Can my boat support this cabin?

[JCNailen]

Just playing around here, but it sure would be neat. Take a look at my 19' boat project link below. Do you think My boat will support a cabin like this? Doesn't need to be a full stand-up, but for sitting in.

I know I didn't mention materials/weight and such, but just in general. I have the boat sitting just as it would in the water.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Can my boat support this cabin?

Have you checked out Mark42's hard top thread? He might be your best source of info on your idea.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Can my boat support this cabin?

It'll "support" it in the sense that it won't immediately sink, assuming you don't make the thing out of steel plates.

Any weight at all in that portion of the boat will adjust the center of gravity forward, and push the bow down. I'm assuming that you are going to move your controls in there and drive from that location.. that would be difficult for a number of reasons unless you add enough weight to the stern to counterbalance the weight in the bow, and adding that much weight may make the entire boat sit too low in the water to be seaworthy, or possibly just make it very hard to drive.

It would be different if this was a displacement hull, like the hulls on tugboats or trawlers, but your hull is designed to lift itself out of the water when it moves rather than push through it, so your bow doesn't have a lot of floatation because of its shape.

One other point is that your proposed cabin will add a lot of wind resistance which will slow your boat as well as make it drift more in a breeze.

Why do you want to add this?

Erik

 

[JCNailen]

Re: Can my boat support this cabin?

Have you ever sat up late at night and thought up crap? I do it all the time - lol! No, I'm not going to do it, at least not with this boat. But it sure would be cool. I think I will wait for a better "project" hull to do it on.