Hulls to avoid?

[Certa Cito]

Are there any hulls to avoid?
I have learnt that Steve Hudsons are very good but thats about it so far in my researching.

Ideally I want a boat with a good hull and no over plating so it can be lifted, blasted and 2 packed, likely at bluewater boats.

[robtheplod]

I would guess its boat by boat rather than hull maker?  A great hull can be damaged by poor/no maintenance?

[Chris John]

Any hull can be overplated if not looked after. If you want a boat but only look at certain hull makers it could be a long wait. Just make sure what ever boat you like the look of has a thorough survey 

[Tonka]

48 minutes ago, Certa Cito said:

Are there any hulls to avoid?
I have learnt that Steve Hudsons are very good but thats about it so far in my researching.

Ideally I want a boat with a good hull and no over plating so it can be lifted, blasted and 2 packed, likely at bluewater boats.

Can I ask why at Bluewater Boats?

[MtB]

52 minutes ago, Certa Cito said:

Are there any hulls to avoid?

 

Yes. Rusty ones, whoever the builder. 

 

 

 

 

[David Mack]

Two different factors to consider: looks and condition.

Some builders built fine looking boats, others built middle market 'clone craft', and a few are truly ugly. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so go by what looks good to you, rather than relying on someone else's opinions.

A survey should show up the boat's condition in terms of how well built it was in the first place, and how it has fared since.

You mention Steve Hudson. A marmite boatbuilder. The technical build quality was good, but opinions are strongly divided on the looks.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Kingston upon Hull. 

You did ask. 😀

[Kingdom Isambard Brunel]

Plastic ones.

Rusty ones.

Ugly ones.

Ones with no cabin tumblehome.

Wooden cabins.

Bent ones. burnt ones.

Sunken ones.

Thin ones.

Stolen ones.

Wooden ones.

Concrete ones.

over 72' ones.

over 6'10" beam ones.

Overplated ones.

Moroccan ones.

Chinese ones.

[mrsmelly]

I've owned several. My Hudson build was fabulous and I loved the Hudson shape, it was precisely that, a Hudson shape. It had a 15 mil bottom and was rock solid. I've also owned a 6 mil bottomed Colecraft that wasn't as shapely and didn't have swims anywhere near as long as the Hudson but was also in great nick, a Swanline, Harborough. Pinder, Horsley Quenet ( awesome ) another Colecraft non were bad just some more money than others.

[Certa Cito]

1 hour ago, Tonka said:

Can I ask why at Bluewater Boats?

I have heard good things about their 2 pak system

[Melita]

1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Kingston upon Hull. 

You did ask. 😀

Oy, we've done it up now, it's almost cosmopolitan 🙂

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Just now, Melita said:

Oy, we've done it up now, it's almost cosmopolitan 🙂

Hull was city of culture, but when the time was up a big lorry arrived to take all the culture away to the next city. Last seen disappearing in to the sunset on the M62.

[GUMPY]

Avoid anything with a square stern, you will learn to hate it later.

 

[mrsmelly]

1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Hull was city of culture, but when the time was up a big lorry arrived to take all the culture away to the next city. Last seen disappearing in to the sunset on the M62.

There isnt a city called Hull in the UK there is a river by that name though 

[Peanut]

Kingston upon Hull, Hull City is a football team,

[DShK]

6 hours ago, GUMPY said:

Avoid anything with a square stern, you will learn to hate it later.

 

Cosmetically or are there practical implications? I've always wondered if they are as bad as they appear

[Jen-in-Wellies]

4 hours ago, DShK said:

Cosmetically or are there practical implications? I've always wondered if they are as bad as they appear

An an example, many wide beam locks have a cill thst is curved ro fit the stern of the original working boats. Wide, or narrow beam boats with squared sterns have a tendency to carch on the corners and get hung up when going down. They restrict the useable lengrh of the lock. Same with the design of somw narrow locks. 

[blackrose]

6 hours ago, DShK said:

Cosmetically or are there practical implications? I've always wondered if they are as bad as they appear

 

I've never had any practical issues with mine. The boat is 12ft beam and the stern tapers down to about 11ft with rounded corners. Aesthetically I would have preferred those corners a bit more rounded. That's my honest assessment after owning the boat for more than 20 years and cruising on several broadbeam canals and rivers. I suspect some other opinions here are based on no actual experience.

 

2 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

An an example, many wide beam locks have a cill thst is curved ro fit the stern of the original working boats. Wide, or narrow beam boats with squared sterns have a tendency to carch on the corners and get hung up when going down. They restrict the useable lengrh of the lock. Same with the design of somw narrow locks. 

