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Thanks.  Some advantages that you'd have with the Great Alaskan is its higher efficiency, and it does have more room inside than most any other boat in its size class (wood or fiberglass) unless we're talking aluminum.  As far as offshore use goes, that's what it's designed for.  But no matter the boat size, there is always a day where the ocean's bigger than the boat.  Captain's with good judgment are the only type of captains there should be.

Brian

Thanks for that Brian. I thought it might not be feasible. When I first got the plans, I didn't have a boat at all. Thing is, I still fancy building and really like the Great Alaskans. I will be interested to see how Ed's boat turns out.
I am fairly happy with the space on a 28' er. What made me ask about the larger size was that on a cruising forum I go on, some have said that 27/28' is a bit short. They seem to be referring to the older design of cruisers from the 70s (Sealine, Fairline, Bayliner etc) generally used inland or coastal. I have always regarded your boats as an offshore anyway. If they are fine in the Alaskan offshore waters, could I take it that they would handle conditions offshore here in the UK? I am not intending to venture out in storms but would like to be confident that if the weather caught me out, I could run for home in a chop or slow down and still be happy she would handle it.
So although I would end up with a boat only a foot longer than my current one, surely it would be a far more seaworthy boat.

Unfortunately, trying to make the boat bigger would disturb too many parameters and the project would result in a redesign, not a design modification.  Why?  To give the larger boat a reasonable waterline (stability, on plane and off), the required increase in weight to get the required displacement is more than the additional weight the boat would weigh just from the added materials alone.

And BTW, Adrian's boat is a 25-footer (w/o the sponsons) ...I may have stated something else elsewhere, but it was a misunderstanding rolling around in my head before Adrian corrected me.  Ed's boat in Perth, Australia however, is a 28-footer if I recall and he's making several changes that he's responsible for, e.g. a different stem design, a rounded transom, and I think he might be adding sponson-like extension similar to Adrian.  It'll be an interesting experiment to watch, but he's an experienced guy and knows what he's doing.

Brian

Here's a link to a slide show I update often.

http://s832.photobucket.com/albums/zz247/Da-Edster/?action=view&current=7d370c47.pbw

First try.

Ok.Brian. Here is what sounds like a looney question. I have a real hankering to build a Great Alaskan and have the plans. Thing is, I already have a 27' boat (semi displacement Fjord Selco) and would feel a bit daft if I ended up with something round the same size. My intended use would be inland, estuary and coastal with some offshore trips to maybe Ireland or Holland. I realise that I would be waiting a bit for fairer weather, I also intend trying a circumnavigation of the British Isles at some point. Although we would be on the boat for extended periods, we would be breaking it up with B and B stops in ports.

What would be involved in taking this design out to perhaps 33/34' and maybe 9/10' beam. There seems to be some room for extra width in cutting the bottom panels. Maybe deeper or perhaps more stringers. Wider chine flats? I would be happy to pay for such modifications to the design if they were possible. I see that Adrian Pau has an extended swim platform/bracket and if that is on a 28 footer, surely that must take it up round the 30' mark.
Is any of this feasible?
regards

Looks like there is a race on. Fantastic job from all. Looking forward to seeing these float.

incredibly inspiring. Great job. Can't wait to see the end result.

Here's a link to a slide show of the curved stem, or really any curved surface you want, interior cabinets, corners of the coach house etc

Hi Brian, seems the upload folder is full, Tried uploading more pix,.......

It's because your attachments were large, e.g. full-size images from your camera.  In general, that's kind of overkill for a forum since there is limited screen space for displaying anyway.

I made the following changes to make attaching files work a bit better:

- I increased the size limit for the upload folder
- I placed a limit on the size of attachments (now only 1 Mb, max)
- I placed a limit on the width of uploaded or inserted images (1024 pixels wide, max)

This combination of settings ought to help prevent the folder from filling up, and also allow more room as well.

A workaround is to insert an image that is located on the web somewhere, e.g. from your online gallery at photo bucket ...just click the 'photo' icon in the editor, then browse to your online gallery and copy the url of an image that you'd like to post, and past that URL between the IMG tags that the photo button inserted in your document ...try it and you'll see that it's easier said than done.  Example:



This is an inserted, not attached, image from your photobucket gallery ...and will not result in overflowing the attachments folder in the forum.  I prefer using this method for the following reasons:

a) It does not fill up any folders at the forum (which are subject to size limitations)
b) You see the full image without having to click on a thumbnail version first
c) It's really handy for those that already utilize online photo galleries such as photobucket

Brian