YellowTail "domino" verdict

**honkongphoie** · 4th October 2009, 07:59 PM

this is my Yellowtail Verdict

Well she came out the water yesterday after six month being moored in a tidal bay, she has survived relatively unscathed, only a few knocks and scrapes from surrounding boats and one small crushed area from sitting on the eye of the dead men of the neighbouring mooring on the edge of a plank below the water line that will need attention.

She has been well tested in various conditions from flat calm to 15ft swells

and winds to force 6, she has performed very well (better than my underwear did in the 15’ swells

) in all conditions except where you have a 2 to 3ft chop with wind against tide, she is very messy (you get extremely wet) and difficult to go in the direction you want, in these sort of seas and a passenger up front she could do with a little more volume in the bow because she tends too slice into the short chop and not ride over it (but I also guess this is a lot to do with the type of chop/wave being short and not sufficient water to it?)

Performance wise (I only use her with a Marina 5hp long shaft outboard and oars) flat calm sea I have managed 8.2 knots and with my passenger 6.4 knots flat out at three quarter throttle you only lose around ½ a knot.
This is where I will suggest if anyone is building a Yellowtail just to be used with and outboard motor CUT the keel back around 18” as it causes cavitation with the prop from three quarter throttle up, I sort of cured this by mounting the motor off centre as much as I could but she still suffers from the cavitation a little, this is probably why there is not much difference in speed from three quarter throttle and full.
I won't be cutting my keel to cure this problem because as soon as my next boat has been finished i'll be using her for sailing only so i'll put up with it.
She row’s relatively well but with a boat weighing 450lbs you do need to put your back into it (so if you’re a 6 stone weakling then this will not be for you)

Over all she is a great little boat that attracts a lot of attention on and off the water, most people can’t believe she’s not fibreglass, I have to lift the seat so they can see she’s plywood.

Lastly I would like to thank everyone on here for the advice and help throughout the building of my Yellowtail, it was of great help and very much appreciated.

Thanks

Richard

**Dave Brewer** · 4th October 2009, 09:16 PM

Great post Richard-this will be invaluable information for any prospective Yellowtail builders.I can't imagine taking one into a 15' swell,but it's nice to know she'll cope with it.What's the next project going to be?You've caught a terminal case of boatbuilding disease too by the look of things,
Cheers,
Dave.

**honkongphoie** · 4th October 2009, 09:53 PM

Originally Posted by Dave Brewer

I can't imagine taking one into a 15' swell,but it's nice to know she'll cope with it.

neither could i, i just got caught out.
where i fish from has a lot of submerged reefs which rise very sharply plus a 4-5knot tide run, the evening i was out did have (what we call) a fairly big ground swell coming off the Atlantic but i was happy to be out fishing a small reef about a 1 1/2 miles beyond the bigger inner reefs but as the tide rose the swell also got a lot bigger so decided to call it a night and motor in, as i approached the bigger inner reefs the swell where huge far bigger than i expected them to be and some where starting to curl on the top

but i had no choice i had to got through, so i just zig zaged my way in, i don't think i have ever been so scared in my life

Originally Posted by Dave Brewer

What's the next project going to be?You've caught a terminal case of boat building disease too by the look of things,
Cheers,
Dave.

well when the plans are finally finished I'll be building a Sam Devlin 19' Dipper but mine is going to be stretched to 20'

so whilst waiting for the plans to be finished (hopefully January) i'm extending my workshop another 12' to 32' square, i hopefully have enough room

**Daddles** · 5th October 2009, 10:40 AM

Monster swells - I think we've just discovered why you're going for a bigger boat

Interesting about the water coming in with the chop. The coach house version is supposed to be a very dry boat. Also interesting about the outboard issue - why don't you fire off an email to David Payne about it.

When it comes to the sailing rig, have you considered Mik's yawl conversion?

Glad to see she's done so well, especially living on the water like that. 6 months eh? Time does sort of scurry away from you.

Richard

**igatenby** · 7th October 2009, 12:48 PM

Thanks for that info Richard. That's a nice turn of speed - more than I expected.

15' swells can be inspiring in any boat... I remember getting some of those under the tail of my 72 year old 50' cruiser a few years back. We doubled our speed as the swells went past and we went down their face.

Ian

**honkongphoie** · 7th October 2009, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by igatenby

15' swells can be inspiring in any boat...

Ian

hi Ian
when i got in that evening i don't remember calling them inspiring

i too was surprised at her speed, everyone who's seen her under-way says she goes really well and sits nicely in the water.

**honkongphoie** · 7th October 2009, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by Daddles

Monster swells - I think we've just discovered why you're going for a bigger boat

well really it because i don't like using Domino for fishing, she's too nice to have blood and guts over her

plus i'll be able to get out a lot further out to fish some of the banks and wrecks we have. Oh and all the creature comforts of a nice warm cabin with hot tea or coffee on the boil

Originally Posted by Daddles

Interesting about the water coming in with the chop. The coach house version is supposed to be a very dry boat. Also interesting about the outboard issue - why don't you fire off an email to David Payne about it.

i will be putting the little coach house on when i convert her to sail, that will stop a lot of the water coming in, plus something else to think about is when under sail the boat will be healed over so that may change things?
when i ordered the plan from David he did have concerns of the type of seas i would be using it in, but i told him i was a fine weather sailor (which i am

) so not to worry to much as i don't go out when it to rough, but i did need to go out and test her in all conditions

i'll contact David soon i'm just doing a small write up of my build for him.

Originally Posted by Daddles

When it comes to the sailing rig, have you considered Mik's yawl conversion?

i rather like the gaff rig myself, in the bay shes moored there are two big old gaff rigged boats and i love them.

Originally Posted by Daddles

Glad to see she's done so well, especially living on the water like that. 6 months eh? Time does sort of scurry away from you.

Richard

6 months doesn't time fly

only seems a few months ago i put her in the water

**rob540** · 7th October 2009, 06:57 PM

Daddles, you've got to remember that over there the tides are so big that she's only in the water for half the time anyway, so that's only really 3 months...like yesterday really.

Another 3 months waiting for the plans and Honkers will have stretched his workshop to cover another 30 acres and he'll stretch the next boat to 40 ft- almost long enough to walk to France on it without worrying the anchor...

Great report on the boat. Really useful information for Yellowtail builders and very interesting for the rest of us.

**Daddles** · 7th October 2009, 07:23 PM

Originally Posted by rob540

Daddles, you've got to remember that over there the tides are so big that she's only in the water for half the time anyway, so that's only really 3 months...like yesterday really.

Another 3 months waiting for the plans and Honkers will have stretched his workshop to cover another 30 acres and he'll stretch the next boat to 40 ft- almost long enough to walk to France on it without worrying the anchor...

Great report on the boat. Really useful information for Yellowtail builders and very interesting for the rest of us.

What peeves me most is that he built that boat using only his granddad's pocket knife and glue made out of flour and crushed fish heads

Richard

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