Showboat Sternwheeler

Just got confirmation that it'll be better as a registered boat, than a floating platform with a cabin... They want engineering analysis, design etc. Screw that. Guess I'll have an electric boat...

 

You know, in Texas there's no registration fee for any human powered vehicle and it's not outside of the realm of possibility to move a small houseboat/shanty a short ways....

 

True enough, but... Generally, I'm going to have to watch the water levels and using a couple of electric trolling motors gives me control in high-water conditions, which is when it will have to be moved the most.

To move it manually, I'd need to go downstream, which there isn't a lot of. Enough to float, behind the house, but it's low enough to have exposed rocks and rapid, just downriver, about 1/2 a mile. The only ramps, anywhere close, are upstream. My general rule for the kids, when kayaking is 'paddle upstream, then float back'... They've ignored it and payed the exhaustion-fee. LOL

 

So, everybody and their parrots have convinced me to enlarge it...
I guess opening the cabin to ~8' X 12', raising the cabin side-walls to 6', stretching the hull to about 16', and ~24' LOA is reasonable. Structural members will be doubled, from the 1" X 2" (nom), to 2" X 3 " (nom). That also allows me to use 3 sheets of Marine-grade plywood, for the 16' hull (cutout for the wheel, w/wheel-arms made using off-cut corners from the bow.

I really don't want it too big, for multiple reasons, but it's still only about small party-barge size, so, roughly the practical size of a 16' travel trailer (the boat, that is). Thing to keep in mind is this: It's MY space, to share as I will, not everyone else' space, where I am present and accounted for...

 

I would recommend Gerr's book on boat strength. The rules he sets forward are easy to use and clear.

 

Hey, I came across another sternwheeler design in my files that I'd forgotten about.

https://archive.org/details/ninemotorboatsho00motorich

It's actually a lot like what you've been talking about, at least from what I've understood you saying.

(I like Sunfish in that one)

 

Thanks for the ref. I'll look into them!

Having a bit of construction under my belt, aviation studies, along with ton's of reading, structural members need to be approximately double, for another 50% in length, to maintain the strength for the increased load. Consider a wooden floor. The stuff you walk on helps maintain spacing of the structural members AND distribute the load to the members. In that manner, a hull skin is like a slab foundation. It distributes the final total load, to the water, like a slab does to the ground. A hull does MORE, because it also has to resist impacts, but the general idea is the same.

By going to a slightly thicker plywood for the hull, then using the same spacing, but more frames, on the same spacing and nominal sizes, I get a very similar structural strength. If I double the cross section of the framing, then I can spread them further apart and use thicker plywood, to spread the stresses farther, and maintain that strength (within limits).

Also, neat book! Nice online library resource, too! Thank you very much!

 

This is close to what I want the cabin and wheelhouse structure to look like...

http://tugboatsonline.com/deck/indexwheelhouse.jpg

The cabin will use the hull-frames as a deck support, with sidewall height for a comfortable sitting height, whith enough vertical space to move along the wall, stooped-over. An arched roof, with a clerestory will run the length of the cabin, for standing room, down the middle. Wheelhouse will be raised to the main deck, for a better view, aft.

If I wasn't clear, the possible generator from the wheel is in anchored conditions, where there is a useful current. Anything beyond a normal trolling-motor duration will require the use of a generator set.

Another power-option is to use a split/dual wheel and drive each side separately, with an electric forklift motor. In theory, she should turn in still water, in a circle that matches the length, from bow to the axles... However, for added maneuverability, I could put a trolling motor at the bow, located about where the Showboat forward rudder is.

The gen-set will probably have a dual-fuel system. start on gasoline and switch to a charcoal gasifyer,

 

This sounds like a lot of stuff to fit in such a tiny boat.

 

Gen-set on top of the wheelhouse, so, outside. A couple of camping lockers/trunks and a fold-out queen-size sofa/bed.

8' X 12' is about the size of the cabin of a 16' travel-trailer. A king-size bed is 6'4" X 6'8"

16' travel trailer has about 3'6" of hitch and about 8" of rear bumper...

Here's a drawing of a 16' travel trailer, for a better idea of the space...

 

Came across the neatest style pilothouse, on a WW II Army Small Tug. Has a 1/2 circle and 1/4 circles cut in the railing/splash shield, just aft... I figure to rework it, where the entire original pilothouse exterior is the upper 2/3 of the wheelhouse, lower it ~1/2 of the next lower cabin and go from there... Make it in bead-board and add some Victorian Steamboat Gothic detail...

 

Just a bit of 'what-if'...

What if I modify the hull to something that resembles a classic, shallow-water work design, such as the Lafitte Skiff, used by the Louisiana shrimpers...?

 

Packet Boat type hull?

 

This is gonna be like those backyard ride on railroads where the guy drives the train sitting on the coal car with feet on the locomotive lol.

I think you should scale up a teeny bit, or consider it.

 

She'll have a trailering beam of about 7'6, with a cabin and wheelhouse of that by about 12'-16', plus foredeck, 2 removable, or folding side decks, the wheel and wheel arms. There are larger, there are smaller, but there's more than enough room for the queen-sized futon...