I have a1969 13-foot hull that’s been sitting for years in my yard. I need to either use it or loose it. I’ve been looking around for ways to modify the hull to make it more capable in local sea conditions, which are normally pretty rough.
There is a west coast coast boatbuilder, Don Radon, who is famous for building plywood and fiberglass commercial boats especially suited to local conditions there. The popularity of his hull designs has expanded to a much wider range of clientele, and his hulls are now molded and are popular with pleasure boaters as well. And of particular interest to me is a 13-footer modified by Don Radon. This 13-footer has some hull modifications. It also has a dodger.
[Not knowing precisely what was done to modify the hull,] my best guess is that Don Radon split the hull down the middle, widened the hull by a foot or more, while keeping the [hull] dead rise the same, allowing the center portion of the hull to have greater draft, resulting in more [hull] displacement for better manners in waves.
[Seeks more information about a 13-foot boat modified by a fellow named Don Radon.]
13-foot Hull Modification to Increase Beam
Re: 13-foot Hull Modification to Increase Beam
Does Mr. Radon have a website? If so, perhaps you can give the URL for it.
Re: 13-foot Hull Modification to Increase Beam
Regarding the dodger you mention as having been a modification to the hull of a 13-foot Boston Whaler boat, are you trying to describe a structure that was added to the hull?
Or are you just describing a canvas and frame assembly creating a dodger?
If you are just describing a canvas and frame assembly that creates a dodger or protection for the bow area, that is something easily accomplished by hiring a marine canvas artisan to produce for you on a custom basis.
Or are you just describing a canvas and frame assembly creating a dodger?
If you are just describing a canvas and frame assembly that creates a dodger or protection for the bow area, that is something easily accomplished by hiring a marine canvas artisan to produce for you on a custom basis.
Re: 13-foot Hull Modification to Increase Beam
Regarding the modification you have described to the hull where it is cut in half down the center line through the keel, then an entirely new center section of the hull is created in some manner, and this new center section is then laminated to the two original halves of the hull, I don't see this as any reasonable process to produce a modified Boston Whaler 13-foot Unibond hull.
How do you propose to create the new center section that must be integrated to the two halves of the original hull?
About the only workable method I can see would be to create a hull as you have described is to, in some manner--which I can't really describe how it would be done--to take the two halves and extend them toward each other, creating the hull bottom shape you desire. Then this creation would be used as a plug, and a female mold taken off of the plug. Then you would start over, laminating a entirely new hull into the female contact mold, laying up the hull to a suitable thickness of reinforced fiberglass.
Then you will repeat the process with the original hull liner, making another new plug, and creating a second new mold. Then, again, you will layup a new liner from the new mold.
Now you are at a point where you need to introduce high-density foam to go into the new space between the new hull part and the new liner part you have created from your new molds for the hull and liner which were taken from the new plugs for the hull and liner that you created from the two halves of the original hull.
The way this is done at Boston Whaler is by creating molds that are sufficiently strong to resist the forces created on them as the foam is expanding and filling all the space. But this is completely unfeasible for a one-off boat. You will probably need to buy huge blocks of high-density foam, then cut and shape them to precisely fit into the interior spaces of the hull. This is the approach that was invented by Bob Dougherty when he left Boston Whaler and formed his own boat company.
Then, when you have done all of this, you will be able to take the new boat out for some testing to see if you have achieved any improvement in the hull design according to your goal which was "to make the hull more capable in local conditions."
But if you have some other method of accomplishing the building of a new boat with your proposed modification, I would like to hear from you how you are planning to do it.
I think your goal is to get a 13-foot boat that is wider than a Boston Whaler 13-footer and has deeper draft than a 13-foot Boston Whaler. It might be easier to achieve that if you bought an OUTRAGE 17 boat, and then you cut off the last four-feet of the hull and molded on a new transom. How does that sound as a plan?
How do you propose to create the new center section that must be integrated to the two halves of the original hull?
About the only workable method I can see would be to create a hull as you have described is to, in some manner--which I can't really describe how it would be done--to take the two halves and extend them toward each other, creating the hull bottom shape you desire. Then this creation would be used as a plug, and a female mold taken off of the plug. Then you would start over, laminating a entirely new hull into the female contact mold, laying up the hull to a suitable thickness of reinforced fiberglass.
Then you will repeat the process with the original hull liner, making another new plug, and creating a second new mold. Then, again, you will layup a new liner from the new mold.
Now you are at a point where you need to introduce high-density foam to go into the new space between the new hull part and the new liner part you have created from your new molds for the hull and liner which were taken from the new plugs for the hull and liner that you created from the two halves of the original hull.
The way this is done at Boston Whaler is by creating molds that are sufficiently strong to resist the forces created on them as the foam is expanding and filling all the space. But this is completely unfeasible for a one-off boat. You will probably need to buy huge blocks of high-density foam, then cut and shape them to precisely fit into the interior spaces of the hull. This is the approach that was invented by Bob Dougherty when he left Boston Whaler and formed his own boat company.
Then, when you have done all of this, you will be able to take the new boat out for some testing to see if you have achieved any improvement in the hull design according to your goal which was "to make the hull more capable in local conditions."
But if you have some other method of accomplishing the building of a new boat with your proposed modification, I would like to hear from you how you are planning to do it.
I think your goal is to get a 13-foot boat that is wider than a Boston Whaler 13-footer and has deeper draft than a 13-foot Boston Whaler. It might be easier to achieve that if you bought an OUTRAGE 17 boat, and then you cut off the last four-feet of the hull and molded on a new transom. How does that sound as a plan?
Re: 13-foot Hull Modification to Increase Beam
A 13 foot donor hull to provide a center section could be an alternative, although the suggestion to simply shorten an Outrage 17 would make more sense as would almost any alternative beginning with "forget about it".
Butch