Which wood would you use?

If you actually want to build these boats you should give up the idea of hacking them out of the forest. Sure you can use some lumber of your own, but use plywood instead of planks for the hull. Do you have an idea on the best way to cut the boards? Do you have any idea of the shrinkage or swelling of them? Do you know what will happen to them when they are kept in the water for a long time or taken out of the water for a long time? Do you know how to build a boat you probably won't be able to cover with fiberglass to seal?

Why not make one boat instead of four?

 

Ah! SamSam, maybe the OP was inspired by Slocum and to paraphrase - 'I hewed me an oak and set to building the Spray'.....

I have used a modest ammount of local timber, but you have to wait a long time, say at least one or two years for it to be dry enough to use properly. Nice and green if you can do it though, especially if you have good regrowth. You might find a Lucas Mill a useful tool for planking any decent log. I had to get a guy to plank a 100' Doug Fir for me, far to good to waste.

 

Slocum took a couple years to rebuild spray. I've been working on my Albins for 3 years and they are fiberglass.
With these types of schedules, green timber isn't a concern. Let it season in frame.

 

The logistics of 4 separate hulls is large. 2 to 4 trailers to begin with, 2 tow vehicles. Registration, insurance. A marine insurance guy will probably have you committed if you tell him you want to insure your flotilla.

A yearly over wide road permit is not expensive, a boat 12' wide will open up all sorts of possibilities. Some rural areas you probably wouldn't need one for occasional use.

Something 8' wide with fold down sponsons/pontoons might work also.

As someone mentioned in the other thread, myark's idea might be something you could dream on. Look around on his posts and see his videos.

http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/49990

 

10' or under width needs only an oversize load sign front and rear, no escort vehicle
and has a few restrictions about driving after dark. No special drivers license needed and just a permit for each state. Not too onerous.....

 

Traditional or modern.

My earlier reference to pine was based on a modern approach to sealing wood.

Encapsulation has to be 100% and complete. I think I was just redundant. if moisture (fresh water mostly) get in under this scenario, it has little chance for exiting the wood and the moisture content can and most likely will increase to the point where mold can form and rot sets in. Saltwater on the other hand typically does not promote rot and the cause of most rot in salt water boats is the ingress of fresh water (rainwater).

I don't have my references with so a little research might be due on your part, but traditional forms of construction were left unfinished or finished in a manner that would allow moisture to exit the wood before rot issues could develop. The outside was sealed with paint etc. while the inside was allowed to breath. Traditional forms of construction also allow for swelling of the wood with moisture uptake and also allow individual components to shift and move slightly while the vessel is used and goes through wet and dry cycles. Traditional build methods are more suited to boats that will left in the water for extended periods as wet and dry cycles do take their toll on this type of construction.

There may be some happy medium where you can use quasi-tradition methods with modern adhesives that stay flexible and can deal with some flexing and swelling. A dry sailed boat of this nature may be what you are looking for. You may need to investigate construction methods in a little more depth so you can make the choice with regard to intended use, location and personal preference for construction.

Your use of pine as a building material is fine. You need to select a build method that complements the material properties of the wood you are using. Simply put, are you going to try to keep the wood dry or are you going to let the wood take up moisture and be wet?

 

Why? Everything I build was hacked out of my forest including my house, barn, woodshop, a few trailers. Not to mention most of my furniture and cabinets, etc.

Are you willing to send me the finances to make that possible?

Well, I've been a woodworker for over 40 years. I think I have a good idea on how to cut boards.

I've dealt with these types of issues quite frequently.

I've owned quite a few wooden boats in the past. I have also made repairs to the hulls on those boats. So I'm not totally clueless.

I don't need to know. People have written tons of books on the subject.

All I need to do is go to the library or look them up on the Internet.

Or, as on these forums it's nice to find people who have actually done things a certain way and can offer their experience and tips.

Short answer, because I want small boats. I simply don't want a single large boat. I've had large boats in the past and there's no way I'm going back into that nightmare. It's too much of a burden.

If I can't take it to the river easily and launch it myself, then I don't even want it.

Also, consider this. If I have four small-craft boats that can come together to emulate the larger deck area and visual appearance of a single larger boat that's fine. But that doesn't mean that I need to do this every time I go boating.

With four small boats I can always just grab one, take it down to the river and go boating for the day without any need to use the other three.

