cabin modifications

[jaybird]

Hello this is my first post at this site. Has any one considered radically changing the cabin location and sitting head room dims for the compac 16. It seems like a great boat for the aft 8', huge selfbailing cockpit. However the interior volume of the cabin leaves something to be desired. No forward v berth, no head room etc.
My plan is to work on the forward half of the boat. I have removed the cabin house, some of the deck and repositioned the house forward by around 18" and may lift it 5" for more headroom. I also removed the elevated forward storage area as well as filled in the footwell area to create one large cabin sole that can be used as a v berth.  I realize that this drastic modification will change the sailing characteristics of the boat (center of effort for the sail plan is shifted forward) but will deal with sail modifications latter as I may change to a different rig. Also I will upload most recent pics showing cabin floor change.

[jaybird]

here is one of the pics
the rest are in my(jaybird) gallery

[ilbuildit]

   I think this project you are doing is nothing short of AWESOME!!! That is so cool of you to do some forward and custom thinking, You definitely have your challenges ahead of you which you already know but that is cool. I personally would like to see more details and photos as you go along. You might get some strange opinions of your undertaking in this forum. I seem to always get them for my thoughts and ideas.

   You are taking a cool sailboat and making it suit your needs. Way to go. We have a saying in the Street Rod industry, "Anyone can restore an antique, it takes a real man to cut one up". I think that statement crosses over to these sailboats as well.

   It's your boat. GOOD FOR YOU...

                      Lee...

[jaybird]

hey, thanks for the words of encouragement.  My daughters said "you just couldn't resist cutting your boat in half". I guess they were right. Here are some pics of the flooring details.

[KPL]

Cool Project.  Have you seen this compac trawler mod?



Here's a slightly different version



These are from http://ipass.net/sailboat

I thought it'd be cool to leave the rig in place and keep the rudder.  Use a 5hp outboard and make a mini motor-sailor.  Inside steering and the works!

Keep up the work.

Kevin

[B.Hart]

WOW! what a wild project. I could never do that to my com-pac, but that trawler is way cool!

[jaybird]

hello,
nice trawlers, I have been busy today working on the base for the trunk house.
I am continuing the line of the cockpit combing forward which will give me 4 and 1/2" added headroom in addition to the extra head room by lowering the front chain locker storage in the bow.  My goal is to maintain a reasonable topside profile on the cabin house to avoid to much windage ( going with a tall pilot house). I did
consider a trawler motorcruiser (can upload the photoshop file mockup) but am leaning more towards a sailingcruiser.
Jay

[Craig Weis]

I like this little tug boat modification, very 'salty' looking. But it's no sail boat anymore. Still nice though.
skip.

[fafnir]

Wow, looks like a neat project, I will be interested in seeing how it turns out.  I am curious if you will be adding a compression post under the mast step or if you will do something different.

--CP

[mike5820]

Nice work,cant wait to see more pics.
I have a thought on the mast cant you just cut it the little that your rasing the cabin and put it back in the same spot,wouldnt this keep the same sail plan.
mike

[Gil Weiss]

This is a neat project! I think you could wind up with a sailboat that sails similar to the unmodied CP16 but has a much more spacious cabin. Keep posting progress pictures.

On a related front we just put or CP16 in the water for the season and I noticed a new neighbor several slips up with a trawler looking small craft that reminded me of the "trawlerized" CP16 shown above. It was a CDory boat. I found it on the internet at the following site. It too is 16 feet lomg and oit is really cute!
http://pilothouseboats.net/cdory.html

It is amazing what is out there.

[jaybird]

hello,
I faired up the stack laminations and set the cabin house on top. I think it looks good in terms of profile height.
Jay

[jaybird]

Hello again,
here are some new pics of the cabin modification. I guess I started this project because I had an ensanada 20 (lyle hess design) which had a raised deck cabin with lots of interior space, although my boats only 16 feet I think I gained enough room to camp comfortably in the cabin.
-Jay

[bob lamb]

Good idea and good looks.  I had a CP16 for a few years and loved it, but I didn't like the lack of headroom.  You've sure solved that problem...Keep us posted. 

Bob  CP23d

By the way, I've raised the roof on my CP23 and now have standing headroom and inside steering! Pics in the Gallery:

http://com-pacowners.com/gallery2/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=3

[jaybird]

Hi Bob,
Great job with your pilothouse cp-23. I was admiring this boat when I was planning my modifications.  Can you post some pics of the interior I'm very interested in the layout.
Thanks,
Jay