Whats it called

The forward slanting windshield on the fly bridge.

SD

It is popularly called a Venturi windshield, I think.

Any idea why?

I call them "wannabe windows" since when they are applied to toy boats like ours they are like putting racing stripes on a Fiat 500---- pointless but trying to look like the "big boys."

The sloped-forward panels (usually transparent) on the front of flying bridges on most boat are called "venturi panels" because (I believe) of the effect they have on the wind. While I don't believe the panels actually act as a true venturi, which accelerates air by constricting its flow-- like the throat of a carburetor--they may do something to the airflow that acts a bit like a venturi. Basically, they deflect the air as well as cause it to flow up and over the flying bridge or at least the forward part of it.

The forward-sloped pilothouse windows are not so much for air deflection as they are for glare reduction and wave and spray deflection. They make sense on boat/ships that encounter heavy seas and take green water or extremely heavy slugs of spray over the bow because the water hitting the windshield dead on or on a descending arc will be deflected downward and the impact against the glass will be reduced. Why the term "venturi " would be applied to them I don't know unless it's because they mirror the venturi panels on flying bridges.

On 8-knot coastal cruisers like many of our boats are, I think they simply look ugly and stupid. Hence, "wannabe windows."

Those overhanging pilot windows help shade the interior, reduce night-time reflections, and increase interior volume, let alone help deflect heavy water showers when heading into the in the choppy SF estuary. Don't consider such windows merely decorative.

Are u (OP) asking about forward cabin windows or the little freestanding plexi on the forward edge of the flybridge?

markpierce said:

Those overhanging pilot windows help shade the interior, reduce night-time reflections, and increase interior volume, let alone help deflect heavy water showers when heading into the in the choppy SF estuary. Don't consider such windows merely decorative.

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Somehow I think the spray your boat kicks up on the bay there is not posing any sort of danger to your windows even if they were vertical or sloped back. I suppose if you walked around on the cabin overhead the forward sloped windows would give you more space. Since you don't, they don't.

Sorry, strictly my opinion of course, but I think that on recreational boats like ours, particularly coastal cruisers, they just look stupid as well as ruining the lines of the boat. Vertical windows can look great on the right design, and of course slanted back windows always contribute to nice lines. But while I understand the reasoning behind the so-called venturi windows on boats that encounter heavy weather, be it an RNLI rescue boat or a freigher, they are still ugly in my view. But in those applications they at least have a purpose that over-rides their appearance.

Not so on little toy boats that muck around in nice weather on inland and coastal waters.

twiisted71 said:

Are u (OP) asking about forward cabin windows or the little freestanding plexi on the forward edge of the flybridge?

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Yeah that is it the plexi ones on the fly bridge.

A quriosity for names of things on a boat and a bit of lore on how it came to be called such.

SD

Marin said:

Somehow I think the spray your boat kicks up on the bay there is not posing any sort of danger to your windows even if they were vertical or sloped back. I suppose if you walked around on the cabin overhead the forward sloped windows would give you more space. Since you don't, they don't.

Sorry, strictly my opinion of course, but I think that on recreational boats like ours, particularly coastal cruisers, they just look stupid as well as ruining the lines of the boat. Vertical windows can look great on the right design, and of course slanted back windows always contribute to nice lines. But while I understand the reasoning behind the so-called venturi windows on boats that encounter heavy weather, be it an RNLI rescue boat or a freigher, they are still ugly in my view. But in those applications they at least have a purpose that over-rides their appearance.

Not so on little toy boats that muck around in nice weather on inland and coastal waters.

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While I agree with a helluva lot of what you post.....I run dozens of commecial boats every year and the forward slanting windows are the ticket almost all the time...despite their appearance. To me, if done right...the elimination or reduction of glare both day and night are worth the ugliest boat in the world. Now...maybe a lot are done wrong...but if right get my thumbs up!!!

Anyway..I think SD was just asking about the 8 inches or so of plexi that deflect a little wind up and over the flybridge helsmen....

Marin said:

... On 8-knot coastal cruisers like many of our boats are, I think they simply look ugly and stupid. Hence, "wannabe windows."

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Since the the forward-leaning pilot house windows provide a number of benefits this soulds like a clear case of "window envy".

Dave

magicbus said:

Since the the forward-leaning pilot house windows provide a number of benefits this soulds like a clear case of "window envy".

Dave

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I can relate...can't change the angle of my windows just yet...and am replacing all of them due to leaks and general deterioration...maybe I'll just leave the front ones out and get really good sunglass cleaner for my sunglasses...

magicbus said:

Since the the forward-leaning pilot house windows provide a number of benefits this soulds like a clear case of "window envy".

