Hull construction for seagoing vessels

A seagoing vessel comprising a hull having side walls which converge forwardly to define a bow, and a forwardly projecting bulb at said bow, said bulb including an upper periphery exposed above the water surface when the vessel is stationary and in a fully loaded condition, a portion of an underside of said hull being inclined upwardly and rearwardly at the stern end of the vessel, a pair of side skegs extending rearwardly from said inclined portion on opposite sides of a fore-aft center axis of the vessel such that forward ends of said skegs are disposed completely below the water line as the vessel advances, and a pair of propeller shafts extending through respective ones of said side skegs and carrying propellers at their rearward ends, said propellers constituting the sole propellers for propelling the vessel, said side skegs and propeller shafts converging in a rearward direction, said side skegs each including an outboard surface and an inboard surface, said outboard surface being generally planar and said inboard surface including an inboard projecting convex bulge at its lower end for inducing an outboard flow of water through a top segment of the associated propeller in a direction opposite the direction of propeller rotation, a center skeg extending rearwardly from said inclined portion of said underside in a fore-aft direction midway between said side skegs, said center sket overlapping longitudinally with at least rear portions of said side skegs, said center skeg including rearwardly diverging sides which each induce an outboard flow of water through a top segment of a respective propeller in a direction opposite the direction of propeller rotation, said center skeg sides converging downwardly toward a bottom edge of said center skeg, said bottom edge extending rearwardly and upwardly and being disposed higher than said propeller shafts in a region where said center skeg traverses a vertical plane containing said propellers, said vessel including a deck and at least one bearing for supporting said propeller shaft, an engine, a transmission coupled to said engine by a drive shaft and connected to a respective propeller shaft to drive the same, each side skeg comprising horizontally spaced, upright steel plates extending upwardly through and beyond the underside of said hull and to said deck, and horizontal steel cross-plating rigidly interconnecting said upright plates intermediate the height of said skeg, with said engine, transmission, and bearing being mounted upon said cross-plating.

A seagoing vessel comprising a single hull, a portion of an underside of said hull being inclined upwardly and rearwardly at the stern end of the vessel, a pair of side skegs extending rearwardly from said inclined portion on opposite sides of a fore-aft center axis of the vessel such that forward ends of said skegs are disposed completely below the water line as the vessel advances, and propeller shafts extending through respective ones of said side skegs and carrying propellers at their rearward ends, said side skegs and propeller shafts converging in the rearward direction, and said propellers constituting the sole propellers for propelling the vessel, said hull having side walls which converge forwardly to define a bow, and a forwardly projecting bulb at said bow, said bulb including an upper periphery exposed above the water surface when the vessel is stationary and in a fully loaded condition, said bulb including side walls which curve divergingly downwardly and outwardly from said upper periphery of said bulb to a location defining a maximum width of said bulb and then curve convergingly downwardly and inwardly to a bottom of said bulb, said maximum width of said bulb extending from a rear end of said bulb to a location adjacent a front end of said bulb, said bow extending downwardly and rearwardly from a deck of said vessel to a location above said bulb and then extending forwardly and downwardly to said rear end of said bulb.