Hair brained idea of mine....

Maybe I will but first I must finish my damn roof before winter ha ha. Just probably not with pc. Also I might want to find a place where the water isn't brown otherwise it defeats the purpose......Any ideas from the forum?

 

Oh I don't know, there's a lot to be said for passive solar heating.

The south pacific gets pretty clear, like 200 feet (60 meters) visibilty...

-Tom

 

easiest thing to do is build it like the kayak in the link above, as a skin-on-frame, and skin it with clear vinyl. I built a 14 foot sailing dingy using the skin-on-frame method. Steam bent white oak ribs about 8" spacing, with doug fir 3/4" square stringers about 6" to 9" apart, all lashed with polyester artificial sinew.

I used white plastic to cover it, but clear vinyl would work just as well. The structure of the boat is the wood frame, the skin just keeps the water out. I have built 9 different types of boats this way, mostly kayaks, but canoes and the 14' sloop as well. while you are at it use clear vinyl for the sails as well. Call it the "Ghost".

 

Well I've built 3 boats now, the first a ply wood skiff i still use as a tender, the second was a 18' lapstrake sloop (that unfortunetly died on the way to her launching in a car accident, sorrowful end to a really beautiful boat) and the current boat an Arch Davis Jiffy 22. But alas I'm off topic on my own thread, I would worry about the vinyl skin though... I might try maybe a little (less than 10') row boat some what similar to Petros' idea. Because like Richard said the idea is fascinating, however I am the chicken of the sea and worry constantly when strting on a new project, idea whatever. It's not about sinking, itst about explaining what happened to "that damn thing I've been blowing money on" to the missus....

 

There's a picture of Petros' boat here http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/projects-proposals/challenge-100-boat-12176-7.html#post223639

 

Thanks for the link, looks like I found something new to look into, and I've never seen a clear vinyl i would trust as yet but I'll looks around and see what I can scare up...

 

Yes, do it and post photos. Might make for easier fishing.

 

Only problem I can see with clear vinyl is, since it is not a woven fabric there may be a tendency for a small hole to open up into a rip. On the other hand it is so stretchy it can wrap itself around a projecting rock without getting pierced. I would carry a roll of duct tape and a sponge in addition to the usual bailer if I had a boat like that. If it springs a leak far from shore you can tape the sponge over the hole to reduce the leak rate, bail out until you reach shore, then flip the boat, dry around the hole and use the duct tape as a temporary patch. As I noted on another thread, there are good and bad duct tapes. I think the trick to getting a nice wrinkle-free finish is to use heat, like a hair drier maybe: it would also help to shrink back an area that got stretched by a rock.

 

I don't know what the material is,but near my brothers' house there is a canoe of about 12' made of some kind of clear material. It looks to be formed of one piece and moulded somehow.

 

http://www.everydayweekender.com/glass-bottom-boat-your-transparent-canoe/