[RichH]

Perry will freely admit that his pinched stern designs are simply ''stylistic''. But, If you carefully compare Perrys designs with others who have designed a canoe stern you will find that there is plenty of ''bustle'' or enlargement of the stern shape hence reserve bouyancy. When you imaginarily cut a line (plane) across a Perry stern and divorce the ''protrusion'' you wll see that the stern is very adequate for volume/bouyancy - so, if you took a chain-saw and completely removed the pinched end by just 2 feet you will find a stern with quite broad dimensions. To some like me who owns one, I think it just "looks nice". I dont think of that stern as a reduction of reserve bouyancy but rather an increase! If you have the opportunity to look at hull drawing with lofting lines and have a ''smidgen'' of solid geometry in your background you will see exactly what Im explaining. Certainly these boats dont have the fat-ass of todays commmon charter fleet designs with forced volumes but when you ''really'' analyse the design you might be well pleased. Just consider that pinched stern as a small stylistic ''appendage''. Although these Perry designs are now a bit dated by todays ''tastes'', no one can deny that more Perry designs are out there actually ''doing it'' including circumnavigations .... than probably *any* other single designer.

There are advantages in this shape ....you cant cram in lots of mass or heavy junk into such a stern .... hence you automatically keep the one end of the boat ''light'' which promotes less hobby-horseing. The steering gear dominates the stern end ... so that you CANT stuff it full of needless crap.

BTW - if you are serious about a Perry design, Bob Perry offers a (for a fee) consulting service to help in your evaluation and choice. http://www.perryboat.com/page/consult