Tad Roberts: OB powered Trawler

Tad, I saw this pic posted by you on another thread.

Below are pictures of the 30' x 10' boat I mentioned. Draft at design weight is 19". Her top speed is 32+ knots with twin 200HP Verado outboards. These are about double the weight of your twin 60's on the TT. So that's another 500 lbs, and there are probably 200 lbs in aluminum pipework on the boat.







Can you tell us more about this 30 ft OB powered trailer boat? Looks like a great combination of seaworthiness, comfort, speed and trailerability. Love the knockdown radar arch.

Got more pics and specs?

Trawler?

Looks like an OB cruiser to me.

And then there's the weight .. or lack there-of.

Nice looking boat though.

here is one that went by us near Ft Myers Fl. An add on on the, (I hope) reinforced swim platform.

More on the boat here....

Stahl 29 Flying Bridge Outboard Cruiser ~ Planing & Semi-displacement Boats Under 29'~ Small Boat Designs by Tad Roberts

Pictures of planking the temporary molds with foam, then fairing, painting, and rollover.....

I like this boat a lot but to have acceptable stability characteristics it can't be very light. In the third picture I see a very extensive length of the boat in a constant deadrise state. Minimal porpoising for this boat is almost insured. And I see in the pics that pitch characterisistics will probably deliver a nice .. more or less level ride. Should be a good smooth ride and solid semi high bank turns will be a plus.
Yup I like this boat.
But what I'd like to see is a good low power 12 knot boat.

manyboats said:

Yup I like this boat.
But what I'd like to see is a good low power 12 knot boat.

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Awww...c'mon Eric, learn to live a little and try something different occasionally...

manyboats said:

Trawler?

Looks like an OB cruiser to me. ...

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What living accommodations are there? Berths, head, shower, cooking facilities, tankage, ...?

Hows she ride in 2-3 foot seas? With 16 degrees deadrise that usually translates to pounding at anything over planing speed. Purty though.

I've never been on the boat so don't know anything about her performance. I have a couple of tiny videos of running in flat water, that's it. (and I can't figure out how to attach them here) The boat is various things, it's not a trawler. It is what the owner asked for, and which he was warned about. She's loaded with too much stuff to be a reasonable trailerable boat.

Since these pictures the owner built a ss tube frame over the outboards and loaded an inflatable with outboard on that. The stability is now less than ideal, which is why I raised the issue in the Mirage TT35 thread.

Most of the deckhouse is taken up with a separate head and shower P&S aft, forward of that there's a tiny galley on starboard with helm seat forward. And on port there's a settee and co-pilot seat. In the bow is a huge double berth and storage.

There's 200 usg of fuel under the sole aft of midships.

Peter B said:

Awww...c'mon Eric, learn to live a little and try something different occasionally...

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Wifey B: C'mon Peter, you do know who you're talking to, don't you?

Tad Roberts said:

I've never been on the boat so don't know anything about her performance. I have a couple of tiny videos of running in flat water, that's it. (and I can't figure out how to attach them here) The boat is various things, it's not a trawler. It is what the owner asked for, and which he was warned about. She's loaded with too much stuff to be a reasonable trailerable boat.

Since these pictures the owner built a ss tube frame over the outboards and loaded an inflatable with outboard on that. The stability is now less than ideal, which is why I raised the issue in the Mirage TT35 thread.

Most of the deckhouse is taken up with a separate head and shower P&S aft, forward of that there's a tiny galley on starboard with helm seat forward. And on port there's a settee and co-pilot seat. In the bow is a huge double berth and storage.

There's 200 usg of fuel under the sole aft of midships.

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Thanks for that info, Tad. OK, I'll admit...I called it a "trawler" just to get folks' attention. At 30+ Kts, it would hardly be considered a trawler.

I'd bet it can be a little tough as a naval architect to design a vessel to spec for a builder who then changes it to a condition beyond that for which it was designed. I imagine an architect retains a sense of ownership of a creation that then morphs into something else beyond his control. It would be like an artist selling a painting only to have parts of it painted over by the buyer.

Similar to our 26 Tollycraft
(26'8" at waterline, 29' overall, 10' beam, 9000 lbs base, 10000lbs+ loaded).

It would be interesting for someone to put a pod on a 26 Tolly, a single 25hp for 6 knots max, twin 60's for 7-8 knots with reserve power, or twin 225's for easy 20-24 knot cruise.

However, there would be no cost savings over doing an inboard repower, gas or diesel. However, if your thing is going offshore then a twin outboard set-up might be desirable.

Unfortunately with outboards you lose the space on your transom to easily carry a dinghy like most do here in the PNW.

FlyWright said:

I'd bet it can be a little tough as a naval architect to design a vessel to spec for a builder who then changes it to a condition beyond that for which it was designed. I imagine an architect retains a sense of ownership of a creation that then morphs into something else beyond his control. It would be like an artist selling a painting only to have parts of it painted over by the buyer.

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Thank you for noticing my work.

I have high hopes for every boat I design. Sometimes the builder/owner creates a boat far beyond my expectations. And sometimes it's barely recognizable as my design. Sometimes there's a fuzzy line between complying with the client's wishes and starving.

Tad Roberts said:

Sometimes there's a fuzzy line between complying with the client's wishes and starving.

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Good one, and one of the reasons I'm a letter carrier and not a portrait or wedding photographer!

In Juneau in the 70's I did weddings w a small rangefinder camera. Work'ed great untill the flash went tits up. I always carried a spare camera and on this occasion I had to use it if the wed's wanted pics. The spare camera used 5B ""Press" bulbs (bigger than a golf ball) and I got the pics but almost blinded everybody doing it.