SeaHawk - Hull and Cabin
Page updated 6 November 2007
Dimensions
The hull's principal dimensions are:
| Length Overall: | 16' 11" | 5.13m |
| Length at Waterline: | 14' 6" | 4.4m |
| Beam: | 6' 6" | 1.98m |
| Draft: |
Min: 18" Max: 36" |
0.45m 0.91m |
|
Weight: Overall (approx) of which Ballast: (approx) |
1640lb 440lb |
745kg 200kg |
Design Features
The SeaHawk's hull is very distinctive. Above the waterline it has the appearance of a wooden clinker-built hull. This helps give it great rigidity. Below the waterline is a central keel with a flat bottom and two stubby bilge fins, all of which are part of the hull moulding. An L-shaped steel plate, weighing about 70lb, swings out of a housing within the central keel doubling the draught and providing additional stability to the boat.
Having a drop keel makes the SeaHawk ideal for exploring shallow tidal reaches. Unlike many drop-keel boats there is no centre-plate housing that intrudes into the cabin. Instead, the "L-shaped" end to the keel rises under the companionway step, neatly out of the way. On other boats this arrangement might mean that the protruding keel under the boat, would prevent the boat from remaining upright when on a mooring that dries out. However, the main keel is up to 9" wide and its flat bottom, taken together with the stubby bilge fins in the hull, means that the SeaHawk will remain reasonably upright when beached, as can be seen in the picture of Buzznack II below. Although this picture shows the bulges to be quite slim, they are quite long and do add to the stowage space beneath the two quarter berths found in the cabin.
Further aspects of the keel design make her especially attractive to those in shallow or weedy waters. As the keel does not drop to the vertical, but only to about 30°, weeds just slide off rather than wrapping themselves around the keel. Lifting the keel is easy too! All you need to do is grab the handle in the companionway step, raise it just 18" and slip a pin through a hole in the tip of the keel to hold it in the raised position. Quick and simple, even when single handed.
Construction
The SeaHawk is not a complicated boat. There are just two principal mouldings, one for the hull and other for the complete superstructure; foredeck, cabin and cockpit. These are both built using resin, reinforced with several layers of chopped strand glass fibre matting.
The superstructure moulding is strengthened at various points, with boards or strips of wood moulded into the glass fibre. The entire cabin roof is reinforced with a sheet of plywood. In the left hand picture, below, the edge of the roof board can easily be made out where it meets the sides of the cabin. Other reinforcement points include the shroud achorage, the forward part of the foredeck around the main anchor cleat and under the cockpit seating.
Interestingly, one sees boats with both one or two reinforcing strips at this point. The pictures below show two examples from early boats.
There are no cabin linings. This simplicity does mean that the SeaHawk has no protection against condensation. To overcome this problem many boats are fitted with a thin carpet glued to part, or even all, of the cabin interior.
The only required moulding internally is that for the cabin floor. This is bonded to the hull and incorporates support for the the quarter berths and the companionway step. This last component of the moulding is hollow and acts both as the casing for the tip of the keel and a central point that joins to the superstructure moulding, so adding further to the general rigidity of the hull.
The floor has a small opening to allow access to the keel bolt and to the lowest part of the bilges. The floor moulding only extends as far foward as the cabin bulkheads, which are considerably smaller on the four berth variant than those shown here. Ahead of this will either be the bow moulding on four-berth boats or a triangular plywood floor panel on two-berth boats.
Depending on the internal options, boats will be fitted with one of two versions of reinforcement for the mast step. Early Reedcraft brochures (The Moore's version was almost identical) show both of these types in photographs of the two and four berth variants. On the two-berth variant there are bracing struts rising from rather intrusive, bulkheads. On the four-berth version the bulkheads are much reduced in size but there is a laminated wooden beam added to strengthen to the cabin roof. A photograph of this beam appears in the Boat Shed Section.
Internal Options
During its life, the SeaHawk was available with a number of different, optional, internal mouldings forward of the bulkheads.
Two-Berth Boats
Undoubtedly the most common option in the original two-berth variant of the SeaHawk was the galley, fitted to the port side. (This example comes from the boat Clocharde.)
The moulding consists of a platform is designed to take a two burner cooker, with a locker underneath. Most boats these days are fitted with a locker door, but this was not always provided when new. Reedcraft used to recommend fitting an Origo spirit cooker, as keeping a boat "gas free" would keep insurance premiums lower, but a gas cooker was supplied, if requested.
