Kurt,
A while back, Passagemaker Magazine published such an article, based
on their survey. It's the one with a grand banks on the cover, and a
feature article on Grand Banks. I have a copy on the boat, and will copy
it if you want.

Ted Grave
GB32
Branford, CT

pose a

At 02:13 AM 09/16/2001 -0700, Kurt Volk wrote:

    <<<< snip>>>

REPLY

Arild writes:

Rather than taking the  discussion offline by simply referring to some
magazine aticle or pictures not necessariy seen by the other list members
lets keep the discussion online  by posting directly to TWL.

Several years ago, a friend in my squadron asked me to  design just such a
vessel.
Since  our tastes are so similar it is a moot point if the boat was to be
mine or his. ( he had the money :-)  )

What I came up with  was dictated by  the criteria of liveaboard, global
range,  a full family plus a crew (me)
The  design was based on the old Romsdahl design.    In the process  I
actually contacted the present owners of the original yard.
Turns out a fire destroyed  much of it and very few drawings  survived.

A profile looks much like a Malahide or Romsdahl ( or for that matter Eric
Thomans "Abysinnia)  and had  five cabins below.
The  huge wheelhouse  included what was essentially  a Captain's daycabin
and a toilet.
This was no lightweight. Her displacement came in at just under 100 tons.
Just enough to  stay below  a size which required a Canadian Coast Guard
100 Ton licence.
( since the rules have subsequently changed this may be a moot point)

A single large slow turning diesel  provided motive power, with  a  pair of
gensets providing  electrical ac.

Interior finish  was  not fancy.  More like  good workboat standards.
Easily maintained, light and airy with a minimum  of varnish to maintain.
As much as I love the  gleam of  finely varnished  wood,  I have spent too
many hours  scraping, sanding and fuzzing over getting it just right to
want to  inflict that on myself  once a gain.

While  aluminum or steel construction  looks like the most cost effective
method, if money was no object,  I think I would prefer wood.
My first large boat was wood, and  there is definitely something unique
and special  about wooden hulls that cannot be captured by any metallic or
glass fiber boat.

One  of the  drawbacks of this design was the  draft.  The  hullwas simply
too big to  fit into many east coast places not to mention the Bahamas.
Try as I might  it just was not feasible to  get the draft down to six feet
even.  And even that would pose a problem in some places.

As an alternative we also looked at  purchasing  one of the  decommissioned
Scandinavian  search and rescue boats  that was advertised a few years
ago.  ( more on that in a separate post. )

Regards

Arild

At 02:13 AM 09/16/2001 -0700, Kurt Volk wrote:

Arild comments

While helping a friend look for  his "perfect boat"  we took a serious
look at  the  decommissioned search and rescue boats from Norway and other
scandinavian  countries.
These were well found boats  built specifically for rugged duty  in the
inhospitable conditions found in the  northern Atlantic close to Norway's
rocky shores.

While none of them offer  luxurious accomodations, they did offer
excell;ent design, watertight compartments and  every imaginable type of
equipment needed for  offshore passage. Several of them also had enough
tankage to  realistically  consider making a trans atlantic voyage.
At the time  the major drawback  was the  220V  50Hz  electrical system
that all of them came with.
The only equipment available back ( 1996 - 1998)  then was  large, and
expensive too big to fit in anything smaller than a 100 foot  vessel.
Since then  I have discovered  a new company  called ASEA makes  compact
affordable solid state frequency and voltage conversion equipment  that
would fit into  a much smaller boat.  With the  inclusion of  such
equipment it might be feasible to  purchase a  Norwegian  vessel and
convert  it to use North American 120V 60 Hz shore power and appliances.

The alternative would have been to  make a trip overseas and purchase all
the  domestic equipment  in Europe.
However,  that would mean that  any  problems  with the  appliances would
be magnified and  take  lots of money and time to correct. if the boat was
still in North America.

Now with  the availability of compact, cost effective  voltage and
frequency  conversion equipment, it is possible to retain the  gensets and
primary elecrtical system and  do a conversion to 120V 60 Hz on the  outlet
circuits only.
Now you can  buy and use  domestic 120V 60Hz. appliances for use on board.
Suddenly the  purchase of these surplus  Coast Guard boats loks like a
viable proposition.
I wonder if any of them are still available?

Cheers

Arild

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kurt Volk" kvolk@mindspring.com

like

Hi Kurt,

Sometimes a lack of money is a good prophylactic against ignorance. I think
that there's a pretty good chance that my dream boat and my dream trip may
be incompatible.

For reasons that I don't fully understand I've fallen in love with Jay
Benford's Coaster designs; Specifically the 38' Packet, the 45' Packet, and
the 65' Tramp. BTW: The 45' Packet in question is "Sails", the boat that
Paul Browne mentioned in a post last month.

There are, of course, plenty of practical reasons to covet one of these
designs: Lots of space, designed for household fixtures and appliances, tons
of space, stand up engine room, gobs of space, large comfortable pilot house
at flying bridge height, abundant space, steel construction (plywood is an
option on the 38'), and, to top it off, these boats are very spacious. None
of those is my real reason for liking these boats though. The real reason I
like these boats is that they look salty, purposeful, and just plain cool!

We live in Washington State. Between here and SE Alaska there is enough area
and variety that I can't imagine ever seeing enough of it. My dream trip
would be a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island with an emphasis on the
island's west coast.

That's what leads to my compatibility questions. With a shallow draft and a
lot of house you could say that these boats have the A/B ratio from hell.
For example, I would estimate that the 45' has an A/B of approx. 3.9/1. It
should also be mentioned that the minimum freeboard is quite low (1'2" on
the 38'). With a couple of exceptions, exploring the west coast of Vancouver
Island means exposing oneself to the open Pacific every day and I'm not sure
that this is the type of boat for that kind of duty.

All in all I'd say that a lack of cash is protecting me from myself. OTOH:
It sure is fun to dream!

Irreconcilably yours,

Alex