Drift boat hull design decisions
My goal is to help you select a boat that performs best on the water that you fish the most often. To do this I've created the following links that try to explain in a simple way the advantages and disadvantages of important hull characteristics.
Characteristics
Length: the measure of the boat fore and aft
Width: the measure of the boat side to side
Rocker: the amount the ends of the boat lift up
Flair:the angle of the sides of the boat
Bottom shape: the top down view of the shape of the bottom
The performance of the boat hull will obviously depend on the combination of all of these attributes working together. This is where selecting and building your boat can become fun. You can mentally experiment with a characteristic to create a boat that will do some things extremely well and be able to guess at what performance your are giving up for you gain. It is wonderful that there is no such thing as a perfect boat. There is always another experiment to try.
Here are a few obvious rules to keep in mind that don't fit under any of the above individual headings.
- A heavier boat needs more power (in this case more muscle) or it must be more efficient.
- Big boats are for big water and small boats for small water
- The taller and/or lighter a boat the more it is affected by wind.
- The faster the water the more a river boat needs to be efficient when it is in line with the current and when it is sideways to the current.
- It's best to keep the center of gravity as low as possible.
