On Aug 17, 2:25 pm, hk wrote:
Vic Smith wrote:
On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:29:09 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Yesterday, i was at St. Andrews State PArk near Panama City, FL siting
on the jetty watching boats going in and out between the jetties. The
tide was going out with s little wind opposing it so there was a good
chop in the channel. It was a great venue for watching how boats are
handled in chop.
About 1/4 of the boats were clearly going too fast for conditions and
eventually they would pound too hard and slow down. About 1/4 were
going too slow and were wallowing in the deep chop. What did amaze me
was the number of small boats with transoms cut away so much that if
they slowed down their own wake would swamp them. These boats had
transom tops only inches from the water and seemed to have no business
in such chop.
My Tolman is the first power boat I have ever driven so I have no
other basis for comparison. What degree of pounding is acceptable?

You still thinking about doing a Bahamas trip with the Tolman?
From your previous posts, I'm guessing the Tolman has been only
in the river. Are you thinking about taking it to some chop to get a
feel on its handling?
I've given some thought to how I would test what is "safe water" if I
get a Carolina Skiff, especially since my boat handing experience is
limited. I've got a feeling that it will happen naturally, since I
really don't want to go looking for trouble. More that I don't want a
10 grand motor dunked in salt water than anything else.
But if you've been motoring the Tolman only in calm waters and plan to
take it to the Bahamas, maybe a little "testing" is in order.

--Vic

Indeed, he ought to get some experience on the mighty waters of Lake
Lanier.

Probably 90% of my use of the boat has been in the open Gulf and I
have had her out in heavy chop which is what has led to this
discussion. I simply have no basis for comparison. This past
weekend, i had to slow down to about 12 kts to avoid pounding in 2'
chop (my neighbor said 3' but I dont think so). Is that reasonable?
I have been out in heavy chop trying to get out of The St. marks river
when wind and tide opposed each other, it was nasty.
Harry discusses FG sheatehed wood boats of years ago but those are a
differetn animal than modern epoxy/glass/marine ply construction and
cannot be compared. On those old boats, the resin really did not form
a structural bond with the wood like Epoxy does. You could probably
peel the FG offa the wood. A modern composite epoxy/glass/wood boat
enables the whole thing to be a one piece structure.
I HAVE seen FG boats that have suffered structural failure from a lot
of use. They did not sink but were in the yard for repairs or where
for sale to any sucker. What I have seen is failure of bulkhead to
hull joints. This is because the bulkheads are made separately and
allowed to cure. After they cure, they are tabbed together with glass
and poly resin. Poly does not really stick too well to poly but with
enough surface area you are ok. I have looked at these old boats and
have been able to rip the bulkhead from the hull by hand. OTOH, epoxy
DOES stick to cured epoxy but I know of no production boat builder
that uses epoxy as their primary resin. Even better, on the Tolman,
the designer specifies that one leave the wood near joints unsoaked
with epoxy until one is ready to form the joint. Then, you soak the
wood with epoxy and cover it with biax and then more glass so the wood/
epoxy/biax/glass cloth forms a single piece.
I suspect that what led to the failures I saw in the yards while I was
working on my sailboat was oilcanning of the hull so that this joint
cracked due to fatigue over time. My Tolman does not seem to oilcan
to any perceptible degree. The major problem with her is that she is
simply very light so has little momentum to bash through a wave as my
sailbaot does. The Tolman also has very small deadrise in comparison
to the very few powerboats I have been on.