Seperable Raft

My friend and I want to build a simple raft. It will be used for floating on a local lake (formed from a dammed river, so a small current). We plan to pretty much just anchor a few yards offshore to fish and enjoy the outdoors (and drink beer ); i.e. we don't plan on piloting it very far. The main design constraints are:
- We have to be able to quickly disassemble it into pieces we can easily transport about 2 blocks to my house. (We will either put them in a car/truck, carry them, or build a simple trailer to pull by car or hand)
- Must be big enough to fit 2-3 beach chairs, a cooler, a small motor, and maybe a box for life vests.
This is our design so far:
The raft will be about 12'x8'. we will make 6 sections that are 2'x8'. Each section is essentially identical, and is made from a 2' by 2' by 8' piece of block foam with either plywood or boards of some kind laying on top. The foam and wood will probably be attached by some sort of strapping. Each section will have 2 eye screws on top, one at each end, and the sections will be held together by putting a pipe through the eye screws and capping the pipe at both ends. Then we will attach those big strapping winches that are used to hold things to truck beds (don't know the name) around each end, to make sure it is secure.
We will also have a movable canopy going over one end of the boat, made from a tarp that is attached to a curved-pipe frame with hooks. There will be fishingrod holders made of pvc. There will be a small rail that runs the perimiter of the raft to stop things (like our chairs) from falling off the edge. Also, there will be a small (trolling?) motor, and possibly storage compartements cut into the blocks (maybe even a hole down to the water to act as a cooler).

The whole thing needs to be dirt cheap (I don't know how much a motor costs, but hopefully everything else will be less than $150, b/c we are poor college students) and we hope to avoid all possible boating regulations/licensing/registration.

So, my questions are:
1. What general comments do you have on the plausibility of our design, and what suggestions would you make?
2. Assuming our design is pretty good, how might we attach the foam to the wood on top (we might just need to make a frame to which we could attach decking and our other accoutrements, but still, how to attach a frame)?
3. Where do we get block foam? I tried a google search (that's how I found these forums), but should we be looking at something like Home Depot, a boating store, an industrial supply store, or what? Any search terms that might help? We live in Northern New Jersey, USA, if anyone knows anywhere particular (in Paterson?).
4. What are we looking at in terms of a motor? We don't care if it only pushes us 1 mile a day; that's fast enough. How do we deal with mounting the motor? Could we steer simply by turning the motor, or do we need a rudder?
5. What should we know about anchors? Right now we're just thinking a big hunk of metal or concrete attached to a chain, attached to some part of the raft. The water will not be very deep where we are (less than 50' for certain, probably less than 6' most of the time).
6. What are the regulations for a boating liscence and registering and such, or where do I look to find out?

Thanks so much in advance!

 

Jeez mate you don't need a raft to drink beer.

Where I live down here away from all the problems of the world, "surf cats" used to be the rage. Every man and his dog had a surf cat.

In case you call it something else up there, a surf cat is a 12 - 14ft long light, twin hulled sailing thing.

Now that the craze has finished you can normally pick one up for a song.

If you can't sing you may have to give them some money.

I have one I was going to use for the same reason. It has a sail, no cost for propulsion although I took mine off and made up a transom for the back.

It has a soft trampoline like mat that you can take off and replace with timber if you wish but would work quite well with it on.

Other than that, I'm not too keen on the foam block idea, they would break up too easily. Drums have been used for that kind of thing for ages esspecially now you can get plastic ones.

What you need to do is calculate exactly how much weight you want to float including the weight of whatever you are going to float it with and double it. (for example if you are going to use drums, you need to know how heavy the drums are)

Work out the cubic measurement of whatever you are going to float it with and now I have a problem as we work in the metric system as we are not clever enough to calculate all the different figures that are required in imperial and even in imperial I think American gallons are different to everyone elses.

From memory there are 6.25 gallons to a cubic foot and I think that should float around 50 lbs.

But, get that checked out by someone who knows the imperial system.

Trial and error here as you may work out the volume of 6 drums then find it wont float enough so you will have to work it out with 8.

If you don't want to go fast, paddle it. I have been told paddling is about the right speed for trolling.

Good luck, and take a photo of your finished project and post it.

PS Just thought of another raft that was quite popular, truck inner tubes.

 

Yes, drums would be a good way to go. They could simply sit in a slot in the bottom of the floor. Rather than hinges, make, say, four panels that each hold two drums below. A little strapping across the bottom would assure that no drum could slip out if you get too wild. Attach these four together at your launch site with two long 2x6 and a cordless screwgun and voila. I'd use a couple of oars to move it around. Cheapest and most efficient way to go. And yes, just about anything that sinks would work allright for an anchor for something that size. I use 5 gal pails filled with concrete with a stick of rebar stuck in the middle, welded a link of chain to the bar to tie on to. I use this for permanant morring bouys for for my 23' and 31' boats so I don't have to drop an anchor. Of course an anchor is designed to grab, so it does the same job for much less weight. I used to use rocks when I was a kid to anchor my raft, two canoes like a cat with a platform on top and between. That could work for you too if you can find some cheap boats. Plus they move very nicely. Just attach some cross beams with some ratchet straps. Good luck. Where therer is a will, there's a way. BUt foam would be expensive, messy to work with, and would need a cage all around it.

 

I think your getting the right idea-I'm doing a simillar thing-buyilding a boat in many sections (so i can get it out the back yard/back gate :S) so i can have it bigger,rather than just 17' (too little for my purposes)Look at my threads(http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/search.php?searchid=854561) to find more information.(or of course-ask me anyone more questions and stuff)
You will also probably want 7/8 sections so that you can make something like 4 hulls (good way to make the boat bigger-but that means SPREAD THEW WAIT or... GLug Glug Glug Glug)Then cut the crossbars,then either leave them or attach them between two hulls ata time and then have bords to fit over the crossabars and there you have a deck.Then you just take it apart the way you want it and hey presto! you have a seperatable boat!