Definitions: Pilothouse, Flushdeck, Sedan bridge, etc?

Hi GW and welcome to YachtForums!

From your questions I guess you are thinking of powerboats around 50 feet? Most of the answers is to find in the concept of the boat, which is seen in the profile (sideview). There are pros and cons in every design, but what is good for one buyer isn´t necessary what another one like. The more customized, the more personal a yacht becomes and isn´t this the fun of it?

With engine rooms, in my experience you either have near standing height or you can open up hatches above when you need better access. Some boats have hatches all the way through the fly bridge for replacing an engine.

In Europe, crew access can be anywhere, but in the past, especially italian boats used to have cramped crew areas with access from the bow only. Most of these crew areas are used for storage in reality and the owner is running the yacht without crew. Or they are facing problems hiring a crew...

Anyway, a daycruiser/open, a flybridge boat or a trawler yacht allows for diffferent solutions, there are no general formulas to follow I think.

One boat I remember with the crews quarters in the bow with only a deck hatch and ladder for entry is the Maiora 20m( 70'). But several other Ital/Euro Manu. do this. Just pray for no rain when entering these quarters or your room mate won't be all that happy

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I will take a stab at the flushdeck layout. Think of this from the interior viewpoint. With a flushdeck the bridge area is at the same elevation as the main salon. Thus the guests' can share the view out the windshield, plus the owner/operator can feel he is included in the company of his guests. Assuming he is in a sociable mood!

Besides that .... the flushdeck profile simply has a sleeker look to it.

Kelly Cook

" Engine room headroom varies from 4-0 to 6-6."

Well, George, the reality is that the broker took liberties with the dimensions: headroom is actually 46 1/2" except over there in the outboard corners close to the air intakes where Olive Oyl might squeeze into where it's 6'4". Roughly.

"Flushdeck desgn, who prefers it and why? What's the drawback?"

Kelly's answer is spot-on...and the drawback is that the look does not work with a lot of today's really ugly designs.

"Crew forward, why do only Europeans favor an entrance on the bow deck?"

See Lars. Also, traditionally, most Euro boats anchored up Med-style with the stern to the quay and the anchor out in the basin underneath twenty other anchors from the neighbors' boats. This keeps the crew's swearing out of earshot when departing the marina.

This layout is a nightmare both for crews and Owners/Guests because in most cases three-four guys are mixed together in a tiny space (crew Cabin) sharing only one head and WC, and everybody can imagine their faces and the impact to their behaviour after a four days trip. In fact our previous Yacht was a Maiora 27m with this layout and We have been forced to move to a larger one in order to solve the crew accomondation issues which at the end destroy the nice time of the Owners

No, never...

Of course there are books on boat design and yachting. But they typically focus mainly on how-to build the thing, or operate it. Really very little discussion about design tradeoffs. So AMG is right, you're out of luck for anything comprehensive. Anyways, here is another thread that gets into information resources a little -

> General Yachting Discussion > Retirement Dreams

Otherwise, searching boating forums is your best bet. Though you will have to piece together the bits of info yourself.

Kelly