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Californian Veneti

Discussion in 'General Yachting Discussion' started by gr8trn, Mar 16, 2014.

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  1. gr8trn, Mar 16, 2014
    #1
    gr8trn

    gr8trn Senior Member

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    Interested in knowing if anyone knows more about Navigator/Californian hull construction/build. Seems to be a glass hull with doug fir stringers and deck balsa core bolted and glassed on.

    It seems that the aluminum sub floor support is a nice structural and sturdy way to support the upper saloon.

    I know that they designed the hull tunnels for the zeus drives so that should be a decent installation.

    Not many made that I can find, except back in the late 1980's.

    Looking for a PNW Columbia River, San Juans once a year, maybe coast hop to California in the future type of boat. Not a fly bridge please.

    Californian Veneti boat for sale in Portland United States - Ref: 22464 - ************** Mobile

    How's the price look to you?

    Thanks for your time!
  2. jsschieff, Mar 16, 2014
    #2
    jsschieff

    jsschieff Senior Member

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    If this hull goes back to the old Californian/Navigator Veneti express boats they made years ago, I am quite sure it was not designed for Zeus pod drives. These hulls pre-date pod drives by many years.

    Not to say they can't be adapted to pod drives, but I would be wary about it -- pod drives engines are generally installed much farther aft than conventional drive engines and the large difference in weight distribution could cause significant handling issues.
  3. Capt J, Mar 16, 2014
    #3
    Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    In at least half of the installations I've seen they keep the engines in the same location or close to it and run a carbon fiber shaft to the pod for weight distribution.
  4. PacBlue, Mar 16, 2014
    #4
    PacBlue

    PacBlue Senior Member

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    This is not the same generation Californian/Veneti from the 80's, this hull came from different tooling.

    The Zeus Pods required Tunnels and the Tunnel design was supplied by the Zeus engineering support team, the builder would typically put an insert into the hull for the tunnels. You can adapt any planning hull to a Pod design as long as you have the engineering to support it and they get the weights/centers within the right parameters.
  5. gr8trn, Mar 16, 2014
    #5
    gr8trn

    gr8trn Senior Member

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    Correct, I do know that this hull was designed with tunnels and part of the Cummins specifications rather than a retro-fit. As this was not a big seller for them they did not make many.

    Took her for a spin today, very little bow rise, the engines are the 380 horse Cummins. WOT was just shy of 3100 RPM making 26 kts SOG upriver, up to 29 kts SOG downriver. She was taking 40 gph at WOT. Fuel dropped to 20 gph at 2200 RPM, I can't recall SOG at that level. Very quiet and comfy, nice turning radius and pretty flat at 2200 RPM.

    She is a tank for sure, probably over 40,000 lbs. I like the ride and of course the Skyhook was off the hook cool.

    I like the boat so far, very nice large boat for a couple with our usage pattern and Pacific NW cruising.

    Only 500 gallon fuel tank but short hops is just what we have in mind.

    Thanks for the replies!