Shanty/House/Fishing boat idea

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by cdubb, Dec 6, 2019.

  1. messabout
    Joined: Jan 2006
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    Location: Lakeland Fl USA

    messabout Senior Member

    All the lumber in my Florida big box stores are completely unsuitable for plank on frame construction. It is trash wood that is suitable for house, or outhouse construction only. It is filled with knots, slab sawn, twisted, warped, and cupped. The good lumber is available but priced so high that it is out of the question for boat building on a sensible budget.

    Plank on frame will require caulking and re-caulking as time goes by. Dry storage of such a boat will guarantee that it will leak when placed in the water. Plywood will come a lot closer to providing a dry boat. The cabin can be high enough for you if there is little or no rise to the flooring in the cabin. The cabin top can be arched so that there is ample head room in the middle and less height nearer the sides where the headroom is not so much needed.

    Make the beam eight feet, not more, so that the plywood bottom is accommodated for the ply dimensions. A pram style or garvey planform will maximize the space and be an advantage for design displacement. If you put the cabin in the center of the boat you will most likely improve the fore/aft trim characteristics. A hundred gallons of potable water and another hundred for brown or black water is a lot of weight....something like 1500 + pounds more or less. If you are to cruise in Florida's inland waters you will not need anything like that amount of water.

    The Saint Johns waterway, for example, winds from near Melbourne all the way to Jacksonville which is several days travel for a slow boat as this one will be. On that trip there are plenty of marinas and other facilities that you can use to gas up and restock your provisions. That is a beautiful trip that abounds with natural sights to see and enjoy. At the bottom end of Florida, you could mess around in the bay of Florida for days on end if you chose to do so. Mind the weather carefully if you do. There are, again, plenty of outposts with fuel and water and groceries well within a days travel.

    A twenty foot more or less garvey is not entirely suitable for the likes of Biscayne bay (Miami area), Tampa Bay and surrounds, because the weather can become really nasty in a short period of time. You could cruise from the west coast to the east coast, or the other way around, through the Saint Lucie canal across lake Okeechobee and out the Caloosahatchee River to Fort Myers and the Charlotte harbor. Charlotte Harbor area can get ugly but there are plenty of places to find refuge. Many a place along the trip to find fuel, water, booze, or whatever you might want or need.

    Oh ! An SOR is a "statement of requirements". That is something that is entirely necessary for the boat designer to comply with. Take some time to make a list of all the things you want your boat to do and to provide. The designer will sort out the ones that you can have and the ones that you cannot have. The gnashing of teeth and essential compromises begins there.

    After you do the Florida adventure, and if you have not had enough of that life, then consider doing the Tenn-Tom waterway that extends from the far north almost to Canada, all the way to Mobile Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico. That could be a mighty adventure that would give you more than enough stories to tell your grand children. There is a well done, available, book that describes the Tenn-Tom adventure in great detail.

    If you can pull this off, I salute you and envy your ability to undertake those adventures. Here is the best advice that you can get. It will be affirmed by other experienced forum members...... Hire a professional boat designer...... You will almost certainly save money by doing so and you will also get a boat that is much more likely to be suitable for what you intend.
     
    cdubb and bajansailor like this.
  2. bajansailor
    Joined: Oct 2007
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    Location: Barbados

    bajansailor Marine Surveyor

    +1 absolutely re everything Messabout says above.
    Don't even think about building a plank on frame boat if a better boat can be built in plywood. If Noah had access to plywood when he built his hypothetical Ark he would have been overjoyed. :)
    Equally, for the sake of a few hundred dollars, don't even think about trying to design it yourself - there are so many tried and tested designs out there which will happily do what you want your boat to do. The link provided by Fallguy earlier looks like it comes pretty close to what would work for you.
    GT Cruiser 23 (GT23) - Study Plans https://bateau.com/studyplans/GT23_study.php?prod=GT23
    Have a look also at this 24' boat available from Bateau - plans price is $200. She should be more 'seaworthy' re being able to cope with the rougher conditions mentioned by Messabout above.
    Maia 24 (MT24) - Study Plans https://bateau.com/studyplans/MT24_study.php?prod=MT24.
    Do some googling as well, to see what else is out there in the world of boat plans for sale on the web that might fit your SOR.
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2019
  3. fallguy
    Joined: Dec 2016
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    Location: usa

    fallguy Senior Member

    I will only argue one small matter. The width of the boat can be 8'6". The bottom panels should be made from a single panel; one would hope for some flair to the hullsides, etc. The idea of full sheets on bottom is good.

    here is another proven design; minimim horsepower is probably a bit higher; this is a planing hull I believe and you probably need more of a displacement hull design for your sor

    trailerable houseboat plans https://www.glen-l.com/designs/house/gypsy.html
     

  4. DDouglas1
    Joined: Dec 2019
    Posts: 1
    Likes: 0, Points: 1
    Location: Deltaville

    DDouglas1 New Member

    To be honest, I would search for an old trashed house boat and simply rebuild it to your liking.
    I always wanted to buy an old pontoon boat and stick a popup on it for some silly reason.
     
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