house boat building materials?

Discussion in 'Materials' started by snapwalleye, Jun 9, 2010.

  1. snapwalleye
    Joined: Jun 2010
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    snapwalleye Junior Member

    boat 1.JPG

    lol, go ahead and laugh at the stick figures. they help me keep things in perspective for 6'-6".

    this is part of my working design for my persional houseboat. there are 2 material suggestions that i would need.

    1. the attached autocad file shows a top view of the open exposed top floor. can someone help me with what material/design we can use for the curved surface behind the wheel? i am wanting the surface to angle down and flow into the corners.



    2. also, as this is my first and only houseboat... what exterior material would be used on the side walls for the boat.

    thanks for any help!
     
  2. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Firstly, I would move the pontoons further apart. Secondly, you want to keep the superstructure lightweight and not add to instability of vessel by overloading. I would reduce by 1/2 the canopy.
     
  3. snapwalleye
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    snapwalleye Junior Member

    thanks for the reply. we are using an existing housboat (demo'ed top). right now we have it down to the bottom frame and pontoons.

    being that we are moving the walls out 1'6" on both sides from the old design, you think the pontoons should follow for stability? i think we can do that pretty easy.

    you think we are a bit top heavy? i can go to a light gauge steel canopy.
     
  4. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    You want to maintain a low center of gravity with balance being good fore-aft and port-starboard. Wind will have an effect, also, so breezeways can help with stability issues.
     
  5. snapwalleye
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    snapwalleye Junior Member

    i am planning on making the canopy an easy roll to the side cloth because of the wind problems on the lake that i am putting it on.

    kansas winds are bad enough, and the lake is very long running north and south. the wind and waves are pretty great out there.

    any other suggestions for this issue.

    i did extend the front of the boat to counter act the 200 horse motor, gas, bar, and generator all in the back of the boat. i will fine tune any weight ballance better for this later when the design is more complete.
     
  6. snapwalleye
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    snapwalleye Junior Member

    i found the information online. we are going to use an epoxy resin and fiberglass to build the walls as one piece with a normal wood and steel framed wall.

    the roof is going to be coated with: http://www.houseboatparts.net/id29.htm


    thanks.
    victor martin
     
  7. apex1

    apex1 Guest

    Leave the steel out, too heavy.

    And set the pontoons further towards the outside to gain stability. As mentioned before..............

    Regards
    Richard
     
  8. Eric Sponberg
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    Eric Sponberg Senior Member

    Snap,

    Since you are using epoxy and fiberglass on the boat anyway, you can also use wood-epoxy in the form of thin layers of plywood (1/4" or so) bent and glued together to get the curves you want.

    If you are already using pontoon, OK, but generally, to my mind, a barge is better than pontoons. It offers more support, volume, and if designed and built correctly, allows for below-deck space for storage, tankage, and mechanicals. Your design appears to be only for eating, with no sleeping accommodations, so you'll probably be OK with that.

    Stability is also a factor, as mentioned above by Hoytedow. Generally, I have found that up to about 16' wide, you can only have one story accommodation on a barge design. This limiting width would be less with a pontoon design. A partial second story is possible at 20' wide, and you have to go to 24' wide before you can use a full upper floor. This, of course, in high wind areas like here in Florida, and with a full barge design.

    You might be interested in some of the designs that I have done which are on my website: http://www.sponbergyachtdesign.com/FlaglerHouseboats.htm

    I hope that helps.

    Eric
     
  9. Redtick
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    Redtick Junior Member

    I've been dreaming of a british or dutch canal type house boat for the local lake. Something along the line of 38'x8' with a 2' draft being towable. Maybe a steel bottom, fiberglass half wall and top with the last 8' of the deck as a sun/swim deck. Low center of gravity and low wind load.
     

    Attached Files:

  10. KnottyBuoyz
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    KnottyBuoyz Provocateur & Raconteur

    Don't worry about stability. Pile it on! :p

    [​IMG]

    Living proof you can't overload a pontoon boat! ;)

    [​IMG]

    Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity to poke a lil' fun at the pontoon crowd. You're getting expert advice well worth the price of admission!
     
  11. snapwalleye
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    snapwalleye Junior Member


    ya, we are using an existing pontoon boat to be re-built.

    with the previous advice, we are going to move the outside of the pontoons to line up with the outside walls to give us a little bit more stability. there aren't going to be any living quarters upstairs so there is practically only one level of weight. i don't think there is enough weight up high to put us top heavy, but i could be wrong. i am going to look into new options on the canopy if anyone thinks that should be changed. i wanted it to go far enough forward to cover the steps from the lower level.

    i just did an innitial estimation calc. on the weight differential from the front to the back and i am coming out very close but slightly heavy in the front end, i won't know for sure till i build a 3d model and get more refined weights of everything sitting out front. luck has a lot to do with it so far.

    love the website, you guys are on a whole different level than my comprehension of boating design.
     
  12. snapwalleye
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    snapwalleye Junior Member

    boat.JPG

    here is one of the possible level 1 floor plan layouts.
     
  13. SamSam
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    SamSam Senior Member

    You need to find out how much flotation you have to work with. What size are the pontoons you are using?
     
  14. snapwalleye
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    snapwalleye Junior Member

    if my old measurements are right it is 2'-6" wide by 2'-8" deep by 40' long.

    the new design i have shouldn't be anything different than the old design it used to be. floatation should not be an issue unless setting too deep will make me more unstable?

    for some reason when i got the boat, the pontoons were half full of oil. i think it had to do something with putting a 200 horse motor on the back and the boat is rated to have no motor over a 45 horse. weither they were weighting it down for fast movement with the larger motor or if it had something to do with ballance. the previous owner who gave me the boat owns a lot of oil wells so that is where he got all the oil.
     

  15. snapwalleye
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    snapwalleye Junior Member

    thanks again for all the responses. i am learning a lot and figureing out a lot of issues before they become a problem.
     
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