A Modular Riverboat

Seems like a case for Myark, a forum member that especializes on folding trailable boats. I see he has been forum inactive for about a year now. Drop him a line.

 

Why Tina Turner? Here is Sweet Dreams by Beyonce!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlxByc0-V40&list=RDJlxByc0-V40

 

How about Sam & Dave, weren't they the originals of recent history of rollin on the river?

 

How about this? Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These) by Eurythmics. Seems "everybody is lookin for somet'in".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Wjg-yR5X0

 

I'm actually not a Tina Turner fan, but I do give her credit for having created a great production in that particular video.

I posted that video because it exhibits a great on-stage performance complete with the entire band, fancy lighting and dancers.

I also make no secret of the fact that I in lust with Tina Turner's dance captain (the brunette just to the right of Tina on stage). Wow! She has great moves!

And then of course they are singing Proud Mary, an appropriate song to sing on a Riverboat.

I don't expect that our shows will compare with her's. And that was really my point. But I think we'll have a lot of fun anyway.

I mean we couldn't compare with a performance like Tina gave in that video even on dry land. In short, the Riverboat isn't going to magically transform us into super rock stars. And we aren't expecting that it will.

But as you point out, we can always have sweet dreams.

 

A four instrument system is under $100/line. Mike lines are a little more with the mike included. The same money won't get you four sheets of marine ply coated with epoxy so if you can't afford the sound you can't afford to start the barge.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Nady-401X-Quad-WGT-VHF-Wireless-Guitar-System-277409-i1127208.gc

This is all you need with the canoes you already have to rock from the water.

Am I happy now? Happier than your first reply but not happy. I guess it really comes down to your selective rejection of my advice as "not boat design" when you clearly have no interest in boat design and love to talk about other things. Other members have given you all the advice you need without you so much as asking appropriate questions. My feelings, my problem.

You might find what you are looking for in the build forum or duckworks -more similar projects.

Enjoy

 

You are free to voice your imaginary delusions all you want. But that doesn't make them true.

I am very grateful for the information provided by the members who actually addressed the issues of my proposed boat design. I believe that I have acknowledged their contributions and thanked them for having contributed.

To be perfectly frank with you I'm simply not interested in attempting to pacify naysayers and hecklers.

People who don't see the value of this project and who are trying to dissuade me from it can go jump in the lake. (quite fitting for a boat forum I think).

I didn't come here to seek anyone's permission or approval for my idea.

So if you disapprove of this project then you are posting in the WRONG THREAD.

What are you even doing in this thread if you are so passionately against it?

To simply say, "I don't personally see the value in your proposed project" would be quite sufficient. To hang around and argue about it is nothing short of silly. I personally feel that it is also a form of heckling and harassment.

What positive results are you hoping to achieve here? To convince me to give up my dream and do something that you think might replace it?

If that's your purpose then all I can say is "Thanks for your suggestion but I'm not interested, have a great day".

And that should end our conversation right there. For you to continue to argue about it is nothing short of heckling and harassing another forum member.

I am happy with my proposed project. Clearly you are not.

So please don't post in this thread anymore. There is no point in you posting to a thread on a project that you disapprove of. That's ridiculous and a waste of everyone's time.

 

Dude, you can always block a poster. I hope you can do this and have at it. good luck.
Outlaw

 

Hopefully that won't be necessary.

Thank you. I'm definitely going to build it as a model boat if nothing else.

I think it's a cool idea.

In fact, I've already started building the model in the woodshop. I'm building it 1/12 scale. 1 inch = 1 foot. So the whole shebang will be 40 inches long and 16 inches wide. It'll make a nice RC model if nothing else.

 

One thing to consider if you haven't already: the profile of your river boat might support a more typical tug and barge configuration. The tug part would be shorter (thought its house might be longer) and the barge would be longer. The advantage of this arrangement is the lack of a bendy bit in the middle of your stage ... which might possibly be a problem even in sheltered waters if someone zips by in their I-wish-mine-was-a-cigarette boat at "high speed."

