Pedal Boat Design

Alex-

Or you could just use a paddle wheel and mow the weeds down =)

We have weed problems here with/because of the shallow water. There are several jet ski rental places and the weeds are a constant problem. If the blenders on those things have a problem...so even though I would prefer a flex shaft prop ala Rick, they just are not as practical.

 

Yeah, the reason I don't think about a prop too much is shown in the picture . . .

 

WOW...we are not nearly THAT bad lol. Ours is all seaweed/bellow the water type. Not even a paddle wheel is gonna handle the wood in the water there...though it would probably work in the lily pads.

 

That picture was taken about twenty yards from a spot where I like to put ashore and get out of the sun. There aren't many fallen trees like that, but I even get my oars hung up with those weeds sometimes. And if the water level goes down, it gets even worse. Paddlewheel seems like the best option.

The mowing option actually seems like a good idea . . . I could put some kind of blades on the thing and leave a trail of chopped vegetation in my wake. Hmm . . . too dangerous, though.

 

Sushi anyone?

 

Yup. I've attached a couple of old variations on this theme.

 

...and a method of feathering oar-like paddles.

 

1860's inboard motors . . .

 

INBOARDS....AHAHAHAHHAHA!

All right Tin Horn. You have to explain why your a veritable font of obscure naval patents from the 1860's. I have this feeling that your real name is Pearlmutter lol. Thats a reference to a character in the afore mentioned Clive Cussler books. He is a maritime historian with arguably the worlds most extensive collection of ocean travel related books and charts. Captains logs, eye whiteness accounts, patents etc etc. Of course he is very fond of our swashbuckling hero's and will divulge anything relating to sunken treasures for fine cigars, aged brandy, or anything with truffles on or in it.

Seriously...were you or are you a navel historian or something? I am betting if I said, Iron Clad, Civil war submarine, peddle powered please, and torpedo...you would have info lol.

I have actually been tinkering with a way to use radial springs to feather/unload the paddles in my paddle wheel.

 

Haha - I'm afraid I'm not nearly as informed as Pearlmutter. In my own research on paddle wheels and hpbs I stumbled across the patent categories and the website where they could be downloaded. I installed the appropriate software and became a downloading fool.

I do confess to having a lot of old patents pertaining to paddle wheels and to old human-powered boats, but beyond that, my nautical expertise is quite limited. (I'm glad you're enjoying the patents.)

 

BG
Here are a couple more formats.

Are you able to see the shape of the hull?

Rick W

 

Tin Horn--

Yeah, I sometimes stumble into PatentStorm.com and burn an hour just looking at different stuff. Patents from 1860 are a lot more readily digestible then most of todays stuff though.

Rick--

I think I am though not sure. It looks like a long thin strip of paper with the ends folded up and pinched together right? I will upload a screen capture real quick of how both hulls look on my display so we can be sure everyone is looking at the same info.

 

OK, First here is a screen capture of what it looks like in Solid works:



I am also attaching 3 edrawing files. One is the file you see above, one is your hull as it appears in solid works, and the third is a quickie version of the down struts in aluminum instead of the carbon fiber units in the image above. To view them in 3D theres a very small, free viewer you can get at:

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/programs/eDrawings/e2_downloadcheck.html

It is a pretty handy little viewer as it also opens most 2D cad files as well and I believe it just runs from an executable, no installation required.

As soon as you open each file, there is a perspective button on top that makes it easier to see a more realistic image (as opposed to a typical isometric type view) and a rotate button to...well drag it around so you can peek under and around etc. I also aloud for measuring so you can use the tape and measure from point to point easily.

http://geno.boxgods.com/BG_Opt_from_Rick.eprt Your hull Rick

http://geno.boxgods.com/hulls_version_1.easm The ones above I sent you

http://geno.boxgods.com/down_strut_version_02.eprt Simple aluminum down struts

 

I use PS_Exchange for viewing 3-D formats. It is not linked to any specific software supplier so very flexible. There is not much it cannot view.

Can you just attach a jpg of the image you get of the two different hulls I sent so I can see you have the right thing.

Also if you send a dxf file of your hull I can compare performance with the Godzilla hull. It was too much work to make the other one sensible with all the extra wings it had. Also the rudder was bulky and would contribute to drag so I tried to get rid of it.

For orientation with a boat X-axis is usually taken as longitudinal with aft at zero. The y-axis is beamwise and the z-axis vertical.

Rick

 

Yeah, those rudders are pretty fat. That was the first thing I had ever drawn with the new software and I couldn't figure out how to thin them down to a sharp edge.

My ftp access is down right now, I will get that image uploaded as soon as I can.