First Stepped Hull Performance & Consumer?

[Viper GTs]

I was thinking Cigarette but really have no clue...Also what year??? Al

[fast fun 2]

Gold Cup Boats from the 1920s. Challenger had one of the first stepped glass boats in the 70s. Cigarrette was 2001 i belive, way latein the game

[spareparts]

I remember Cigarette advertising they would have none of the stepped hulls, they would stay with the traditional deep V's, a few years later they must have changed their minds. The best comment I heard was supposably Steve Stepp comenting on the stepped Fountains, "If you are running fast enough, that part of the bottom isn't in the water any way". I remeber seening some pics or drawings of boast made in teh early 1900's that had some kind of step on an other wise flat bottom hull. The funiest thing is to see the fake stepped hulls on a lot of runabouts and fishing boats, where the chine has a small cut out in it to appear to be a stepped hull, on plane most of the "notches" are far out of the water, revealing a traditional deep V

[Jimboat]

Well...

Back in 1870, the famous Reverend C.M. Ramus suggested a multi‑stepped hull in an effort to reduce wetted surface in his hull. This design was actually tested by William Froude in his Torquay Towing tank. In 1872, Ramus submitted his plan for a 'double wedge' (planing-type design) to the Admiralty, claiming the design would 'cause the hull to be lifted of the water'.

As early as 1906 there were published drawings for small stepped hulls with hard chines. William Fauber obtained a U.S. patent for hulls with multiple steps in 1908. Two small boats – the 12 ft. Solair and the 15 ft. Flapper demonstrated the potential of stepped hulls as did the Harmsworth challenger Pioneer (5 steps) in 1910.

In the early days of stepped hulls, it was not certain just how many steps should be incorporated. In 1912, Maple Leaf IV, from England, won the Harmsworth Trophy. She had five steps, and the driver sat on a pedestal high above the transom in order to see over the bow. Some hulls had so many steps that they were called "shingled'. Rainbow IV (12 steps).

Gar Wood brought the Harmsworth Trophy to United States in 1920 with the first of his Miss America's. These single stepped craft dominated the Gold Cup and Harmsworth racing of the day, but were not really efficient boats - just big boats with huge amounts of power from multiple V-12 Packard engines. Many stepped hulls from England were significantly more efficient and often faster. They failed to win races because of a lack of strength and mechanical reliability.

Between 1915 and 1940, many motor torpedo boats and fast patrol boats were built world wide, with stepped hulls. The performance of these craft varied considerably. Some were very inefficient due to the difficult engineering challenge of properly locating an efficient step on the hull.

[...from "History of Tunnel Boat Design"]

[cutwater]

I remember Cigarette advertising they would have none of the stepped hulls, they would stay with the traditional deep V's, a few years later they must have changed their minds. The best comment I heard was supposably Steve Stepp comenting on the stepped Fountains, "If you are running fast enough, that part of the bottom isn't in the water any way". I remeber seening some pics or drawings of boast made in teh early 1900's that had some kind of step on an other wise flat bottom hull. The funiest thing is to see the fake stepped hulls on a lot of runabouts and fishing boats, where the chine has a small cut out in it to appear to be a stepped hull, on plane most of the "notches" are far out of the water, revealing a traditional deep V

Johnny's basically right...stepped hulls were built in the 20s. I wouldn't necessarily call them consumer boats, they were built for wealthy sportsmen....

But in 1941, Chris Craft built a 16' single step hydroplane that the more average man could afford....

Stepped bottoms aren't new technology....

[ghost28]

Reggie fountain......LOL.....wait till T2x sees this......

[afr]

very cool jimboat that further proves my point there is nothing new in the boating world other then the people
i would like to see that stepped chris hydro anyone got pic,s
this is not it is it if so i thought all these were garwood boats

http://www.horizonhobby.com/ProdInfo/DUM/450/DUM1254-450.jpg?rand=233735301

[Jimboat]

very cool jimboat that further proves my point there is nothing new in the boating world other then the people i would like to see that stepped chris hydro anyone got pic,s this is not it is it if so i thought all these were garwood boats

Scott - haha...well, I don't think it's really that there's been nothing new, but many design features were first demonstrated many years ago by some pretty smart boat designers. But many of these same features have progressed a long way since their initial seed of idea!

[afr]

Scott - haha...well, I don't think it's really that there's been nothing new, but many design features were first demonstrated many years ago by some pretty smart boat designers. But many of these same features have progressed a long way since their initial seed of idea!
yep once you have a seed every thing grows from that but the root is still the same root idea no matter how much you tweak on it
is all im saying

[cutwater]

very cool jimboat that further proves my point there is nothing new in the boating world other then the people
i would like to see that stepped chris hydro anyone got pic,s
this is not it is it if so i thought all these were garwood boats

http://www.horizonhobby.com/ProdInfo/DUM/450/DUM1254-450.jpg?rand=233735301

That's basically it....not an exact model, but close...

