BYYB Forums

I’ve been cursing many of the other boat forums and have found lots of negative opinions about the weekender design. But I have seen plenty of other boat designs with flat bottoms. It must just be the popularity and ease of build that proms people to attack it.

I’ve read different stories about flipping the weekender but has any one flipped a vacationer?
Brian

I like the design. There's not an unballasted boat out there that can't be flipped, and this is one of the "good" points of the design. Ballast and the ability to self right take away (in most designs) the ability to slip into shallow places. This has many safety benifits like sailing away from heavy traffic areas in fog, staying well in sight of the shore. Anchoring in shallow areas so you don't get run down while sleeping by a drunken power boater. Tons of pluses for this design. Flat bottom doesn't make it "bad".

I say all this from years of sailing unballasted, flat bottom boats. If you know your limits, watch the forecasts, know when to reef and when to run for shelter, an unballasted, flat bottom boat will never flip on you. I have been caugh in just such a boat in 40k knots of wind. I deep reefed and ran to shelter and never felt in trouble.

More can be said, but I'm out of time

i have build 3.5 boats and the weekender so far is my favorite. you might want to consider where these "critics" are sailing. in my opinion, off shore sailing with these types of boats would probably be hair raising but here in utah, i can put my boat in any lake or mudd puddle i want. heck, on my web site there is a photo of me sailing my boat in my neighbors flooded back yard!

on the subject of flipping, i can flip my weekender by myself and am keeping it upside down right now so the snow and water won't fill it up during the winter. i don't have a garrage. i prefer help when flipping because it is bulky but i have fliped it alone several times for different reasons.

i don't want a ballasted boat because it makes it so much harder to handle on the beach. i run my weekender into the beach all the time with a full sail. i too have had my boat out in stormy weather and i don't have reef points. i just took it easy on the main and had a good time.

I agree with Ryerson and Aaron, and I think the beachability of these boats, all stevensons boats including the huge Vacationer, is a definete plus.
If you are going to be hit by a storm, or there is an emergency aboard, or the dock is full. You can just hit the beach anywhere and not hurt your boat.
(well there not to good on the rocks) I have been on a few of these boats and I think they are great designs. and super strong. no there not a blue water boat but you can hit the intercoastal like on the Beer Cruise and be fine.

Brian.

I've moored in 2-4 feet of water out of harms way, lots. We don't have too many beaching options where I sail. As was pointed out one can drop sails fairly quickly and run for cover with the iron jib, as I have on several occasions. The hull design is similar to a dory, and the take some of them pretty far from shore on the east coat. I have weathered some nasty swells, and wild waves to get home. On one trip I towed a Weekender behind me and lost sight of it on some waves. The 9.9 iron jib brought us both home safe.

Greg

Other points to consider. A ballasted boat with a hole "could" go away and leave you alone, taking everything you own with it to the bottom. Unballasted usually sinks to a recoverable level if you have a few water tight areas or floatation. Even flipped upside down you have a place to get out of the water. Both styles of boat have their place.

On reef points. I really think you should have them. They take away the sometimes "scary" part of sailing, especially for beginners. What a difference in comfort and safety they provide. I can't image sailing a boat without them. Yeah, you can sheet out in gusts, unless you are running and then you get over powered real quick, and this is when disaster can strike. For so little effort as putting reef points in I can't see why you don't. I can go on can't I?

If you can, pick up copies of Frank and Margaret Dye's books, they are the experts on dinghy cruising if ever there were ones. Together or alone they have sailed a Wayfarer dinghy from Scotland to Norway, Scotland to Iceland and from the tip of Florida all the way up the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes. The best for learning small craft cruising is "Dinghy Cruising", man, you learn so much from this book. Others are " Ocean Crossing Wayfarer" and "Sailing to the Edge of Fear". A google search should find them if you're interested.

Those that don't want to read them, Frank was only capsized on the Norway and Iceland trips, but it was in a force 11.... So much for small boats capsizing easily.

The Vacationer is a fairly wide boat and extremely stiff. It is moves around much less with my weight than my MacGregor 26D with 1400 lbs of ballast water in it. Similarly the Pocket Cruiser is very stiff as well given its beam. Both these boats would be very hard to knock down and the wooden mast would most likely result in them floating on their sides. However, once flipped, they may not be that easy to right and I don't know anyone who has done that sort of experiment. In short, they are great lake and protected water sailing boats but, unless you are very skilled and a bit crazy, I wouldn't take them out on blue water excursions.

