Narrowing bottom question

[Spokaloo]

So I settled on a crossplanked skiff for the family, the one in Gardner's more recent books, the Clamming Skiff. She's a little over 15 feet, has little flare, and a HUGE amount of rocker for carrying big loads without dragging a bunch of water around.

That said, she's got a bottom width of over 4 feet. Kinda pudgy for my needs.

If I pull a little width out of the single mold she's bent around, keeping all other dimensions static (sides remain the same, flare, all angles, etc etc), what changes should I expect? Will my sheer or rocker change shape if I retain the angle of the frame? All I want is a reduction in beam as that's a 3:1 L/B ratio, and for a purely rowed boat, that's a bit beamy.

I know the displacement will drop, but odds are I'm not going to haul 1000lbs of clams anywhere around our inland lake.

Thanks

E

[Lewisboater]

You will lose some stability too. With a lot of rocker you actually need some weight to settle it down to it's lines...or else it won't track very well and tend to be subject to side winds pushing the ends of the boat around. Think a curled leaf on the surface of the water...it spins around with the wind. You will want a skeg too to keep it going where you want it to. Reducing the bottom beam will actually help because it will settle down into the water a bit further.

[TerryLL]

E,

Are you talking about the Clamming Skiff on page 176 of MBCSC?

Terry

[Spokaloo]

I don't have my books with me at work, but it is the 15 foot rowing skiff, not the little planing boat. It's a plumb stem, light amount of flare, pine over oak (though I'm going to do it in our native red cedar), and a ton of rocker.

A typical load will be my wife and I and the kid, so a total of 400lbs with lunch and fishing gear in the boat. Occasionally I might drag my parents along a few times a year, which will make it 800lbs.

E

[Bobcat]

I would find a boat design that suits your needs. It seems to me that modifying something like beam will greatly change a bunch of other things in the design and that you may end up with poor boat.

[TerryLL]

OK. I was looking at the outboard clamming skiff. Different animal.

I found the other clamming skiff in WBTBAU, page 46. Nope, I wouldn't waste any time tying to turn that slab into a decent rowing boat. Take a look at the Yankee Tender from our host. A bit shorter but a real keen rower. I've used one and they are sweet.

[Spokaloo]

Terry this is falling into the whole "rapid build because I have a 2 month old and need to get on the water quickly and have zero time to be in the shop" criteria.

Otherwise I'm stuck slapping together some plywood wonk of a boat that's slab sided but decent in the water. I'm all ears if you have other ideas that are one week builds.

E