The S&S Solution for Skinny Water

Sparkman & Stephens, a full-service naval architecture and engineering firm in Manhattan, addresses motoryacht draft issues with finely tuned propeller tunnels.

Although the name Sparkman & Stephens is indelibly linked to sailing yachts, this New York-based design firm’s recent research on optimized hull designs for planing and semi-planing motoryachts is of special interest to yachtsmen operating in the shallow coastal areas of the Southeast and Bahamas. For S&S, the solution is propeller tunnels–a feature incorporated into recent projects, including the Grand Banks 47 Heritage CL (see page 42).
In order to accomplish minimum draft, small diameter propellers or water jets can be used, however, says naval architect James Moran, these alternatives do not necessarily provide optimum efficiency. Water jets and alternatives such as surface piercing propellers are a good solution at very high speeds, but below a certain point, propellers are still the right choice and easy to build. ...

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