Dave

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Not a chance. To me they totally destroy the look and lines of every boat I've seen them on. I absolutely agree with psneeld as to their value on boats whose operation requires this kind of window, but that doesn't change the fact they are one of the most butt-ugly things (in my opinon) in the boating design world.

We have a deep enough flying bridge overhang on our boat to make glare a non-issue, we don't boat at night because of all the crap in the water around here, and we don't boat on the open ocean where big slugs of water over the bow into the pilothouse windows are a potential problem. So wannabe windows have zero value to us or our boating.

An American Tug would be a decent looking boat if it wasn't for those ridiculous pilothouse windows. That feature alone would keep us from buying one if we were in the market for that kind of boat. Aesthetics are important to both me and my wife, and that single feature totally wipes out any aesthetic value the rest of the American Tug might have as far as we're concerned.

For the kind of boating we do and the waters we do it in, I wouldn't be caught dead driving a recreational boat with wannabe windows. Their ugliness would simply be too embarrassing to tolerate. Be sort of like driving around in a Yugo or a Trabant.

Marin said:

Not a chance. To me they totally destroy the look and lines of every boat I've seen them on. I absolutely agree with psneeld as to their value on boats whose operation requires this kind of window, but that doesn't change the fact they are one of the most butt-ugly things (in my opinon) in the boating design world.

We have a deep enough flying bridge overhang on our boat to make glare a non-issue, we don't boat at night because of all the crap in the water around here, and we don't boat on the open ocean where big slugs of water over the bow into the pilothouse windows are a potential problem. So wannabe windows have zero value to us or our boating.

An American Tug would be a decent looking boat if it wasn't for those ridiculous pilothouse windows. That feature alone would keep us from buying one if we were in the market for that kind of boat. Aesthetics are important to both me and my wife, and that single feature totally wipes out any aesthetic value the rest of the American Tug might have as far as we're concerned.

For the kind of boating we do and the waters we do it in, I wouldn't be caught dead driving a recreational boat with wannabe windows. Their ugliness would simply be too embarrassing to tolerate. Be sort of like driving around in a Yugo or a Trabant.

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I gotta respect your enthusiasm for what you like and don't like!
But I really gotta tell ya ....the perfect pilothouse is a thing of beauty and as rare as a cold beer on Mars. When it come close...I'd trade that beer (and that's saying A LOT) to enjoy those moments piloting a boat with damn near unlimited visibility and not even a ghost of window reflection....at night...I'd be willing to kill for it...

psneeld said:

....at night...I'd be willing to kill for it...

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I can totally agree with that position. If we boated at night we might be persuaded to accept wannabe windows if glare would be a significant problem if our boat's helm station had vertical or slanted-back windows.

But we very rarely are out after the sun goes down so we don't have to compromise our sense of aesthetics and drive a butt-ugly boat because reducing glare has become more important than driving a nice looking boat.

drive a butt-ugly boat because reducing glare has become more important than driving a nice looking boat.[/QUOTE]

Hey I represent that remark

Marin said:

I can totally agree with that position. If we boated at night we might be persuaded to accept wannabe windows if glare would be a significant problem if our boat's helm station had vertical or slanted-back windows.

But we very rarely are out after the sun goes down so we don't have to compromise our sense of aesthetics and drive a butt-ugly boat because reducing glare has become more important than driving a nice looking boat.

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After years of driving commercial craft, flying HH52A helicopters for 8 years and shaving every day for the last 45 years...butt ugly is tolerable!

I guess what with beauty being in the eye of the beholder it's a good thing they make different boats for different folks!

Dave

magicbus said:

I guess what with beauty being in the eye of the beholder it's a good thing they make different boats for different folks!

Dave

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There you go.

magicbus said:

I guess what with beauty being in the eye of the beholder it's a good thing they make different boats for different folks!

Dave

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That would be a great looking boat if they'd correct that mistake with the pilothouse windows. Perhaps they'll get it right on the next model....

I'll drop a note to the designer for his next model!

Dave

they call them portaquess windows, i cant spell,they came out with them years ago on all there comm.boats

I'm saying "Reverse Raked" windows.
Steve W

magicbus said:

I'll drop a note to the designer for his next model!

Dave

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But you're right, beauty is most definitely in the eyes of the beholder. In about 1996 when my wife and I started our second decade of flying the Inside Passage in floatplanes we began to contemplate the idea of getting some sort of larger boat to explore the same area by water. Grand Banks was not even on our list of potential candidates. I thought they were stodgy, unimaginitive, uninspiring designs (I still do) and up here every time you turn around you trip over one. They're like Hondas--- you see yourself coming and going every time you're out in one. At least Hondas come in different colors......

