My one sheet steel boat project

Just a few thoughts in the spirit of discussion here, and not to denigrate your project at all ...

I guess the thing to remember is that the other boats you are comparing this one to are significantly bigger. This steel boat is only 10ft boat, and not much wider than a canoe, so the weight differential is more significant.

The other thing that comes to mind is that an open boat is often flooded (rain, waves etc). A wooden boat of this size will still float while full of water, while a steel boat will sink like a stone. You could put substantial flotation in a steel boat, but that takes out a lot of usefull room. You would be unwise to take an open steel boat out in any kind of choppy water.

Re the solidness - a heavy boat can often do itself more damage than a lightly built one. The momentum of a heavy hull pushed against say, a jetty by waves for several hours, can often do the heavy boat a lot more damage. There is a story and illustrations on the internet of a macgregor26 (lightish fibreglass boat) riding at anchor next to the sunken mast of a much heavier boat after a cyclone in SE Asia. It looks like the lighter boat didnt drag her anchor.

These factors wont affect your craft obviously, as you wont be at anchor, or tied up to a wharf as much as some boats - but the extra weight will be a potential safety problem if you have to row or paddle against adverse currents waves or wind. The heavy commercial canoes you refer to are a real example of that. They have an extra 6 feet of waterline to make paddling easier, but if you are tired and are blown out to sea in one, you will have real problems getting back to safety. Lightly build canoes are far less tiring to paddle, and manhandle to and from the water.

An interesting build experiment, and great work of art, but I dont feel it provides a better solution to the small boat experience.

 

You could use hot galvanized steel, and touch up the chines with zinc primer. She'd be great in aluminium.

 

Id be more than happy to post pics of the boat when it is done. unfortunately I have not been able to work on the boat much in the last couple months. I have been busy with my thesis project as well as graduating and moving. As I write this I have just put the final coat of sealer on my new shop floor. On Sunday I will be organizing my shop and the project will continue with pictures a plenty. There are pictures of the actual boat at its current state in the begging of the thread.

I am not calling this project a success just yet. I will determine that when the boat gets in the water. And with any luck I will soon be spending a week or so rowing along the palisades of the Kentucky river.

In reply to rwatson:
You make some very valid points, but one has to take into account where I live and the bodies of water I will be rowing in. I'm not rowing in surf or ebbs and there isn't a wharf anywhere near where I live. Mostly shallow and rocky rivers for me. I pretty much only go down stream. I just needed a tough boat really. This is just a fun project/experiment for me. I just wanted to design and build a boat for my rivers with the materials and skills I had available. If I had aluminum I would have for sure made it out of that. I even considered a skin on frame boat, my next project by the way. You have to remember I only have $100 tied up in this boat so far. just wanted to see what I could make happen with a sheet of steel.

You are right about flotation though. I have decided that I will be adding storage/flotation compartments fore and aft. I mocked them up and I looks like I will still have plenty of room to stretch out and sleep in the boat.

As far as paint. I will be coating the whole thing in POR 15. The inside will be gray and the outside will be white. I decided to keep it more or less classic looking.

Stay tuned for updates, pics, and more discussion.

 

steel boat

Going through an old reproduction of a 1902 Sears Roebuck catalog, I found a 14' galvanized steel duck hunting boat. It had flotation compartments and weighed 80 pounds. An old idea made new?

 

Project Update!!!
Its been just over a year now since I started this project, and its due time for some progress. As usual life often gets in the way with hobbies and the steel boat has sat in the basement untouched in almost a year. So this weekend I decided to finally make some progress and devoted Friday evening and all day Saturday to the boat. I added the gunnels which are made from 1/2" square steel tube, and after much fussing over the size and location, I added flotation tanks in the bow and stern.
After completing those projects it was time to address ergonomics. That is figuring out where to put the oar locks and the thwart. Of course this required taking the boat out in the water for her maiden voyage.


I have to say I didnt think I would be so excited to be putting this in the water for the first time. I can see now how this hobby gets quite addicting


As you can see from this picture she floats...however the intention was to have the bow and stern just kiss the water when empty. As you can see the stern is sitting about an inch or so above the water and the bow is where it is supposed to be.





I was amazed how well it rowed. I wasn't expecting it to glide through the water so easily. The boat carried very well between strokes and I could achieve hull speed with out much effort at all. Granted Ive never been in any other purpously designed row boats. All I can compare it to are some zodiacs, walker bays, and some aluminum fishing boats. This boat rowed way, way better than any of those. I can't wait to build the skin on frame whitehall I have in mind for my next project.

I also intentionally capsized the boat to test the positive flotation. I don't have any pictures of this as my camera person was busy with my dogs at the time. I can happily say that my math was correct on this one. The boat floats high when filled with water, and doesn't really take on much water because half the boat floats out of the water when on its side. The boat recovered easily from turtling, and is overall the most stable small boat Ive been in aside from a zodiac. I'm sure this is probably due to the weight.

 

Congrats...with a nice paint job you wouldn't be able to tell it from a Ply boat until you kicked it or tried to lift it. Take the waterline as a benefit...it will allow you to shift your weight slightly more aft and let the bow rise a bit quicker. How much does it weight with the chambers and how does it sound on the water? Not too tinny I hope.

 

I'd wear a life-jacket when testing a steel-boat with no floation.

There is the suction phenomenon where a person on top of a sinking object will STAY on top as it sinks to the bottom.

Plus, the turbulence created by the sinking object is suppose to hamper any effort to swim your way out, like a airplanes wings becoming useless in a stall.


I recommend the Sterns "Classic Fisherman"($29.95). I always wear mine when kayaking or sculling alone, and it is fine for all day wear. It has lots of big pockets. The two biggest hold two beer cans apiece with flaps open(4 total), or one apiece with velco-flaps shut.

 

True I should have worn a life jacket, I didn't really plan on taking the boat off the shore, but the excitement got to me. The boat does have positive flotation compartments so unless those are ruptured sinking won't be a problem.

 

Nice work Hobo!

In The Netherlands, steel is actually most commonly used material for small boats. Our waters are full of thousands and thousands of them, but most of them are not so nicely shaped as yours.

Maybe I’ll start a thread about small steel boats with a lots of photographs when I find a time.

 

I heard that the Netherlands had a lot of small steel boats. I wish I would have known that when I started building mine. I looked all over for inspiration but couldn't find any. Someone sent me this website that features a lot of nice looking steel boats.

Here's a pic of one that I like a lot.

 

We talked a bit about it on the forum a while ago:

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/metal-boat-building/steel-dinghies-8856.html

 

Don't know how I missed that. These is a lot of good discussion there. The problem with deformation of the steel is a real one. I got a little impatient when I was welding the bottom two panels and suffered some deformation. On the other panels I learned to take it slow and weld the panels together in a series of tacks. I was very impatient in the beginning, I just wanted to get it done fast to prove a point to some friends, so the quality on my boat could be much better if one was willing to take their time. I just tell myself that my is going to have a work boat aesthetic.

That started talking about brazing. Brazing is something I'd really like to look into for the future. I'm not sure how strong the joint would be. It wouldn't be as strong as welding, but I'm sure it would still be adequately strong and much quicker to construct as well.

I often think of building a dory type boat later on. I think it would be very nice in steel and could go together very quick...especially with brazing.

 

I don't believe that having the boat boat hot dipped galvanized would hurt it - certainly wouldn't melt the steel or the welds.

 

I’m lousy welder myself, but I know few people that are good at it. They all tell me that weld staggering sequence is essential.

Wouldn’t MIG be better then brazing?

 

Tig would be much slower , but far more controlable in terms of distortion.
Good work. Congratulations.