Princess 28 accommodations layout

[Garry]

Ray, I forgot to answer your question about the floor and cabin beams:

Tell me more about the laminated floor and cabin beams to gain extra headroom, sorta interested in that option on the 26.

Graham suggested to gain an extra inch or two, I could eliminate the floors for the cabin sole and laminate plywood directly across the center of the hull to build up this area for the required strength; using the top of the plywood as the cabin sole. The thickness of the plywood would be less than the depth of the floors and sole gaining an inch or so in headroom.

Along the same lines, the cabin beams can be eliminated and the cabin top thickness increased until it is self-supporting. This can be accomplished several ways: add plywood layers, make a sandwich with plywood-foam core-plywood, or make a sandwich except use wooden spacers to separate the top and bottom layers (for an I-beam effect).

Here are a couple of sketches to show what I mean (representative only, dimensions are pure guesswork).

[Greg Luckett]

Gary,

You might also explore placing the cabin beams above the roof rather than below it.

[Garry]

Right, Greg, that would be another option. I tend to lean toward the foam-core sandwich for the additional benefit of the insulation from the sun beating down in the tropics.

[Greg Luckett]

This is my second try at this. The darn power went off about 3 hours ago right before I could post.

The beams on the roof make a good place to lay things such as a dinghy, but the smooth surface of the panels would look better.

I think the trade off of eliminating the beams might compensate for the added weight of the foam core panels.

[Howard]

On the side decks, too narrow can be a pain, if not dangerous. I have seen boats that eliminated the side decks completely and have a raised deck cabintop. That opens up the interior room even more.

Greg mentioned the dinghy. Have you given any thought to where you might stow one? I assume it's a hard one like a Spindrift. Upside down on top of the cabin on chocks works for some boats, but with shoal draft, increasing the windage aloft and too much weight that high could cause stability problems.

But I don't think I'd want to be towing one on a long crossing either.

[Designer]

Howard,

I have designed a couple raised flush deck boats and have done an ocean passage on one and you are very vulnerable when you leave the cockpit.

While the side decks on Gary's boat are narrow, the cabin sides have a lot of slope which helps a lot. I have tried going forward on a similar proportioned boat and it worked fine unitil I ran into the shrouds, fortunately Gary won't have that problem.

[Garry]

Thanks, Graham. My intention is to keep the side decks completely clear. The biggest stumbling points on most sailboats are stanchion bases and shroud-deck fittings.

I am continually amazed at what this boat DOES NOT need. In addition to eliminating the lifelines (my choice), there are no jib sheet tracks, winches, main sheet travelers, roller furling, shrouds all over the place. Trading the diesel for an electric outboard drive eliminates the shaft log, cooling water thru-hull, drips in the bilge, exhaust outlet as well as noise, smell, and fouled fuel tanks.

[Howard]

Really narrow side decks were my concern (don't know why....it's not my boat).

The one boat I'm thinking of is a larger version of my current sloop. It has a nice roomy interior, much larger than you might expect for the size of the boat, until you realize to get all that room they put the cabin sides within a few inches of the rail. About the width of your foot. You either squeeze through or turn your foot so that the ball of the foot rests on the rail and side step forward....with lifelines at the back of your knee. I eliminated that boat out of hand when I realized what you would be dealing with.

This appears to be one of those tradeoff issues. Balancing one thing against the other to get the compromise you can live with.

[Greg Luckett]

Howard' date='

I have designed a couple raised flush deck boats and have done an ocean passage on one and you are very vulnerable when you leave the cockpit.

While the side decks on Gary's boat are narrow, the cabin sides have a lot of slope which helps a lot. I have tried going forward on a similar proportioned boat and it worked fine unitil I ran into the shrouds, fortunately Gary won't have that problem.[/quote']

I like the shrouds for hanging onto in rough water and am unsure how the lack of them will seem. Somehow, someway, I need to actually see a Princess Sharpie......a future goal.

[Garry]

I agree that the shrouds are useful for hanging onto, but they are really not well designed for that. They are outboard when you need something inboard, they are thin when you need something easier to hold onto, they flex and the load you put on them when hanging on can really stress the connections.

My intention is to install something I've seen called pilot rails. The idea was presented in an article by Alan Lucas in Good Old Boat Mar/Apr 2006 issue (I took the liberty of scanning an illustration below). Pilot rails are sturdy handrails located inboard on the cabin top. They would be in the right place for grabbing, sturdy, easy to hang onto, and a great place to attach a tether from a harness. You often see them on serious heavy weather boats such as commercial, Coast Guard and pilot boats.

They would be easier to grab and hold onto than the typical wooden grab rail which is usually compromised by boat poles or fenders that prevent easy grabbing anyway. It would be great to have them waist high but I will probably compromise and lower them to 6-8" above the cabin top. They would also be great for lashing a dinghy or other cargo on the cabin top.

[Greg Luckett]

Garry,

I took a look at that article, thanks for pointing it out. It seems that you need a big enough boat to still have deck to move about on inside the pilot rails, as shown. Maybe the solution is taller hand rails, which would be the same thing as pilot rails on a smaller boat? Something like a stern or bow pulpit rail, except straight for the length of the cabin top?

Greg