Wooden Boat

The buoyancy provided by the wood might not overcome the weight of what he has in the boat...he will have about 1 cu ft of wood if he uses 1/4" plus his framing which has a buoyancy of 62.4 lbs (minus) the weight of the wood...say 40 lbs...so the boat wouldn't be able to support much more weight before it sank. Adding the foam takes up a lot of the space that would otherwise be occupied by water...at a cost of about 2 lbs for each cu ft of foam, for a net gain of about 60 lbs of flotation.

Steve

 

Shakeyj, you seem to be a practical person with a lot of common sense.
You get a lot of advice here, I hope you manage to "filter out" what you don't need

 

You're right. For some reason I wasn't thinking of anything but people in the boat. Maybe a couple innertubes with the valve stems removed and caps (so you can blow them up by mouth) could be tied in and would double as low seats. Sam

 

He's gonna need it all and then some when he goes to get the boat past the inspector to register it.

 

I shouldn't have anything in the boat but me, fishing tackle, and a paddle. Where do I go to get my boat registered? Sorry I haven't gotten any pics but my sister stole the camera for the past few days.

Shakeyj

 

Son...its not what you NEED but what the inspector THINKS you need. You have a boat that doesn't look like any boat the inspector has ever seen. It looks more like a horse trough. You are going to have to convince him/her that the thing is SAFE! If you can point out some safety items it would go a long way to getting the thing to pass. Inspections in land locked states are usually done by a DNR employee...who's impression of a boat is a Ranger or a Lund, a Plastic sailboat, a bayliner or an aluminum Jonboat. Go to where you would register a car and ask...they will let you know what you need to do. You may just luck out and not need an inspection. If you do...you need to have your best foot forward at the start. Have plenty of flotation...they can make you fill the boat with water to prove it floats when flooded...with you and your gear in it. Make sure the boat doesn't look like it is just slapped together...you have to impress him/her...they don't have to sign off on anything they aren't convinced about.
Filter out whatever you wish but I live in this country, build and register boats here and have butted heads with these folks...they have HARD heads! Oh...and doing it on the sly can cost you your boat and a few hundred $$$ if you get caught.

Steve

 

Registration !

ShakeyJ:

Here in the state of Illinois, this craft of yours would have to be registered.

I've just been checking over the requirments and our state's "Registration, Titling & Safty Act" states specificly:
Boats which must be registered and titled: All watercraft operated on the waters within the jurisdiction of this state shall be registered and titled.

There is a short list of exemptions but, your boat wouldn't fall under any of these catagories.

To meet all of the requirments of your state, you might have to equip your boat with various different Saftey Items like a Whistle, Bail Bucket, Life Jacket, Horn ect.
Our state requires all of these items and more... Fire Extinguisher and Personal Floation Devices (PFD's) are included.

You can cross that bridge when you get the boat finished though.

The people that you will be wanting to ask about registration will be the Department of Natural Resources. You might have to make up a "Hull Identification Number" for your new craft but thats no problem, right

We will be looking forward to pic's of this boat of yours, finished or not.

P.S. Are you still considering making that folding boat with the T-Hinge thingy ???

VKRUE

 

Just paint "Horse Trough" on the side of it to avoid registration. Or better yet, paint an arrow and the words "This End Up" -- "Fragile". They can't arrest you for paddling a shipping crate (can they?). Milk jugs and 2-liter bottles also make good flotation if you can build a mount for them.

Seriously though ...

Your plan reminds me a lot of THIS PLAN. Read the entire article -- you'll get some good ideas.

 

shakeyj --

I'd like to add one thing. When I was about 15 I read a book that changed my life -- it's by R. Buckminster Fuller and the title is "Ideas and Integrities". I'm sure it's available on Amazon -- and probably at the library. The point of the book is that "heft" and "weight" are concepts for building on land where we depend on gravity to hold things together. When you go on the water or in the air everything changes -- amazingly strong structures can be built from lightweight materials simply by puting them together in the right way. It will change the way you look at the world.

 

amazingly strong structures can be built from lightweight materials simply by puting

Right on Sheetwise, a point I have tried to make in a previous post.

This statement taken from:
"Quick question about bondo" in the "Fiberglass & Composite Boatbuilding" section.

What I have determined, (through careful examination), is that it's not how beefy the construction is but rather.... the engineering !!! :idea:
The engineering is so precise. The boat is literily held together by sheer design

PS.
Looked at your links & spreadsheet............... wow!
You sure know a lot of math................
And, how long did you have to go without a shower while building your "One sheet boat" ?
How did you ventilate your apartment too
Seen your "recipie" for glue too, if stranded on a deserted island could a lone boater eat his boat ???

LOL

VKRUE

 

Now I am from a different country, (with its own bloody stupid laws- alot of which I don't even know)
but it does seem rather odd that one would have to register a boat like this.
Do you have to register every single little dingie or cannoe?

Here in salt water, I think that pretty much the only boats that you don't have to register are tenders for a larger registered boat, that clearly bear the motherships name on it.
As for cannoes I really don't know.

Wasn't this going to be a boat for creeks with water generally no deeper than 4 ft?
If this was the case then I cannot imagine the water police, or whoever checks this, chasing down shakeyJ in such a place.

good luck with all this Shakeyj,


P.S. anyone know of any loopholes that would allow shakeyj to avoid the hassel and cost of registration?

 

I think I don't have to register because I live in tennessee. http://www.state.tn.us/twra/boat002.html Since I am using paddles I'm home free, right? I will probably be building that folding boat sometime but I can't decide what material to use.

Shakeyj

 

We know now that he won't. But some states require registering EVERYTHING. It's a money thing pure and simple. Department of natural resources enforcers are like a park rangers/ game keepers. Anywhere you can hunt or fish...they are likely to pop up.

Steve.

 

VKRUE --

Not my plans -- that little beauty is from the elusive Hannu Vartiala. It's a great project. A great place for anyone to start out on the right foot.

 

Sheetwise,

Good call! I just started reading this thread, got to the floation part and just kept saying to myself, "2-liter bottles, 2-litter bottles, 2-litter bottles...."

Shakeyj,

If you haven't started planking yet, I'd suggest the waterseal and painting all of the surfaces that will be touching each other before you put them together. Those are the places you'll have trouble with rot and delamination of the plywood. Treat every piece as though it will be in the water by itself. Then when your putting the plywood/planking on the (if you haven't started yet) frames, slather the mating pieces with house paint to seal it. The old-timers would lay in a strip of cloth, wet with paint, between pieces to help hold a little more paint and provide additional sealing qualities. Does your mother have a rag bin you can raid? Instead of going the wet paint route, you could use window caulking on all of the mating surfaces. Of course, that involves the expense of purchasing enough caulk to do the job right.

Lowe's sells a 1/4" luan plywood that put together with an exterior glue for $12-$14 a sheet.

I don't know what the plan is for putting on the plywood. Screws are probably overkill. Galvanised nails every 2-3" should work. Galvanised ring-shank would be better, but I don't know if such a beast is out there. Galvanised screws would be better than the zinc-coated ones that you've used, but you've got what you've got. Just make sure everything is coated with paint. I hate to even suggest it, but if it would not be too hard, disassembling the framing and caulking those joints will add some longevity to your project.