Stepped hull design

[hydroViper235]

Why has this not made its way to smaller speed boats?
487256

[XstreamVking]

Turning would suffer a lot. You need a good bit of running surface to allow the vents to work. Small boats would just swap ends in a turn with vents. Not enough wet running surface for needed hull tracking. jm2cts

[CUDA]

Liability, they can have some real unusual turning characteristics.

[hydroViper235]

hmmm, I was just thinking of smoother cruising speeds. Maybe quicker planing

[JPEROG]

As mentioned above, behind the step an air pocket is created and it removes two things: Drag and Control small boats don't have the square footage to maintain the control in many cases-even big boats have bad results (spin out) when the operator attempts to turn hard without positive trim stance.

Joe

[hellbents-10]

That and many people on here with small v-bottoms run their boats high and dry negating the need for those steps!!!

[TooStroked]

That and many people on here with small v-bottoms run their boats high and dry negating the need for those steps!!!
Absolutely agree. I had a guy at the dock once tell me that my Progression 22 would be faster with steps. I asked him if he'd seen it run at speed - which he had. "So where the hell would you place a step then? There's only a couple of feet of the pad even getting wet at speed" I replied. That shut him up.

[CUDA]

Where they really come into play is offshore wave action, I myself like calmer river water.

[FUJIMO]

...from a boat manufacturers point of view(but not all), they are a pain in the ass, when designed into a smaller hull design. drainage from bow to stern? fuel tank installation on top of the steps with uneven hull bottom? ? does this reduce cockpit depth, due to the fuel tank being installed higher? makes hull lamination/layup more difficult, especially if cored? hull bottom pressure points on a cradle/trailer need to be avoided, etc? custom trailer bunk design required? or dunking the trailer deeper to clear the steps loading/unloading? same price point at sale, but at an added manufacturers expense? on the performance side of things, regarding them being designed into a "production" boat build, without going into all the specifics, they just are not worth it. just my 2 cents.

[David]

Regal makes a stepped bottom boat in smaller sizes. I skiied behind my neighbors 20' Regal last weekend. Does the Regal bottom improve performance over other random boring 20' bow riders? I have no other experience to compare it to.

[FUJIMO]

...this is regals single midship step they sell on their boats. again, from a manufacturers side of things, the hull aeration drawn in from the sides, which only happens at higher speeds, requires the sterndrive and/or outboard(s) installed X-dimension height to be lowered, to get proper slipstream cooling water supply to the intakes. its a performance wash. no pun intended. step placement & step design depth are speed critical for a particular hulls intended use. overall payload becomes more critical along with this as well. exceed or reduce a stepped hulls primary design speed criteria, and the benefits of they're design are gone...https://sportboatstore.nl/phpthumbsup/w/1400/h/600/zc/1/src/uploads/assets/uploads/441128286-1280x720.jpg

[TooStroked]

Regal makes a stepped bottom boat in smaller sizes. I skiied behind my neighbors 20' Regal last weekend. Does the Regal bottom improve performance over other random boring 20' bow riders? I have no other experience to compare it to.
Regal claims it does, but by how much and in what way(s) I have no idea. They had a pretty neat video a few years ago showing one of their step bottom hulls going past over an underwater camera. The bubbles aerating the hull aft of the step were clearly visible.

Edit: And FUJIMO beat me to the punch with a shot from that video.