Retrofitting a lobster boat

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have yet to find a fast planing boat that won’t roll your guys out and will track well when going hull speed.
Are Lobster boats different in that regard?

The traditional lobster boat hull is semi-displacement. Flat surfaces aft, a rounded belly, soft chines and a decent sized full-length keel. They track pretty well, and roll a bit, but the keel helps keep that down some.

[deblen]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have yet to find a fast planing boat that won’t roll your guys out and will track well when going hull speed.
Are Lobster boats different in that regard?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peuE_waMwVU

Check the "backing up" @ 3:00 min. & near the end of video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ziK8KmNfjo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTaoPLUv90w

Bet you would be less comfy on yer average Deep Vee

[Terra Nova]

"Keeper" is a heck of a good handler!

[bglad]

What about leaving the windows and adding hatches overhead?

1. The wheelhouse: Currently it has 2 side, fixed windows. Anyone have a sense of what one might budget to have a professional replace them with sliders? I'm in Boston, and it does get fairly warm in deep summer (and I like the breeze in my hair). Current setup is the first pic.

[Scout 30]

I've had a lobster skiff for 20 years & to me it's the ultimate hull design at any size unless you want to go really fast. Lobster boat hulls actually evolved from the sailboats that lobster fishermen used in the good old days. Built down hulls still resemble them with more of a semi-displacement wine glass design. The newer skeg built designs are planing hulls that are faster & roll less but are less efficient at slower speeds. Both are full keel boats that need less power, track better and are more seaworthy than any V-hull design because they handle well at any speed. They don't point there noses at the sky & dig a big hole when coming up on plane, they just go faster which means that when it gets nasty you can slow down to whatever speed is safe & still have great control. Just don't expect to go 40 mph.

[HopCar]

My Possum was an Ellis 28. She was a Built Down hull. She would top out at about 16 knots with a 210 hp Cummins. She would track straight as an arrow but would roll some if she took the seas or a wake on her beam or quarter.

[a64pilot]

Everything rolls, even Cats roll although they say they don’t.
It’s just a matter of how much do they roll. The average go fast Sprtfisherman will roll your guts out if you let it get Beam on to any kind of sea, like when you stop and are fighting a fish, and if your up in the Tuna tower, that can get exciting, fast. I think it’s called single trial learning.

Sailboats, or at least mine, rolls a lot less, be under sail on a beam reach and rolling is greatly lessened of course, downwind, not so much.
Rolling is to me the most uncomfortable motion of a Boat, I don’t mind pitching, just don’t like rolling, and of course you see a lot of trawlers stabilized either with birds or expensive hydraulic stabilizers for the more well off crowd.

I have always thought the more go fast a hull is, the more easily it will roll at displacement speeds.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

The traditional lobster boat hull is semi-displacement. Flat surfaces aft, a rounded belly, soft chines and a decent sized full-length keel. They track pretty well, and roll a bit, but the keel helps keep that down some.

In days of yore, I believe the lines were developed by eyeball. Was Biehl (sp ?) not one of them? The lobstermen knew what they wanted.

[3Days_at_a_time]

Not to derail the thread with a sales plug, but have you thought of getting a boat that is already set up for cruising? Its a little different than the style you are looking at, but I thought it couldn't hurt to share.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...nk-201903.html

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Scout 30

I've had a lobster skiff for 20 years & to me it's the ultimate hull design at any size unless you want to go really fast. Lobster boat hulls actually evolved from the sailboats that lobster fishermen used in the good old days. Built down hulls still resemble them with more of a semi-displacement wine glass design. The newer skeg built designs are planing hulls that are faster & roll less but are less efficient at slower speeds. Both are full keel boats that need less power, track better and are more seaworthy than any V-hull design because they handle well at any speed. They don't point there noses at the sky & dig a big hole when coming up on plane, they just go faster which means that when it gets nasty you can slow down to whatever speed is safe & still have great control. Just don't expect to go 40 mph.

That appears to be a Simmon's Sea Skiff?

[Cheechako]

So the lobster boats I'm familiar with swing a huge prop at low rpm. like 28-36" prop. Is this one like that?

[Scout 30]

Originally Posted by Cadence

That appears to be a Simmon's Sea Skiff?

It's a Tashmoo 18 Lobster Skiff.

[HopCar]

I’ve been helping my friend Snapper build a Jericho Bay Lobster Skiff. He does all the skilled work. I mix Epoxy and hand him tools. I think it’s a real beauty.
https://jmlynn.smugmug.com/Boats/Lobster-Skiff/

[Scout 30]

Originally Posted by HopCar

I’ve been helping my friend Snapper build a Jericho Bay Lobster Skiff. He does all the skilled work. I mix Epoxy and hand him tools. I think it’s a real beauty.
https://jmlynn.smugmug.com/Boats/Lobster-Skiff/

WOW!

[Terra Nova]

HC--nice job!