Or I could take one tug and one barge, etc. And leave the other tug and barge at home. It's not that these boats will be dependent on each other. It's simply that they will be able to be used together in harmony on special occasions.

So yes, the multiple small craft approach is the only thing I'm interested it.

I simply have no interest in building, storing or transporting a single large boat. My enthusiasm and desire to take on a large-boat project is zero.

It's just not something that I have any interest in.

 

That is an interesting approach to solving the deck area problem.

I like my current plan better though because my current plan will allow me to have fancy white picket railings around the barges, etc, as well as other gingerbread and even cabins etc. So folding all that up would be highly problematic if not impossible.

 

Well, I'm not believing much of what you say so I will try very hard to leave your threads alone. Good luck, have fun.

 

Thank you LP for a very informative post. You have given me much to consider and look deeper into.

In terms of your question above I would prefer to try to keep the wood dry. These boats will only be placed in the river short term. Maybe a week or two weeks absolute maximum in the water. Most runs will only be for a day, or two.

So the bulk of their life will be spent out of the water. Unfortunately though they will be stored outdoors. So ironically rain will probably be a larger issue.

As you had mentioned, one method is to allow the inside of the hull to breathe and be kept dry. That is the method I'm considering. And ironically this method requires rainproof decks (or other covering) when storing the boats outside.

I think rain (and snow) will be a bigger issue for me than river water. I don't have a barn large enough to store these. So it's going to be tarps. Yuk.

I had a boat before that got a hull full of rainwater over the winter. Fortunately it was a fiberglass boat so it wasn't a problem. But that could be a disaster for a wooden hull that is meant to breathe internally.

 

Hi
Why don't you look at Kurt Hughes Multihull blog !
I am considering using okoume plywood , it is to be epoxied and vacuum bagged . Although i plan my hulls thin and light, it is strong. I am considering laminating polycarbonate (Lexan for example) underneath critical areas .
This is for impact , it is expensive stuff, but impact strong. I will need to protect it from UV with a good anti-fouling . (1/8" Lexan bends easy)
But if you plan to use this product, make sure you dont couple it with anything, check it out .
I had used okoume lately on a rudder and laminated fiber glass and epoxied with WS 207 . Still looks good, but we went out on a 70 km/h wind day, we bent the aluminum blade ... we were able to bend it back straigth .
We worked alot with pine in the past. If you can get it cheap , real cheap, with no knots. It was quite a bit of maintenance and we were rough with the boats.
We didn't use epoxy then. They were more romantic than the plastic boats. I like the wooden boat sound.

 

SD,
I think you misunderstand me and there is a good chance that I'm not entirely clear. Boats get wet. It's a simple fact of being a boat. My comment was oriented more along the line of, "Is the entire structure going to be completely impervious to water through 100% encapsulation no matter how wet it gets or are you going to choose a build method the allows the wood to get wet, but then also allows the wood to dry afterwards?" Maybe, a little rhetorical but the intent is to get you to think about how you want to deal with water issues. These are the extremes in the choices you have. I think that plywood lends itself more towards the epoxy and fiberglass ends of the spectrum (encapsulation) while the solid wood boards are going to use may lend themselves to something more basic. i.e. mechanical fasteners, paints and possibly sealants.

I am seeing references for building four smaller boats that can be rafted together depending on your desires for the day, but I can't find the post and so I am curious about what size of boat you are taking about. Sounds like they are small enough for you to move them about by yourself. It's not uncommon just to flip a small boat upside down to store it. Maybe put it on some blocks to keep it off of the ground. This would keep the water out and put air to the inside during storage. If you were really clever and they were light enough, you could make them stackable.

The great part about your plan is you can build one hull and get out on the water while you are still building the others. By the time you are done, you will have figured out many improvements and the last one may be a completely different beast than the first.

 

I understand Sweet Dreamer very well. I have two Albin 25 trailersailors for exactly the same reasons. One is too small to live aboard, but convenient to trailer and store and self launch. Two are twice the space. And I enjoy privacy when I have guests. They sleep in the other boat.

 

Old wooden warships used to be pickled to preserve the wood. Installed on the inside of the frames was a wooden lining called ceiling. Between the shell planking and ceiling, rock salt was tightly packed. It pickled the wood and prevented rot.

 

Maybe you could stand them on their sterns and lean them against the outside of the barn. Boat leanto s