 

Makes me wonder how I've managed to get through the thousands of locks I've done single handed? If my boat has a tendency to catch on lock cills I guess I've just been lucky!

 

While you're correct that for the length of the boat the usable length of the lock will be restricted (by a few feet), I don't think a square sterned boat has any more tendency to catch lock cills than a 70ft boat with a round stern for example. Like every other aspect of boating you just work with what you've got, and at 57ft there's no need for my stern to be anywhere near a lock cill.

 

Edited August 25 by blackrose

[Tony Brooks]

To add to this, there are an awful lot of river cruisers with absolutely square transoms, and they do not hang up in locks any more than any other shape. Likewise, many of the steel trip boats, that tend to be larger. 

 

I suspect that some of the opposition comes from those who try driving the boat off the mooring in ahead without pushing the bow out, Without the taper to a rounded stern the corners get dragged along the bank for longer, making it more difficult to pull away from the bank. I suppose that when you mess up on a bend, a square stern will amplify the mistake.

 

Having hired Calcutt boats a few times in the past, which have square sterns with rounded corners, I do not recall any particular handling difficulties, but then it was at a time much closer to my days at the Thames yard where transom sterns were the norm, so I was used to them.

Edited August 25 by Tony Brooks

[David Mack]

Many years ago I saw 2 BW chaps get a square-sterned dredger hung up in Marston Doles top lock. The problem wasn't the back end landing on the cill, but the brickwork in front of and below the cill was a curved shape which transitioned from rectangular at cill level to more or less semicircular at bottom water level, and the corners of the stern caught on this. Couldn't have happened to a rounder (or pointed) stern boat.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

53 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

I've never had any practical issues with mine. The boat is 12ft beam and the stern tapers down to about 11ft with rounded corners. Aesthetically I would have preferred those corners a bit more rounded. That's my honest assessment after owning the boat for more than 20 years and cruising on several broadbeam canals and rivers. I suspect some other opinions here are based on no actual experience.

 

 

Makes me wonder how I've managed to get through the thousands of locks I've done single handed? If my boat has a tendency to catch on lock cills I guess I've just been lucky!

 

While you're correct that for the length of the boat the usable length of the lock will be restricted (by a few feet), I don't think a square sterned boat has any more tendency to catch lock cills than a 70ft boat with a round stern for example. Like every other aspect of boating you just work with what you've got, and at 57ft there's no need for my stern to be anywhere near a lock cill.

 

It is a marginal thing. Most placed it will be fine. The rounded cills are common on the Yorkshire waterways. Combine a 57.5' max length, rounded cill lock on the Calder and Hebble, or Huddersfield Broad and a 57' square stern boat, especially with a beam pushing towards 14' and there isn't a lot spare to play with. Depends where the OP wants to cruise. 

[Alan de Enfield]

40 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

I suspect that some of the opposition comes from those who try driving the boat off the mooring in ahead without pushing the bow out, Without the taper to a rounded stern the corners get dragged along the bank for longer, making it more difficult to pull away from the bank. I suppose that when you mess up on a bend, a square stern will amplify the mistake.

 

Being a 'square stern' 14 foot beam (although the stern is slightly tapered to 13') it is far easier to push the stern out and reverse off the mooring using the taper of the bow to allow you to move away from the wall/bank.

[Tonka]

14 hours ago, Certa Cito said:

I have heard good things about their 2 pak system

Just looked on their website about their 2 pack system and they are lying when they say that Sunseeker and Princess Yachts Ltd use their system

[Mike Coombes]

9 hours ago, DShK said:

Cosmetically or are there practical implications? I've always wondered if they are as bad as they appear

 

An old working boatman told me-after he criticised the square stern on our Milton Keynes built 40 footer-that the rounded stern was there to assist in getting away from the bank when moving off. He was correct. I sometimes spring the bow out. The bow moves out so much easier with a rounded stern than with a squared off stern.

[Tony Brooks]

54 minutes ago, Mike Coombes said:

The bow moves out so much easier with a rounded stern than with a squared off stern.

 

Surely that depends upon where the T studs/dollies are. If they are tight in the radius of the typical eds of a squared off stern, the boat would pivot on the radius, whereas with a taper to rounded stern it may well start to swing the bow out more easily, but when the taper becomes parallel with the bank it seems far harder to get the bow to swing out any more. At least that is what I found when trying to spring the bow out on Calcutt's marina service wharf.

 

Edited to add, it is really each to their own, and for me a square stern did not cause any major problems. I certainly would not let it stop me buying a boat that was otherwise ideal.

Edited August 25 by Tony Brooks