BTW, flat bottomed sharpie boats have had great success on rough waters though they do tend to be narrower for the length than the Vacationer and PC. The weekender proportions are more those of a dory which, while tender, are wonderful seakeeping boats for those skilled in their use. Look up Commadore Munroe and his famous Egret.

Like all high, initially stable, flat bottom, extreme shoal draft boats (ballasted or not) they will reach a point of no return and capsize. Weekender is the more tender of the group with the point of vanishing stability rapidly approaching once you've heeled her past 60 degrees. Vacationer is a little better, but also very typical of this shape vessel, but by 70 degrees she's about had it and a feather could knock her over the rest of the way. With floatation placed relatively high along the topside (under the side decks, for example) and a block in the bow and stern, she sit pretty high. Certainly easy enough to right (Weekender) or bail if swamped. Vacationer would be a bear to right, but with perseverance, she would come up, though you'd likely have to hike way out on the keel, stretched out horizontally, hanging on to a halyard. With her 18' LWL, she's a 1.5 ton boat (bow 1" down and transom 3" under), which is about all you can expect to right from a capsize, particularly without the additional leverage of a centerboard sticking out it's slot.

Weekender isn't particularly dory like, though she does have a generous amount of flare and a moderately narrow bottom, she's got little resemblance to any of the couple dozen dories I'm familiar with. Weekender, PC and Vacationer are skiffs, but this is a pretty generic name any more.

Compared to most dories, Weekender has about half of their topside flare, three times as wide a transom (or more, most are double ended or nearly so), nearly double the bottom width and is considerably fatter (beam/length ratio). She does sort of have a dory like sheer, but dories have several different sheers to choose from. She has more in common with drift boats then dories, from a lines point of view, though my personal opinion is that she's a modified skiff.



This is a dory . . .



This is a skiff . . .

Ahoy,

Not that I would recommend sailing on open waters, but hasn't the Atlantic been crossed in a flat bottom boat? A sharpie, perhaps?

Let me also hasten to add that the Stevenson designs are not blue water vessels. One rogue wave from the stern could easily fill these cockpits and sink the vessel. You don't have to capsize to drown.

A good squall, I suppose, could be just as effective. Seas with a short, steep wind chop could knock the breath right out of you, rattle the fillings in your teeth, and tear the boat apart.

Mr. Vern and I capsized in his Weekender. At the time, Mr. Vern was only 92 years old. We had no trouble righting the vessel, but we were in a lake, not an ocean. Unfortunately, Mr. Vern had no closed-cell foam in his boat for flotation. To be candid, the boat had no flotation pockets whatsoever. As I recall, once we had righted the boat, the deck sat only a few inches about the water, and we were not even in the boat. Once filled with water, the boat was very unstable and tended to float on its side. We ended up being rescued. Mr. Vern swam to the nearest boat filled with smiling bikinis, and I stayed in the water with his boat as we were pulled to shore by a power boat. :roll:

I would highly recommend that anyone spend a few extra dollars and use extruded foam along the insides of the hull and under the deck. Make sure you have closed-cell foam. The open-cell foam can eventually absorb water and even become water-logged, I suppose.

The next time I went sailing was with another friend. That time I got hit in the head with the boom, knocked into the water, and lost my glasses. I am blind without my glasses, and can't see much with my glasses. Fortunately for me, I got hit in the head, or otherwise, it might have been serious. You can understand why when Craig Gleason invited me to go sailing why I was relieved that I could not go that day.

So What does all this mean? 1. I should go through the panama canel on my around the world cruse insted of around the horn? 2. I should cancel my trip even though I have installed a large truck intertube in the cabin? 3. Don't bother to build a Stevenson disign boat? 4.Don't go near the water until you learn how to swim? 5. Don't get in water over 5' deep
so you can wade ashore. 6. Leave your boat on the trailor when you go to a messabout, sit by the fire drink and tell sea stories you read out of a book? 7. Have walking around sence? Please advise Bud?????????? :wink:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness--- on them light has shined. Isaiah