Tour boat design help needed - low wake, high speed, shallow draft ... oxymoron

Hull draft fully loaded is 0.6m; wake is no problem - some of these are used at Mekong river.

 

What are your design limitations...THE LAW.... on the Danube ?

 

Hi Michael,

There are a lot of things I have to take into consideration. I am organising "eco-tours" and when driving on narrow canals the large wake will damage the shore line, put smaller boats at risk and form a bad impression to the clients. That is also why I want to use a hybrid solution. The boat has to be tough, maintenance free (or low) and also faster than my current displacement boats I have at the moment. I need to get to remote areas fast and than explore at low speed in electric mode. Distances covered in one day can exceed 200km so you see my problem.

Legislation is also tough here as we are in a Biosphere Reserve with the highest protection level. The speeds will be limited to 20 or 40 km/h inside the reserve depending on the area.

 

Would be a good idea to get a copy of the "rules" . In some countries the rules for scantling, safety, multiply after the 12 person limit.

 

In worst case, it could be High Speed Craft Code if boat is making international voyages. The Code does not say anything about FRP hulls; equipment requirements for passenger vessel are more strict, yes. We developed 13.7m cat and checked it for this Code before.

 

I see the local guys here in Spain have difficulty with Small plus 12 passenger vessel inspection. EXPENSIVE. No idea what Danube regs state.

 

Well the rules are like this - Pleasure craft up to 24m in length and max 12 person on board.

The boat will be registered as Pleasure craft. I gave a 15-20 person limit just to approximate the max load as sometimes the boat will transfer people with a lot of luggage. In some cases there will be 20 people on board but only on the shallow lakes and the small canals. If I would try to register it as a passenger boat the cost will double and I can close the business and do something else. But that is another story... safety and health regulations...lots of them.

 

All these certification/classification bodies are just parasiting on designers/builders/consumers; providing 'safety on paper'

We have got one of our designs (10m cat) in Italy built to CE category B, licensed to carry 20 passengers/divers. Not sure how they did it

 

Well don't forget - Italy - Romania - same s#it we have two identical boats and one got a 10 person certificate and the other 12 ) and only had to do with the mood of the guy behind the desk...

 

Small envelope with $$$ will definitely improve the mood!

 

Some countries on the Danube use both small and BIG evelopes...some are so correct and square headed that you need prime minister level influence !!!!!!!!!!!

 

I believe Spain is not on Danube; You are lucky
But my country is there, unfortunately.

 

Difficult here also...mate of mine got a well built boat...much like your products, and it cost him a fortune to have it certified as commercial. Not many modifications were needed..PAPERWORK and surveyors !!!

 

Well Spain is there too but only not on the Danube

 

EU bureaucracy is becoming legendary now and the more time passes by the harder it gets to certify something as there are many idiots making rules from the office or acting just to protect their arses. If tomorrow a boat will capsize because a drunken idiot went too fast or so they will make a rule not against the idiot but for the boat builders to build a boat than will not capsize in those conditions...

I am sick of bureaucracy and false security for years now ... but smile tomorrow will be worse.