are used to add rigidity to keels, chines (where the bottom of the hull meets the sides), and gunwales (the top edges of the hull). Stronger materials such as Kevlar are also used in the reinforcing fabrics instead of (or in addition to) fiberglass. And even among fiberglass fabrics, there are now many nonwoven options, such as unidirectional knitted cloth, that provide extra strength without the added weight of more layers.
Fiberglass boats are constantly improving in many ways. But a unique problem in using FRP for boatbuilding remains: a condition known as blistering. Blistering occurs when, over the passage of time, water penetrates the outer gelcoat by a process known as osmosis and mixes with water-soluble materials in the fiberglass layers beneath it. The seawater mixes with the laminate particles and then becomes a more complex solution that cannot flow back out through the passage it entered. As a result, it builds up pressure as it tries to escape, and then explodes, causing blister domes to appear on the outside of the hull.
Not all resins are equally impervious to water. The polyester resins known as orthophthalic are the most permeable. Isophthalic polyesters are denser and more resistant to water intrusion. Vinylester resins are more resistant still, and epoxy resins are almost totally impervious. Of course, increasing the resistance of a hull to water intrusion comes at a cost, but builders will usually tell you the types of gelcoat and resins they use, and paying for the more water-resistant versions can be worth it in the long run.
Blistering is largely a cosmetic problem at first, but the liquid within a blister can eventually penetrate deeper into the fiberglass and ultimately result in at least partial delamination of the affected area. So blisters must be repaired. Fortunately, epoxy-based barrier coats can be applied over the basic laminate to reduce further water intrusion and, most often, eliminate further blistering. But this treatment, too, is not cheap.
Finally, let us add that fiberglass boats are not expensive to repair. The work is relatively easy and readily handled by most boatyards. In many cases you, the owner, can even do it yourself. No boatbuilding material is perfect but the thousands of old boats built of fiberglass that still exist are a testament to its longevity.
Cold-Molded Wood
Although wood is the major component of cold-molded boats, this method of boatbuilding has many similarities to fiberglass construction. Cold-molded wooden structures are made of many very thin layers of wood, crisscrossed over the form of a male mold and bonded together with epoxy resin. The process is called cold molding because the modern epoxy adhesives do not require the application of heat to cure properly. Stainless steel staples may be used to hold the strips in place until the resin cures, but it is the epoxy, not metal fasteners, that eventually holds everything together. The final result is a totally unified plywood structure that is very light for its strength.
Cold-molded construction is even more labor intensive than "hand laid" fiberglass and is more often used for custom-built boats—It is not conducive to production building. For this reason, cold-molded boats are generally more expensive than fiberglass when new, though used models are often available at an attractive price simply because custom-built boats do not have the broader appeal of production designs offered in glass.
Steel And Aluminum
In the United States, steel and aluminum construction is limited mostly to commercial boats or custom yachts, though the Dutch and other Europeans have been building steel cruising boats for decades. A skilled builder can fabricate either material into a beautiful yacht. Steel is heavy, so you won't find many boats under about 35 feet LOA (length overall) built from this material. Aluminum is lighter but more expensive, and is usually used to build custom yachts, especially those of 80 feet LOA and up.
Steel construction is usually associated with workboats, but when a hull is built to yacht specifications it's difficult to distinguish steel from other hull materials. Steel is extremely strong for its weight and can be bent and stretched without losing this strength. This makes for a resilient hull that can take severe punishment. In a hard grounding or collision it will most often be dented rather than punctured or cracked.
If not properly maintained, rust and corrosion can attack steel and damage the structural integrity of the boat, especially if relatively thin plate has been used to reduce the boat's weight. But modern paints and other rust-preventive coatings can reduce the maintenance required to keep a steel boat in Bristol condition.
Aluminum is lighter than steel, and more expensive to purchase and fabricate, but it doesn't rust and requires less maintenance. Like steel, aluminum can be formed into a beautiful, fair hull. It's often used for cabin-houses and for the superstructure on steel yachts since it is lighter. Aluminum is also used in high-speed, lightweight boats. The weight savings enable such boats to carry more cargo for a given displacement.
Aluminum is not without its drawbacks, however. One of them is a tendency for galvanic corrosion in a saltwater environment. The common copper-based antifouling bottom paints cannot be used on an aluminum boat (unless a non-conductive barrier coat is applied to the hull first), because aluminum is higher on the galvanic scale (less noble) than, say, copper or bronze. (There's more on this in Chapter 4, Electrical Systems and Generators). Also, commonly available bronze through-hulls for fittings, such as seawater intakes, must be electrically isolated from the hull. But these are small considerations given the general desirability of aluminum as a material for large custom yachts.
HULL TYPES
While boat hulls sitting side by side in the water may look alike from the dock, they may be very different below the waterline. Hull shapes come in three varieties: displacement, planing, or semi-displacement. Hull shape greatly affects a boat's performance, so it's important to know the pros and cons of each type.
Displacement Hulls
Until the invention of modern high-powered engines, most boats were designed as displacement hulls. A displacement hull pushes through the water, not over it. Most cruising sailboats still have displacement hulls, as do most commercial fishing and cargo vessels. The hull of a displacement-style cruising powerboat typically has a rounded, wineglass shape and a keel that extends the full length of the boat. The rounded shape gives the hull an easy motion in a seaway. This shape does not pound into a head sea but is instead pushed through it for a more comfortable ride. It will roll in a beam sea (waves coming at the boat from the side)—as will any other powerboat—but the motion of a displacement hull is smoother. Depending on the size of the waves, this type hull may roll 10 to 20 degrees but the motion is smooth as it moves back and forth. The hard chined planing hull will roll the same but the roll will be faster with a snap that may send objects flying about.
Displacement hulls are designed to operate at slow speeds and usually have efficient, large diameter propellers that require a draft of 4 feet of more. Since the hull is pushed through, rather than over the water, boat speed is limited by the energy that gets wasted making waves and by the friction between water and hull. More horsepower will push the boat faster, but there is a certain speed beyond which the extra power needed to increase it any further is so great that it becomes impractical.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Coastal Cruising Under Power by Gene Hamilton. Copyright © 2006 by Gene and Katie Hamilton. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc..
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