Ultimate Monohull Think Tank

[ribbony]

After resoring a steel monohull for 3 years, one gathers ideas along the way and sees things that inspire one to think of the "If I won the lottery what sort of boat would I have".

Well as I mentioned in an earlier post we fell inlove with the Ovni design. So there is a good starting point for the ultimate monohull. Toss your ideas in and it will be interesting to see where it ends up.

To Begin - the design...........and Ovni - French swing keel cruiser, 37" model as that is a nice length for two people to sail.

The metal - Monel (Nickle Bronze alloy) light, strong, does not fatigue easily and can be welded.

The ballast - Spent Uranium. Very heavy for volume and probably provides floor heating for the colder climates .

Remember there is no real limit on cost, it is just a dream vessel, don't let practical things like $ get in the way.

Other areas to be detailed: Sails, mast and rig, what timber for the fitout ? Aux motor (diesel or electric) ? etc, etc.

[ribbony]

This is not aimed at being about existing vessels (don't want to hijack the earlier thread), but a hypothetical boat, what gear would you put on it and why ? Have you got some little idea locked away that you would like to put into your dream boat ? If so, can you share it with us all.

We have a little spreadsheet running with all sorts of notes gathered over time to check or put into any design we consider in the future (it will be a very long time until we get another boat). Most are things that are out there already in the sailing world, but were not obvious to us until we stumbled across them and thought "what a great idea".

Restoring a vessel one needs to have practical limits on the modifications otherwise it would have been better to build from scratch. Our Adams35 is a nice vessel with nice lines and a proven cruising pedigree, we did not want to mess around with the basic design. To use all these ideas one accumulates, you need a new vessel designed from scratch or from a proven base design then incorporating the ideas before you start.

As many on this forum are likely to be couples cruising without crew (that describes our need), that is the base line to consider the ideas against. An easy to sail boat with good performance and comfortable to live in would all need to be a part of a good cruising boat.

The first thing we would consider in a design is the use of a swing keel. This is as we would like to cruise into shallow anchorages for protection, to get close to shore and be able to sit the vessel on the bottom for access without damage. At the moment we have a fixed keel and our previous boat was a fixed keel, so it is a theoretical concept to have the swing keel. With the correct design there need not be much compromise to performance upwind.

[forsailbyowner]

I've had this one floating around in head. How about full length skiff keel similiar to aquarius except little deeper with swing keel. Make the ballast replaceable battery plates so whole keel is giant battery. Then line entire above water area with solar cells ,flexible solar cell sails and wind turbine spars.

[ribbony]

Now that is lateral thinking. Looks like the electric aux motor is needed so we do not waste all those electrons.

Only downside might be the elecrolysis implications for any vessel not made of anything other than the monel or plastic.

[nautical62]

38 ft LOA - 2 people easily handle, solo in a pinch, room for 4 + on board. GRP construction.

Sloop riggged, since I coastal cruise a lot. 2 Line reefing with controls fed to clutches in front of the cockpit. External halyards, VHF antenna well secured internally. Very little on mast head - not wind instruments, etc. Steaming light can be reached from deck to change it. Roller furling headsail. Lazyjacks combined with sail cover

Bilge keels so it has shallow draft and can dry out with tides for protection, to bottom paint, etc. Probably just under 4 foot draft for a 38 footer.

Very little exterior teak, if any.

2 aft "quarterberth" Staterooms - Front stateroom pushed back a bit with 2 bunks. Exterior sail locker in front of that.

Settees, not dinette.

Propane stove, with electric shut off, basic fridge.

2 Anchors always on bow rollers - electric windless. All chain rode.

Wiring - all easy to get at. None buried beneath headliner. Circuit board on door that can swing out to get at back side of it. All trough deck fittings accessible.

Head - quality with gravity feed holding tank. Thru hull located in head compartment for convenience and easy access.

Plumbing - I might go with foot pumps instead of electric, or would have basic foot pump secondary system to save water or as back up - backup possibly only plumbed to gallery sink. Also raw water foot pump to gallery sink to conserve fresh water when doing dishes. No water maker.

Cockpit - Walk out transom. GPS charplotter, and other basic instruments mounted at helm. Hard bimini top with solar cells on top and with VHF mounted under, so one can use the VHF from the helm. Davits. Cockpit shower, warmed by small PVC grid on hard top. Hard top also collects rain water. Good Autopilot.

