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Old 01-25-2023, 09:45 AM   #8
mvweebles
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City: Saint Petersburg
Vessel Name: Weebles
Vessel Model: 1970 Willard 36 Trawler
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 7,179
There is not much comparable to sailboatdata.com; maybe McKnew's Powerboat Guide that lists production boats with some commentary. Useful for floorplans.

I think the key difference is sailboats of all types are routinely raced - even beer can races. So there are ratings to adjust for different hulls and the criteria are well known. Over the decades, sailboat design was heavily influenced to eek-out the most within the confines of race design limitations.

In short, sailboat design has generally sought to define objective design criteria. That does not really exist for powerboats beyond displacement vs semi-displacement vs planing hulls; and horsepower ratings. There used to be discussions on deadrise (angle of the flat aft hull sections - a deep-vee is more difficult to plane, but rides better in chop), bow sections/flare, etc. But these are rare and more interesting to explain than to forecast. There are few true displacement boats out there, and most folks want some flavor of semi-displacement with the premise that they'd like a turn of speed to outrun weather or catch a bridge opening. Tradeoff is economy, of course.

Powerboat design is much more influenced by intended usage, perhaps budget. The classic aft-cabin motoryacht or sundeck trawler style has the most interior living accomodations, but is not a good platform for fishing or if there are any mobility issues (incuding having a large dog aboard). For those with regular full-time jobs and defined vacation periods, tradeoff for speed vs economy is easy - a 15-kt boat has a maximum cruising area of about 175 sq miles vs a 7.5-kt boat's 45 sq mile max. That's a big difference for a long weekend.

If the intended usage is cruising to distant destinations across open water, the variability of weather will drive certain attributes. For example, for many, stabilizers are strongly prefered by many. Or higher bow sections. Or whether or not you want/need a generator. Bow thruster, etc. Much of these choices are now part of sailboat selection too.

I hope this helps - it really comes down to usage and budget. Not too dissimilar to sailboats, but the criteria are a bit more subjective.

Peter
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Cruising our 1970 Willard 36 trawler from California to Florida
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