On 8/9/2010 9:00 AM, Steve P. wrote:
What I like the idea of is covering the hull inside-bottom mostly with
a
floor that is raised a couple inches above the water level of a
typical
load. Then you can install drains/plugs in the sides of the boat
right
at the floor level, and in a bad weather situation (with the plugs
removed) the boat becomes self-bailing.


Sort of like a Water-Letter-Outer?

If it was self bailing why would you have the plugs in the first
place?


Because it may not be self-bailing with a heavy load.

Suppose you have a design for a flat-bottom rowboat, with a raised
floor. With one person on board, it sinks three inches into the water.
With a full load (three people) it sinks seven inches. And suppose you
put the floor five inches above the bottom of the hull, and put two
drain holes (with plugs) in the sides, right above where the floor meets
the sides.

Now this would mean that when lightly loaded, the floor height is higher
than the water level.... so if you took out the drain plugs, any water
that got into the boat would just run out the drain holes, since the
floor was two inches above the water level.

With the full load, you'd want the drain plugs in, since the water level
would be higher than the floor level.

If you set the floor level high enough that it was always above water
level, that would be (I'd think) a very tippy small boat. I know that
BIG boats do it that way, but aside from sit-on-top kayaks I'm not sure
many small ones do.

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I don't know if this is ever done with small boats or not, it was just
an idea. I will likely be boating alone most of the time, and I wanted a
shallow-draft boat, with a flat (raised) deck.... When I was sketching
carious designs out I noticed that with a light load, the raised floor
usually ended up above the waterline anyway.
~