Car-Carrying Box Boat?

Hello everyone.
I've been kicking around an idea despite its high likelyhood of being completely absurd, and I'd like to get the thoughts and input of people who have designed and built some boats in the past.
At some point within the next few years I plan to move onto the water, with no particular home port in mind, except maybe for Seattle. Ultimately, I'd like to go to Europe and that's where this concept probably won't hold water. Bad pun, I know. The need is for a flat-bottom sailing boat that could cruise rivers and shallow areas. It would have a double berth, galley, head, all those nice things to have for living aboard. What I would like to try to incorporate is this; I'll need to take my car along too. I have some specific models in mind, namely the Fiat 500, SmartForTwo, 1st generation VW Bug, or the M36 Willy's MB.
What I am picturing at the moment is something a bit like a WW2 Higgins boat, enclosed on the top with a deck, and a sailing rig of some sort. Figuring 15' for the garage bay, I'm looking at around 35' LOA. The design would be rather 'Bolger-esque'. Not pretty or fast, but all I'm looking for is something that will float for at least a one-way trip to Paris.

So, my questions are fairly straitforward. Is it possible? What challenges will I need to overcome in the design?

 

With enough money almost everything is possible. But it would likely be cheaper to sell your car and hire taxis everywhere you need one than to carry your car with you. Almost defiantly if you carried a moped or motorcycle with you.

The question isn't technologically difficult, it just is not likely to be cost effective.

 

Paperwork makes transporting vehicles troublesome. Rent them. Also, how would you off load ? 500 euro crane hoist each time ? Far better to build a pair of Mod Squad style Vespa scooters into your rig.

A houseboat type would be very good for Europe inland waterways. You would have a blast. Read up on the regulations for your design. Perhaps post directly on Boat Design net for insight into canal boat design.

I would think that a good canal cuiser design would fit inside of a 40ft shipping container

 

The idea was to use something like a landing craft with a ramp on the bow, like the Higgins boat. That way the boat can be taken up to any launch ramp or even a beach, drop the ramp and drive the car off.

 

Well...perhaps. I dont know. Purchase a canal cruising book. Google it. Many available and they will map all launching ramps and give you an idea of geography. Personally I find a car on a boat as practical as a lightweight steamroller.

I only know the coastline. On the coast it would be trouble. There is no launch ramp in the town Im presently berthed and once you got the car ashore you would not be able to find a place to park it. Europe is densly populated and the towns are small

 

It's a wonderful idea.... how romantic.... at least at the first sight....

If I am not mistaken you are looking for a Trans-Atlantic voyage in that boat. How do you propose to carry that much of provisions and water on a 10 m craft. My estimate of drinking water itself for a direct journey from Washington to Paris is more than 10 tonnes for two people.
The displacement of your vessel would be in a range of 30 tonnes at say a draft of 1 m. WW2 Higgins boat was hardly 8 tonnes displacement at 0.8 m mean draft. So you would have scope to add some items/rigging gear on this one.

But my main concern is:
(1) You should be able to find beaches suitable to land on. If you have a higher draft, there will be restriction on this.
(2) What do the local laws of the sovereign territories you are going to visit, say about such visits? Especially, in these troubled times.

Best Regards,
Devu C.

 

A much wiser choice, for the length boat you envision is a motorcycle, instead of a car. At best, a car will be difficult to incorporate into the design, on a 35' LOD craft. A first generation Bug and the new Fiat 500 are about a ton, a Smart car about 1,600 pounds, so looking at a 500 pound or lighter motorcycle makes a lot of sense, not to mention not having to surrender 40% of the vessels length to a garage. A boom could easily lift a motorcycle off the deck and place it neatly on a dock. In fact many of my designs incorporate this feature.

Ocean passages are best left to vessels designed to cope with the strains, which don't necessary blend well, with a European channel voyager.

In short, you're looking at a custom design and should contact a professional to establish your SOR, budget and time frame constraints.

 

The box boat is gonna cross the Atlantic ? Whoa......

 

Anywhere you go there are taxis and rental cars. An auto on a boat soon (1 year) becomes a real rusty eyesore unless you have a sailing 'garage' to seal it inside. Insurance/licensing/bureaucracy are difficult.

 

Or why not this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DUKW

I write this near you (Port Townsend) although I am English. There is a very big difference between the US and Europe. Both the size of roads and the number of boat launching ramps. There are five free ramps within five miles of me as I write this. I don't know where the nearest one is to me in England.

And the tidal range is much greater in Europe than in the PNW. 20ft in my home port of Plymouth, 40ft at the entrance to the Seine.

I agree with the other posters. But I have a friend who has sailed 4 times round the world on a 32ft monohull with his motorbike on board

Having said that lots of Dutch barges (and I guess French ones too) carry their car on deck. But you wouldn't make an Atlantic crossing in such a barge

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

6 ton 6 wheel drive.. Dutch barges carrying cars, and not specially small cars
howeverwitchway, taking taxi's, renting cars and asking rides isnt the way to go eighter

 

that's right.... a professional advise would beneficial to fine tune your project....

 

LOL I love that expression....

Although, yes what he is asking for is possible, with certain modifications in his design....

 

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009...ding_craft_yacht_1.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig

This is kind of what I have in mind, though I would probably go for fewer portholes and much better top cover. I had thought of adding a tabernacled mast so that I could use wind power and conserve fuel on long trips and whenever possible, but still be easily able to take down the mast and go as a motor cruiser when inland on short trips. Adding Phil Bolger-style leeboards would help stability under sail. And all the while, if she weren't suitable for a crossing, she could be shipped.

 

a hull like that would not be a very efficient sailor, and the extra cost and complexity of a sailing rig could hardly justify what ever savings it might bring.

I had a similar idea but more along the lines of small motor home, with mini kitchen and sleeping area, that is driven onto a barge like hull. this might be more practical. Something like a Wesfalia VW van, with some kind of ablity to connect a marine drive to the engine. A cog belt drive might be easy to adpt, you have to remove the belt to drive off the hull.

A much simpler idea was a travel trailer that has a cabin that looks like a wood folk boat, and it loads onto a sailboat hull. Both would need a tow vehicle however.