Forward of this is a circular bowl with drain. This part of the moulding is set necessarily high so that the drain pipe from the centre of the bowl can exit through the hull above the waterline. Boats are known to have been delivered without any kind of pump to supply water to the bowl, so the one seen here is probably not an original fitting. This is not unreasonable as there is no provision for a water tank to be fitted in the boat and many would have simply filled the bowl from a portable container, or a kettle when hot water was required. Further evidence for believing that few, if any, boats were fitted with pumps as standard is the range of pumps seen fitted to boats these days.
To starboard, a two-berth boat would normally have provision for a toilet. In Clocharde (below left), this is a sea toilet, while others boats had a platform fitted forward of the bulkhead, on which an Elsan toilet could be stored. "Stored", because it was rather high to be used comfortably in this position.
The unusual blue finish to the inside of the hull of the boat on the right was a condensation-resistant option offered by Reedcraft for a time. Charged Nylon fibres were sprayed on the specially coated hull. Electrostatically charging the fibres, as they were applied, meant that they stuck to the surface on-end, so forming a velvet-like finish to the hull. Unfortunately, when left unattended over winter it was still possible for condensation to form. It did in this boat and the mould proved impossible to remove completely.
Four-Berth Boats
Penny, a 1985 boat, displays the standard four-berth moulding, but it lacks the optional v-berth mattress cushions.
The price list for 1986, indicates that this was the only internal moulding available at that date. The 1991 price list offers similar options, so it appears that the galley moulding ceased to be available at some point between 1979, when production moved to Moores, and 1986. (Please use the Feedback Form if you can more accurately date this change.)
The detail of the hatches in this example varies slightly from the undated technical drawing (532kb) submitted to the site. It is known from this that the space under the central rectangular hatch is intended for a toilet. The circular hatch on Penny gains access to a recess some four to five inches deep for a bowl. [I assume that this doesn't drain overboard as the two-berth galley bowl does! - Webmaster.]
There is no optional cooker mentioned in the 1986 or 1991 price lists, which suggests that none was expected to be fitted, and that the remaining hatches are for general stowage.
The technical drawing shows that to fit four 6ft berths into a SeaHawk extra length needs to be provided to the quarter berths and the bulkheads and mast bracing, found in the two-berth boat, must be removed. It will be seen that the quarter-berths are stretched to 7'6", reaching further under the cockpit. This provides the necessary extra 18" for additional cushions to be laid on the quarter-berths just aft of the forward moulding. In this way, a double 6ft v-berth is provided in the bows.
In the picture, above, of the interior of Idun, a Danish boat, the full set of cushions is in place, stowed for day time use. The additional deep set of cushions that extend the v-berth to full-length are stored forward. (The cabin also appears to have been insulated with cork tiles.)
The extra length of the quarter-berths also has an impact on the type of cockpit lockers fitted. On a four berth boat these must be further aft than is the norm in order to allow the additional quarter-berth length.
Further Options
The two arrangements illustrated above are certainly the most common options. However others were possible.
Devon (Also seen on Lake Como in the Gallery Section) is fitted with the "four berth" mast bracing option, but not the standard four-berth moulding. Instead, it has a bulkhead and galley moulding of a "two-berth" boat. The further lockers in the bows and to starboard, all appear to have been built later of wood and covered to match the rest of the trim in the cabin. It is likely that the additional shelving above the lockers will also have been fitted by the owners and not supplied when new.
The technical drawings of the "four-berth" boat suggests the mast bracing system requires the fitting of narrow high-level back rests. Devon has them with fabric matching the berths. These have useful storage areas behind them that resist shedding their contents when under sail.
This example, reported by its current owner as built in 1979, is of a "bare bones" two-berth SeaHawk, one of the Norfolk Broads Colony. The only internal moulding is the standard two quarter berths. This moulding is a required fitting as it helps, along with the companionway step, to brace the centre plate casing. It also adds to the general rigidity of the hull, which is in any case extremely stiff, because of the clinker-style shape to the hull.
In spite of the text in the original brochure, this example does not have, nor any sign of ever having had, the "two shelves with padded back rests above each bunk". So it looks as if the standard specification may have been dropped slightly during Reedcraft, or early Moore's, manufacture.
When new, the boat would not have looked as pristine white forward of the bulkheads, as this example is. It has been painted to disguise the various shades of resin that were used in the keel area of the hull where the ballast is added.
Other Boats using the SeaHawk Hull
As a postscript, it may be worth noting that there are at least two other boats that have been produced using the SeaHawk hull. One was the Pedro/Senorita. Another boat with yawl rig on a SeaHawk hull has been spotted on Derwent Water in the Lake District. If anyone can provide information about these designs, then please use the Feedback Form.