Betty-Carroll
A 28' V-Bottom Cruiser
By William Atkin
A Vee-Bottom Cruiser
Here, Shipmates, is an excellent little cruising boat. Not too big; but of sufficient capacity to cruise well in rough water and an ideal boat for use almost everywhere. The design and the construction are straight-forward without frills and without difficult methods of construction. Wholesome and shipshape as a real little cruising boat should be, seems to be a very fair description of this, the latest of our ever-growing family of useful and practical boats.

The principal dimensions of this new boat are somewhat as follows; over all length, 28 feet; load water line, 27 feet; breadth, 8 feet 6 inches; draft, 1 foot 11 inches. The freeboard at the bow is 4 feet 4 inches; and at the stern, 3 feet 4 inches.

This cruiser, Betty-Carroll, is laid out for the very comfortable accommodations of a party of two. There is, however, plenty of room to fit in upper berths; these when hinged up, to form backs for the lowers. There is 5 feet 10 inches of headroom under the cabin trunk, and over 6 feet beneath the companionway hatch. The cabin has excellent separate toilet room, compact galley containing ice box, alcohol stove, sink, dish shelves and locker. The cabin has each side abaft the berths a useful buffet, and hanging locker. Under the forward deck there is stowage space for anchors, lines, and all the useful, varied and miscellaneous gear that somehow gets into a cruising boat. There is a hatch over the bow stowage space, making easy the problem of getting at mooring and anchor lines; and, incidentally, an excellent ventilator if left cocked open warm nights.

The cockpit is 10 feet 10 inches long. The after seat is long enough to sleep on. The cockpit floor is 11 inches above the water line and will be self-bailing through the 1 1/2 inch diameter scuppers each side aft. There is room in the after deck for a fish box. Ventilation for the space beneath the cockpit is provided in the two scoop ventilators leading to the lowest part of the bilge under the motor, and by the series of many openings behind the base board both sides of the cockpit. There is a water tight bulkhead between the motor space and cabin. The side decks are 1 foot wide at the forward end of the cockpit, tapering in width to 9 inches at the after end. Any less width than this is dangerous.

The model is V-bottom, having straight sections below the chine lines, and slightly moulded sections above the chines; just enough to take away the boxy appearance of straight slabsided topsides. Straight sections above the chines look very well in a small boat with very modest freeboard. It is more work to build with moulded sides; but in a boat of this particular type the extra work is well employed. It will be noticed the keel is straight from station 3 to station 9, then turns upward to the keel of the propeller post at station 11. There are several advantages in this arrangement not least of which is that the water flows freely into the propeller; the up-sweep cuts away the area of the deadwood aft and facilitates steering; a rudder shoe is eliminated, reducing cost and work in building; and withal in grounding, or hauling out, the keel will strike first, not the propeller blades. This is a very good arrangement as I have learned after many years of practice. You will notice in studying the lines that the V continues from the bow to station 10. At this point the bottom has no deadrise, is absolutely flat. At the stern there is negative deadrise, only a trifle, but enough to prevent the stern from settling when the boat is underway. Water under a hull under way flows not only fore and aft with the center line but around the sections in many and very confused directions. This point is entirely forgotten by most of us, especially in the production of large vessels. The shape of the sections have as much to do with the speed and performance of any kind of hull as the fore and aft lines.

Last but not least is the motor for Betty-Carroll. The one shown on the plans is a Red Wing 186 cubic inch four cylinder unit. With this modest power plant the speed of our latest cruiser should be between 13 to 13 1/2 miles an hour.

 
PHOTOS OF BETTY-CARROLL
Plans for Betty-Carroll are $100

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