sorensen powerboats 2014 06. june

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POSH : much more than areplica of a masterpiece

POWERBOATSBY ERIC SORENSEN

John L. Hacker was a top speedboat designer and builder in theearly part of the last century, and he knew a thing or two aboutplaning hulls that many designers today have either forgottenor never knew. The speedboats and commuter craft Hackercreated may have been necessity-driven designs, but they were

beauties to behold.

There’s no question that long, slender boats are more comfortableat speed, easier and more economical to propel, and have more gentlemotions at rest than shorter, wider hulls — assuming that the hullshape, propulsion choice and center of gravity are all on target. Andthe fact that they are long and low makes them sleek and, therefore,more pleasing to the eye. So why aren’t boats today designed withthese proportions?

One answer is simple: Today we can make boats as fat and hard topush as we please, thanks to powerful, lightweight power plants. Infact, the only reason we can get away with building boats that are asmuch as 35 to 40 percent as wide as they are long is that engines are

compact and powerful enough to push them to any speed ownerswant, as long as they’re happy to pay for the machinery and the fuel.

When boats such as the one that the Huskins Boat Works built, based on a Hacker design, were all the rage in the 1930s, engines wereheavy and took up a lot of space. So the best way to get a boat to gofast was to make it easy to push, which meant giving it a long and

skinny hull. In those days, ifyou wanted to go faster than20 or 25 knots, that’s how youdesigned them.

Hacker learned a lot aboutplaning hulls when he designedthe floats for the Wright Broth-ers’ plane in 1911, going on towin more than 20 world speedrecords. But there were alsosome things he may not have un-derstood — things that modern-day designers such as Bill Princedo understand and are able tocorrect after a little reverse engi-neering, thanks in large part tocomputer-aided design.

As you’ve read here before,good boat design is based onmoderation in all things — nottoo wide or heavy, or too deep-vee or flat aft, and neither toofull nor too sharp forward. Fora given application, everythingshould be like Goldilocks’ por-ridge: just right. On the inside,simple is better than compli-

cated. Complexity leads to problems with reliability, and having toomany problems steadily erodes the enjoyment of owning a boat.

In addition to getting the hull proportions and shape right, the mostimportant efficiency factor is weight, and the less the better. There are60- to 70-foot yachts out there, specifically several convertibles, thathave chine immersions aft of well over 1 foot. This points to extreme bottom loading and proves the axiom that you can make a brick planeif you push it hard enough. On the other hand, boats can be too lightand too reactive to wave gradients — and uncomfortable as a result.

Bill Prince Yacht Design in Port Washington, Wis., is not one formaking bricks plane. The company’s tagline is Naval Architecture

Designer Bill Prince has been called on

to create a 21st century interpretation

of the 52-foot commuter yacht POSH,

designed by John L. Hacker in 1937.

SND 64,66,68,120 Powerboats.indd 2 4/18/14 11:17 AM

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+ Award Winning Design = Elegant Engineering (billprinceyachtdesign.com). I like what Prince has done during his 20-year careeras a designer, especially his ability to combine the discipline of anengineer with the eye of an artist. The result has invariably been well-performing boats that look great. You appreciate them equally whenwatching them from the dock or standing at the wheel maneuveringaround the docks or at night offshore.

But although Prince balances art and science, including the science ofunbroken arcs of horizon visibility from the helm, others take a muchless balanced approach to yacht design. There are many boats out therethat look as if they came from the pen of a stylist who has never run a boat, with no consideration given to situational awareness.

Many of these are impractical and unsafe to be aboard once theycast off from the dock. So it’s marvelous when someone really un-derstands the possibilities of intelligent boat design, who can balanceoperational capability with gorgeous looks — in other words, highlyfunctional eye candy.

It turns out that these long, narrow boats of the ’30s, with theirmodest weight spread out over a long bottom, have so much to offerwhen done right. To pull this off, one needs a talented and aware de-signer and a customer who understands and appreciates what theseold girls had to offer. Such is the case with Prince and his client F.Todd Warner, and the 52-foot commuter yacht known as POSH .

“POSH is a reimagination of a 1930s art-deco commuter yacht but bristling with superyacht tech under the surface,” Prince says. “It’sreally something unique.”

With today’s technology, originals can be greatly improved. Whyin the world would you play Bach on a harpsichord when the grandpiano has been in production for almost 200 years? Rather than buildPOSH plank-on-frame using mahogany over white oak, as many

boats were in those days, it’s a simple matter to fashion her withepoxy cold-molded wood. This creates a far stronger, waterproof,low-maintenance boat that will last indefinitely with reasonable care.

The epoxy bonds the wood planking strips and frames togetherto create a monocoque structure, with the hull skin doing much ofthe structural work of supporting the boat longitudinally — to resistwracking — and providing transverse support. Of course, these boatsalso have stringers and bulkheads for support, but hull skin that iswelded together by epoxy reduces the stringer and frame scantlingsrequired, offering both weight and cost savings during construction.In fact, POSH will be built of mahogany to give her the look of theoriginal but with all the advantages of cold-molding.

