I've seen a picture somewhere of a Fountain 42 or 47 that was an open bow and it was almost as ugly as that Sunseeker a few posts ago!

I have a 32 mid cuddy open bow and really like it. For the type of boating that we do, it works great. I can hold a dozen people comfortably, and we have a large swim platform to hand out on when we are coving out. I have had crazy thoughts about making an open bow mid cuddy Cigarette/Black Thunder/Scarab. The main part of the cuddy would stay the same, but remove the bed and open it up. Maybe even a retractable or removable hard top cover for the open bow.

In hot climates the cabins of any go fast are useless unless generator/ac are running......nobody sleeps in the cabin in Florida 8 months of the year, maybe a few in the 4 winter months. So the reconfiguration of the bow area with additional seats is very practical vs. dead space of a v berth. Some of the recent Cigs didn't even get v-berth, they got the cover girl cabin.

The idea of an insert piece/hard cover is dangerous on the open bow. If it breaks loose at speed it could decapitate passengers in the cockpit! I had a cushion (wood bottom) break loose once and it was like "whoa, watch out" when it came flying over our heads. It wasn't secured properly (user error) and popped up in 2-3ft seas at speed.

If engineered right a removable panel is no more likely to fly off than a car hood or tonneau cover of a truck is. the upside is that it look a lot nicer than a canvas cover.

Yeah but not too many cars/trucks are regularly launching off multiple waves at speed with a opening that flexes!

Sunsation did a soft cover on one of their 36's that had the paint scheme carry off the deck right through the cover and it looked really slick!

Really what's the difference besides console and seating placement?

I never understood the west coast craze of the open bow cats and the blurry lines between catamaran deckboats. Vhull or Cat it would be closed bow for me.

For reasons of climate and owner usage preferences, mid-cabin open-bow sportboats have found great success on the West Coast. For the same reasons, I think, they never really caught on east of the Mississippi.

There you go OP, there is a market!!!

I shot these pic's of a bowrider Donzi at the Houston boat show a few years ago.
Although it really didn't do it for me I thought about how awesome it would be to get the kids and grandkids in at the same time to go out on the water.









See ya,
Kelly

If you are looking for a MCOB then look at Nordic. They make that config in almost all sizes they offer. I love mine. The only thing I don't like is that at high speed the cabin becomes a wind tunnel unless you put the bow cover on.