Doomsday boat.

Discussion in 'All Things Boats & Boating' started by river runner, Apr 29, 2012.

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  1. BATAAN
    Joined: Apr 2010
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    BATAAN Senior Member

    Me and my ideal survival craft and my survival buddies are here in photo 1. Most pirates would think twice, that is until we ran out of fuel and ammo in a few hours of hard fighting, then we're toast and it's back to option in photo 2, 3 and 4, which is good for at least 180 days at sea without using fuel or touching land if you load the right 100 tons of stores, and has big blackpowder shotguns with a 6" bore loaded with broken glass and scrap iron. As for the rest of the pics, I have no idea where they came from (cough), but speaking of pirates.... The guy in the green shirt is a 2nd assistant director and all the extras and screen doubles are tired of his bossy lip, so don't give pirates a hard time.
     

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  2. rwatson
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    Location: Tasmania,Australia

    rwatson Senior Member

  3. whitepointer23

    whitepointer23 Previous Member

  4. WestVanHan
    Joined: Aug 2009
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    WestVanHan Not a Senior Member

    Actually it would work either way for me....so why change it to a situation which will not exist to make it easier for your point?
    Almost a straw man.

    What about the origin of the thread which is:



    But OK I'll do away with the large boat and start out with a small boat or double kayak,some basic essentials-which we all have-and I'll make it just fine.

    Or..start out with clothes on my back and I'll scavenge fishing line somewhere,find a row boat,and dine off the 100 or so edible plants and sea weeds around while roasting salmon.

    BTW the last few days: several hundred pounds of halibut,salmon,crabs,and prawns.

    The Haida,Kwakiutl,Salish,Nootka et al did very well for a very long time and had the most advanced and prolific art.

    Can anyone tell me why their art was so advanced?
     
  5. Submarine Tom

    Submarine Tom Previous Member

    Good food!
     
  6. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    If I remember its related to the amount of free time they had, which was due to environmental factors. Obtaining food for instance generally took up a bunch of time in the more ancient cultures, but where food was easily obtained; like in a culture living in one of the richest fisheries in the world, protein was just a beach away. So they had lots of time on there hands and thus, lots of time for art, language, culture, music, philosophy, things considered a luxury in most ancient cultures.
     
  7. WestVanHan
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    WestVanHan Not a Senior Member

    Kinda correct Sub and absolutely correct Boston.

    Hence the reason why I have stuck to my guns that in my area and with a boat you can survive forever,and it's ten times easier than being locked up in some cabin in an icy winter for 5 months a year.

    There was a squatter who lived for decades in Barkley Sound...can't recall his name.
    There are a few I know of living up remote inlets,go into town once a year for staples.

    Knew of a guy who'd ocean kayak up the coast in May for 5 months,he'd take a bag of beans and rice and catch the rest.
    I always figured he was growing pot,but he may have been communing with nature and writing poems....
     
  8. CatBuilder

    CatBuilder Previous Member

    Vancouver. In the winter. On a boat. That's better than a cabin on land? What kind of heater does your boat have? And where will you buy the fuel for it?

    More importantly, without a job or access to banks, how will you buy fuel for it?

    Have you ever lived aboard a boat?

    Ever wintered over on one?
     
  9. mydauphin
    Joined: Apr 2007
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    Location: Florida

    mydauphin Senior Member

    Winter on a boat.... Electric blanket, or a friend, or a nice fire below deck. Or two out of three works. Done all of them, but better to head south.
    Knew a guy that lived in a 9 foot dingy, he lived on little barrier island in Biscayne bay, kind of a maritime bum. He slept on island at night, moved to mainland during day, got food and drink. Dingy was important because he kept out of sight of police that way. I dont know what happened when the weather got to 40 degrees.
     
  10. BATAAN
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    BATAAN Senior Member

    Here's 86 year-old Allen Farrell, living aboard his series of self-designed and built boats in BC for 65+ years.
    His last one was shallow draft, had no engine, woodstove that burned mostly beach-combed Fir bark, and he ate lots of clams and salmon.
    Everything about his life was very low-tech and able to be repaired with simple tools and materials from the beach or forest.
    For him, none of this was theory and I had the pleasure of a trip to BC to interview and see his lovely boat and life and get him on video.
    Here he is in three 15-minute segments.
    http://youtu.be/RFOQecx14NQ
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFb3AfxxgO0
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIBDOUSd-Ag
     

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  11. CatBuilder

    CatBuilder Previous Member

    Ha ha ha! That's funny Mydauphin. :)

    Real winter on a boat (where west van is from or Maine) means heat is part of the survival game. No heat, no life.

