Low-sided drift boat >>>Steel Sheets

Hi,

I ve found plans for a a low sided drift boat and i wish to build her out of steel sheets. (0,8mm)

I am wandering if it is possible due to the width of the bottom to avoid additional ribbing.

Please take a look at :

http://www.montanaboatbuilders.com/kitsplans_skiff.htm


Really it looks like a kind of jon boat, I m wandering again if i should buy those plans as the design of the hull that is interesting me is quite simple but is a bit to wide.
I would buy these plans only to know of curvature of the bottom chines...

 

why steel?

plan to weld or rivet it?

 

weld it

 

I think it should work. I would be concerned about the bottom rigidity being just flat it might mean a flexy boat. Maybe use a thicker sheet for the bottom. Or make a sandwich of thin sheets of steel with corrugated sheet in-between the two thin sheets. Just an idea.

I say it just try and see if it works. If it does not work...cough it up a good learning experience.

 

A skin thckness of 0.8mm is going to make more trouble than you will wish to endure. The skin that you mention can be made to work satisfactorily if it is sufficiently framed. The word sufficiently is used advisedly. Without doing a plate analysis, I would guess that framing should not be farther apart than that which would yield an unsupported area of 700 cm^2+\-. That is a lot of framing to deal with. By comparison with thin steel skin, a skin made of 6mm plywood would not need nearly as much framing. It can be said that plywood cannot withstand as severe a collision as the steel boat, even though the steel skin is thin. If collision with obstacles is the main critera, then steel may make a good choice. I think that a thickness of 1.5mm would be a more realistic dimension. Less framing would be more acceptable with thicker steel.

Drift boats of the US northwest are characterized by a huge amount of bottom rocker. The better to climb over rocks and other obstructions as well as producing a boat whose direction is most easily changed. Do you have swift and rocky rivers in Siam?

 

With a steel hull you will have to add a lot of flotation. A plywood bottom can be covered with various materials, such as Dynel and there are many others whitch will hold up to rock banging. I have never seen a steel drift boat.