Jonboat part 2

I'm still on my quest to build a simple 15 foot jonboat, and was wondering if the following would work. Remember this is something to play about with on the local inland waterway, and will actually spend far more of its time stored in a clean dry garage than bobbing about on a canal.

I'm thinking of cutting the thing in two 7 feet from the bow a bit like the drawing below. The bow half would be fitted with a vertical "transom" and the stern half with a vertical "bow" which would be held together with bolts.

Would this be a silly idea? If so is there any way to make it less silly? The great advantage is that the bow section could drop inside the stern section and the whole lot go on the roof of my Mini.

 

Silly? No. Not as long as you have a good solid means of attaching the two. Look at Bolger's "Folding Schooner" http://www.instantboats.com/fschooner.htm as an example of such a boat.
If you want to cart it around on a Mini (a new one I hope.... doubt a '72 would handle this ) then light weight will be a top priority......

 

That's it exactly, apart from not being a skiff and being half the length that's pretty much what I had in mind. Hadn't thought of hinges but that does appeal.

And yes it's going on top of a proper mini not one of these new fangled things, although it's a 94 Cooper 'S Works' not a 72. I once transported another Mini shell minus doors, bonnet and bootlid on top of this one, by putting a set of roof bars on that flipping it upside-down and clamping the roofbars together, so if it can cope with that it can cope with a boat.

 

Been done many times. One guy I knew went so far as to design the boat to be a car top carrier for luggage, when not being used as a boat. The boat foldede in the middle like yours, but it nested together to form a sealed lid and went on top the car. Looked a lot like the type you rent from U Haul.

Just make sure the connection is strong enough.

 

Good to see it's been done - well good in this case, sometimes it's nice to come up with a fresh idea, sometimes it's best to know someone's done it before.

Connection wise I'm thinking of lift off hinges at the top and bike seat quick releases at the bottom going through the "transoms" with rubber compression washers on either side to prevent leaks. Should work and the advantage of bike quick releases is that you can do it up by hand to finger tight and then cam it over to get a firm tight seal.

Did think about making the back and front so it'd form a solid trunk, but I'd rather reduce the height and have one part nest inside the other.

 

http://www.svensons.com/boat/?p=RowBoats/ThreePieceBoat