what do you think of this one? (river cruiser for relaxed cruising)

That's a nice one. I love the shanty boat style, but I want the cruiser performance. They seem mutually exclusive though. PAR's riverboat series has come closest to what I want so far. I may go ahead and order the study plans this weekend and start discussing specifics with the wife.

 

Jeff, Egress is a plywood over frame build, while Chiusa is a taped seam. I've been working on a smaller version, the smallest I can put standing headroom in, without it looking like a Winnebago parked on a barge.



Intended to be available as both plywood over frame or taped seam, I've made the cabin as big as practical, pushing the sides right out to the rail, essentially making them an extension of the hull sides. Trumpy was noted for this trick, to gain interior volume too. I've buried the bow to keep her from slapping and her shape will permit low power to push her past the theoretical hull speed limits, by a little bit. Her theoretical hull speed should be about 6.8 MPH, but she can be driven to over 8, with modest power. She's just too fat to do much else, without significantly changing her stern rocker (which is a possibility). She draws 9" at 1.27 tons, though she'll float (light ship) a fair bit less than this when launched empty. The aft deck is big enough to sunbath and fish, plus is self draining. The foredeck is pretty small, but docking duties and lounging are possible. Headroom on the drawing above is just over 6' and she could easily take a couple more inches, if desired. An easy to plank hull, with a tough bottom, so wayward skippers can putter around without fear. She'd be easily trailered and launch/recovered. Not as efficient as other, longer, proportionally more narrow designs in the series, a fine weekend getaway or cruiser.

 

This one is very close to trailerable

http://www.bateau.com/proddetail.php?prod=GT27#.Vc13f7Wo8Zw

Its a very 'traditional' shape, which I wasn't all that pleased with.

I had it re-designed for something a bit more modern on the same hull.

may even build it some day

 

At 8' 9" beam, you'll need special permits to trailer, though I doubt any cop might notice the 3" oversize aspect. I trailer my 28' Chris all over and it's several inches over, but never a ticket.

The garvey hull form does offer more volume forward, I just hate the look. The GT Cruiser is a full plane hull, though you'll need 60 HP to get her up into the mid teens and a 90 HP to manage the low 20's. Good speed, but fuel economy will be significantly higher than a 20 HP pushing you at 7 - 8 MPH.

 

Support your police organizations and sport their bumper stickers. Just saying....

 

Knowing several officers, I can assure you the bumpers stickers will not save you a thing.

 

A cruiser on my jetty has the cabin built right out to the rail which gives it huge interior volume. But they have to be careful where they tie up to wharves. If the wharf is high the cabin gets smashed against it when other boats go past.

 

Brendan, this is the first riverboat I've designed with this feature and did think of this occurrence, when I drew it up. I did place an additional rub rail just below the windows, to help in this regard. On all others I use a skinny sidedeck, which places the cabin inboard a few inches (typically 4"). Since this boat is quite small for a standing headroom, shoal draft cruiser, with 7' of beam, I elected to get as much as I could. I also think sloping the cabin sides inboard would help tremendously, plus would dramatically improve rigidity too, but lots of folks want simple, perpendicular lines, so they're plumb. Even the roof is a straight line on the centerline, with a common curve used on the beams. Home built designs have to make many more compromises in the design attributes than a professionally built effort.

If I built this boat, the roof would be "sheered" and the cabin walls not only inclined (5 - 7 degrees), but also set inboard a few inches. I've found even a skinny sidedeck can be traversed, if a well placed handrail is on top of the cabin roof. You can shimmy along, hand over hand and tidy up spring lines or whatever. I'd also move the lower rail down and make the sheer rail thicker, to pick up wayward docks, before they bashed the cabin sides.

 

It is a neat looking cruiser paul. I like that it also retains a rear cockpit for a bit of fishing. I was going to ask if you would fit a rubrail around the top but you already answered that. The cruiser i was talking about has almost vertical cabin sides .

 

You might have an extensive look thru both of those subject threads for some other interesting ideas.

 

Floating tug/home
...photo-shopped Pilgrim 40 onto barge hull
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/retirement-houseboat-floating-home-23987-10.html#post648712

BTW, you might look up some of the construction ideas I have for the superstructure of the redesigned Pilgrim 40 over on this other forum:
http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/redesigning-pilgrim-40-trawler-canal-boat-11212.html

It's a long subject thread, so perhaps just search for Nidacore material, ...such as this particular posting
http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=179504&postcount=127

Brian

 

RiverWalker

Hi,
I built a River Walker about 6 years ago and am quite pleased with it. I run it as a tour boat on the Kalamazoo River and Lake Michigan all summer. It moves pretty well with a 40hp Honda and uses very little fuel (my guess is about 1.5gph at 2700rpm) at 4-5mph. An improvement I plan to add this winter when its hauled is a flat aluminum plate extending the hull bottom past the transom about six inches to break the suction. We add these, and you'll see them, on a lot of commercial semi-displacement boats with good results at low speeds.

Its comfortable and stable on the river and when the lake is calm, but 3ft waves are not comfortable. Not like your going to sink or anything, but pounds as you'd expect and crap falls off the shelves.

It probably depends on if you are taking short trips of a week or so, or taking off for extended cruises. I live on it 6/7 months of the year but mostly just stay around Saugatuck with a few short trips to other towns along the lake.

I narrowed the house to allow 6" side decks which are indispensable, I can't imagine a reason not to have them regardless of the beam.

Easy to build and modify. Can carry a heavy load of people or whatever. People other than boat designers like the look. But its a bit heavy for trailering. Pounds in bigger choppy waves, and is slow. Everything is a trade off.

 

Yep, everything is a trade off, but trading for a slow boat that likes to pound in a modest chop, one that's heavy, which costs more to build and tow, seems not the best deal you could have found. I'm glad you're pleased with the River Walker, but I have some moderate experience with riverboat/houseboat designs and you could have had double that speed on the same size engine, at about the same fuel consumption, that didn't pound and because it weighed less, didn't cost as much to build either.

 

river cruiser

So, let's see: I could have had a boat that would go twice as fast (8-10mph, slightly over hull speed) with the same size(10' beam, 24'waterline), accommodations, load carrying capability, using the same engine, consuming the same amount of fuel (at this faster speed?), and wouldn't pound in a 3' chop, and would be cheaper to build (because it weighs less, which I guess is how some people price a boat?). Love to see the plan and I guess the estimated price per pound of materials. eek

 

You pay for every ounce you put into a build, so if the design is considerably lighter, yes, you don't have to pay as much for materials. It's also typically easier to install these light elements, which can save labor too, then there's the cost to propel the lighter vessel, all of which combine to make it more economical to design and build light.