Soft riding 6m plate boat do you know of one?

[fairpractice]

Hi. Asking for personal opinions about the ride in 6m true plate boats in choppy conditions.

Been smashed about in trailcraft style boat and bumped a bit in barcrusher style boats.

Wondering if the bluewater/performance plate, style boat with more generous bow design than barcrusher is the answer.

I realize that a longer hull will improve the ride but would prefer to stay around 6m and with plate for towing etc. I have heard that a webster twin fisher rides well but would prefer to stay monohull.

Thanks for your patience in reading this post. Any advice would be welcomed.
Cheers john

[peterbo3]

Hi John,
If you are punching into wind chop at 2-3 feet with a short interval between waves, you trim your bow down & let the fine entry do the job. So you need a boat with a sharp
bow entry & trim tabs. There are plenty of plate boats to choose from. Trial & error on plenty of test rides will sort out the "pounders" plus there will be plenty of feedback here.
I run a 6400 Fisher Mk1 with QL tabs & it eats Moreton Bay & inside Barrier Reef chop ................... but not at WOT.

[fin101]

XX2 for the FISHER, came close to getting a maxi myself but went to glass because fisher had probs, company probs that is. 2nd hand ones are a rareity. Also spoke to scott at bluewater they seem to build a good boat with a decent deadrise. Trial runs are your best friend.

[shy guys]

Come for a ride in the ocean cylinder 6.3 I'm very happy with mine been out in a lot of plate boats and its up there with the fishers ect

[Squidlet]

Come for a ride in the ocean cylinder 6.3 I'm very happy with mine been out in a lot of plate boats and its up there with the fishers ect

Have also been for a run in a cylinder boat "ocean Marster" imo would leave a fisher and most other popular plate boats for dead! Only thing is their bloody exy!
Cheers Chris.

[Redhunter]

Hi farpractice

The most important part of an offshore boat is to plane at low speed, this is critical when running into a big head sea, or a big following sea. I have been in many plate boats, but there is not many that can plane at low speeds.I cannot comment on blue water plate boats because I have not been in one. The boats I'd look at would be a used Fisher or a new or used Riptide, and also a used Aussie built Noble Super Vee.
Hope this helps, steve.

[bluefin59]

If your keen on something like a fisher go and look at ORIGIN BOATS they are built by the bloke that owned fisher until his company was stolen from him and the new mob closed it . They have a web site and there are a couple on this site ...Matt

[fairpractice]

Hi All, Thanks for your interest.
I think the advice to pull back on the throttle and go bow down is useful. Sounds as if a moderate (17deg.) hull with a good bow design would help the low speed planing.
I'll just have to live with the cats going twice as fast.
Regarding trial runs, i figure most people responding to my post will have done their homework and settled on a boat which is the best compromise for them
cheers john

[Smithy]

A 6m plate cat maybe.

You are splitting hairs otherwise. You are talking small % differences between brands. Once it is above 15knots it doesn't matter what you are in you are going to feel it. Just come home in a 190+m steel cruise ship and it felt the 20knots of sea and 2.5m of swell.

[Stuart]

I would love to see you put that big bitch o the trailer smithy? How about twing. I agree, most plate alloys are good, but just because a boat can plan at lower rpm tells me the hull has far less deadrise meaning a harder ride. You will need a very sharp forefoot "entry point" to help part or cut the wave and swell. I would be seeking advice from a naval architech, maye even design a plate alloy from scratch then have it welded up for you.

[fairpractice]

Smithy, I see your point. Recently, in the same chop,my plate boat was tolerable travelling at say 35km/hr, a haines glass boat was able to travel 65km/hr. If we compare plate with plate the results would be similar, but have to say a slightly beamier, heavier, ally boat with a moderate V seemed to be able to hold into the chop better than my lighter barcrusher style boat.
Perhaps its too fine a point to worry about.
thanks john

[Stuart]

Yep you hit the nail on the head mate. Far to often boat builders aim to build light boats, less power less cost. But in doing so they also make for a harder ridding hull. Glass boat builders have been going down this path for some years now. Plate alloy boat builders are heading down this same path at much the same speed. My 7.4 meter center console plate alloy hull weighs 2.4tn so she will be a softer ridding hull. There is a big misconceptio out there that a plate alloy boat cant and wont ride anywhere as good as a glass boat, this couldnt be further from the truth. I have been in some wowfull glass boats and some dam nice ridding alloy hulls.

[johncar]

Well coming from a Glass boat devotee I now have my first Platey being a 2nd hand Fisher 660 maxi. I have had it out enough now and she just eats it up out there.
Last week with 25Knots of South Easterlies combining with an opposing roaring southerly current and and easterly swell well offshore was no place to be, but yeah I went fishing regardless. Spent much of the day travelling between 10- 23kn and it handled it no worries and only landed hard once when I wasn't concentrating. It's an awesome hull, no light weight though at about 2.2 tonnes in the water plus whatever it takes to fill the ballast tubes. My 680 Haines was about 2 tonne by comparison and certainly didn't ride any softer.
I will say that an Ally hull is noisier, but put your ear plugs in and just concetrate on the actual hull performance and I too agree that a well designed Ally boat can ride as well as the best Glass boats and better than some. Not that it's annoyingly noisier, I am used to it already and doesn't worry me.
However I think that mine performs well at semidisplacement speed because is has a 250 Suzuki on the back which doesn't seem to ever feel to be labouring, It will also travel at over 40kn WOT. But it is a hull that is easily driven to the conditions where my Haines by comparison didn't like being driven at lower speeds but the older tech 2 stroke engine probably had a lot to do with that as well to be fair.
A smaller engine on my Fisher would possibly suffer at lower speeds with it's relatively deep vee hull but I don't know for sure not have been out in one.
All boats bang and one will do something better than another and every boat design is a compromise of one thing or another so you have to think about how and where you are going to use it and what is most important to you, If you totally focus on ride then stability at rest will usually suffer and the opposite is also true and there are many other factors to consider. So most builders try and make their boats all rounders, hence the Fishers and Origin's and the lighter Barcrushers with deep vees and ballast tubes which seem to work well, interesting that no main stream Glass boat builders have used them. Others have designs to do similar things, but the proof is in the eating so just try and get some first hand experience in whatever you are considering and be skeptical of what others say about their boats including me.
Not sure about the Barcrushers, never been in one but I hear very mixed opinions, but i imagine that they are a lighter weight design which may cause them to be less back friendly.
Cats definitely can offer a better ride in the chop due to their semi displacement design but can become super painful in other ways, so getting back to that compromise.
If I was richer I would have a nice big wide 10 Metre Cat, Ally or Glass with a couple of 300HP 4 strokes on the back and a big truck to tow it. Untill then My Fisher will do just fine.

[fairpractice]

Hi Johncar. Your response is appreciated.Especially the info about weight of hull, and ride vs. stability at rest.
I guess i'll get a better ride with a load on board. Thanks john

[Jarrah Jack]

Good post Johncar and no mention of 24 degree Vic go fasts.