Throwing Out the Boat Building Rule Books

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There was a time when boats were simple. Go back far enough in time and hulls were no more than a burned or carved-out tree trunk. Then we progressed to planks and hull forms became more complex. Next came keels, bilges, daggerboards, and more. Fast forward a thousand years or so and we swapped out wood for fiberglass. It didn’t take long before the deep-V showed up and established a fairly straightforward “rule” about hull design: All other things being equal, the more V a hull has, the smoother it will ride through rough seas.

We’ve lived under this assumption for decades. But in recent years boat designers and manufacturers have managed to change the game yet again. You think that boat “X” will ride smoother than boat “Y” just because it has twice the deadrise? Don’t be so sure. Modern hybrid bay boats are the perfect example. Most have a transom deadrise somewhere between 12 and 18 degrees, which doesn’t qualify as a deep-V (generally considered 21 or more degrees of deadrise) and is more properly called a semi-V. Yet many of today’s semi-V models can handle rough seas as though they had far sharper hulls.

How can a hybrid bay boat with a semi-V in its hull run so smoothly? Steps can aerate the water under the hull, creating a cushioning effect. Tunnels can do the same. Stronger hulls and stringers that weigh substantially less than they used to can help a boat get up over the waves rather than trying to punch through them. Better balance thanks to CAD and modern engineering allows some boats to run flatter, keeping a sharper entry low where it will meet the waves. Boats built today simply tend to be better boats.

Of course, this isn’t true across the board — there are still plenty of hybrids with 18 degrees of deadrise that will rattle your fillings out in a one-foot chop. And on the flip side of the coin, there are plenty of deep-Vs that will, too. But what seemed impossible a few years back is, today, a common reality.

A WHOLE NEW HORSE RACE

Another old rule that boats now violate on a regular basis: “X” horsepower gets you “Y” performance. Before all those steps and new-fangled construction techniques, you could look at a boat’s LOA and how powerful the engine on the transom was and make a fairly good guestimate of what speeds it would run at. Today? Forgeddaboudit. And while we’re on the subject of outboards, let’s note that they don’t break down all the time anymore. (Ummm, we’re talking about new boats here, people, not the junker listed on Craigslist). Modern fishing boats with modern four-stroke outboards start when you turn the key, have lengthy warranties, and when a gremlin pops up it’s more likely to be a bad sensor or a software glitch than a blown powerhead or a stripped gear. Sure, lemons still exist (particularly when it comes to “covid motors” produced during the parts and labor shortages), and some models are more reliable than others. But the old timers among us will remember the days when every fishing trip began by crossing your fingers that the motor would start. Today? If the motor doesn’t fire right up and run like a top it’s a serious surprise.

HIGH TECH, LOW LEARNING CURVE

Then, there’s the tech to consider. Joysticks have squashed the how-to-dock learning curve. Between touchscreen MFDs and digital switching, you can now sit down at the helm and with a few swipes figure out how to run every system on the boat. Heck, in most cases you can rearrange the touchscreen’s display to match your own preferences. If you can use a cell phone, you can figure out how to use a boat. Speaking of that cell phone, in most modern boats you can place it in the wireless charger at the helm, Bluetooth it to the stereo system, and link up with the engine’s diagnostics to beam an alert to your dealer if a fault code pops up.

Boats came a long way in 1,000 years. But in the last 15 or 20 they’ve undergone evolution on an epic scale. Those old rules we all used to go by? Toss ‘em right out the window, because today they are virtually meaningless. Don’t try to make any judgements about how a boat handles the waves until you’ve gone for a sea trial. Don’t make any assumptions about the relationship between horsepower and performance until you nail the throttle and look at speed on the GPS. Don’t think you’ll reach for a wrench when something goes wrong, because what you more likely need is to reach for your app. Don’t think those outboards are too tightly spaced to effectively oppose because the computer brain in that joystick will do it for you. Assume nothing. Because a fishing boat built in 2023 will break all the old rules.

Email Lenny Rudow at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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