 

Where are you in the USA ? I was looking at buying a full container which is about 2500 x 4' x 8' x 1/8" plywoods. Either from China or Indonesia.
They have full okoume marine plywoods and okoume and poplar cores .
Merantie is another option.
BS stamped plys are available, but i am told that it doesn't mean it is 100 % sure that the Chinese do it right. I'd like to think that the larger suppliers are responsible and referrals would be nice. One in Indonesia is a referral from a friend.
Since all of your boat will not be (hopefully) in water, you may have the option to get the cheaper for parts. Especially if you encapsulate in epoxie.
Look at Youtube Kurt Hughes multihull construction. Weight i'll look at it again and tell you the exact post.

 

Search for "Building a KH Catamaran" look at it carefully. All you need is friends, could be a song name ... but those pywoods are light. Were are talking less than 10 pounds for a 4'x8'. You will need to scarf them together for better homogenous structural behavior.
You will lose about one inch at each end overlap for the scarf. Then you can vaccum bag them together (need to stagger them) , which will give you a 3/8" strong skin.
The advantage of okoume plywood (A finish) is that you will need much less sanding and planning. Unless you like to workout ...
Check those prices on alibaba just to get an idea. I may look at buying some "expensive" plys from Joubert for critical areas. For the rest, poplar core WBP okoume BS stamped might just do the job. If needed, il have some building contractors who would like left overs in the 5/8" thicknesses for window encasing. In WBP it is the best if it means they can get it much cheaper than our lumberyards. I am trying to get alot of the building stuff from Home Depot for quick and easy replacements. In most cases, you can check liquidation sales. I got most of my gears from a tent sale of a major marine store in Florida. 75% savings ...
You are lucky to get your wood for free, beside work, i wish i was close to you to help.

 

@ yellow cat

Hey that okoume marine plywood does look like a nice option.

It would only take five 4' by 8' sheets to cover one of my hulls perfectly. I wouldn't even need to cut them at all.

At $50 a sheet (a price I just found doing a quick search) that would only be $250 per hull.

Of course, these are thin sheets and wouldn't be strong enough by themselves, but what I'm thinking if that i could actually build the hull from pine boards and then cover it with this thin plywood like shown in the video you posted.

Doing it this way I could even make the pine board thinner. Maybe only a half inch thick instead of 3/4 inch. This would lighten the hull and lumber would go further too.

This is definitively something I'll be looking into. $250 per boat isn't bad considering the added strength and other advantages. Of course by the time I include the adhesive and sealant, etc, it will be more than $250, but still, that's not bad.

This might be the best option. I'm not sure how glass cloth and epoxy would compare in price. Either one will work. I'll probably go with one of those two methods. That way I can keep the solid pine to thinner boards and the hulls lighter in overall weight.

 

I can't remember where it was, but some time ago I read about a neat trick for glassing over wood hulls that really reduced the sanding and with it construction time. What the guy did was to use a clear plastic cling-type sheet, I think Saran Wrap but don't quote me on that, which wouldn't adhere to the cured epoxy and laid that over his glassed but still wet hull. Then he took a heavy roller and went after the thing, getting air bubbles out as well as packing down the glass. When the plastic was removed after during the surface was smooth and looked close to finished just with that and the characteristic bumpiness of many fiberglass projects was missing (which causes so much sanding).

Now, IIRC, he said he'd still sand ... just not nearly as much work was needed for a fair hull and he wasn't sanding off as much of his fiberglass and epoxy that he'd paid for ... before going on to painting and such.

 

5/8" plywood BS stamped. It could be hard to bend fancy, but a barge like hull , sort of like those everglade air boat could be done. If you use pine squeletton , be carefull, make sure you have those scarfing joints and that you fill well the intersections , like scealing wall to wall (i would go for at least 3/4" x 3/4" and curve it a little, you will have to use "silice" in your epoxy ) look at the West-system web site, they show tricks) . You can ask them questions. They have terms like mayo, peanut butter, etc for the density of your sceallants or fillers. You have to prevent moisture to enter into crevises in the structure. I ordered Kurt Hughes DVD , for the price it is really worth it, he gives tricks and tips that could save you headaches. I had it in VHS and i have it in DVD. Can be boring to nervous people, but not for me.
Be carefull what are the legals on your usage . I heard in the news that in Canada, in Québec city, one of the sailboat was grounded because every member of the crew was not viewed as crew by the coast guards. I don't know what agreement they reached, the sailors had to leave within a specific time frame for it was a trans-atlantic adventure Québec/St-Malo Fr. .