Warren,
Thanks for the link to the Timber Coast 22. What has happened is that the new NA has taken the original "V"forward and brought it aft. The original Bartender had a flat run aft, from the inital V--somewhat like the C Dories have, but with a much narrower beam aft--since they were virtually double enders. The Flat run gives a planing surface--as the C Dory. The Timber Coast, has taken the v aft. My guess is that although this will be slightly more effecient, that there can be some other effects--the boat may roll more, it will be slightly less stable at rest, and there is the potential for wandering at lower speeds. They are claiming only trawler like speeds of 7 knots. It would be hard to compare the "effeciency" of both these hulls at low speeds--since I suspect it would be measured in tenths of a gallon an hour at the 5 to 6 knot speed. Personally I would rather have the faster boat.
This ties into something which I didn't comment on in the original question--and that is the top speed of the two boats. The newer Ranger tugs are capable of planing speeds with the 150 Cummins engines--vs the 7 knots of the Devlin. How much difference does this make--well--we just had a lengthy thread on the 21 where the criticism was that the boat was not fast enough. Plus I had opined from the first, that the Ranger 25 was under powered to get planing speeds. At this point in life, I prefer to have boats which will allow me to get in faster in impending heavy weather--it is difficult to really "out run" weather, since we get squalls moving at 30 plus knots.
As for the layout of the Bartender and Timber coast--I think that can be modified to one's specifications--but there will probably not be as good cruising accomidations as the C Dory 22.
