This is number four in my occasional series focusing boats that I have a personal interest in. When I was jotting down my list on a note pad whilst waiting for a plane some months back I swiftly came to the realization that these boats are wildly different and I also realized that although they may be good at one thing they are often not so good at another; all boats are a compromise. So the next in my series is somewhat of a departure from previous boats in my list and this is definitely one that you can not build in the garage. The Florida Bay Coaster series of boats are designed by Jay Benford, whose work I have long admired. Many would say these boats are ugly and although I would not call them pretty they do have very purposeful air to them. What I personally like about them is that they make no pretensions to world girdling cruising but in my mind would be ideal for trips up and down the east coast of the USA. Offering prodigious amounts of space in their length they are perfect as a live-aboard boat. I also like the fact that they are steel which is probably one of the toughest boat building materials that you can have,after all if it's good enough for a super tanker it must be great for a recreational boat.
They have a proper wheel house from which to con the boat, most are not overly cluttered up with lots of berths, they have proper 'living rooms', in fact just about everything to make spending time aboard very comfortable. Power is modest too and I as far as I understand most have a single diesel although the example shown has twin engines. I think the best compromise might be something like a 300 to 350 hp John Deere or Cummins with a smaller separate wing engine this would leave plenty of room in the engine room for getting to everything. This boat is only going to run at displacement speeds so adding additional power would offer little to no extra benefit. So that would make the boat fairly economic to run and I would estimate that at 8 knots you might only use 7 gallons per hour.
These pictures are borrowed from Yachtworld where 60 foot long 'IRONY' is currently listed for $599,00 which I think is a bargain, if only I could just win the lottery! It is also interesting to note that Florida bay Coasters have a look similar to Great Harbor trawlers although the latter tend to be smaller by comparison.
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