Atkin's River Belle
Submitted by cac on Fri, 2007-02-16 13:20
Atkin's River Belle is the largest of his tunnel hull designs available in plan form to the amateur builder. Its a nice looking River Cruiser type craft, 35' 3" x 8' 10". A shallow draft boat (17") its has the classic styling of the turn of the previous century.
Atkin's tunnel hull is an offshoot of the Seabright Skiff designs, with the addition of a negative deadrise at the stern, forming a "triangular" tunnel around the prop. Some people don't seem to think that would work well, but most of the ones built seem to show very good performance.
There is concern about "slap" in a rolling motion as the sides of the tunnel come out of the water and go back in, but...
A similar look as Mark Van Abbema's V39, although with a different hull form.
Comments
The doubt on working was due
The doubt on working was due to the propellor position. It was constructed as an semi-surface prop.
the tunnel was not the problem. As far as i remember, D. Gerr was explaining the issue in a Passage Maker magazine or in The Nature of Boats.
At D. Gerr's webpage, and especially at http://www.gerrmarine.com/images/boat_images/power/gerr42tunnel/gerr42tunnelC.GIF, one can see the side view more clearly, as the Summer Kyle was built similar. There also the surface prop arrangment can be seen.