Building a S/D 34' trawler in steel?

Rustybarge said:

You speak perfect English; better than the majority of Irish people with their own peculiar vernacular vocabulary!


I like the pedro designs; simple with lovely lines.
The Donkey is classified as cat:B offshore too, that's very impressive for what's basically an inland/estuary Dutch cruiser.

If I remember correctly the first pedro designs were frameless construction; but I think so little weight is saved it doesn't make sense as you have to use thicker steel plating to compensate.

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Peter, I'm sure the EU-officials don't test-drive a boat like the Donky 34 in 4 meters high waves and 8 Beaufort and decide afterwards if it will fit in category B "Offshore" or better in category C "Inshore" ;-)
We've had some really exciting storm-rides in the Donky 30 and the large salon-windows were not exactly made to calm the crew.
Some design-features required for the "B"-badge are rather obstructive in the harbor or inland waterways, this is one of the reasons why many steel-cruisers are built for the category C and not for the more demanding B-category.

GeorgS said:

Peter, I'm sure the EU-officials don't test-drive a boat like the Donky 34 in 4 meters high waves and 8 Beaufort and decide afterwards if it will fit in category B "Offshore" or better in category C "Inshore" ;-)
We've had some really exciting storm-rides in the Donky 30 and the large salon-windows were not exactly made to calm the crew.
Some design-features required for the "B"-badge are rather obstructive in the harbor or inland waterways, this is one of the reasons why many steel-cruisers are built for the category C and not for the more demanding B-category.

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Exactly; like shallow draft and low headroom clearance.

I like this S/D design, not sure if it's doable in steel.

gw38-03

dhmeissner said:

I like this S/D design, not sure if it's doable in steel.

gw38-03

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I think Sam Devlin is a very talented designer, his boats have a fantastic balance that just looks right.

I was originally trying to discover if it was possible to build a boat just like GW Devlin design you linked to in steel, and still get the 13kts wot quoted for this SD hull form.

The problem with steel construction is two fold: getting the correct concave curvatures for the round bow section, and that steel weighs twice as much as GRP.

Although fast displacement speed is possible, true S/D speeds in the mid teens appears to be unattainable.....