Carvel planking

[boat fan]

Originally Posted by BATAAN

Doubling an old barge was done with 1 1/2" elm, spiked on. Try and find book "Just Off the Swale" by D.L. Sattin, Meresborough Books, 1978. Has wonderful tales of barge building and repair in Conyer UK before ww2. They still used pit saws and he goes into some detail about all the barge building things.

Thank you , will look for it.......

Scows are interesting , so simple , like sharpies , yet maybe not so simple to design ( well).

Are there any "general rules about L/B ratios , free board etc?

[BATAAN]

General rules are design the barge for the job, which means L/B ratio, displacement and freeboard are tailored to the waters and cargo intended. Very different a 300' tow barge loaded 75' high with containers and dump trucks going to Alaska, and an original narrow boat on a canal in UK. Both are dumb barges but wildly different.
In general, Length is 3-4 times beam, depth is 1/3 - 1/2 of beam, so 100'x30'x10' for a steel general use barge. Very vague guidelines. A crane barge might be 140'x70'x25'.
Deck important part of structure. Steel much superior for barge use over wood. Thames Barges are shaped boats, not very box-like.
Here are some places to look.
Pics from SAILING BARGES by F.G.G. Carr, London 1931,1951.
http://oldriverbillzumwalt.members.ktis.net/barges.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=barge...ient=firefox-a
http://www.dutch-barges.net/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK1PAqxWtyY
Looking for small steel barge plans
http://www.boatsales-uk.com/canal_boat_designs.htm
http://bargesandworkboatsforsale.com/barge-designs/
http://www.simplywhitstable.com/mari.../tb_design.htm
etc.

[boat fan]

Thank you Bataan !

There is quite some info here to look at!

[BATAAN]

Originally Posted by boat fan

Thank you Bataan !

There is quite some info here to look at!

You are welcome. Many years ago I was trained as a Maritime Museum researcher and am still pretty good at digging stuff up. The more info we have on a subject, the better decisions we will make, hopefully.