You could build this boat out of cored fiberglass or even makeit plank-on-frame, which adds an authenticity that some peoplewould value more than they would be concerned about the extramaintenance required to keep the boat in good shape. I am as fickleas anyone I know in these matters. A staunch partisan for compos-ites, I lose all my resolve when I see and smell an honestly craftedcedar-over-oak lobster boat. I no longer care a whit about the extramaintenance, which may not be significantly more than it takes toproperly maintain a fiberglass boat, by the way. But on balance, thepoint is that we have so many more and better choices now than wedid in John Hacker’s time.

Another bonus with the new POSH is the choice of propulsion, withinboard gasoline power provided by twin V-12, 453-hp Rolls-Roycesor V-10, 725-hp Ilmors (good for 60 knots if you don’t profile well as aType B). Or go with diesels, with a selection of FPT, Volvo or Yanmarpower from 435 to 570 hp each. Then there are the electrical, plumbingand mechanical systems that completely outclass those of 80 years ago.

The modern POSH will be 52 feet, with a beam of 10 feet, 9 inches,

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Hacker’s POSH (above, when she was known

as WeeJoe II) and Prince’s computer-generated

take on the classic commuter.


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and a displacement of 20,800 pounds at full load. With all the water-line length and low displacement, she should climb on plane withvery little fuss or bow rise. (By comparison, a typical 52-foot by 17-foot, 6-inch production convertible weighs slightly less than 80,000pounds.) The original version of POSH was built in 1937 for $75,000— and was featured on the cover of Rudder magazine.

The new boat is largely true to the original, although Prince hastweaked the hull to reduce resistance aft, flattening the buttocks by eliminating rocker and taking the convexity out of the sect ion,which might reduce rolling a bit while cleaning up water flowat speed. Compare the drawing showing the before and afterdesigns (see Page 120), and you’ll see what I’m referring to. Thewaterlines curving inboard aft indicate the convexity in section(as seen transversely from keel to chine) and in the rocker cre-ated aft, which creates negative pressure, raising the bow.

POSH has fore and aft cockpits, with a forepeak cabin in the bow.The saloon is just abaft the forward cockpit and is fully enclosed forthose inclement transits. The open bridge has its own large wind-shield. Nothing makes a boat look so pretty as its length, and this onehas it in spades. The raised bridge deck stretches to the aft cockpit,with its U-shaped settee near the stern.

The engines are under the bridge deck, which balances the boatnicely, with the longitudinal center of gravity about 40 percent of thewaterline length forward of the transom. The fuel tanks are forwardof the engines, below the helm, and centered just forward of the boat’s center of flotation, which happily results in the bow coming upslightly as fuel is burned and speed increases.

The net effect of the engine and fuel tank placement is that LCG is39 percent forward of the transom, or 61 percent abaft the stem at thewaterline, which is perfect for a boat with this one’s speed capability.Hinckley’s tumblehome has nothing on POSH , and there is nary astraight line to be found topside.

Back aft is a U-shaped settee that’s two steps down from the bridge deck. A gate closes off the area, which can be flood-ed to create a spa tub. Although you don’t want to flood the spawith water in a seaway, there’s plenty of form stability to

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If it ain’t broke,make it 21st centuryBy Chris Landry

F. Todd Warner, an authority on classic wooden powerboats

who owns the original POSH, approached designer Bill Prince

roughly two years ago about building a 21st century version of

his 1937 classic.

“I am starting my 40th year specializing in the restoration, sales,

service, design and construction of vintage boats and vintage boat

design,” says Warner, CEO of Mahogany Bay and RetroModerne

Yacht Design in Mound, Minn.

Warner, by the way, says he has owned more than 1,000

classic boats. In fact, he also owns Guy Lombardo’s 44-foot

Tempo. “He is a walking, talking encyclopedia of classic

boats,” Prince says.

Warner acquired the original John

Hacker-designed POSH in 2005. His

company has restored the yacht, and

she has been on display at major boat

shows. “I am starting my ninth season

with POSH,” he says. “After a thousand

boats, [POSH] is the one that rings all

the bells and lights, all the fires, and

gets all the juices flowing again. That

gets harder to do when you have had so

many boats to play with.”

Warner is enthused about the atten-

tion POSH has brought to the slender-

hull design. He has driven his classic

600 nautical miles on the east coast of

Florida. “I am out there in 4- to 5-foot

waves in my long, skinny boat, and it’s

amazing how well it performs in these

big chops,” Warner says. “You get out

in something long and skinny that slides

through the water and doesn’t pound,

and it is a great experience. A lot of

people don’t understand — these old

hull designs have some merit to them.”

Prince, who was featured in a May 2013 Q&A in Soundings,

has many projects under development, including a 75-foot alu-

minum catamaran, the new 45-foot Huckins sportfisherman, a

70-knot carbon-fiber sport yacht for a Kuwaiti client and alu-

minum patrol boats built by Metal Shark in Louisiana. Even so,

Prince considers POSH among the most notable yachts he’s

designed in his 20-year career.

