River going houseboat/flotel

Hello,
I am seeking skilled help to design a house boat to be used to take tourists upriver. The boat will be about 25 x 120.

 

So thats it ? a house boat or a party boat ? How many people do you intend to have on board ?, whats it to be powered with ? oars , sails , inboards , jets , stern drives , outboards , or just go with the flow ??
what kind of draught do you need to get over the shallows because there bound to be a sand bank here and there and thats just a start !!
Put down as much info as you and 6 other people can think of and give someone a chance to give a answer ! .

 

This will be a two level house-boat, with six bedrooms on the upper level. The lower level will have a lounge, dining room, kitchen and crew accomodation.
The boat should accomodate twelve passengers, and a crew of six.
Ideally, the top should be able to accomodate a flybridge, and a hot tub.
The maximum draught for the river is 4.7 meters.
The river to be navigated is a reasonably fast flowing one in South America.
For power, I would like to consider the Zeus from Cummins Diesel, or the Volvo Penta IPS.
I would like to use a local boat building outfit for construction.

 

Propulsion

I would reconsider your choices of drives. Both the Zeus and IPS are pretty exposed for river work, would require haul out and skilled technicians to repair and both work better on faster hulls than on a displacement barge as you describe.

Perhaps a better choice would be conventional shaft / prop with skeg for protection or even jet drives if you will operate in shallow or shifting conditions.

There are many ships of a similar size and style to fit your needs that run to the Galapagos Islands. These vessels of course are built and equipped to make long offshore runs but besides that some of them have accomodations and sizing similar to what you are looking for. The "yacht" look would probably command a better pax price than a "houseboat" look without much additional cost.

Just a few thoughts:

http://www.galapagosislands.com/galapagos-cruise.html

Steve