Sorensen's Guide to Powerboats, 2/E: How to Evaluate Design, Construction, and Performance - Softcover

Sorensen, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071489207 ISBN 13: 9780071489201

Verlag: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

The first book ever to reveal what boat builders pay thousands of dollars to learn: the secrets of owner satisfaction

What makes a boat owner happy? Eric Sorensen and J. D. Power & Associates answer that question in detail in this revised edition of Sorensen’s Guide to Powerboats. Now incorporating results from J. D. Powers’ Boat Competitive Information Study, this guide tells you everything you need to know before opening your wallet. From runabouts and pontoons to express cruisers and bassboats, the book covers it all, explaining the implications of different hull designs, construction methods, engine technologies, and more. Includes J. D. Power's "Power Circle" rankings.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Sorensen's GUIDE TO POWERBOATS

How to Evaluate Design, Construction, and PerformanceBy ERIC W. SORENSEN

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2008 Eric W. Sorensen
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-148920-1

Contents

Chapter One

Introduction

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

—Winston Churchill

Welcome to the wonderful world of boating! You may be getting ready to buy your first boat, or maybe you've owned a series of yachts over the last forty years. But whether you're new to the game or an experienced boater, the more you understand about powerboats and yachts, the better. That's what this book is all about—helping you to better understand powerboat design, construction, and performance; in short, what really makes a boat tick. You'll learn more about the boat you own now—maybe why it porpoises at high speed, whether your hull is likely to blister, or why the bow rises excessively on plane. Or why a semidisplacement hull is really what you've been looking for all along, or the effect of bulwarks on dynamic stability. And of course my hope is that the reader will be a little more discriminating, and have higher expectations, next time around.

Choosing your next powerboat or yacht can be a perplexing process. There are hundreds of models to choose from, and most of the magazine ads say pretty much the same thing: that Brand X is the best, a revolutionary advance over the competition. Talk is cheap, however, and results speak volumes. Two boats, one well-designed and engineered and the other anything but, might look very similar during a quick tour at a boat show. But taking a closer look in the right places, asking the right questions, and insisting on a prepurchase sea trial will reveal the great gulf that may lie between the two boats' quality, performance, reliability, and longevity.

Even the smallest, simplest boats interact with wind and waves in complex ways. And even if it's basically a hull, an outboard, and a 6-gallon gas tank, you'll want your boat to perform well and to last a long time with minimal maintenance. The bigger the boat, the more complicated it gets with all the extra systems that make life afloat more enjoyable.

Whichever boat you end up buying, the more you know about the hull design's capabilities and limitations, the methods and materials used to build it, the propulsion system that makes it go, and the systems that provide fuel, ventilation, electricity, and fresh and salt water, the better off you'll feel about the experience. And feeling good is what owning a boat is all about.

Philosophy

The first half of the book, chapters 1 through 14, discusses the theory and engineering underlying good powerboat design, with plenty of illustrations to flesh them out. Here we explore questions such as what makes a boat seaworthy, and whether a displacement or planing hull is best for you, what propulsion system is most appropriate, and what to look for in topside safety, engine compartment access, helm station design, accommodations, and so on.

In places this book is opinionated. It reflects, among other things, the philosophy about boats I've developed and refined over recent years evaluating boats for consumers, magazines, and boat-builders. And, perhaps more fundamentally, it reflects the twenty years I spent in the coast guard and navy, where safety was always the driving concern in our operations. Chapters 2 and 12 are dedicated to seaworthiness and safety afloat.

Not that I confuse a destroyer with a walk-around very often, but there are elements of design that are common to both, and there is much that the builders of pleasure craft can learn from military and commercial vessels. So the book is informed, among other things, by navy and coast guard design practices and assumptions, and ventures to say where they reasonably apply to your boat. Likewise, I will bring in standards applied to commercial vessels issued by regulatory bodies such as the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and the Maritime and Coast Guard Agency of Great Britain (MCA).

In a few places I may sound annoyed with boats that are, to put it charitably, unwisely designed—for instance with 18-inch-high bow railings that are placed just right to catch your ankle; with foredecks that slope like ski jumps; with an absence of flotation foam or compartmentation to limit flooding; or with helm stations designed by stylists rather than ergonomics experts. It is frustrating to see how close some models come to being really great boats—if just a little more thought and care had gone into their design. It generally doesn't cost any more to build a boat that's practical and safe as well as good looking. On the other hand, it's the rare boat that doesn't have at least a few positive traits going for it, and most have a lot going for them. Even with a problematic boat, it could be that the judicious investment of a relatively small amount of money could bring it up to snuff.

Perception and perspective are what I hope you will gain from this book. You can skim through the chapters in any order you like, of course. But, if you read it in order, from the Seaworthiness and Other Mysteries chapter (chapter 1) through the Finding Your Next Boat chapter (chapter 14), you'll find that each chapter, to some degree, builds on the last. For instance, it helps to understand the difference between static and dynamic stability (in chapter 2) before brushing up on weight distribution, propeller pocket design, and dynamic instabilities (in chapter 4).

Picking the right type of boat is also key to getting the most enjoyment out of it. Center consoles are great fishing boats, but you wouldn't want to spend a weekend on one. A deep-V is often the way to go offshore, but forget about cruising the Erie Canal in one. An express cruiser eliminates the ladder to the bridge, but you give up a climate- controlled saloon, and so on. As we'll see, it's important to first clearly define your expectations and needs, and then find a boat whose layout, features, and hull form best meet them.

Just like the foundation of a house, the hull of a boat, including its shape, is the entering argument as to its suitability for your purposes. A boat might have the perfect cabin layout, great helm visibility, and a family-safe topsides, but you'd better check out the hull design before making a decision. That 35-footer with the extra cedar-lined locker and bigger berth in the forward stateroom probably gained the extra cabin volume by widening the hull forward, and the result will be a really roomy boat with a rough ride. As you'll see in the planing hull chapter (chapter 4), you can't have the biggest, widest 40-footer in the marina and get a smooth ride. So the choice depends on your requirements and having realistic expectations; do you want to keep up with that Blackfin 33 and run comfortably at 25 knots in a 3-foot chop, or do you want the biggest cabin in your boat's class?

Boat speed depends on many things, but, along with available horsepower, weight, and hull form are at the top of the list. With few exceptions, a lighter boat goes faster than a heavier one of the same shape. To make a boat light is easy and cheap—you just use less fiberglass and smaller structural members. But to make it both light and strong takes time and costs money, as we learn in the chapters on construction. Weight aside, a boat with...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071489207
• ISBN 13: 9780071489201
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 2
• Anzahl der Seiten: 496
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland