small steel boat.

Yeah the first thought was to just wrap the tube around the boat and weld, but once I got the tubes they turned out actually surprisingly stiff and the poor boat with just the bare sheet was a wet noodle. Even if the boat could have taken it, I'm not a fan of having large things in tension if I can avoid it, esp since space is confined and I'm working alone.

Re the bow stiffening, I should have phrased that differently, the bars are there to distribute point loads into the sheet, eg hitting a rock. I'll be putting a couple of small triangular reinforcing plates inside to keep it from peeling open.

Bow shape? No reason other than I thought it looked cool on the computer, kind of utilitarian, fitting since it won't be winning any races. At first I aimed for a plumb bow but that would have been a difficult bend in the lower chine sheet and I imagined it would be fairly wet ride. So this was the result, then the ice breaker esque look grew on me. Heh.

 

I did the pipe edge ounce. I bent the pipe to shape of the edge and used a 4in grinder with a cutoff wheel to get the slot. You need small steel wedges to drive in the slot as your cutting it to keep it from pinching the cutting wheel and leave then in for assembly. When assembling the pipe to the hull drive the slot on with a wood mallet , the wedges will be pushed in as you drive it along on the edge , so make the wedges small so you can blow them out with air.

 

HMCS Tincan floats!

Dragged it out of the basement and threw it in the water to see how it goes.

Must admit, pretty cool to finally not only see it float, but to do a short loop around in the arm.

Going to throw in a few brackets for floor/benches, close of the front/rear bulk heads, coat of paint, and then build a bigger one lol.

 

Nice work.

 

Congratulations on a job well done!

 

update

So finally got it painted, floor in and went out for its maiden journey. The evinrude two stroke, environmental disaster on water that it was, got a motor swap, old brigs pressure washer motor. Ticks along nicely.

 

Nice! By 'ticks', I take that to mean quiet. Did you do something different for the muffler or does 'ticks' just mean it works good?

.

 

It is pretty quiet, I have to find a rattle in there, I think the rivets holding the recoil starter have loosened.

By ticking I mean ticking like a clock, just runs nice and steady.

Went out for another longer run today, peaked our nose out into the mouth of the harbour and a small Atlantic swell. The heavier hull rides really nicely, does not respond to small chop at all and seems happy in slightly lumpy seas. Barring an occasional spray over the gunwales, didn't seem to phase it.

Next, slightly heavier seas!

 

It will sink like a rock without flotation. A cubic foot of air will provide around 60# of flotation. It's best placed so if the boat fills with water, it floats fairly level and upright if possible. There is nothing to hang onto if it's upside down. Floating with just the bow pointing up out of the water a little or something similar is not too much help either.

 

Correct. Zero flotation and very rock like performance underwater.

So while it "feels" more sea worthy than I expected, it is certainly not a good idea to venture past the swimming to shore range.

Don't let the $100 paint job and slapped together floor from scrap pressure treated deck lumber fool you, I don't intend on keeping it very long, its too small, this was just a test to see how hard it is to build a small hull out of steel and see if we like boating since I've never owned or piloted a boat before this.

So we'll tool around on lakes this summer and then the plan is to build a slightly bigger version 18-20ft (most likely out of Al), where I will spend all the time needed designing flotation, stowage, seating and all the other things that are typically expected in an actual boat.

 

Great project.

Now lets see the engine replacement you did.
There are several threads chugging along, but yours is done.

 

Why "most likely out of Al" ?
I met so many people here doubting the possibility of building a boat out of 3mm or 4mm steel plate and you succeeded in building a skiff out of 1.6mm steel sheets !!
I hope Some time I will have time and money to try and build a 20ft center console boat out of steel....

Cheers!