Stern Wheel House Boat design

[Jimboc]

Hi,
I am going to build a House Boat. We want to retire this year and spend some time exploring our waterways on the East coast of Australia. I have limited funds & I don't know much about boats except that if air is replaced with water they generally sink so I think a good place to start would be to ensure that doesn't happen... I`m a lousy swimmer.

Aprox plan is..Beam 3.6m, Length I envisage to be between 9 and 10 mtrs. I have a lot of experience building "Stuff" in both wood and metal There is only my (very tolerant & long suffering ) beautiful wife and myself, plus, are you ready for this?... & 3 Jack Russells, so I'm going to need a bit of open roof deck space for them to run about in. They are house dogs who are never more than a couple of paces away from either of us at any given moment and their favorite habit is sleeping, usually right where we are trying to work... of course. Yep and they don't swim to well either so all the more reason to make sure this thing stays afloat. Fortunately my wife has medals for her prowess in the pool so we are all relying on her to get us through this, un-drowned.
I have chosen Stern Wheel drive, as I like the idea and they are great for shallow draught, Power Plant will be a small Diesel and full Hydrauic drive. My company builds small earthmoving machines which are fully Hydraulic operated so I am in a field I am well conversant with as I do most of the design work, Scow Hull so I can place my Black water and Drinking Water tanks below the deck as well as utilise all the blow deck storage space.

Any help, plans, advise or experience you have that you think would help would be greatly appreciated.
I`ll keep you posted as to how it all turns out.
( Let me know if you think I should start the anger management classes sooner rather than later)
Thanks
Jim

[rasorinc]

Consider a Catamaran hull rather than a houseboat hull. Much better to handle any and all weather and water conditions. I'm building this plan with a full cabin, sleeping quarters, and full bath and kitchen. Mine will be 30'-6" and you can widen the beam to 11'. Just a thought for you. Enjoy the process of learning. https://www.boatdesigns.com/products.asp?dept=722

[Jimboc]

Hi ,
Thanks for your input. As it happens there are a pair of new unfinished Ply Hulls on ebay at the moment that would be ideal. They are 9.2 x 1.2 each so in the light of your suggestion I will consider them.. My main reason for using a mono hull was to put the water tanks below deck and centre them for balance. My wife asked a good question over breakfast, Will this thing fit out the gate once its built? That stopped me dead in my tracks for a minute untill I ran it past my brain.. he answer is... Just..... with 400mm to spare if I take off the gates which are 2mts each !. Never thought of that did I! Yes, it will be a definate steep learning curve.
Cheers
Jim

[SamSam]

There are two old plans here. Go to 'Miscellaneous Designs' and then

GWEN O' THE RIVER - 28' Sternwheeler
LADY OF THE LAKE - 28' Sternwheeler

http://www.atkinboatplans.com/

Here's another one. From Harry Suchers book, 'Flatbottom Boats'. Click on the thumbnails to make them bigger, do it again to make them readable.

[PAR]

Picture a set of paddles on the stern of this puppy.



If you'd like I'll draw up a set of wheels and toss in a couple of smoke stacks on this design of mine.

[Jimboc]

Thanks a million for your help. I have downloaded these to study. Although they are very old fashioned, the principal is the same, they will certianly add to my knowledge base and help me with my finial draft. It is amazing what plans there are available.
Regards
Jim

[Jimboc]

Thanks PAR That would be interesting. Its a very ambishious design. I doubt I have the skills for much more than a shed on a pontoon ..lol but the faint heart never won the Fair Maiden did it.
Cheers
Jim

[PAR]

Naaa, it's not that hard to build, it's just big. Any 50' boat is going to be a long term project. This one is 50'x16' with a 360 degree water view. The cabins are straight sided, the hull plywood, the framing dimensional stock (2x6's, etc.).

I have a 26' and 33' versions too. This is the 33' model and is intended for voyaging in semi protected waters reasonably efficiently.

[SamSam]

Here's some more sites. This one documents a pontoon boat made into a sternwheeler. The pages take a real long time to load because of photos. As I was reading it I thought with the weights he was talking about, it would never work and would sink, but it turns out exactly like he planned and works great.

http://users.wirefire.com/gemort/vern%20p1.htm

This is the main site for the first one....

http://users.wirefire.com/gemort/