And we had no interest in what I call the cabin-cruiser boats either--- Uniflite, Tollycraft, Bayliner, Carver, etc.

We did not want to spend a lot of money on a cruising boat---- we have other pastimes that make owning a boat seem cheap by comparison and we weren't going to give any of them up. We would simply be adding the cruising boat to the mix.

The boat that topped our list of desirable possibilities was the Lord Nelson Victory Tug. We wanted a boat that is to the water what the Beaver we fly is to the air--- rugged, somewhat utilitarian and work oriented, able to deal with the situations we felt we were likely to encounter, and so on.

Problem was Victory Tugs at the time were too new for used ones to be in the range of what we were willing to spend, plus I'm not a fan of the engines they were using in the earlier ones.

But in talking about potential boats to good friends who'd made careers in the marine industry the name Grand Banks kept coming up. I'd say, "But they're just a giant yawn with a hull," but our friends would go on about how well built they were and so on.

Then a friend I fly with sometimes and who now owns the same boat that his dad bought some fifty years ago suggested that we charter a cruising boat for a week to see if we even liked this kind of boating. And another friend, the then-head of engineering for Alaska Diesel Electric (today's Northern Lights/Lugger) suggested a charter company owned by a friend of his up in Bellingham that had a large fleet of GBs. So we did.

While our opinon of the GBs aesthetics, or lack of them, didn't change we found that the GB36 was indeed well built, had a layout we liked, had a one-level, wide-ish walk-around main deck--- something we would never be without now in any boat---- was easy to handle, and had wonderful visibility out of those big windows I disliked the look of so much.

And when we found out that the early fiberglass models could be bought for between a song and a song and a half (and still can be), we decided that if we were going to get into this kind of boating, it didn't make any sense to buy anything else. So we got one.

We still much prefer the look of the Victory Tug and there are other boats we prefer to the GB in terms of asthetics. But for what we want to do and what we wanted to spend, it has proved to be a good and reliable choice.

But we do get tired of seeing them everywhere we turn out on the water.

This thread sorta got hijacked from the venturi question to forward-slanted pilothouse windows. As for the original point, I hope anyone who's used to driving a trawler from the flybridge doesn't want to eliminate the venturi. Cannot imagine a back-slanting "windshield" up there would be as effective in keeping us out of the breeze.

I suspect the forward-slanting venturi panels build up air pressure in front of them and this forces the air to spill over the top in a much higher "wave" than if the panels were raked backwards.

Marin said:

I suspect the forward-slanting venturi panels build up air pressure in front of them and this forces the air to spill over the top in a much higher "wave" than if the panels were raked backwards.

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Marin! You're the Boeing guy! Let's get a full wind-tunnel analysis on this...

My Venturi looks like hell from the years of San Diego Sun (Burnt Orange now)...... If they weren't so damn expensive, I would replace it.

Adelaide said:

My Venturi looks like hell from the years of San Diego Sun (Burnt Orange now)...... If they weren't so damn expensive, I would replace it.

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While it won't fix the color, if your panels are scratched (not gouged) a Meguiar's product called Mirror Glaze 17 Clear Plastic Cleaner does a pretty good job of removing surface haze and fine scratches. You can then follow it up with Mirror Glaze 10 Clear Plastic Polish.

We used the Clear Plastic Cleaner on the windshields of our Cessnas, Pipers, etc. in Hawaii back in the 70s and we still use it today on the Beaver windshields and GB venturis.

If your boat has flat venturi panels like ours it is not expensive to replace them. Any good plastics shop can make new ones and it's even easier if you give them the old ones to use as patterns. Don't be tempted to use Lexan if you do this. Lexan is stronger than Plexiglas but it's much more susceptible to scratching.

If your venturi panels are curved than it becomes a much more expensive proposition.

Marin said:

While our opinon of the GBs aesthetics, or lack of them, didn't change we found that the GB36 was indeed well built, had a layout we liked, had a one-level, wide-ish walk-around main deck--- something we would never be without now in any boat---- was easy to handle, and had wonderful visibility out of those big windows I disliked the look of so much.

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Ditto the Coot regarding the walk-around (360 degree) deck. That and 360-degree visibility from pilothouse and keel-protected propeller/rudder were on top of the list. Angle of pilothouse windows was not.

skipperdude said:

drive a butt-ugly boat because reducing glare has become more important than driving a nice looking boat.

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Still believe the Coot is handsome in an Ernest Borgnine (bless his soul) sort of way. The forward-leaning pilothouse windows give the boat a strong brow.