The new POSH is still in the engineering phase, but Warner

and Prince are in discussions with “one of the world’s foremost

yacht builders to launch the project,” Prince says. They expect

construction to begin late this summer, with completion in the

summer of 2015.

“The project certainly has captured everyone’s imagination,”

Warner says. “It’s a way to take the past and pass it on to the next

generations.”

continued on Page 120

POSH incorporates the latest

technology, including a

custom touch-screen helm,

a concealed waterproof

television and an aft cockpit

that converts to a spa.


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counter the free surface effect of that spa water at anchor or at thedock. Making this arrangement even more decadent is a hydrauli-cally activated waterproof television that emerges from the deckaft, along with waterproof surround-sound speakers.

Farther aft we have a lazarette deck that slides on tracks for ac-cess to the storage space below. Look closely at POSH’s transom,and you’ll see a rectangular outline in the “o” and “s” of her name.This is the aft end of the hydraulic passerelle, lest you think guestswould have to exert themselves getting on or off the boat.

Below that, at the boot top, is the outline of the hydraulic swimplatform, which projects when it’s needed and tucks awayout of sight when it’s not. And that boot top is made of inlaid brushed stainless steel, rather than being painted on in theusual lowbrow way.

If you are fretting that people sitting in the forward cockpitsipping cocktails are neglected, you can relax. A canvas soft topabove the forward saloon slides out to cover your head, torso, legsor whatever degree of shade you wish to have. That precise shadeangle is then maintained automatically as the boat swings on thehook at anchor, so you can tan the right knee but not the left, orwhatever you fancy. And although your tan line is precisely main-tained by digitally controlled machinery, you do have to walk to thewine locker abaft the galley to replenish your 1992 Screaming Eaglecabernet because the one thing this boat does not have is a bell withwhich to summon the butler.

While you are below, your needs have been seen to, as well. For example,the old boats had finely crafted hand cranks to lower and raise the widewindows. With POSH , you just touch the crank, which looks identical to the

original “jewelry,” and the window glides up or down with no further input.I can’t think of another boat that combines the glories of the past

with the marvels of the present as this one does. It’s certainly to themanner born (as its owners also will have to be), with a long length/ beam ratio, light bottom loading, a clean run aft for low resistance atspeed, a sharp waterline forward to tame the chop, and a layout thatallows for three or four conversation areas or activities.

You may not be able to fit a king-size berth and his-and-her lockers inthe forepeak, but who cares? POSH ’s owners will have a boat that, forits size, will take a fraction of the power to push along at 30 knots, while being coddled and pampered by all those amenities and a silky smoothride. You’re special, like everyone else, but POSH is really special.

Visit mahoganybay.net for more about POSH . n

21’ Padebco 2006 Center Console .................... $74.9K 25’ Parker Marine 1998 Pilothouse ................... 32.5K 25’ Rosborough 1997 Cruiser .............................. 45K 26’ Back Cove 2005 Hdtp. Exp. ........ ..................... 99K 27’ Maxum 1992 Sport Cruiser .......................... 16.5K 27’ Rietschans Beaver 2001 CC .......................... 89.9K 28’ Legacy 2001 Express ............................. ......... 79K 28’ Albin 2003 Tournament Fish ........................ .. 68K 29’ Back Cove 2007 Hdtp. Exp. ........ ................ 129.9K 29’ Sea Ray 2005 Express Cruiser ......................... 69K 30’ Pursuit 2000 Express ............................. ..... 59.9K 31’ Tiara 1995 Open Express ............................. 59.9K 34’ Atlantic 1989 Sport Fisherman ....................... 59K 34’ Silverton 1985 Convertible .................... ..... 24.9K 34’ Cobalt 2007 Cruiser ....................................... 99K 35’ Regal 2004 Commodore Express ..................... 99K 36’ Little Harbor 1997 Expr. Cruiser ................. 179.9K 37’ Four Winns 2006 Cruiser ........................... 129.9K 37’ Silverton 1985 Convertible FB 2 ..................... 9.9K 38’ Sabre 2007 Sedan ........................ ............ 359.9K 39’ Carver 2001 MY Aft Cabin ............... .......... 149.9K 40’ Sea Ray 2006 MY .................................... ..... 269K 40’ Windsor Craft 2009 Cabin Cr. ........................ 399K 42’ Bristol 1981Trawler .............................. ..... 54.9K 42’ Webbers Cove Downeast Exp. .................. ..... 459K 44’ Sea Ray 1993 Sundancer ................................ 86K 44’ Viking 1983 FB MY ............................... ...... 99.9K 55’ Hatteras 2002 FB Conv. .................. ............. 689K

POWERBOATS from Page 68

The original and revised lines show the warp in the hull sections

reduced for cleaner water flow at speed, reducing drag.


sorensen powerboats 2014 06. june

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