Transoms?

[Dennis Marshall]

Some sailboat transoms are angled, some are not. Why?

What would the practical consequences be of taking an existing design with an angled transom and setting it plumb to the BL/WL? We are talking about a slight modification of 5 inches which would seem to have a minimal impact on the design. This would lengthen the lwl a bit, I think, but any speculation of how it would affect the rest of the design? Would the rudder, for example, need to be reconfigured? Would it affect displacement much? Would it bollocks up the intended performance of the boat, or does it really matter?

Dennis

PS This is a purely speculative excercise. The question arises because I read a design article by Bolger who prefered a plumb stern for most designs. He mentioned only its affect on lwl, but nothing else. Maybe it is really a matter of aesthetics?

[ 08-28-2004, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: Dennis Marshall ]

[Leigh]

Usually, the angled transom is there to assist the boat to lift to a following sea....a good idea, I think.
But I believe designers actually add it on their boats because it just looks so darned right! :D

[RodB]

Amen!

RB

[Bill Perkins]

If the designer chose to convert to a plum stern while leaving it's point of intersection with the sheer unchanged I can see that the LWL would be increased .If he chose instead to leave the transom's intersection with the bottom unaltered I can see how the change to plumb would reduce the LWL . I can see that by making carefull calculations the convertion could be made without changing the LWL at all . I seem to remember Mr. Bolger using a similar logic when comparing flared topsides to plumb ones .It seems like an arbitrary statement to me .