General Concept
Moxie is a design that I worked out primarily for my own use. Moxie and her larger sisters Quinn and Renegade represent my idea of the ideal type of Power Yacht. For a place like the San Francisco Bay estuaries, the Columbia River, Puget Sound, the incredible cruising waters extending from Seattle to Juneau, the US Intra
Coastal Waterway or the canals of Europe, a more perfect power boat would be difficult to imagine.
Moxie is long and lean, so has a low propulsion horsepower requirement, therefore conservative fuel use. Due to the extremely simple shape and light displacement, Moxie would be very inexpensive to build for the amount of living space provided. Moxie has plenty of room for a couple and their occasional guests.
Vessel particulars are:
43' - 6" Moulded LOA
11' - 2" Moulded Beam
39' - 0" WL Length - Half Load
3' - 9" Draft - Half Load
8' - 7" Air Draft - Half Load
22,350 Lb Light
31,850 Lb Loaded
Layout
One of the main features of the originally planned layout for Moxie was to have a large aft party deck. You'll observe the difference between the Preliminary Study Drawing and the final Interior Layout that the choice was made to extend the pilot house slightly in order to have a dinette in there, and still
have a generous aft deck. With either version, the aft deck could be screened in or enclosed by a canvas / vinyl dodger in cooler weather. A large Fore Deck allows plenty of space for sun tan adventures and for stowing a shore boat or other gear.
Inside, the layout is as conservative as possible in order to keep boat size within limits, but still extremely comfortable for a couple and occasional guests. The settees can be made into berths. Once could be made to extend for a double berth. The dinette in the pilot house can also be made into a double berth.
The galley is quite generous, occupying both sides of the boat. There is a large head / shower and a big hanging locker / wardrobe right aft.
Construction
Although originally conceived for all aluminum construction, Moxie would be a candidate for construction in steel. If built in steel, the hull, aft deck and house sides would be 10 ga. steel, and the fore deck and pilot house top would be cold moulded wood.
Moxie would be well suited to composite construction or all plywood construction using epoxy/fabric sheathing. This would give the vessel a strong and light weight structure. With attention to detail, much of the wooden internal structure such as stringers could be left visible, saving weight and providing a very handsome interior.
Whether built with composite, plywood or metal construction, the entire vessel can be built using flat panels, since all surfaces are developable. With any of these construction materials one can easily arrange for all parts to be NC cut by router or plasma arc. Via the computer generated hull model shown in the above links, the sheathing, frames and webs can be quickly placed, then the
stringer cut-outs placed in each frame. The resulting "boat kit" would make for very fast assembly.
If composite construction is preferred and it is desired to do a single lay-up for the hull, it would be very simple to create external mold frames and even to cut the mould sheathing using an NC router. The various NC cutting techniques leverage the work already done to create the computer model, allowing structure to be very easily defined directly from the computer model.
Power And Range
Range under power per the Beebe method is approximately as follows.
At passage making speeds of around 7 knots, the engine power requirement will be around 19 hp. With 450 gallons of diesel fuel, assuming a 12% reserve and a specific fuel consumption of 16 hp/gal/hr, Moxie's range per the Beebe method is calculated to be around 2,500 miles. Slowing down just slightly, this is sufficient range to make for Hawaii from the US West Coast.
An engine of 75 continuous hp is targeted. This is exactly the power output of the 4045 DFM John Deere 4 cylinder diesel. An engine of only 65 hp would push Moxie along at a "normal" hull speed of 8.5 knots. Moxie, due to being long and sleek, has a relatively high speed potential for her size of nearly 10 knots. The engine provided will therefore ideally be between 75 and 90 hp in
order to take best advantage of the hull shape.
In Summary
For a couple seeking a comfortable life afloat, Moxie offers the basics along with several modest luxuries. In terms of finding the perfect personal power yacht the boats in the 'Moxie' family are my own first choice. The primary appeal of this design type is the excellent accommodations made possible by the large flush fore deck, and the long covered aft deck. It
all adds up to being able to provide "the life of Riley" afloat...
Concept designs in the Moxie family have been preliminarily developed in sizes ranging from 32' to 64' LOA, and they are all equally appealing. Two designs in the Moxie family have been fully detailed in order to expand on the Moxie concept: the 49' Quinn for construction in aluminum, and the 50' Renegade for steel. They both have
a layout specifically intended for two people to live aboard in comfort.
Of course as the vessel becomes larger, the layout possibilities become more numerous. For example, expanding Quinn to 53 feet or Renegade to 54 feet would provide the possibility of a second stateroom or office.
A 32' version called "Mandy" is intended to have the same accommodation plan below forward as the Greatheart 36, except that Mandy would have a large aft deck instead of the Greatheart aft cabin. The Mandy 32 prototype has a preliminary displacement of 10,600 lb, a beam of 10.5 ft, and a DWL of 28.5 ft.
Another prototype was developed at 36' called "Molly." Check out the Molly 36 web page for more information on the layout, particulars, and a few images.
For more information on these vessels, please feel free to contact us. Also, you may want to check out the Article written about the 43' Moxie design by Steve Knauth in Soundings Magazine here.
Other Moxie Links
36' Molly | 49' Quinn | 50' Renegade | 60' Peregrine | 64' Moxie
Copyright 2005 Michael Kasten
