Hull material options for "landing craft" work boat?

Hello,

I live near the puget sound/Salish Sea in Washington state and my wife and I are planning to move to an island in the San Juans that doesn't have regular ferry service.

We don't plan to purchase a boat immediately, but we will probably want one once our kids get a little older. The main use for the boat would be transporting people and building materials or other supplies back and forth between the various islands.

Although there is a public dock on the island we plan to move to, for the purpose of getting heavier materials on and off of a boat, a landing craft style boat that has a shallow draft and can be almost beached with a bow that can also serve as a ramp would be ideal. I don't anticipate that we would want to pay for something large enough to transport a full-size truck, but a boat that could transport a large ATV, or a stack of plywood and other building materials, etc. would be great.

All of the boats with a landing craft style hull that I've looked at have had aluminum hulls, and the marketing for them seems to indicate that that is the way to go for a boat that will be semi-beached on a regular basis and needs abrasion resistance.

Are there any other better/more economical options for this use case, or is aluminum going to be the way to go if we end up buying a boat?

Thanks,
Tom
Edited to fix a couple of grammar/spelling mistakes

 

Aluminum dominates for good reason. It stands up well to repeated beaching, repairs easily if you over do it and more importantly the local builders have darn near perfected it's use. The pacific nw has a plethora of accomplished quality aluminum boat builders with successful vessels now decades old. The knowledge base for alloy and that type of boat is very much a specialty of your geographic region.

 

Makes sense. Sounds like that's the way to go then. Do you know of any builders that you'd particularly recommend(or stay away from)? Or alternatively do you know of any internet communities specific to the region that would be better for asking my questions?

 

Hmm, I'll spit ball some thoughts and see what sticks.

The alloy market is a funny one, decent in size with established big names but also tons of solid mom and pop shops. With a fair whack of consolidation in the last decade, it's pushed some really talented builders out on their own. Some "startup" new shops that are staffed by guys with decades of builds leftover from consolidation. Shops break down into several main categories, builder/designers and the straight builders. The latter often being welding shops that forayed into boats. Both seem to have an equal capacity for good or bad product, all boils down to a good design well executed. I've seen outfits with very little design knowledge (norvelle) make amazing boats. Took a rather generic design and built it to a phenomenal standard, end product turned out well even if the owner had a longer history working on dairy equipment than boats.

Recommending a shop probably should wait until you have a little more solid defined set of boat specs. Some shops focus on certain sizes based off available resources and can better recommend with some size ideas.

My money, I'd be walking docks and watching harbors to see what folks use to solve a similar problem. From their I'd hit up boat shows like pme in the fall, or hit up shops that make the boats you notice you like. Can navigate from there if you're going to need a one off design or an established/existing model can work.

Likely you will find 3 shops making roughly the same basic idea, from their I'd select who has the best rep to proceed with.

 

You've got time to watch the used market.
In my opinion, this is the way to go.

What does everybody else on the island do for transport?

BB

 

Yeah, definitely planning to watch the used market, so far there doesn't seem to be much turnover in this particular niche compared to, say, cabin cruisers, mini pilothouse trawlers, fishing yachts with fly bridgesn etc.

People on the island have a broad mix of solutions depending on their specific needs and finances. Most folks seem to either rely on the getting passage on the scheduled delivery boats a few times a week, and/or they have whatever sort of cruiser/mini yacht they could afford.

My potential needs are a little bit unusual in that in addition to wanting to build a house, a big green house, and probably some other infrastructure, I'm considering renewing my contractors license and offering a variety of handyman type services that would benefit from having the ability to move a bit more cargo.

 

Food for thought. Not pos buoyant…

Aluminum Mini Barge 8'x27' https://directboats.com/almiba8.html

 

With all that in mind, finding the right car carrier may pay-off.
A 42' retired Coast Guard 'Sea Truck' would be a find.

 

If you are carrying passengers for hire and cargo, make sure you comply with regulations. Not all boats can be modified to comply.

 

Don't rule out a small push boat ( tug ) like bridge companies use , you can push a small barge with ramps , or a 90 footer with a 100 ton crane . Gives you many more options on what your pushing , size of dock , and you can spud a barge down just about anywhere .

 

Landing Craft https://www.aluminumboatdesigns.com/landing-craft

Almost any shop could easily adjust one of these to your need, the 24 has a weight capacity that can move a full stack of ply. Seems like guys around here prefer 26 to 30 foot boats. We have a pretty easy 10.5 foot wide width road restriction. 26 or 27 x 10.
5 can move a side x side with a big outboard and still get on step.

Gonna build one of the 27s... just gotta talk the wife into it.

 

Scully's out of Morgan , La has a good web site , you can find lots of examples of boat styles that might suit your needs . We ran 28' Scully boats for crew / push boats with 500 hp and full cabins , last one they bought before I retired was 30' with 600 hp . Aluminum is not a quite material would be my only complaint .

 

It's noisy, miserable hot or cold, pita to find suitable underwater fittings and transducer for and even less fun to have if your stall mate likes poorly grounded battery chargers.... but for bouncing off gravel beaches and building one off solutions aluminun is hard to beat.

 

I guy I know is converting an aluminum boat into a landing craft. If you're interested I'll get you in touch.