Wooden Houseboat Design stability

I will be sailing inland lakes and rivers across the U.S. using the houseboat to camp on rather than being cramped in a rv in the middle of a crowded park

 

Looks like it will be nice. I am willing to change my design the drawing i posted were just my thoughts a starting point. I appreciate your advice I can see I have to do something different.

 

I have spoken to Mr Spira he recommended no more than a 10% increase to the boat as per the plans. I reinforced it due to its length wich i previously posted the changes in this thread. As far as the cabin Im on my own and trying hard. I can see from the feedback the roofs gotta go and probably shorten the cabin. Well this will all work out. I will eliminate my girlfriend. Then the changes will be tolerable. You have to make compromises when building a boat.

 

I would respectfully suggest that you really do need to keep your girl friend on board, and part of the decision making process - but point out to her that stability and safety are more important than extra space on board.

 

Agreed I wont do a thing till its safe and stable. I have a good tech background but this is my first attempt at understanding and building a boat. Its a whole new world. I am really enjoying the process. SO so much to learn. I was in the Air Force at 19, stationed at Wright Patterson Test Wing as a Aircraft Electrician. I got to see some crazy stuff and yes this is the base they supposedly house the aliens from roswell. Ive been by the building and the one thing i can say is there are no doors or windows from the outside with a prison style fence around it. Ended up mostly in nuclear and coal fire power plants afterward. Eventually I got my instrumentation certs. I find boatbuilding and design are on this level of required know how to get it done. Its a whole new world to me.

 

That is exactly the point. You should, first of all, draft a Statements of Requirements for your boat and, as a consequence of the SoR, you will be able to obtain the type of boat you need and other characteristics of it. Taking an existing boat and trying to make it meet your needs is usually not a good solution.

 

Well you have all seen what im after and I am most certainly willing to compromise. When I bought the plans for the 27 foot boat I thought for sure it would be plenty long enough for a nice cabin. Jeff Spira commented on this boat being suitable for a cabin. My idea and his were quite different. I can report I have learned much and will continue to search for a plan that will work for me along with the compromises. So back to the drawing board. Any suggestions where a man could find a trailerable houseboat plan. Searching the internet with this term is like wading through mud.

 

Jacques Mertens has a couple nice houseboat plans. One is a 23' and the other 27.

There is a 23' planing hull version hull only available in the Carolinas.

Here is the 27' study plan.

I'd power with Yamaha F70 for your plan.
https://www.boatbuildercentral.com/StudyPlans/GT27_STUDY.pdf

 

Have a look at Sam Devlin's boats at this link -
Devlin Design Catalog https://devlinboat.com/about-devlin-design-tech/devlin-design-catalog/
They are arranged alphabetically though - so you will have to scroll through all of them to find the houseboats - there are a few in here.
And by doing so, you might also find other boats that you like......

There are some basic houseboat designs in the Glen-L catalogue -
Houseboats-boatdesign https://www.boatdesigns.com/Houseboats/departments/7/

And there is a motley collection at Duckworks, some of which are trailerable.
Plans & Kits - Plans by type - Powerboats - Houseboats/Livaboards - Duckworks Boat Builders Supply https://duckworks.com/houseboats-livaboards/

Even though you have a beam limit of 8'6", you could still consider a catamaran houseboat like the Eco 62 -
ECO 62 Houseboat Plans https://duckworks.com/eco-62-houseboat-plans/

Have a look also at Bernd Kohler's other ECO houseboat designs -
POWERcats https://ikarus342000.com/POWERcats.htm

 

Thanks all for the guidance. Back to the question of stability. For understanding I would ask. What if I
float a box . From a top view it is a parallelogram 8 foot 6inches wide by 30feet long . How tall could the sides be and still be stable ?

 

Re how tall the sides could be - the answer is (as always) 'it depends......'
Mainly on how high the centre of gravity is above the base (ie the KG dimension) - you could have high sides, and ballast in the bottom, and perhaps have the same stability (ie the same KG) as lower sides and no ballast.

Or, you could have a catamaran instead of a box, and have much better stability (relatively), and much less resistance while underway.
Please do have a look at the cat houseboat links I posted above - they knock the rectangular houseboats into outer space.

 

Stability and weight distribution are always issues to be very confident about,, be careful where you place a piano.

 

With the other dimensions fixed, the prop will depend on the total weight and the margin of safety, freeboard, that you want for your boat.
A closed box seems to be the best option. And I agree with @bajansailor that the catamaran option would be worth considering. But it all depends, as I said before, on the SOR of your house boat.

 

AwJees,
as you read there is no stright answer to your stability question. I don't know how much you know about stability and if you are ready to learn and try.
I'm currently building Bernd Kohler's ECO62 (@bajansailor placed a link #25) with a slightly altered cabin. 2 other guys in Germany do likewise. I did a webpage to calculate about its stability (SI units) Berechnung der Schwimmlage von Booten http://www.bootsphysik.de/booteco62.php . It shows only sections of the the hulls and tells you about heel and trim according to given weight, CoG, CoB. You can change weight (mass) and CoG. It is not about windage but if you are able to work with it you can simulate the effect of windage with shifting weight (same moment of force). Button English top right.