Willow B here. I purchased my P29 in Boston and made it thru the CCC south to NY Harbor, then up the Hudson to the Erie Canal. Then crossed Lakes Erie, Huron & Michigan to Larson's in Waukegan, Il. The record high water in the Illinois River and Mississippi near St Louis stopped us short. Willow B was winterized and stored indoors until June 2016, when we will continue to the Calumet/Joliet Channel to the Illinois River. Then down the Mighty Mississippi, then it's 500 miles upstream up the Ohio.
It's been a great trip so far. I'm looking forward to next June.
The previous owner lived aboard for 8 years. He relocated to the Virgin Islands, therefore was a very motivated seller.
The P29 is the perfect trawler for us. With the 4-108, She makes 5.8k in slack water @ 2500-2600 rpm. She burns approx 1 gal/hr. With such a short/wide hull design, she is pitchy in a head sea(short) and yaws quite a bit at cruise(wide). My anchor locker is loaded with chain and I believe this weight adds to the yaw issue.
She is a full displacement hull with a deep shoe. When I push the throttle ahead the yaw gets worse. The boat 'likes' the 6 knot range. Any faster is beyond theoretical hull speed anyway.
Once at our home port many issues will be addressed. The plan is to make annual trips down the Tenn-Tom with a destination of the Tx & La coasts & Rivers.
I started the blog to keep family and friends updated. ---> willowb.us.
Willow B standing by Ch 16/9
Willow- We have a 27 foot Marben trawler which has a 10 foot beam at the widest point although the stern tapers to 9 foot beam across the deck. We draw 3 feet and consider our hull F/D (Eric-
) As I review your post I agree to the 'Hobby Horse' into head seas. We recently pulled a Perkins 4-154 (58 HP) out and installed a running Perkins 4-236 in its place.(85HP)
The 154 had a 3;1 and we changed to a 2;1 with the 236 and kept the same wheel. We are honorably over wheeled by forum standards. Our top RPM is 2000 on a 2800 rated RPM scale. Now Willow, we should have a lower hull speed than you yet when we use the Vicprop formula
:
Vicprop - Propeller Calculator
we have and do cruise, at the hull speed of 6.9 knots the formula produces. We run at 1400 RPM so we still have a safe margin of 600 RPM which as you indicate, is the best setting as anymore throttle just creates water displacement, noise, and smoke, very little improvement in speed. We consume 1.3 gallons per hour. We think we are fine with this over wheel results.
Okay- Now here is an area to compare. We have a limited fuel capacity of 90 gallons, 48 gallons of water. The engine/gear weight is 1500#. We have little in the area of anchor chain, 25 feet, so that is not a factor by itself.
Due to the "Hobby Horse" effect combined with a horrid snap roll in the for mentioned weight factors, we were alarmed at the motion of the boat, unsafe not but very uncomfortable would be fair.
As a result of many suggestions from our Forum members, all in good intent and welcome, we were fortunate to local locally, 50# lead ingots. We purchased in total 1300# and installed them thus, We added one 50# directly to the chain locker floor. At the junction of the v-berth there is a floor locker cabin, we added one 50# to the floor of that locker. Moving back we installed
6- 50# ingots above the keel in a existing alley. Under the engine/gear we placed 4-50# ingots. Along side the engine bed-port side, we placed 6-50# ingots favoring aft abeam the reduction gear. We placed 4-50# ingots on the Starboard side mid ship of the engine (Aft of this weight is located the 11 gallon hot water tank which offsets. The remaining ingots were placed in the lazeret evenly aside the rudder stock.
The outcome is a perfectly balanced boat!!! We cut the Hobby Horse down to nil, the boat cuts more than lifts. Following seas affect us sitll yet at a lessor degree, the yawl is slowed way down. We can ride beam seas in a fashion where the boat rides up, the wave or swell moves UNDER, the boat remains in a vertical stance, any roll is gentle and slow.
All of this weight on top of the as built of 1500# of lead in the keel, and the boat burns not enough additional fuel to make a noticeable difference.
Here is a site of a sister boat that we almost purchased:
1978 Marben Flybridge Trawler Pilothouse Pocket Cruiser Title
Would you be kind enough to view the photos and comment as to how close all of this is to your boat/conditions? Note the fuel and such in this boat and understand the weight difference between our boat and this one due to tankage alone.
Long response, sorry
Al-Ketchikan