Mississippi Riverboat design

[IAC United]

Well I have been interested in houseboats majority of my life and have now gained enought respect for them to build my own. Well actually maybe two.

The hulls will be basic, riverboat style flat bottom. Hull sizes would be about 15' by 40' with about 3' by 5' compartments to insure stability if a section is breached. One or both might be outfitted with solar arrays and as a back up a vertical wind turbine about four feet high. One hull would be powered by jet ski inspired moters that swivile on mounts and more than likely placed near the bow.

Hull one I am planning to make a simple home on water. This is where the ideas begain to emerge so feel free to pass them on because I am highly mobil so it is a must. With the addition of a small house I need a side or stern enterence car port, one car. The house I have planed out, small kitchen, bed closet combo large living space with a staircase half in the garage and half in the bathroom. On paper with solid lines it looks doable so I am making small scale in a few days on the inital house floor plan.

Hull 2 would be major storage area (cold storage, dry storage, misc, auto parts, etc) and include a small bridge, depth finder, weather moniter, surface radar (if I can find one) and but of course engines to drive the two boats. It is the tug of the set and will be linked to the other by a forty foot rope and in dock a four foot chain. Like other blogs I have read I prefer a fiber glass hull but am hearing good news from a ferroconcrete hull?

Well by now I think a rough percentage of you are almost in total darkness on what I am trying to describe here, maybe about 12% know what I might be thinking and a few are just like WTF?! So "I am open to ideas, pointers, experts, veterans, etc..."

[Stumble]

IAC,

Instead of having 2 boats, with one basically a pusher barge have you considered buying a self powerd barge and converting it to living/work space? You can pick a used on up for a lot less than the construction cost of two fourty foot vessels, and spend the difference in refitting it to exacally what you want it to be. There is actually a pretty big business doing this down here in Louisiana, where people take barges and convert them to hunting/fishing camps. I have seen them with everything from 4K square foot homes to mini-marinas all built off of a 100' barge platfort.

Right now I am guessing you could get a 110'X30' barge for about $150,000 and a self power verson for maybe $500,000. But I haven't priced them recently. Of course you would dump a ton of money into the conversion, but compared to the price of building from the keel up I would bet it would be faster, cheaper, and probably give you everything you would want.

[gonzo]

You can frame a regular house on a barge. Many people simply bolt down a mobile home or two on deck. Adding power to a barge is not extremely complicated. Anyway, it is not harder than installing power on a new hull. You may also consider a Z drive

[IAC United]

Thank you for your suggestion and price referance of the 110x 30

However heart is set on a two hull design, the second one I should have eloborated on.

Updates:
Hull 1 : Mother Hull
Hull 2 : Father Hull
Yes I am naming the hulls after my parents.
Mother Hull is the house and garage.
Father Hull is the storage and tugger.
Mother Hull design uses Japanese style of space saving (Small footprint furnature) with a unique edition of a garage, ballast loacted under the bow of Mother Hull. One furnature design is a bed that from floor to ceiling doubles as a closet. The kitchen is compact with a stove and sink covering that would be level with the countertop and an under counter, pull out fridge.
Bathroom is one big tiled, watertight room with a floor to ceiling wall mirror and 360 shower heads. sink is embedded just above hip in the mirror. The living room would have the biggest area. A wall projected HD TV, couch with a tabe like bar on the back, fold down dinner table on a wall with chairs available off of hooks.
The garage area would have a mostly outfitted and functional auto garage mainance set, 180 view with a feature that enables either side or stern entrey of a vehical. A swivel (possible float)will sense a car and automaticly rotate it from most any position to a bow to stern position. Anything in Mother Hull would serve a double purpose.

Father Hull is designed to be a miniture office, wood shop and spare auto stock room. More or less the hobby ship. A small quarters for temperary rest.

I realize that this can be incorperated on a single hull but then for a more detailed route a larger hull has more depth where smaller hulls might get through on mid tide. If one is misplaced of destroyed I have another to house me either temperary (Father Hull) or full time (Mother Hull). Ontop of this the twin hulls might be a unique edition for houseboating as most are now two story yachts or long barge like structures. Simply put when docked a 30x 40space might be easier than a 110x 30 space.

Realizeing this is not an all in one buy. People I do realize that it is sometimes better to add as you go. Objective 1-34 is Mother Hull's living quarters then garage. Father Hull is objective 35-90.

[IAC United]

Ok I lied I mainly want ideas on hull designs and ideal materials for customized parts.

[goran budecevic]

Hi there,

Cheeck at http://www.savadesign.net/m1204-1.html. Maybe this one will satisfied you.

[IAC United]

Thank you for the information, I am waiting for an email reply now.