All About Powerboats: Understanding Design and Performance
Powerboats give us the opportunity to combine two of our greatest adventures: the water and speed. Bowriders, cruisers, the bass boat, all beautiful and sleekly designed watercraft we'd have no trouble spending out days sitting on or skimming across the waves, the sun at our backs.
Whatever powerboat you're using, you need to make sure these delicate machines are doing what they're supposed to. For instance, do you know:
- The significance of flared topsides?
- The difference between a displacement hull and a planning hull?
- Why you'd want a stern drive or twin engine
- The advantages of a powerboat having a deep-V hull or a modified-V?
- How to tell if your vessel has the power you need
- What criteria to look for to judge a powerboat's seaworthiness?
The All About Powerboats book, written by Roger Marshall, offers the education you need whether you ride for fun or profit. This book about powerboats is a great blueprint for planning how to choose a watercraft, distinguishing their advantages and disadvantages to your personal needs. You are going to know what makes these babies go fast, which machines were designed for sport and which for comfort, and how to cherry-pick features.
All About Powerboats: Understanding Design and Performance is about safety, construction, steering, drivetrains, hulls, engines, key concepts and much more. At a concise 150 pages, it manages to be a library of information that's going to make you appreciate the beauty of these machines even more, whether you're behind the wheel, lounging on the deck or hanging on a tube in its wake.
Subject:
DIY instruction about powerboats, including design and performance topics. ISBN-10: 0071362045 | ISBN-13: 9780071362047 | McGraw-Hill 62045
TABLE of CONTENTS:
Chapter 1 FACTORS IN POWERBOAT DESIGN: Powerboat Speed | Other Design Factors: Seaworthiness / Range / Comfort / Cost.
Chapter 2 THE LANGUAGE OF HULL SHAPES: Reading the Lines: Profile View / Plan View / Sectional View | Features of Hull Design: Chines / Deadrise / Freeboard / Flare / Keels and Bilge Keels / Running Strakes / Trim Angle and Trim Tabs.
Chapter 3 HULL SHAPES: Displacement Hulls: Trawler Yachts / Skinny Boats / Catamarans | Planing Hulls: High-Speed Deep-V Hulls / Stepped Hulls | Fishing Hull Shapes: Saltwater Flats Boats / Bass Boats / Offshore Sportfishing Boats | Semiplaning or Transitional Hull Shapes: Bow / Midbody / Stern | Summary | Common Questions: A Rounded Hull or a Chined Hull: Which Is Best? / How Fast Will It Go? / How Many People Can I Get Aboard? / What Kind of Range Can I Expect?
Chapter 4 TOOLS TO HELP EVALUATE BOATS: Speed - Length Ratio / Displacement - Length Ratio / Length-to-Beam Ratio / Power-to-Weight Ratio / Cubic Number / Prismatic Coefficient.
Chapter 5 POWERBOAT STYLING: Hull Styling: Developing the Sheerline / Developing the Bow and Stern | Adding the Superstructure: Avoiding Clutter.
Chapter 6 UNDERSTANDING STABILITY Factors Affecting Transverse Stability: Form Stability / Center of Gravity / Chines and Chine Flats | Longitudinal Stability | Tender and Stiff Boats | Stability at Large Angles of Heel | Effects of Flooding on Stability.
Chapter 7 SEAWORTHINESS: The Skill of the Skipper and Crew | A Seaworthy Hull | Seaworthiness Belowdecks | Engine Room | Seaworthiness on Deck.
Chapter 8 COMFORT: A Comfortable Hull Shape | Onboard Location Counts | Stabilizers: Passive Stabilizers / Active Stabilizers / Paravanes / Dynamic Stabilization | Comfort on Deck: Easy and Safe to Go Forward / Easy-to-Climb Ladders and Stairwells / Easy to Work in the Cockpit or to Enjoy the Fantail / Fewer Steps between Deck Levels | Lighting for Comfort: Deck Lighting / Lighting in the Engine Room | Interior Comfort: Doors, Passageways, and Walkways / Bridge Layout / Sleeping Quarters / Bunk Dimensions / Bathrooms and Toilets | Designing for Good Maintenance | Storage: Electronics Storage / Galley Storage / Lockers / Refrigerator / Under the Cabin Sole / Overhead Storage / Engine Room Storage / Anchor Storage.
Chapter 9 POWERING YOUR BOAT: Early Engines | Basic Engine Types: Two-Stroke Cycles or Two-Cycle Engines (Gasoline) / Four-Stroke Cycles or Four-Cycle Engines (Gasoline) / Diesel Engines (Inboards) | Outboard Engines: Recent Outboard Engine Developments / Choosing an Outboard | Inboard Engines: The Latest Gasoline Inboard Engines / Diesel Inboard Engines / Gas or Diesel Inboard: Which One Is for You? / Single or Twin Engines? | Sterndrive Engines: Inboard, Outboard, or Sterndrive? | Jet Drive | Drive Train Components: Transmission / Propeller Shaft / Shaft Logs.
Chapter 10 PROPELLERS: Propeller Terminology | Increasing Your Propellers Efficiency | Common Engine Solutions: Vibration / Noise.
Chapter 11 STEERING SYSTEMS: Wheel Steering: Hydraulic / Cable / Wire | Other Types of Steering Systems: Steering with a Whipstaff / Tiller Steering / Rack-and-Pinion Steering | Rudders | Steering with Twin Engines: Backing Down.
Chapter 12 HOW A BOAT IS BUILT: The Mold: Making the Plug / Making the Mold | Laying Up a Hull: The Laminate / Interior Moldings / Vacuum-Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) | Evolution of Hull Materials |
Core Materials | Resins | Putting the Hull Together: Production Boat Construction / Custom Boat Construction / Semicustom Boats / Safety.
Appendix. INFLATABLES: Puncture Resistance | Rigid-Bottom versus Soft-Bottom | What to Look For: Features and Construction.
