long range Willard?

[fijigone]

I am seriously considering trying to equip a Willard 30 for long range cruising. Remove flying bridge and adding 250 gal. of fuel. Any idea what effect that would be on performance and draft. Would this be OK. There are a lot of people here who know these boats and could you please give me your opinions. Thanks.

 

[O C Diver]

I am seriously considering trying to equip a Willard 30 for long range cruising. Remove flying bridge and adding 250 gal. of fuel. Any idea what effect that would be on performance and draft. Would this be OK. There are a lot of people here who know these boats and could you please give me your opinions. Thanks.

This would be questions for a naval architect. 250 gallons of fuel represents more than a ton of weight. This could have profound effects on stability depending on where the tanks are and their relationship to sea level.

Ted

 

[CPseudonym]

I'm all for removing flying bridges off of Willard 30's, a member here named Nomad Willy has one the PO removed the FB and it looks great. The Willard 30 has a good range already and has a stingy fuel burn rate. I'm with Ted about running your tank plan past a NA. What kind of range are you trying to achieve?

 

[BandB]

I am seriously considering trying to equip a Willard 30 for long range cruising. Remove flying bridge and adding 250 gal. of fuel. Any idea what effect that would be on performance and draft. Would this be OK. There are a lot of people here who know these boats and could you please give me your opinions. Thanks.

When you say long range cruising could you define the range and places?

 

[Bay Pelican]

I owned a Willard 30 and made a number of major changes to the boat. I would not personally had made either change you are suggesting. Unlike our current Krogen 42 in which we used the pilot house of navigation extensively, we found the flying bridge of the Willard the preferred navigation location.

As to the addition of 250 gallons of fuel storage, or approximately 1,500 nm of fuel, I would think the amount is greater than is needed for convenience and less than is needed to cross the Atlantic. My Willard used less than a gallon per hour. Thus a range of 600 nm with a hundred gallon tank. Basically filling up every 100 hrs on the engine was not an inconvenience.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Fijigone,
Yea I wonder where you're going w 350 gal of fuel.

The only W30 I can think of that could gracefully take an additional 250 gal of fuel is the Nomad like my avatar. There is a "hold" under the aft part of the salon about 30" high, 4' long and 10' wide.
The W30 has two tons of ballast so if 250 extra gal of fuel set her too deep in the water some ballast could be removed. Not easy to do though and a NA would be needed for calculations.
To get the range you seem to think is necessary backing off on the throttle/speed would be super easy and cruising at 5 knots would/could double your standard 6 knot range (or nearly so). A smaller more efficient engine would help but it would need to be turbochaged to be effective and I don't know if there's small turbocharged engines. A Yanmar 3GM30 (27hp) would be a good non-turbo engine to consider.
I'd consider a longer boat or just a bigger boat. The W30 requires 18hp to make 6 knots but the W40 makes 7 knots w only 24hp as an example. The W30 is not really an extremely efficient boat. A sailboat would get you the range you seek better than a W30 and the smaller engine would probably already be there.

Get on the yahoo groups "WBO" (Willard Boat Owners) and read the archives. I'm quite sure a W36 went to Hawaii and perhaps a W30 w a bladder tank.

Yes .. ditch the FB. And in extremely blue waters something should be done about the plastic windows.
Am I talking to someone thinking/dreaming about the NW Passage?

 

[78puget-trawler]

I always preferred the looks of the FB Willards. Hope the OP comes back with more info.

 

[fijigone]

Thank you all for your input. I hate to say what passage I want to make as I am sure that I will get a lot of impossible and questions of my sanity. But here goes - I want to run from San Diego to Kiritimati,( Christmas is.) Kiribati. This is a distance of a little over 2900 NM. I calculate about 300 gal at 5 knots so 400 gal would give me a good reserve. Understand that I lived on a 42' steel trawler for 20 years and made some long passages but I was a lot younger in those days.

 

[CPseudonym]

I won't call you crazy as I followed a dude on a delorme satellite that took a 23' lake boat day sailer from SF to Hawaii and back then head out for a circumnavigation and wound up at American Samoa 100 odd days later.

SD to Christmas Island in a W30 seems palatial comparatively.

 

[O C Diver]

Thank you all for your input. I hate to say what passage I want to make as I am sure that I will get a lot of impossible and questions of my sanity. But here goes - I want to run from San Diego to Kiritimati,( Christmas is.) Kiribati. This is a distance of a little over 2900 NM. I calculate about 300 gal at 5 knots so 400 gal would give me a good reserve. Understand that I lived on a 42' steel trawler for 20 years and made some long passages but I was a lot younger in those days.

Have never done any passage making (thousands of ocean miles). If you plan a water speed of 5 knots what do you plan for a ground speed based on wind, waves, and current. I cruise at 7 knots water speed and may have days where I average over 7 knots, but never achieve 7 knots on average for the trip. Just curious what your correction factor would be for a 5 knot cruise speed.

Ted

 

[Nomad Willy]

Ted,
Even the Kontiki guys knew where to go to get the most favorable current.

 

[O C Diver]

Ted,
Even the Kontiki guys knew where to go to get the most favorable current.

Was assuming 2900 NM was a straight line, so no moving for favorable currents.

Ted

 

[AKDoug]

I burn .42 gph at 5.5 knots, but in a head sea the 30' Willard doesn't penetrate the waves well and forward speed drops off sharply. The 150 gallon tank is amidship under the floor in the PH. My water tanks are aft and split port and starboard, I can imagine getting another 150 gallons in the stern and a bladder on the bow, but wouldn't want to transit rough water loaded like that.

If you got rid of most of your water and used RO with a smaller reserve supply that would help with the load. Of course my hull layout is different than most Willards' and my experience is with my layout. If I were going to boost my fuel supply it would be with bladders...

I really think the 30' hull is just too small to carry a load like that through the water conditions you are likely to encounter.

 

[Lostsailor13]

What would be considered long range,with my 500 gallons if I pulled her back to 6knts in favorable conditions I bet she would be close to 2500 nm range,the previous owner put her at approximately 3000 plus owning the boat for 40 years,and is extremely knowledgeable about anything and everything,he actually told me when he bought Broadbill 40 years ago he bought her for 2 reasons,one was she had a Detroit,and 2 he bought her to flip and make a profit,but ended up.keeping her