Inboard diesel.

Even with money, I'd keep the systems, simple, functional and easy to maintain. I still want to spend my time cruising, not working on boat systems.

[ribbony]

nautical62 - Good to see you know what you want in a cruising boat. All looks very practical. Like the need for control from the helm, there is a lot of running around on many vesels with the instruments being inside the vessel away from easy access for the helmsperson.

No watermaker, why ?

[nautical62]

Originally Posted by ribbony

No watermaker, why ?

Well, I'd have to consider the circumstances. If I was a full-time cruiser, or passagemaker, I'd probably have one, but I've read when they are not used all the time, they tend to have maintenance issues. I know I could easily carry a 3-4 weeks water supply on the boat mentioned, longer with a bit of rain. With my intended cruising area, it would be easy to fill up the tanks that often.

I'm torn between the independence a water maker would offer and the potential maintenance/headaches. I'm a big fan of the KISS principle.

I know you said if money was no issue, but in reality I'm thinking of how I'd like an affordable production boat to be built and outfitted.

[NDSinBKK]

At this very moment there is a 33 Mason-design Monel-hulled boat for sale in Miri, Malaysia. I was going to go there to look at it, but wound up buying a slightly larger boat instead. The idea sounds very appealing, and this particular boat, though small, has a lot of what just about anyone would want on their cruising boat.

[ribbony]

Wow - that is one nice boat. If I had the $ I would jump on a flight just to have a look. Not a bad price on face value.

[ribbony]

Here is an interesting article about a monel yacht that had to be scrapped 6 weeks after launch. BIG YACHT NOW JUNK AFTER 6 WEEKS' USE; Sea Call's Monel Metal-Steel Hu... - Article Preview - The New York Times

Ouch ! Perhaps that is why the boat in Malaysia has not sold, it has steel also in the construction.

[NDSinBKK]

Originally Posted by ribbony

Here is an interesting article about a monel yacht that had to be scrapped 6 weeks after launch. BIG YACHT NOW JUNK AFTER 6 WEEKS' USE; Sea Call's Monel Metal-Steel Hu... - Article Preview - The New York Times

Ouch ! Perhaps that is why the boat in Malaysia has not sold, it has steel also in the construction.

Interesting article indeed, but it dates from 1915. I'm guessing that in the intervening 80 or so years they may have improved their use of this material. Never know.

S.

[ribbony]

Timeless story. I don't think much has changed, in that if you do not have zinc anodes and have steel frames behind the monel then you are still open to problems. Though I was surprised at the 6 week time bomb, that seemed very fast.

The earlier mentioned vessel in Malaysia has both steel and monel construction.

I was reading that if you do not use monel frames then the next option is for Stainless steel as it welds to monel quite well and is stiff enough to make great frames.

[anathema]

Older post I know but the article hints at the monel only possibly corroding. It sounds like due to the lack of zinc, the steel, being more corrodable than the monel, was the first to go, ruining the integrity of the boat.

If the boat was all monel, or there was a proper amout of zinc anodes on there, I'm sure it would have been fine.

[Weyalan]

If money was no problem, and a lad can dream:

Length: somewhere in the range of 44 - 50'

Hull material - carbon / kevlar, solid, not cored. Slightly thicker than necessary, for "battleship" strength.

Hull shape - design to suit reaching & running more than windward work (a cruising gentleman rarely sails hard on the wind), so moderately flat bottom and relatively wide aft (without being so flat forward so as to slam too much to windward).

Keel: Fixed. Bulb and moderate fin - i.e. strong enough to sit on its own keel on the hard, if necessary

Rig: Carbon fibre mast & boom. 9/10 forestay, with reacher on furler. 3/4 or 7/8 inner forestay with 100% working jib on furler, with curved track just forward of mast, for self-tacking. 5/8 baby-stay, detachable (so as not to interfere with the self-tacking working jib), for hank-on staysail or storm jib. Slab reefing (3 reefs) main, fully battened, with Harken ball-bearing batt-cars, lazy jacks. Powered halyard winch on cabin-top. Separate track for trisail.

[Curmudgeon]

Here is one well-known designer's "ideal" cruising boat of modest size. And this one you can have if you've got the money. Nice boat.

http://www.chuckpaine.com/pdf/36EXPANNIE36.pdf