[afr]

ya think thats the way they came up with the stepped transoms

lol

that aint no hydroplane in my book but hey if they say so right

lol
there is one of those in ocean reef but i cant recall what bottom it has

[FUJIMO]

Reggie fountain......LOL.....wait till T2x sees this......

Yeah, can't wait. T2x designed the first stepped bottom, right?

[Viper GTs]

Ok then what was the first commercially sucsessful performance hull for pleasure use???

[Ziemer]

V-bottom or Cat?

V-bottoms, it really started taking off in production offshore boats in the early-mid 90's... Fountain was definitely one of the first to push the step bottoms. ;)

[XstreamVking]

The first production fish/performance hull that I remember bein stepped was called a Harley. Built near Tampa Fl. In Bartow.... 27' and built with kevlar in the bottom. Govt used them in s. America to fight the contras in the early 80s...

[ridgerunner]

Did you see the video Skydog put up in the Lounge, all those flatties were stepped. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJH24Y3_Y9c&feature=related Viper GT- Define performance, outboard, inboard, tunnel, V-hull? You still talking stepped hulls? Good to see you on here Spareparts, you are a wealth of knowledge.

[Viper GTs]

Ridge, I guess the first manufacturer that had commercial success with the step deseign...

[ridgerunner]

The first production fish/performance hull that I remember bein stepped was called a Harley. Built near Tampa Fl. In Brandon.... 27' and built with kevlar in the bottom. Govt used them in s. America to fight the contras in the early 80s...

Harley Boats in Bartow? He has some interesting designs, some of them actually work. He is big into venting the hull. I saw a 60' passenger ferry he built. Twin surface drives of his own making and two more engines with fans/air pumps which force air under the hull. I bought a NV-boat from his son-in-law, kinda reminiscent of the Hickman Sea Sled. Stable and runs shallow but not very fast and plum dangerous in the turns.

[spareparts]

I remember the Rybo Runners/ Man-o War fishing boats(Mid 80's ?), they had the biggest single step I've ever seen on a boat for their size. They came with the seadrives for a while, I remember OMC was having problems getting clean water to the water pickups, the step was aireating the water so much, it would cause heating problems.
An old friend of mine that used to build shrimp boats(he passed a couple years ago), used to aireate the hulls of his shrimp boats while they were making long runs. They would drape a poly rope over the bow, let it drag across the hull to bubble the hull. They would move it back till the captain saw a speed increase or fuel decrease. Once they got it in the right place, they would tie it off. He said he could pick up half a knot(in the 5-7 knot range) and drop his fuel burn by a gallon or two. Not that much of a deal unless you're running the boat all day making a living with it. After a few days, it adds up to some savings.

[XstreamVking]

Ridgerunner.... I went to the plant in brandon (oops bartow)in the early 80s. I test drove a 27' center console that had 24" choppers and twin 235 johnsons... Ran real good I thought. Got 65+ on the speedo and handled like it was on rails. Bud of mine bought one and later had a de-lamination issue that I repaired for him. Skin peeled away from major layup. I was impressed with this particular design..He also was experimenting with vacume bagging...This may have been the reason for the de-lam problem. Also had lots of voids on the strakes. 1st stepped hull that I saw in general production for the average consumer market....

[ridgerunner]

Weren't he old Wellcraft Airslots stepped ? The Rybo design was a battlewagon. I have no idea in a civilian model racer.

Harley Boats, I have seen some of those boats. Centers and Cuddys alike they were nice looking modern designs but I am not sure how many he built. (maybe two a year)

[XstreamVking]

I had forgotten the wellcraft airslots.... They were early 70s boats. They were def. ahead of their time. Friends dad had one, and it wasn't really very impressive. Very heavy, Kind of a tri hull, with a square bow. 115 johnson, maybe 35mph...We partied like crazy people in it tho...May be the reason why I didn't remember it... could very well be 1st one made for gen public...

[T2x]

Does anybody remember the old Skimmar hulls? While not stepped, they used longitudinal "runners" spaced on a flat bottom skiff that outperformed any other small horsepower outboard hull back in the late 50's and early 60's. This was basically a "slot bottom design and created little tunnels between raised planing surfaces. I think famed outboard racer, Emil Mayer, used to be a dealer in College Point at his boat yard.

I wonder, at the speed range these boats operated in (20-45 mph), if the "runner" concept was as fast as the stepped hulls?

