Re: Deep V?
Did a little lookin' around, and here are the terms I have found for planing hulls:<br /><br />Flat bottom: Jon boats, skiffs, anything with a completely flat bottom. Planes with low horsepower, performs poorly in rough water and does not steer well at higher speeds.<br /><br />Semi V: Starts as aggressive V at bow to cut through water but transitions to flat or near flat at stern. Handles chop a little better but still uncomforable, still steers poorly at higher speeds. Smaller current Center Console boats are examples.<br /><br />Deep V: True V hulled boat with fairly consistant deadrise from bow to stern, Handles chop and steers well, requires more horsepower than a semi V. Any current fiberglass runabout is an example.<br /><br />Cathedral hull: Name comes from inverse of the Dihedral shape. The Cathedral shape can be seen at the stern. Often called "Tri-hull", it was an attempt to gain more interior space in a given length. depending on the individual boat manufaturer, the cathedral hull handles turns very well, is moderately comfortable in rough water, and requires more horsepower to run than a semi V hull due to weight and hull shape. Tri-hull boats are starting to show up again, but still in small numbers. Boston Whaler was the epitome of the tri-hull, but they have strayed from the shape. Hurricane makes a lot of tri-hull configured deck boats.<br /><br />Then there are all the mutant pickle forks, pad bottom (where the boat is planing on a small flat pad about 1 square foot: high end bass boats, Hydrostream Vectors, are some examples) and other designs out there.
<br /><br />Kelly Cook