liveaboard sailing barge - retirement home

hello all,

I have been designing my retirement home (20 years early). Many liveaboards are yachts, however these are much more optimised to surviving rough weather far offshore, and tend to be cramped below.

I want heaps of standing headroom, shoal draught, just sail up to a beach and step out. Also shoal draught is better for maintenance, just take it to a sandbar, wait for the tide to go out, then scrub the bottom. So a sailing barge makes sense from a practical point of view. Trouble is to make your barge seaworthy enough to do coastal passages so that it can be moved for winter/summer or if you do not like the neighbours.

Thus the barge needs reasonable safety in the sea, but does not really need to be ocean capable. I started with a large flat floor area, and then all panels move up from there.

I work out draught at around 16 inches at 6000kg. Overall dimensions are 33ft x 10ft. Thus not a small boat. Simple construction, easy to make lines. Not a proper yacht with complicated lines etc. Something that I can do with flat panels.

A ladder on the front transom allows flexibility, dingy can be at the stern, acrosswise. Rig is junk rigged (maybe with a jib on roller furler). This way there is very little need to go forward. It wont be a good sailer, as it is very tender, like a Badger sailing barge but without the deep keel.

I only started a couple days ago,,, and so this is my first draft... so go easy. Tad Roberts has some nice boats,, definately got some ideas from him. I was also influenced by the Zeigler family and their sailing scows. My hope is that I have something a bit more seaworthy but downside is harder to build.

more info here
http://www.tacking-outrigger.com/sailing_barge.html

I could extend the cabin aft a bit for more interior space.
I have shown leeboards... as these open up the interior and are less stress than a centerboard (easier to make). The alternate design I have shown has an extra chine as per the dutch sailing barges,, it means a fraction more work, but I think it looks nicer.

 

some images







as noted prior,, this is just a first attempt... still needs work

 

have a look at atkins missie and laury 45' flat bottom sloop plan. it may be of interest to you.

 

I like it , very sensible and workable. It would work well withe a low aspect junk rig or a lug rig. Is that a piece of steel for ballast?

 

Maybe one like this for ideas



I thought about this design before I built my houseboat. Still wish sometimes I had a sail.

 

Your drawings reminded me of this plan. maybe you can get some ideas from it.
http://www.bateau.com/studyplans/GT27_study.htm?prod=GT27 Close in size to your plan/

 

Reminds me of this, said to sail well.

 

Consider a Pacific Dory hull. 10' wide flat bottom built out of 10' 2 x 6s with 2 x 4 sides overlaping the bottom frames. Simple. the last 7' it angles up into a regular bow or like the one you have drawn. I would angle up the bottom frames 3" in the last 12" on each end giving you 8' of flatness in the water. This hull will carry a great amount of weight yet still move good with low HP. Here is a pacific Dory https://www.boatdesigns.com/products.asp?dept=528 Can't help on the sail part-I know zero, zilellch, squat about sailing.

 

Peter, the preliminary drawings show some good design principles. The beveled chines are more than mere esthetics. They do a good job of minimizing the wetted surface area, The boat will have a little less transverse stability than a hard chined barge like section but it will have good reserve stability. You'll sacrifice some interior floor space or cabinetry space with that section but the scheme is right on the mark. The beveled sections also improve the torsional stiffness of the boat.

 

It could have a twin keel arrangement, with plate steel and a flange welded on. Twin rudders would allow the motor to be transom or well mounted and be able to tilted up. It would be nice with a flush rear deck and a small house for am inside helm. Framing would be simple longitudinal 2x and ply over , transverse framing could sit on top of the 2x material so it would be easy to keep the bilge clean.

 

If you are going to build multiple chines anyway, you might look at maintaining a 4'0" max width for the central flat bottom (and for all panels). This allows better material utilization in plywood construction.

This narrower waterline shape (vs a single chine box) will be a lot easier to push through the water, but I also think the reduction in low angle stability will be more than just a little. I would check that fairly carefully.

The leeboards shown are too small, they should probably be twice that size (width). Below is one for a 30 footer.....

View attachment H2leeboardrev01.pdf

 

Cool, you could flair it right out and open up the stern flatten the buttocks , reduce the Disp., add a deep keel with a chunk of lead on it, and a big lug rig. Make nice down wind sled .

 

Hey, Then it would be a sailboat (instead of a barge)!

 

thanks for the tips

this is where i am now, after three days, and yes the topview at least came from Chappelles 22ft sailing scow. I went for a different sectional view as a way of lowerring the floor area,,, but keeping other areas higher. Thus I have one set area that is low as possible, but if everything else slopes up that means more draught, a few inches more draught means a little deeper ballast (not much), and a few inches less windage (vertical height)

 

not sure where to put the forehatch, if i move if aft of the windlass, that frees up space for a dinghy on the foredeck. I need to do section, interior and rig... and build it,, (yeah that)