Chesapeake Bay deadrise
Encyclopedia
The Chesapeake Bay deadrise is a type of traditional fishing boat used in the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

. Watermen use these boats year round for everything from crabbing and oystering to catching fish or eels. Traditionally wooden hulled, the deadrise is characterised by a sharp bow that quickly becomes a flat V shape as you move aft along the bottom of the hull. There is a small cabin structure forward and a large open cockpit
Cockpit (sailing)
In the Royal Navy, the term cockpit originally referred to the area where the coxswain was stationed. This led to the word being used to refer to the area towards the stern of a small decked vessel that houses the rudder controls...

 and work area aft.

The deadrise design was developed around the 1880s for sailing vessels such as the skipjacks of the Chesapeake Bay. "Deadrise" refers to the line rising upward horizontally from the keel rabbet (the point where the top of the keel connects to the hull) to the chine
Chine (boating)
A chine in boating refers to a sharp angle in the hull, as compared to the rounded bottoms of most traditional boat hulls. The term hard chine indicates an angle with little rounding, where a soft chine would be more rounded, but still involve the meeting of distinct planes. Chine log...

 (or sideboards). It rises on each side of the keel in a straight line, or "dead rise," creating the flat V shape of the bottom of the hull. A V-bottom is easier to build than a round bottom. It also has a shallow draft of two to three feet, making it ideal for the shallows of the Bay as well as being very forgiving when the Bay turns rough. Though earlier types such as skipjacks shared a similar hull form, the term "deadrise workboat" is generally understood to refer to more recent engine-powered vessels. The average deadrise workboat is 35 feet (10.7 m) to 45 feet (13.7 m) long with a beam
Beam
Beam may refer to:*Beam , a construction element*Beam , the most extreme width of a nautical vessel, or a point alongside the ship at the mid-point of its length*A narrow, propagating stream of particles or energy:...

 of nine to twelve feet. The deadrise can use almost any engine, from a 455 Oldsmobile, 460 Ford, or from a 671 Detroit to a John Deere 6-cylinder. Today diesel engines are preferred over regular gasoline because of their reliability.
The design and construction of deadrise workboats evolved from the sailing skipjacks. The bottom of the hull is planked in a herring bone pattern with planks running diagonally from keel to chine. The sides are planked longitudinally. One of the first types of purpose-built small powered fishing boats to appear on the Chesapeake Bay were the Hooper Island draketails of the 1920s and 1930s. The Hooper Island draketails featured construction similar to the sailing skipjacks, but were narrower as stability was not needed to carry a sail and a narrow hull made best use of the limited power from the available gasoline engines. As higher power engines became available, hulls became wider. Higher powered engines permitted higher speeds, which required sterns that were wider and flatter under the waterline to prevent the stern from squatting down in the water at higher speeds.

The Chesapeake Bay Deadrise is the official boat of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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