Flat bottom boat keels

[Old Plans]

Chris,

I know this is an old thread, but I have researched Rube Allyn's Water Wagon extensively over the years. I spoke to a couple of old timers that had actually seen the Water Wagon on Rube's various adventures years ago. It appears that the Water Wagon was a pretty decent boat, for a scow shape, and was fairly handy,especially in shallow waters. From my conversations with Rube's daughter, it seems that there was another version of the boat, which was built later, which was featured in the January 1955 National Geographic article. If you compare the boat in the Water Wagon book to the National Geographic article, its definitely a different boat. The earlier boat was more boxy and crude compared to the one in National Geographic. I found one of Rube's newspaper articles where he offered the original Water Wagon as a prize for a contest, but he noted that he was keeping the engines, generator and refrigerator for his new boat.

From what I have been able to deduce, the later version did not have the wells in the hull for the trailer wheels, and had a much better stern design. The rear cockpit also has a much better sunshade arrangement on the later version. The basic design offers a lot of utility for low cost, and as Rube's trips proved, the design is capable of decent voyages, although his passages in the open Gulf of Mexico around the Florida Capes to the Keys seemed a bit risky for a scow, but he pulled it off safely.

I too would love to build a replica of a Water Wagon, as I have had a number of houseboat/shantyboats, and find the Water Wagon design and simplicity, a perfect boat for Florida.

Thank you so much for the information on Water Wagon. I have been looking at the pictures in the National Geographic also. I have the plans in the Mechanics' Illustrated also. My thoughts now are to follow his plans. But do a lot of "Ginger Bread" decorating to give it a shanty boat look. I have a picture in my head but don't know how to put it into words. The best way to say it may be, I want it to look like it could have been a prop on the Jungle Cruse at Disney World. An example would be I want steer the boat up front the way he planed it. But I wouldn't use a beach folding chair and a horizontal steering wheel like he did. I would do something like mounting a wooden captains chair to the deck raised up so I could see will. Have all modern steering cables and engine controls but have an oversize old wooden ships wheel at the helm. Maybe make the helm into an old crate or barrel. I will have to make some drawings and see what looks best. I won't be able to start building anything until we leave Arizona in 6 to 9 months. My wife is receiving medical treatment here. But I will need that much time just to finalize drawings and plans. So in conclusion I want all the benefits of living in Rube Allen's box shaped boat. But plan to decorate it so no one will notice that. Instead they will wonder if it is an old moonshiner's or wrecker's boat that has floated out of the everglades in a time warp.