new Great lakes heavy weather cruising houseboat!

Cat,

Make it 24' beam on top of a cat hull. 48' long, and you should be ok for your 6' waves, even with your top deck.

You can buy the pontoons made for you.

wayne

 

And they are using 10x the horsepower to deliver the same speed ....

 

i know i promised to leave,,, but i fibbed

my suggestion is look at heaps of diagrams of motorcruisers, find one in the rough size you want, and use that as basis for your design. Copying weights, lenght, heights, freeboard etc would be a good start, after that you can apply your design skills to the smaller things, that way you are proceeding at less risk.

anyway,,, 8 days till my trip to south america, and yes my spanish is awful

 

wonderful practical advice!

 

as it turns out i recently consulted an N.A. acquaintance of mine- he looked the design over- and you were mostly correct.
the boat isnt top heavy- thats not the issue- the issue is with the low hieght of the topsides coupled with windage. The boat apparently will be a pig in strong winds.
the N.A. advised me againts building it unless it was for inland rivers and canals but not even for a large lake.
so im sad.
you see i dont know of a boat that meets these criteria
1. easy to build
2. cheap to build
3. large accomodations
4. economical
5. can handle great lakes cruising
6. inboard


these are my basic needs
not sure what to do now..so ill retire this thread...
iI may have to give up...:!:

 

Appreciate your honesty, here some more free internet advice- buy the boat you want. There is no way you can build a boat and fit it out for cheaper than you can buy at present. Even the cheapest nastiest bolger box buit with car cases and pva and latex paint with be more expensive to build than buy. Craigslist, marina hunts for neglected craft will reveal treasure!

 

I thought that you dismissed Richard Wood's suggestion of a power Cat too quickly.

Also, what was wrong with the suggestion of a barge-esque Dutch style boat, or what PAR offered? Looks sea-worthy to my inexperienced eyeballs.

Either approach can potentially meet most of your list, if not all, once tweaked a bit.

If you purchased a used trawler/barge/etc, you can take your time and stretch out your budget over a long period as you restore/modify with input from members here.

I don't think you need to feel pessimistic.

 

A well defined SOR will likely force a custom design for this craft. I'll assume easy to build, from inexpensive materials also means an efficient underway design. The boat pictured above isn't efficient and you'll measure fuel use in gallons per minute. Efficient means low power, trim, low drag and low windage. This means you have to cheat. One way is to place the accommodations in the water by a significant percentage, saving windage. You get your large accommodation spaces, but it's not up in the air taking on every breeze it encounters. Shoal draft will make this a challenge, so you stretch out the design to provide longitudinal elbow room (more cheating). Consider you minimum beam requirements. If you can live with 8' of beam, you're looking at at least a 50' yacht to offer large accommodations and exceptional efficiency. The trim hull will be more sea kindly too.

This is what the SOR does, it's a set of hoops the design parameters must jump through or at least make a good effort at. A successful design gets through the SOR's hurtles as well as the compromises within it permit. I don't think this is a difficult set of issues, but you'll likely need to have a design drawn up to address the SOR, rather than search for something that that hits most of your buttons.

 

sorry you cant find a design that suits your needs

of all the designs you see when you put 'motorcruiser' or displacement motorcruiser into google images, is there one that seems the least worst.

I do realise that you may have lost heart, sorry about that

maybe a simplifed version of this one
http://www.stebbings-archive.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Amaroo-2-sm-copyright.jpg

by simplified i mean plywood not planks, and more flat surfaces so as to make it easier to build. Anyway,,, i am off soon, so will be leaving you in peace.

 

We launched our Skoota 28 a couple of weeks ago. Very roomy and comfortable for two people. Very economic. We fitted twin 20hp outboards and it does just over 16 knots flat out and 10-12 knots cruising.

Our first long trip was from Port Townsend, Wa where the boat was launched to Sidney, BC via a "drive past" of Friday Harbor. A distance of 49.3 miles. We left 8.30 am, arrived 1.45pm, and used 7 gallons of fuel. No photos as it poured with rain all day.

The Skoota was very heavy as not only did we have all the tools and spare epoxy/glass etc aboard, but also I had the outriggers and complete rig for my new Strike 15. Plus lots of gear/clothes for 5 months in Canada.

A video is here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIvM01seyLA

and more details here

http://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/6-powercats/264-skoota-28

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

Wonderful example of a low drag/low wake (and shallow draft) craft.

I agree with the earlier assessments of the original proposal, the top part of the craft looked like a sail to me. Not what you would intentionally want on the Great Lakes.

 

Richard- ive been watching your build on the skoota...ill contact you.
well done btw.

yea time frame plays a big factor-

 

yes guys Im very frustrated. I may not have the budget to build my boat. and Im on a time frame as well...long story but - I have 3 months to build the bare hull...so times not on my side.
im disheartened. but thanks for all the advice.

I am going to set up a thread called buying vs building- people seem under the impression its cheaper to buy. I must wholeheartedly and with all respect disagree. turst me Ive looked into this.

If you can buy a boat that even closely resembles something I want, then it is in such bad condition that you have to fork out as much money as to build and likely do more work to restore- there are survey costs- then there is moving costs. twice!- one to get it to somewhere to fix it- then to have it launched.

and then again there is the money to repair.you are actually building the boat twice too- once to take off the damegd areas- then again to replace them. if you find a deal its likely very rotten or beyond repair.and probably the design is so outdated its not worth it. especially if a production boat.

in the end - its cheaper to build the boat i want, and i get a custom boat.

alas- but what boat--all good suggestions ahve ben posted...but nothing appeals to me.
I have my assymetrical cat design but cant live on that.

so its a hard decision.

 

Maybe buy a project started by someone else who had to stop because of health or financial problems. Could save you a lot of time and materials if the work can be trusted.

I think only about 25% of all kit car purchases ever get completed, maybe home-made boats are the same.

 

I looked around - there was about three even worth looking into- they wanted too much for a project boats..and they were nothing near what i would even consider...
i will keep trying...