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Fast Fred wrote
>>"5. A pilot house that is approximately half way back on the hull,
which allows for a relatively gentle ride for the captain in rough sea
conditions.
>The further aft the pilot house the better , more stable , the boat
moors to a single anchor. Think of where the feathers are on an arrow,
not usually at the bow. FAST FRED
I agree that the nicer ride is at the back of the boat, but I suspect
the reason for aft-pilothouse fishing boats is not to make them ride
nice at anchor. For one thing, they aren't riding at anchor very often
or very long (as opposed to being in port tied up in a slip or rafted
with other boats alongside a fish facility). And they certainly aren't
at anchor when they're fishing, which is probably when the crews wish
for (and don't get) the nicest ride. If riding nicely at anchor was the
primary consideration in locating the house, then most fishing boats
would have aft houses. These days, most fishing boats, even in the UK,
have forward houses.
I suspect there are other reasons why some fishing boats, particularly
earlier ones, put the pilothouse at the back. On boats of this design,
I believe (I may be wrong) that the engines and other systems are at
the back. This was certainly the case with the Scottish "puffers," the
small coastal steamers that plied the waters of northern Scotland
through the early portion of the 1900s. Since a fair amount of a
fishing boat (or coastal steamer) has to be reserved for fishing gear,
bait, and fish storage (or cargo), it makes sense to put all the
non-fishing stuff in one place. Engines were traditionally placed in
the rear half of a boat or ship, which makes sense as I suppose there's
good reason to minimize the distance the power has to travel from the
engine to the propeller. So stick the engine, systems, and crew in the
back and put all the fishing stuff forward.
This gives the folks in the back a nicer ride, and it also gives the
skipper or helmsman a good view of what's going on on deck. And given
the high, protective bows these boats have, often containing additional
crew or storage area, I'm guessing that in terms of lying at anchor in a
wind, the "feathers" on the front are almost as large as the "feathers"
on the back. For mooring (and running) stability, many of these boats
used a steady sail, in which case it didn't really make any difference
which end the house is at as far as providing stability at anchor was
concerned.
For reasons that I assume have to do with changes in fishing techniques
and gear, it has become more efficient to put the fishing stuff in the
back. So the engine moved forward with a long shaft back to the prop,
the house moved forward with it, and you have the configuration used by
what seems to be the majority of fishing boats today.
As to the stability of riding to a single anchor, our Grand Banks, which
has considerably more of its windage forward of the center of the boat
than aft, rides just fine in a wind. It points into the wind, points at
the mooring buoy or anchor, and stays that way. Granted, currents
running counter to or across the wind can cause the boat to point off
the wind one way or the other, but I don't think this tendency would be
lessened much, if at all, by having the pilothouse aft. But the boat
certainly doesn't hunt all over the place as an arrow would with
feathers at the front.
______________________________
C. Marin Faure
36' Grand Banks "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington
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