Best Pilothouse Sailboat?

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by tommyh

The Force 50 would be my choice for a pilot house. The lines on that boat are salty and the inside has a great lay out. The ones iv seen sailing on the SF bay look to be decient sailors.

You're kidding right?...You almost have to start the engine to tack the beast.

[SaltyMonkey]

I like Fischer

but perhaps we can just throw away the mast and get a free engine room to boot:

Welcome to Nordhavn.com - Power Thats Oceans Apart

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by sailr69

I guess that you may never have seen a Corbin 39, most people would never have guess it is a pilothouse boat. I do not consider myself an expert on yacht design but I am an expert in automobile design. asthetics applies to most products.
I have owned my Corbin for 19 years and still have a hard time considering when to sell her. she is fast, roomy, and pleasing to look at. not to mention a great live aboard boat.

I stand corrected… 39ft Corbin is now the exception to my personal observations

Very nice design and I had never seen one before.
Do you have inside steering?

[westsail374]

Salty - What about the free fuel we get from the wind a blowing in our sails?

[westsail374]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

I stand corrected… 39ft Corbin is now the exception to my personal observations

Very nice design and I had never seen one before.
Do you have inside steering?

The Corbin 39s seem to vary greatly in finish - many owner completed boats?

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I always liked the Islander Freeport 36 Pilot. My friends had a Panasiatic 46 pilothouse. PAN OCEANIC 46 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com

It was the most comfortable I've seen. Inside the pilot was a big sea berth to starboard (extends under the side deck)and steering and a chart table to port. The engine room hatch was on the floor, creating a huge engine room you could go into and sit. I really liked that design. The off -watch could sleep right there next to the on-watch for safety etc. Frankly, I think I would have slept up there all the time!
I think one of the key things for a pilothouse is that it have a raised floor in the pilot.... there are some out there that have the cabin top, but essentially you are down real low. (Gulf?)

Both great picks for pilothouse boats, I looked at both when shopping. I really like a pilothouse flush deck cutter like the Panasiatic.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Boatman I have to agree although at this point mine is 32 ft with only one stick.

Originally Posted by minaret

That's a Fisher. Nice boats, well made, but not the best sailors. Some of the Nauticat designs (like mine) are Sparkman and Stephens designs that are great sailors. Very well built, and they produced a ton of them, which means you can often find a good deal on one.

Minaret, my old girl has surprised a couple of similiarly minded sailers, with comments like "this THING sails better than I thought it would". The fully battened main on a boom furler probably helps a bit. Most have a mast furler with no battens.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Boatman I have to agree although at this point mine is 32 ft with only one stick.


Minaret, my old girl has surprised a couple of similiarly minded sailers, with comments like "this THING sails better than I thought it would". The fully battened main on a boom furler probably helps a bit. Most have a mast furler with no battens.

Sure, don't mean to imply they are awful sailors or anything. But Fishers are heavily built with a full keel. The S&S Nauticats have modified fin keels with skeg hung rudders, obviously they will be the faster boat all else being equal.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by minaret

Sure, don't mean to imply they are awful sailors or anything. But Fishers are heavily built with a full keel. The S&S Nauticats have modified fin keels with skeg hung rudders, obviously they will be the faster boat all else being equal.

Cant help but agree with you, fishers are not the fastest out there but they sure can be comfortable and dry.Some are rigged better than others so they make better use of the wind and some are primarily motor driven.

[mikereed100]

Originally Posted by minaret

The N44=not so great performance. The N43 is an S&S design and a great sailor. It can be confusing. Been aboard the newer "sunken pilothouse" designs, and I certainly wouldn't trade my boat for one. Much less visibility from the house, no raised quarterdeck aft, resulting in no massive aft cabin with transom windows. All for a little bit less windage on a big heavy boat. Much easier to maintain due to much less teak though.

Yeah, looking at the pictures I recognize the N-44 as what my wife had. It was a bit of a dog to windward, but ideal for our purposes at the time. We would get up early, motor out to the Channel Islands before the wind came up, then when it was time to go home, put up the sails and have a nice downwind run back to Ventura. Really more of a motorsailor with it's Lehman 120, but nothing wrong with that. I remember fondly sitting at anchor in the winter with the Webasto cranking, watching the world go by through the big windows of the pilothouse.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by mikereed100

Boatman, that's a sweet ride. What is it?

Thats a Fisher 37.... nice boats..

[msponer]

A few more:

Allures
Amazon 44
Garcia 43 (and more French boats in this style, which is maybe called a deck saloon rather than a pilothouse).

We ultimately chose our boat (a custom) for a lot of small reasons that add up very close to our current idea of perfect, the pilothouse being the main thing that pushed the design towards many of the small details we like.

Of the pilothouses we've seen, we like:

- Low enough that you can see over it while standing at the helm. Small enough that it doesn't dominate the look of the boat.
- A low aft cockpit with short companionway stairs (ie: not like the Amazon's or some Van De Stadts, where the cockpit is higher and yields a companionway that more like the tall ladder you see in a center cockpit boat)
- A settee inside that's high enough to see through the windows while sitting down. I don't like the deck saloon style as much when you have to stand to see out of the windows.
- Somewhat narrow, for wide side decks past it.
- The sides and roof to pull back into the cockpit a little, to make a natural dodger behind it (in the 'Besteva' style).

What we don't have, but would like, is the way the forward windows in some Van De Stadt's and Amazon's slope over the galley or salon table on the lower level -- to add light and free up the air down below.

I think the Allures folks have the coolest idea for adding a pilothouse to a normal sized boat. When we were looking at building a Van De Stadt, I was trying to work turning the hard dodger into that style of mini pilothouse.

[Cheechako]

[QUOTE=msponer;1120125]A few more:

Allures
Amazon 44
Garcia 43 (and more French boats in this style, which is maybe called a deck saloon rather than a pilothouse).

We ultimately chose our boat (a custom) for a lot of small reasons that add up very close to our current idea of perfect, the pilothouse being the main thing that pushed the design towards many of the small details we like.

Of the pilothouses we've seen, we like:

- Low enough that you can see over it while standing at the helm. Small enough that it doesn't dominate the look of the boat.
- A low aft cockpit with short companionway stairs (ie: not like the Amazon's or some Van De Stadts, where the cockpit is higher and yields a companionway that more like the tall ladder you see in a center cockpit boat)
- A settee inside that's high enough to see through the windows while sitting down. I don't like the deck saloon style as much when you have to stand to see out of the windows.
- Somewhat narrow, for wide side decks past it.
- The sides and roof to pull back into the cockpit a little, to make a natural dodger behind it (in the 'Besteva' style).
....."
Yes, to me a pilot house should have a helm with good visibility, seat and nav space to qualify. Just big windows doesnt make it!

[sailorboy1]

Tayana has nice 48' PH verison

[Polux]

There are some confusion in what is a Pilot house and a Deck saloon boat but assuming that what matters are boats that can be steered from the inside, with autopilot or joystick, I like these, even if they are very different and point to different type of sailors:

Allures 45. The ideal bluewater cruiser? - YouTube

Nordship 430DS Boat Review - YouTube

Nordship 360.mov - YouTube

Regina 40 - YouTube

Yachting World test the RM 1260 - YouTube

Amel 55 Video - YouTube

Gunboat 66 Video - YouTube