Anyone know about this floating egg?

I was down at the local boat ramp today, and there were a lot of trailer boats out with the very good weather. No non-planing boats at all. Why do you suppose that is ? People prefer to get where they desire to go, and spend the most time there, not in transit back and forth.

 

What a small displacement boat would be good at, is fishing by trolled lines, for long periods, provided the point at which you could profitably commence trolling, was not too far from "port". Your fuel burn would be meagre compared to a planing hull. But that would only apply to a limited selection of close fishing grounds.

 

Precisely.

Trolling down the coast at 4 knots, drift fishing a reef when i eventually get there by standing up through the hatch with a rod then camping out at night without the mad rush back to the ramp at sunset and waiting an hour in line and watching the fights between the snobs and the bogans.

I have a 4.2m 30hp tinny right now and go though it every week.

 

I like it..
the interior as presented is set up to have a few mates over for coffee, a few ales... the modern version might go a bit more Lux in fitments.

As an "object" it's really lovely, the lighting in pics looks like sunshine showing/glowing through an egg(dinosaur?), the light patina of corrosion, the mugs set around the table speak of comraderie, the intrinsic strength of the vessel sets the stage for an enduring enterprise that at it's heart puts the lives of seafarers at the foremost consideration, really what's not to like about it! It may not be the most efficient in the modern purpose, but as it stands if Stoned Pirate wants to re-create an equivalent vehicle all encouragement to his endeavours. I could really see him cruising waterways, enjoying the fruits of labour in this delightful quirky vessel, even road transport between cruising venues would be possible, pull up in the camp ground fully self contained & ready to launch & explore the next exciting installment of Stoned life, rail mounted bbq, bacon & eggs for brekky, motorsail out to an idilic island/cove, snorkel- catch a lobby or two, scream of the reel mackeral steaks on the fry, sun sinking through a red horizon, palm trees swaying gently, spice in the air, champangne glass raised in salute .... repeat.........


Jeff.

 

???

That's a new one on me, Pericles!


I'm not down with the kids, enough, obvs!

 

It is more of a boat-cave, where fasting for forty days and nights could see you walking back to shore, on top of the water, imo.

 

Efficiency means different things to different folks.

This design would be the perfect dockside cruiser where the maximum volume at minimal slip cost is King.

There are lots of other beach balls selling well already 36 ft long 18 ft wide 3 stories tall with an oxygen tent plopped on top.

Operating engine is optional.

 

I haven't been looking but I know someone who bought 1 for 2500 a few years ago to rat the perkins out of it. They had 2 of them in yard where his was. These were the round ones not the boat shaped newer ones. in wa I would be asking someone In onslow or dampier if there are any sitting in yards. Another place to try is the oil rig safety school at fremantle.

 

Thanks guys

Looks like a few people can see the vision

Well, as simple and as cheap as buying a lifeboat would be, I kind of want to enjoy the design and building process.

If I can figure out how to work steel plate into those compound curves I think i will build something similar.

If the skill level and tool set is just too high, will have to keep scheming.

Cheers

 

"If the skill level and tool set is just too high, will have to keep scheming."

First scheme should be some sort ov ventilation.

When the air runs out in a sealed can , your IQ can drop.

A number of 20 ft sailboats have circumnavigated.

Slightly larger say 25 ft can be had for under $5K in good condition lots less as fixer up ers.

 

About construction: the original craft was built with larger plates than you will likely be able to afford metal shaping tools to achieve. It is possibly true of the thickness of material needed as well, so you may find yourself needing to work with several layers.

What you need to investigate, aside from metal spinning on a lathe for the bow cone as mentioned earlier, are at least these four machines for sheet metal working: English wheel, beading machine, expander and shrinker. With these four you could make relatively long and narrower (relative to the panels they used) 'planks'.

Here is a relatively short video about beading machines that also provides a demonstration of the expander and shrinker: http://youtu.be/lODgppRRBPk

One use for a beading machine I would suggest, as an example, would be in forming reinforcing framework pieces by creating a suitably deep bead down the center of long thin pieces of sheet metal. Likewise you could create the halves of standing seems at the edges of your panels. You could possibly cover the latter with the former.

Notice how, in the video, he starts, with a piece of sheet metal with curved cuts such as you may be interested in and that as he puts a bead in these along the edge a compounded curve is formed. He proceeds to try to straighten this whereas you might want it enhanced.

Before I go on let me say a brief word about shrink eras and expanders, because it will be the capacities of these machines that will probably limit you in the breadth of sheet metal you can produce. They are mechanically similar even though they are functionally opposite. Both consist of a clamp action and then a secondary stretching or compressing, causing the piece to be made marginally thinner or thicker. When you do this you can introduce curvature or reduce curvature within a piece.

Here is a video more specifically about these machines: http://youtu.be/6frSjl1Gf8o

You may note that both fellows in these videos have more useful videos, like Covell's demonstration to the English wheel: http://youtu.be/vHndI9Izywg

(I'm not affiliated with Eastwood, btw)

Here in this video you see him forming round pieces, but imagine instead inducing less curvature to match the hull in a long piece but more in the short, circumferential direction.

It would clearly take a lot of work to produce these panels this way, but being able to produce them also gives you a skill set to start to do lots of other neat things like Covell shows here: http://youtu.be/2PNl7QwURPs

Two more comments. Don't discount rivets where you can get away with them in terms of the finish you want. At the very least they don't introduce distortions due to heat like welding can. Secondly adopting an appearance like an older looking submarine (even like the USS Nautilus) may permit you to use larger, flatter panels and reduce the work required.

 

For ventilation and exhaust a snorkel is a proven technology. You could mount engine exhaust to the mast of a small studying sail (as folks hereabouts seem dubious about comfort). Might want a separate snorkel for crew air. It could be married to a cat rig like in the original.

Oh, have you considered that you could use molded plexiglass panels for port lights along the sides? They could both match the form of the hull and would fight the caveiness of the interior.

 

Thanks again all

Lots of great info there.

The more i look into it, the more i realise that there is way more to building a steel shape like this than i had hoped.

I didnt see the ventilation issue as a major hurdle. If you could build a steel football of this size, you could figure out where to put some fans and vents.

Besides, three men lived in it for over 50 days crossing an ocean 100 years ago without our technology and without dying of carbon monoxide poisoning.

I am impressed by Brude and his crew for building and sailing this thing but might have to start looking at ply/epoxy options

 

It could be made with PVC foam sandwich to the football shape without too much bother, and you get the bonus of an insulated structure, but I would keep thinking about the wisdom of it all for a while yet.

 

As it's a heavy design, even for the size of boat ferrocement may not be an be a issue. In fact FC is well suited to the shape because hardly anything would be in tension, even if stretched a bit for better speed and some more room.