pontoon vs barge for house boat

the topic of pontoons for house boats comes up quite often. I am wondering what are the pro,s & cons of a barge type hull compared to a pontoon. I guess the barge style needs more power to move but it must gain a lot machinery and storage space in the where as the pontoon boat has to fit everything into 2 narrow hulls. I would like to learn from other peoples experience .

 

A houseboat like every boat ,collects "stuff" over time.

A basement would be a valuable feature .

Moving might require a bit more power , so?

 

A barge is a monohull, and will therefore draft less than a pontoon hull, all else being equal.

Either way, it's a displacement hull, so if you put pointy ends on the front and back, it should slip through the water relatively easily. Pointy ends could be a size issue if you have to store in a slip, however.

If using pontoons, avoid the ones that are rounded at the top, like a pipe. They should be considered a safety hazard.

 

Barge style hulls can plane. Like the bateau hb20. That is the style i like. Flat bottom but with a nose like a pram or garvey.

 

I'd definitely go for the barge over the pontoon style, wins on lower windage, tuffness(&no connective structure), storage, versatility, there's some clever stuff seen on some for cabins/bunks below wheel house area as well. Jeff.

 

I think it would be easier to build the barge being a one piece structure as jeff mentioned. I guess the advantage of pontoons is the choice of materials for the pontoons. For the barge ply epoxy would be the way to go. You could even build the sides in one piece including the cabin sides.

 

Yes, I've seen barges planing. However, houseboats and planing just don't seem to go together in my mind.

 

I agree with you. About 8knots would do me. To hard for mum to make the porridge at 30.

 

I've done both styles of hull for houseboats, monohull and pontoon, and pretty much agree with everything that has been said so far. Monohulls give you more space to put stuff, and storage space is always at a premium on a houseboat. It's a great place to put tanks for fuel, gray water, black water, and fresh water if you need it. All the electrical and mechanical services can go in there. Pontoon hulls necessarily restrict this precious space, and yes, for the same weight, they will result in a deeper draft.

One of the biggest advantages of pontoon hulls is that they can be transported over the road more easily than can a monohull, and they can be set to any desired width. So if you are a builder and need to get the hulls to the water, you can truck the pontoons and the deck segments by truck over the road, put them together and launch it, and then assemble the house on top. With a monohull, you are really restricted on beam, and for roominess in the house, beam is everything! You can only take so much in width on the road--12' wide for typical wide load permits, which themselves can be fairly pricey for long hauls, including the associated cars and drivers that you need for preceeding and following the wide load. If you tilt the barge up on its side, you are still restricted to about 12' wide by 13'-6" off the road, so the maximum beam that you can get in the monohull is about 16'-17' for over-the-road transport. That restricts you to a one-story houseboat, maybe a story and a half because you always have to be careful about the size of your wind profile. If your houseboat is true house and not boat, you have to be careful about overturning wind moment. Anything under 20' wide will restrict the size of the second story. Hull width is not that much of a problem if your are a builder located on a navigable waterway--you can launch whatever width you are capable of. A catamaran, on the other hand, can be designed to be much wider than 20' wide, and pontoons can easily be designed up to 8' 6" wide with no over-the-road hauling restrictions. So if you want to build in the Midwest, but have your houseboat on the Gulf Coast, pontoons are a very viable option.

You can read more about my houseboat hull designs on my website: http://www.sponbergyachtdesign.com/FlaglerHouseboats.htm.

Also, I made a PowerPoint presentation about a year and a half ago that discusses these very points, called "Modular Catamaran Houseboat." I can't post it here because the file is too big, but if you go to the following link, go down to the bottom of the page, and click on the link to the video presentation, "Modular Catamaran Houseboat."

http://www.sponbergyachtdesign.com/ModCatHouseboatNews.htm

I hope that helps.

Eric

 

I'll never build a boat,but if i did it'd be a scow and they can even look decent.

With hidden outboards-no big engine room,lift one for efficient low speed cruising and drop and fire the other for running tides in the inlets,no through hulls,beachable,no flybridge,and a 5hp diesel genset.
40 x 15 would have a ton of space...

I'd even consider building my own diesel outboards out of maybe Smart car diesels or the VW 1.3 TDI

 

There's a design I like. Designer is in South Australia, these things are widely used as workboats etc. 15m x 4.5m IIRC, aluminium hull. You can buy a complete CNC cut kit for the hull including the build licence for $54K AUD. Draws less than 600mm IIRC. Plenty stable, you can drop a loaded 20' container on them. There's one near my with a drop ramp bow and a big swinging A frame on the nose. Propulsion by twin jet drives but you could do something different there I expect.

I keep thinking of building one for a liveaboard houseboat. Better finish the boat in the barn first though.

PDW

 

Just curious... if you have two full-width monohulls, transport them, and then fasten them together on the water side-by-side, whereby you have a 24'+ beam (townhouse style), is the resulting craft considered a pontoon, or a partitioned monohull? There would be no gap between the monohulls.

 

Good idea. In my mind, technically it will be a monohull. A multihull by definition has a gap between the hulls.

Eric

 

that would well here on the lakes. especially with a drop door on the bow for when its moored against the beach.

 

I like that last houseboat on your site with the outboards. I did get side tracked by the run abouts though. love the saetta 20.