T2x

[FUJIMO]

I remember the Rybo Runners/ Man-o War fishing boats(Mid 80's ?), they had the biggest single step I've ever seen on a boat for their size. They came with the seadrives for a while, I remember OMC was having problems getting clean water to the water pickups, the step was aireating the water so much, it would cause heating problems.
An old friend of mine that used to build shrimp boats(he passed a couple years ago), used to aireate the hulls of his shrimp boats while they were making long runs. They would drape a poly rope over the bow, let it drag across the hull to bubble the hull. They would move it back till the captain saw a speed increase or fuel decrease. Once they got it in the right place, they would tie it off. He said he could pick up half a knot(in the 5-7 knot range) and drop his fuel burn by a gallon or two. Not that much of a deal unless you're running the boat all day making a living with it. After a few days, it adds up to some savings.

spareparts, yes, the younger Rybovich brothers came out with the stepped outboard 30' RyboRunner in 1980, in West Palm Beach@Rybovich/Spencer Boat Works. They had a running plug in '79, if memory serves. Definitely the very first of the large center-console stepped hulls produced. The first prototype step design was a good deep design except for one flaw. They did'nt bleed out to the sides. To prove this point to them, that this was necessary, a local performance/racing guru, tightly tied a large diameter(1") nylon line from one of the larger sportfish boats, all the way around the boat at the step intersection. This broke the hulls surface vacuum immediately, and the boats hull speed jumped up 6 m.p.h. This despite the excessive prop cavitation from both right-hand rotation outboards/propellers. The hull plug/mold was corrected and the rest, as they say, is history. It was a great boat that few appreciated in its time, because it was also ahead of its time. Dusky Boats in Dania Beach Florida have one copy of the original design, another in Jersey somewhere.

[Mark75H]

The stepped bottom Gar Wood/Chris-Crafts were "commercially successful" They were produced in volume ... at least scores, maybe hundreds. In proportion to total industry sales, a very successful run.

To make the question say what you want, it would probably be "modern fiberglass stepped hull"

[FUJIMO]

All the Gar Wood & Chris*Craft stepped bottom boats were built for racing, not pleasure boats to the general public. I agree, that "modern fiberglass stepped hull", would be more specific to the question of this thread.

[XstreamVking]

O.K. So what was the first, stepped production fiberglass modern hull....I'm kinda leaning toward the wellcraft airslot...I know they were building them in the mid 70s.

[T2x]

O.K. So what was the first, stepped production fiberglass modern hull....I'm kinda leaning toward the wellcraft airslot...I know they were building them in the mid 70s.

Probably the old Anthony Craft built back in the late 50's and early 60's.

I think the guy hiding behind the screen name FUJIMO will tell you all about it. "Trust him" he knows all about this stuff.

[T2x]

Fact is the APBA specifically banned stepped hulls like the Anthony (or the addition of steps to existing non stepped hulls) from the family classes in the rule books going back to the beginning of OPC. Steps or "shingles" have been a speed trick for reducing wetted surface as long as speed boats have been around.

[XstreamVking]

T2x It looks like the Anthony is the oldest anybody has dug up yet..... Good info.....

[T2x]

T2x It looks like the Anthony is the oldest anybody has dug up yet..... Good info.....


Since fibreglass production was in its infancy when that hull came out, finding anything older in this genre would be splitting hairs at best. I had a chance to test drive one of them back in about 1963 and it was an interesting ride. It had a Merc 800 DR "Dockbuster" on it and would pound your eye teeth out in a mixed chop...but it was fast for its time. I don't think it was faster than, say, a flat bottomed Allison or Switzer Shooting Star..and neither of them were smooth riders in rough water either.

[T2x]

Of course there is also the "Flying Scott" which came out a few years later (1962) but the design was actually a stepped hydroplane...not a stepped monohull. Our "wing" also falls into the same category.

I remember staring at the Flying Scott in the NY boat show for what seemed like hours back then.

[XstreamVking]

With all the "new" technology we have today, it's real easy to forget the people/companys who tried pioneering designs in the early days of outboards.... Legendary old boats all through this thread. Old stuff is still cool....And we can still learn from it!

[T2x]

With all the "new" technology we have today, it's real easy to forget the people/companys who tried pioneering designs in the early days of outboards.... Legendary old boats all through this thread. Old stuff is still cool....And we can still learn from it!

No conversation of that era and designs would be complete without including the idiosyncratic, H. Donald Canazzi, founder of Buffalo NY's "Custom Craft" company. Here are a couple of his 1960 models....
To call them unique is an understatement. When you think of all the hype that various hull builders have spewed out since Reggie and Hustler claimed to have "designed" the stepped hull back in about 1990...these pictures tell you just how full of sh*t they were... ;)

[afr]

i need a better look at those spray deflectors i had to put some on mine as i was getting wet from time to time over waves and such

[Mark75H]

All the Gar Wood & Chris*Craft stepped bottom boats were built for racing, not pleasure boats to the general public. I agree, that "modern fiberglass stepped hull", would be more specific to the question of this thread.

Boats were really made like this:

http://www.horizonhobby.com/ProdInfo/DUM/450/DUM1254-450.jpg?rand=233735301