General Concept
The 48 foot Greatheart has a hull form similar to the 46'
Gulliver and the other vessels in the Greatheart series. A quick look
at this hull form reveals very adequate overhangs fore and aft, much like a
fishing vessel would have.
The Pacific Northwest fishing vessels have indeed been the inspiration
for these hull designs, however the Greatheart 48 is quite a lot more sleek
than those parent types. See below for a description of the genesis of the
Greatheart family of designs.
The GH 48 has a waterline length is 39.7 feet light, and 41 feet loaded. Displacement will be around 31,000 lb. light and around 39,000 lb. loaded. Beam is 12.5 feet.
Power
Sails are provided both as emergency get-home power and as roll dampening devices. Greatheart makes use of a very conservative ketch rig. There are twin keels of a fairly conservative size for the sake of sitting on the mud, to carry a small quantity of ballast, for enhanced rolling resistance, and for the sake of providing windward performance under get-home sail power.
Additional roll attenuation is provided via paravanes. It is anticipated that due to the sail rig and bilge keels, that the paravanes will be used considerably less of the time than if the vessel were not so equipped.
Power required will be around 80 to 85 hp for ocean travel. Engine choices are the very capable 4 cylinder John Deere, the very stout and well engineered 4 cylinder Lugger, or the long lived 4 cylinder Cat 3304-B. Any of them will be suited to world voyaging. The JD or Lugger will provide a bit of weight savings over the CAT engine. The JD and Lugger also provide close
to the same horsepower. We have specified the John Deere for the best all around combination.
For the greatest number of options under power or under sail, we have also specified a Controllable Pitch propeller and gear. First cost is not much different than top grade fixed pitch gear and propeller equipment so there is little rationale in favor of FPP, in particular given the excellent possibility of motor sailing with the GH 48.
The Greatheart hull shape is very light in weight. At top speed Greatheart will achieve around 9 knots. Range is calculated to be over 3,000 NM using around 650 gallons of fuel at a typical voyaging speed of around 7.25 knots.
Illustrated Interior
The layout below reveals a kid's or guest double stateroom aft, with two quarter berths and a big school / office desk on center facing aft. There are two settee seats in the Pilot House, intended to seat four adults comfortably.
Forward and below, the galley is located on both sides just forward of the companionway. Immediately forward of the galley there are a pair of easy chairs, one to port and one to starb'd, which allow the "ship's library" and the galley's social area to be rolled into one.
Forward of the ship's library is a head located to port and a dedicated shower compartment located to starb'd. The shower doubles as a true bath tub, and has been given a convenient teak-slat seat outboard. The forward stateroom is for the owners. The owner's cabin features an island berth right forward and ample storage within two hanging lockers and the very large area below the berth.
Alternate Interior
For the Greatheart 48 I have often envisioned a simple change to the interior that would not disturb the configuration of the cabins or structure, but would provide a much more spacious dining area, located below... Given my own 'druthers, I would do more or less as follows:
- In the pilot house, eliminate the settee and CL table aft.
- Introduce a fixed forward facing seat to port and stb'd for piloting and observing, just aft of the exit doors.
- Move the two "reading chairs" in the cabin below up into the pilot house, aft of the piloting seats.
- Below, place the galley along one side (say to port).
- Create a good sized "U" shaped dinette below on the other side (say to starb'd).
Several other possibilities have also come to mind for the interior, a few of which have been sketched for other versions... They include shortening the pilot house by
eliminating the settee, moving the forward face farther aft, then expanding the galley, settee, socializing area below forward.
Design Summary
The Greatheart 48 profile is both sleek and refined. The
intent of the design has been to fit the maximum accommodations into the
continuous duty capability of the several readily available and robust four
cylinder marine diesel engines. I believe we have succeeded nicely.
The Greatheart 48 has been further developed in several ways. A smaller version, having exactly the same interior, but a different hull form wrapped around it is the prototype, Boojum 43. Also, a
Fast Version has been planned at 48' which would be capable of planing or semi-planing performance, again using the same interior, but with a fast hull form as the wrapper...
Design Genesis
Several of our designs share the
same essential source hull type, in this case
derived from the North Pacific
fishing trawlers which operate in all
weathers in the Gulf of Alaska, a place where the
ocean is... well, not so nice. We
refined the fishing trawler hull type to create
a more yacht-like shape and that became the
"Greatheart / Gulliver" series. See
the following links for vessels in the Greatheart series...
Greatheart
36 |
Gulliver 46 |
Greatheart 48 | Greatheart 54 |
Greatheart 60
We then modified
the hull to create the "Vagabond"
series which makes use of a proportionately longer waterline
and a more upright stem and transom. Combined, this reduces the
overhangs and increases the WL length to gain more interior space with
less overall hull length. Check out the following links for boats in the Vagabond series...
Vagrant 49 |
Vagabond 50 |
Voyager 52
| Valdemar 53
For more information on this or other designs, please
inquire
Direct Quote from an aluminum boat owner...
As an owner since 5 years of an aluminum boat I could not agree more with your preference for this material. She is a great boat and requires very little in the way of maintenance. I do a lot more reef snorkeling than the paint, polish, varnish and wax guys!
--Peter Kminek