    The more I read, the more I think 9 out of 10 people will die in the first month. Par and I will be the neighbors, 100 miles apart, with a bunch of dead bodies between .

    Has anyone here actually done this stuff, or are you all just daydreaming?

    I've spent 2 winters aboard in Maine. Wood stove was the only heat and i didn't buy the wood. Dinghying enough firewood to last a week takes nearly half a week. Then you need to keep the boat up and find drinking water. There isn't enough time in the week to cut holes in the ice to fish or go to open water each day to fish. West van, if he goes through with the plan to survive on his big power boat, will die in less than a month. Kind of sucks because I like the guy. :)
     
  12. CatBuilder

    CatBuilder Previous Member

    Yeah, anyone can live aboard. I did. We are talking about doomsday. No outside resources.

    Hell, I might as well retire from these threads and let you all figure it out as you are dying on a boat.
     
  13. mydauphin
    Joined: Apr 2007
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    mydauphin Senior Member

    The stories I said are all true. Three winters ago, I was divorced, broke, unemployed, and never prepared my boat for 40 degree weather. My hatches didnt close good, had only a small electric heater. It raised temp about 5 degrees in cabin, but not enough. So I would boil water in kitchen, and started alcohol fire on cabin floor in a double pot system. This would raise temperature enough that i could cool lay under blanket. Did that for a could of nights, it was very hard. Solution electric blankets, work great, low power compsumption, like 20watts.

    The point is, never underestimate cold weather on a boat, it is far worse than heat. Most boat not designed for cold. If there is a natural disaster doomsday there is at least a 50% chance of colder weather, so heaters are important, and good insulation.

    Presently, i redesigned boat, and 40degrees not a problem, as a side effect heat doesnt get in either.
     
  14. BATAAN
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    BATAAN Senior Member

    Allen came pretty close to living on his boat with no outside resources, and what to him was luxurious living, to others would be bare-bones survival.
    He and Sharie in their 80s collected Fir Bark barefooted from the beaches in winter, but it's not Maine and the sea does not freeze in BC.
    Fir bark by the way burns like coal even when wet, is a wonderful fuel and is easily found in the beach drift piles in the Pacific NW.
    I lived aboard a very simple boat for nearly 30 years, but not at a survival level except in Mexico, where we ate fish a lot and spent weeks at a time in isolated anchorages.
    A well-stocked simple boat that does not depend on liquid fuel for long term function seems like the best choice, coupled with a remote wilderness area with abundant food and fuel resources, like western BC.
    If you can row and sail you can do it long after engines quit for lack of fuel, and if you are in an area that historically supported an aboriginal population well, your chances of not starving are better.
     

  15. pdwiley
    Joined: Jun 2008
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    pdwiley Senior Member

    Never been to BC so I can't comment except on what I've read, but...

    From what I understand the climate is like here but not so nice :) Cool maritime climate, winters close to or somewhat below 0C, not really cold. Sea never freezes over. A well insulated boat with small chip heater or similar should do just fine.

    Nothing like so severe as Maine.

    As for doing it, I built the house I'm living in. I did it by building a small hut on site, 2.7 x 4.8m, in a few days, and living in it until the house was finished. I spent 2 winters in that hut, about the same space or less than the cabin of the boat I'm building, and nowhere near as well insulated. I cooked using gas, had no running water or indoor toilet. I did have 240V power but a single 1200W heater. A small wood heater would have been a lot better but I couldn't find one at the right price, didn't have my shop set up to make one as all my heavy tools were in storage (and I didn't have the power to drive them).

    I guarantee you that, short of some disease or accident that none of us can avoid (including you and PAR) come an economic collapse taking out infrastructure, power and comms, a month after it happens I'll be sitting here alive, well fed and happy, re-reading my library and somewhat bored due to being cut off from the net. I've got pretty much everything I need right here.

    If my boat is finished, fine. It's set up to be simple and maintainable. I've got a Dickinson diesel heater for it and I could convert it to burning wood if I had to. I've also been collecting those Coleman and Tilley type kerosene pressure lamps for some years. Those babies give you both white light and a lot of heat, a good thing in the cold.

    Might be time to top up my supplies of rice & pasta, though.

    PDW
     
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