DIY human powered drive and prop design

With some of the "new" kayaks out there you can get different human powered drives for them. The Mirage is one design and there's a prop design that I'm intrigued with. I saw a pic of someone that made their own prop drive that's pedal driven but there was no info other than it was a DIY design. I'm trying to find some info so I might be able to do the same thing on a project that I've been working on but have only started doing models of so far.

The boat is basically a 13' 40" wide canyak (yes, it's my name for it) that I'd like to figure out my own drive for so I can paddle or peddle depending on the situation. Anyone have any ideas that might help me do something like this?

 

Welcome, Charlief1.

Go to this thread: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/pedal-powered-boats-23345-133.html#post750934

 

Thanks Hoyt. Already reading that post but it's really long. Found some interesting info already but it's not giving me an answer for what I'm looking for so far.

 

The Maritime Museum in Halifax, NS has an interesting duck hunting boat built around 1900. Check it out. Maybe you can get some ideas from it. How efficient does it need to be to be useful to you?

 

If you are not getting your answer from the Pedal powered boats thread, then you better start asking some questions.

Really long is the price for a lots of information.

I doubt the people who know lots about this are going to be very helpful if you won't even read the material.

Have you Googled HPV or pedal powered boats?

Can you show us the picture of the DIY drive?

Really now, you are going to have to provide some information other than I want a pedal drive.

What do you want out of this drive - 5mph, 10 or 20?

 

I would've never thought that someone would do a human powered boat in 1900. I could see where it might work but the draft would kill the advantages of it. You'd need to work really hard to get it moving at any rate of speed I'd think.

This is mainly a fishing/pleasure boat so speed really isn't as much of a concern as much as having a drive in addition to using a paddle. I'll see if I can find the pic I saw. It was a piroque that was at one of the duckworks messing about events in Texas and the owner used a bicycle peddle frame section. a washing machine drive, and a shaft with a prop on it for the drive. Seemed rather unique but to me that would weigh more than it's worth to drive a boat.

 

If you look thru the Peddle Boats thread you will see quite a few people who have built props which are not rigidly attached.
they seem to work just fine, and can be easily pulled up when the draft gets too small.

So now you have another requirement - can't weigh too much.
Keep going and there will actually be something to talk about.

There are lots of paddlewheel designs that have shoal draft and can go in reverse.

 

It wasn't really built for speed. It was built for sneaking up on ducks. The weapon must match the mission.

 

True, but it would have to be towed to the location then loaded and go from there. It's an interesting idea but I think it would be onsidered more of a floating duck blind than a duck boat.

A paddle wheeled design is a bit cumbersome if you have to put it in but it is effective and could be very simply made. The biggest drawback is you have to have a shield of some sort so you won't get covered in water. That's a lot of weight to me, as well as width for 2 wheels.

The more compact. in this case, will be better. One thing I am looking at is using a 3 blade prop reather than the 2 blade that seems to be common for a peddle drive. It would be more compact and should produce beter turuse, but might catch more weeds and clog easier.

 

The peddle boat thread has lots of discussion on props, gear reduction, and week clearing. From people who have done it.

If you go 3 blade you just have to change everything about it. That is just to get the same thrust.

 

I did a ton of searching in the last few nights and found that the more blades do make it the drive system more efficient in the long run, and the effort is not changed enough to not use a 3 or more blade unit. What I didn't expect to find was props as big as 20" with 7 blades for human power. The easiest drive seems to be the twisted chain/belt systems and the second option is a gearbox of some sort that transfers the power 90 degrees. I may actually have the gearboxes already but I need to look at them to see if they might work. It may be easier than I thought to do this as a DIY project and junk parts.

Reading on the peddle boat thread has given me some ideas but the biggest thing is that most of those that have posted in it up to page 22 are guests, so their membership was removed for some reason.

 

The person who was shown to be the foremost expert was titled Guest.

Are you meaning to ignore people because they are a guest?

Do you have a link to this 20" 7 bladed prop?

 

Actually it was not designed to be towed but was fitted for oarlocks. It does not even have a bow eye for towing. It was designed to be rowed to the area and hand cranked for sneaking in the rest of the way. The hull is quite streamlined and should have been an easy rower. In the photo one oarlock remains in the socket.

 

Like an idiot, I didn't save it. I've been going through my history for the last 2 days trying to find it again. Still haven't found it yet but I'll keep looking

Didn't see the oar locks because I was trying to get a good look at the drive system. It's a neat idea and at the time I'm sure power boats were few and far between, except for large ships so it make sense to use oars to get where you're going. That was the age of commercial hunting after all.

 

Thought I'd throw this little bit of info in for others, in case someone else is looking for a simple solution.

https://www.csuchico.edu/mmem/capst...t_files/2007-2008/pres_kayak_drive_system.pdf