Requesting Small Sternwheeler hull design and analysis help

fredrosse said:

From phorgjlf's post 17 July 2015: "You're right, the engineers were quite discouraging. Amateurs with software were much more helpful. '

I have to take exception to your statement. I am an engineer, have been for nearly 50 years, and my day job is Fluids Analysis. My post here on 18 December 2014 is far from discouraging, and I have actually built a paddleboat, so what I said is not armchair speculation.

Click to expand...

Even if you were to speculate you didn't put an armchair on your paddleboat.

Incidentally, I've been playing around with various hulls for cruisers and been having a time fitting accommodations in the narrower hulls I favor.

One of my hull studies was a fairly large shallow draft stern wheel boat and I recently dug it back out, redid the bow with new stuff I'd learned, and subsequently narrowed it to a 10' beam sans rub rails. Crudely dropping accommodations into the volume it has a full beam stateroom aft with a queen sized bed, a small stateroom with a twin XL — both with their own closets — and what I would guess to end up as a roughly 60x66" restroom which would be necessary on a boat where my handicapped sister might be (she needs someone else in the room to deal with her mess). Common areas aren't huge and the windage would be ... paddlewheel like. But it isn't bad for a boat that would displace a bit over 13,000# ... or 17K with the keel 3" lower.

All possible because of the one thing stern wheelers have besides stern wheels ... nearly full beam transoms.

Rurudyne said:

Incidentally, I've been playing around with various hulls for cruisers and been having a time fitting accommodations in the narrower hulls I favor.

One of my hull studies was a fairly large shallow draft stern wheel boat and I recently dug it back out, redid the bow with new stuff I'd learned, and subsequently narrowed it to a 10' beam sans rub rails. Crudely dropping accommodations into the volume it has a full beam stateroom aft with a queen sized bed, a small stateroom with a twin XL — both with their own closets — and what I would guess to end up as a roughly 60x66" restroom which would be necessary on a boat where my handicapped sister might be (she needs someone else in the room to deal with her mess). Common areas aren't huge and the windage would be ... paddlewheel like. But it isn't bad for a boat that would displace a bit over 13,000# ... or 17K with the keel 3" lower.

All possible because of the one thing stern wheelers have besides stern wheels ... nearly full beam transoms.

Click to expand...

Having lived in a 16' LOA travel trailer (~7' by 12 ft floor space), I find it easy to figure around smaller spaces, using the nearly endless variety of RV floor plans. Just bought a 1984 Barth 34' LOA motorhome. Using a combination of ideas, I'll have a small 1 BR apartment on wheels. Full width closet/armoire over the rear generator, BR with home-sized Queen bed, a 3/4 bath with 2 doors, a kitchenette and small living area. Rotating the captains' chairs makes for a more livable small space, whether it's just my wife and I, or some entertaining. As a temporary module, there will be a space something like an AmTrak/Pullman Roomette, to later be replaced with a sofa. As we have a grandson, and our youngest daughter is still in HS and then will go to college, we may need better accommodations than a mere fold-out sofa. I intend for that to be interchangeable, so that when it's just us, we have the full open space from the dashboard to the kitchenette/bathroom wall. The queen will probably be a Futon slide-out with the middle and head folding upward, as the foot pushes in, to create the seatback and floor space for the BR to be my wifes craft space, as well. I'll have a combination computer desk/workspace, that will also do duty as the home entertainment center, with an additional monitor overhead, above the dashboard, facing rearward.

May I suggest finding a motorhome of similar length and seeing what floor plans might work, then picking features? Just be sure you have a design without slide-outs, so you know what you're working with. I also find doing a chalk layout on a smooth concrete slab does wonders, when trying to figure a design, or remodel.

I think you will find that you can have a shallow V bottom, (mine had something like a 10 degree V hull - my hull was an old Whit-craft houseboat hull) Even a shallow V will help some in a wind. Still they are a handfull, with the shallow draft and high cabin, they are going to catch the wind. I found that a bow thruster was a lot of help in handling the boat in the harbor. Mine was a 8" tube through the hull at the bow with a lower-unit from a 25 hp Merc outboard and a cut down prop. It was driven with a small hydraulic motor which worked pretty well. A word of caution, however my bow thruster was only good at low speeds or stopped hull. If the boat was up to speed, the water flowing by the intake side of the bow-thruster tube caused too much cavitation and I didn't get any appreciable thrust.

As far as experts telling you that you need a prop hanging down below the bottom of the boat, the principle advantage of a traditional stern-wheel design is that the wheel and rudders are all tucked in above the bottom the the boat, so if you get in some thin water, you can usually wash the boat off by reversing your wheel.

Well... old thread.. lots of time to get something done.. as a sternwheeler enthusiast and having read through 19 pages of, at times, some pretty interesting stuff, I'm curious if the project has gotten out of that Texas mud?

It got dropped. We were having issues with a Landlord that took over most of the property, kept hiring druggies and criminals, broke numerous laws, etc. Had to get out of there.