new Great lakes heavy weather cruising houseboat!

Wow!

assycat, the only "heavy weather cruising houseboat" I would imagine building after watching that video would be a low-profile, low-windage SWATH design with the twin hulls submerged many diameters deep below those waves. Too much for me!

 

Michael,

The barge in video has Ark proportions, as a result its already low profile/windage. The tow boat is going much faster than the bluff bow can handle and its bucking like a wild stallion, a finer bow would stop that.

 

Here is a doodle that I did 4 or 5 years ago now

http://www.tacking-outrigger.com/b_boat.html
the one at the absolute bottom

There is another thread in the boat design folder, called designing for the worse case scenario. These is the video of the 2 fishing boats coming in to harbour, had seen it before but this one seems to have higher detail

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/design-worst-case-scenario-45884-2.html

As to the ark, think it was actually round (which makes sense as it did not have to go anywhere,,, just floated,, this is what the original babylonian tablets say). Furthermore the experts say it was probably a sea surge coming from the South, and hence the ark was forced up the Tigris. Which makes sense as if it was a flood it would have gone downstream into the persian gulf and not hit a mountain.

No doubt our resident boat expert and 6:1 advocate will correct me about the absolute truth of the ark and where I am all wrong. Whilst your at it, remind me again how the Giant sloth from the amazon rainforest got onto the ark again. plus the flightless Kiwi and Moa from New Zealand

The Thames barge in the video, yes it was pitching, but it was doing OK. You can buy them in kits, in various sizes. Kits are quite affordable, all the fittings etc cost a fortune. There are some second hand dutch barges for sale, (some built in 1912) and still going strong.

Looking at the youtube video on the other thread, (the 2 fishing boats) you can get an idea of how having the bow too fine could cause problems, those fishing boats looks a real nice shape.

Fishing boats have good hulls, but tend to have small cabins as they need deckspare for handling nets. A lightly built larger cabin can add buoyancy and just might help if the boat goes on its side to stop it from going over all the way.

 

great idea.. where can i get plans?

 

Hi Goodwill- it looks like the boat was listing to port, and then she broached..then it was hit by a massive breaking wave- to me any boat under those cirumstances had no chance.

 

Guys-really appreciate the input- I dont know if i mentioned it but i wont be building my design- i was tinkering. yes i considered it. But- after all this Im going to go with something like the Microtrawler or similar. I dont want anyone to worry...

 

Phew.

 

JRD, what was your takeaway from the video? My immediate reaction was to question why all the fishing gear was stowed vertically.

 

nice design Peter!

 

Floom is about the size you wanted and capable.



Egress, a bit smaller than you're original description, but certainly functional.

Of course Floom is better equipped for deeper water, with her V bottom, but Egress can be well managed, by a reasonable skipper.

 

OP is short for Original Poster

The Silverton was a very high freeboard vessel and capsized in calm conditions. Ballast won't do anything except slow you down until you get to large heel angles. You need form stability on a powerboat. As you say - always assume the worst, which includes having more people than you expect on board

The scantlings you list seem very heavy, and it's not a good idea to use csm with epoxy

I think a catamaran's two engines are a great safety feature as well as giving outstanding maneuverability

You might find my Skoota 28 and 36 powercats of interest. We are having the prototype 28 built in ply/epoxy for our own use as a PNW cruiser, but as it easily demounts for transport without a wide-load permit we may well take it to the Great lakes and do a Great Loop trip.

http://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/6-powercats

As a guide this is the basic materials we needed to build the boat

48 sheets 6mm okoume BS1088 Joubert plywood

30 sheets 9mm okoume BS1088 Joubert plywood

500 board ft (approx) 1in x 6in douglas fir

25gal epoxy

Two 20hp Tohatsu outboards to give a cruising speed of 8 knots and 12 WOT

1500 hours to build ready to paint (which is the stage we are at right now)

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

If your not sure how to design a boat, and it aint super easy, you can cheat.

Heres how, you buy plans from an existing design, a professional designer. Then you modify it. Now when you do this you are then operating 'at risk'. The designer will rightly disown you. You also have much more chance of getting it massively wrong, but it is a start.

Something like the GT cruiser 27 is a start (or other boats). Looks OK but doubt it would be suitable for great lakes if the weather gets very bad. Maybe you need greater deadrise and more weight down low. This will greatly increase your weight meaning that it will go slower and need a larger motor and cost more. More weight means larger scantlings

http://www.bateau.com/studyplans/GT27_study.htm?prod=GT27

from a local source (for me) is someone I know who has a river boat on the Maribrynong river here in Melboure, he always says hello when i am rowing on the river. Owners name is Peter Somerville and his son is Warwick. I once asked about his boat, beam weight etc, cant recall now. You can see from this below photo how it is round bilge and a bit of a keel, thus in theory could handle rougher conditions than a flat bottommed boat, (theseadays it spends all of its time of the protected river) reminds me a bit of the Bundeena ferry in Sydney, nice boat but rolled a lot.

http://www.blackbirdcruises.com.au/Yearly.html
http://www.blackbirdcruises.com.au/

bundeena ferry, sometimes rolls (safely) when it goes across port hacking to bundeena due to ocean swells
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/98/264948654_b8915676da_z.jpg

 

more bundeena ferry, a bit big for what you want

http://theworklife.com/graham-miln/2012/11/25/ferry-to-bundeena/

although the video shows flat conditions (and a bit of rolling) there is a section of the trip where a swell from the east can get into the bay and the boat rolls in a 1 to 2m swell (safely), think it is a very very old boat

 

that's very similar to my local ferry, which is also an old boat - built in 1926

http://www.cremyll-ferry.co.uk/history.html

but its not very stable, it doesn't run in bad weather and I've often been on it when it has had to "tack" across the river to weather the swell safely

Richard Woods

 

Richard,

I like your powered cats. And the 36 foot, I think, begs a question.

http://www.sailingcatamarans.com/freedownloads/Skoota36_initial_studyplan.pdf

The hulls do not look symmetrical. They seem to be off center towards the inside about 20% or so.

Does that off center help reduce the wake interference? Or, is the download just skewed a little bit?

wayne