Me the dog and the canoe

Howdy, me and the dog like water, I need the workout so we bought a canoe.
She can do something with her feet that makes tha canoe overturn and unless I can smack her in the head with the paddle, we swim. I saw an add on craigslist and ended up with two hobiecat 16's, enough stuff for one sailboat and we were thinking one peddal power paddleboat. So we started building a paddlewheel, 3' dia and 4' wide. I understand paddle wheels are not the faforite but we like shallow water to play in and a wheel seems to be good for that. I will try to add a pic or two.

 

I see I only got one pic and will try one more

 

perhaps they are too big?



Anyhow advice on this project would be appriciated, as me and the dog need all the help we can get
thanks

 

Your paddlewheel appears to be the result of some good craftsmanship. I do hope it is not so heavy as to need the pictured forklift to hold it up. How do you propose to turn the paddle wheel ? Pedal power maybe? The Hobie rudders may or may not give you the low speed control that you will want. Time will tell. You have an intersting but perhaps far fetched combination there. Let us know about the outcome of this project. It looks like fun whether practical or not.

Handsome dog. My guess is GSP (german shorthaired pointer) except that a fully grown GSP might not readily fit in the box on the bike. Whatever breed he must be an important companion as you are doing things to accomodate his presence. I have done such things myself. My dogs were Australian Shephards, one of which had the pedigree name of Midwatch Helmsman. His call name was Sailor. He was my constant companion but he absolutely hated the damned boat. He wanted no part of an entirely comfortable M20 scow on a light air day. He had an inappropriate name, as the Sailor who did not like boats.

 

Pedal power is the plan, as you can see I need to pedal or something. I work in a machine shop and that dog (GSP) is with me most of the hours of the day, good thing too as I fear her energy level would cause damaging effects left alone too long. The wheel and shaft are just above 70lbs, not too far off from the mast, sail and all the stuff that holds it up, of course we are transfering the weight back a long ways however most of the thrust should be up and forward. Our place is owned and operated for the dog as well as I can see, I am just glad she like to do stuff I like too.

 

Leave the dog at home and install a steam engine! You obviously have the skills, and the world is desperately short of stern wheelers . . . especially multihull ones.

 

Kustomizer; I feel your pain. I also run a machine shop and I am acquainted with a bunch of machinist types. We all seem to suffer from a similar malady. We gotta' build stuff. One of the familiar stories about machinists is when someone asks; "Why would he build a thing like that?" The answer; "Because he can".

There is a colossal large thread on the forum about pedal powered boats. Lots of really good information about gear ratios, propellors, gear boxes, and other things there.

All three of my boys go to the shop every day. (Two Aussies and a Bernese.) One of the Aussies is scared of thunder and fireworks noise but is totally unperturbed by any of the frequent and loud shop noises. Something is to be said for good shop dogs.

Keep in touch with us. We want to know how well a stern wheel catamaran works.

 

I've been working my way thru the pedal power thread, and buying some supplies on ebay, stainless drive chain, a couple of sprockets, stainless rivets, and of course a bimini top as my bride is a fair skinned redhead and burns easy. A trip to the local surplus guy netted some light yet strong 3 inch square tubing to support the wheel, seats, and a place for the hound. I imagine I will go measure a few bicycles somewhere and make a crankshaft type affair and some pedals. One day soon I would like to throw it in the pond and see if it still floats but the constant rain here in sunny California is keeping the ground too wet.

 

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Very interesting! Any reason the paddle wheel couldn't be mounted forward of the front cross beam? Would it splash the occupants? It would be a lot closer to the mast position-Hobies are very unforgiving of weight aft.....
Good Luck!

 

My thought was that the wheel is much lighter than me, the wife, an Ice chest and the dog so I plan to put us as near the ballance point as I can. I believe the wheel should push up some as it shoves us across the lake. A friend told me hesterday to abandon the pedal idea and mount a dog powered squirel cage on the bow to run the paddle wheel, so many ideas, so little time.

 

I helped a friend build a multihull b&s powered paddlewheeler circa 1970. It was an interesting learning experience.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCaQxsSefqs&feature=youtu.be

 

Thanks for the utube SamSam, We have narowed it 12 inches to fit a common top, and it mocked up. I think the seats need to be about 6 inches to the rear but I have to cut the legs off my seats to do that so the wife, dog, an Ice chest and I will put it in the water in a day or so and see where it floats.

 

Well, we are progressing at a somewhat slow pace, thought I would post a few pics. I cut the legs off the chairs and bolted them to the boat, made hubs and sprockets to drive the wheel and jackshaft and found some shiny pillowblock bearings on Ebay so I could mount the wheel. My father had a few old Schwinns so Friday afternoon I will start making stuff to mount our pedal cranks.

 

The project appears to be really well done and thoroughly imaginative. Keep up the good work. I suspect that you are doing this the hard way, but what the hell, more's the fun.

Are you figuring to put a sprag in the driveline somewhere? That would let the paddlewheel turn while the pedals are resting. Of course that would mean no reverse unless there was an override clutch. Come to think of it, a standard coaster brake hub will do all that with a little bit of internal tinkering.

Keep in touch, this is a fascinating exercise.