Fast to Build, Lots of Room

[getthemack]

Greetings Friends,

I have two years and two months for this project...including the cruise.

I have a unit (48 sheets) of 5 ply exterior BB pine plywood, about sixty 2X6X20' clear fir, twenty gallons of resin and ten of slow hardener. fifty pounds of ring-shank SS nails about 2 3/4" long.

I also have most of the sail rig (mast, boom, standing rig, main,storm jib, and gennie) from a 40' sloop that broke up on the Fl. gulf coast twenty years ago that I've kept dry and safe in wait in the loft of the family farm's barn. I also have a 25hp Tohatsu tiller steered, long shaft 4 stroke that has about four hours on it.

I AM GOING!

I have the time and funds for build and a cruise now, but my window is short. Wife and two kids, 6 and 8. I'm thinking a sailing scow, about 45 feet, down the Kentucky river to the Ohio, to the Mississippi, then coastwise to the Keys, maybe even a crossing to the Dominican Republic.

Flat bottom, Bilge keels, lots of room. I built plywood workboats in Fl years ago, as well as a few pleasure craft....but I'm rusty. My twenty three foot dory skiffs are mostly still working twenty years later, some in the Crystal River area some on the east coast.

Question is, If I'm crazy enough to build the hull and cabin, is there anyone here who could help me place the mast and keel(s) so she'd sail??? Does anyone know of a stock design that sounds like this? I'm hoping to stow the keel and rudder/skeg aboard for the inland leg, then haul her out in the Miss Delta to install them and ballast her down a bit.

Open season.....tell me how stupid I am (I'll do it anyhow)

[pipefitter]

If you keep the ballast in the boat, isn't it still ballast? If you have to have ballast that you need to remove, wouldn't water ballast work and be more adjustable for just needing little?

[getthemack]

Ballast will come from LA. only the heels and skegs will make the river trip

[getthemack]

I'm off to bed. I hope some enlightening responses will be here tomorrow night. goodnight all.

Bob

[johngsandusky]

There are interesting scows in books by Chapelle, Reuel Parker, and Harry Sucher. Sounds like a really cool project.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

http://www.benford.us/dories/

http://www.benford.us/dories/34.html

[TR]

The hull skin; bottom, sides, and ends should be double skinned with all joints well overlapped. This will provide stiffness and puncture resistance. A double-skinned hull 48' by 12' will take more ply than your 48 sheets. Then you need material for the house, bulkheads, soles, deck/housetop, and interior. So at least double your plywood supply or halve the boat size. You will also need more goop if you stay with the larger size.

Detachable bilge keels would be more complex and of less value (to sailing ability or seaworthiness) than inside ballast and a deep leeboard. A scow has to sail upright as they usually run out of form stability at low heel angles (due to low freeboard). So unless the ballast keel is very deep it will never develop much righting moment. So the ballast may as well be inside or in a big pancake bolted to the flat bottom.

[getthemack]

Thanks guys:
John G, I'll try and hunt up the books for a look

P.I., I thought dory first...My present boat is a 30' pilothouse dory...but the scow shape gets me more room for family living. I had never seen the Bedford plans before, cool!

T.R., Thanks for the insight. The bilge keels are not meant to be detachable,really they will simply be installed after the river leg. I don't expect to build a traditional scow hull, I'll flare the sides about twenty-five degrees or so. I have bilge keels on my dory now, but they are attached to each other (simply a 3/8 plate bent into a squared "u" , about 12 degrees open, with a lead-filled 3" steel pipe welded on the bottom edge) I must say I love the setup. I put a pair of trolling motors faired into the trailing edge of each keel....I can spin the Windkin around in a bathtub!

[getthemack]

By the way, I plan to epoxy my bottom and sides into a two-layer supersheet of ply before assembly. I roll everything like a sammich, flip the sheets together, clamp with 2x's every 16" or so, tape the joints with 4" tape, then flip the sheet and tape the other side, coat the whole thing again THEN cut fit and fasten. It always worked bettern' scarphing or joint blocking for me, and when you bend the thing, it's like bending one big sheet. I'm thinking four feet for rhe sides and eight feet wide for the bottom....just makes sense to me.

[getthemack]

I will need more goop and ply...has anyone bought from RAKA in Ft. Pierce, Fl? Anyplace cheaper??

[JimD]

I will need more goop and ply...has anyone bought from RAKA in Ft. Pierce, Fl? Anyplace cheaper??

I ordered from Raka a few years ago. Even paying shipping to Canada and losing on the exchange rate between the $CAN vs the $US it was still cheaper than buying from a local delear. And I really liked the product, too. Go for the no-blush hardener.

[JimD]

A 45' scow schooner from Ruel Parker - along with what's gotta be a record for the biggest centerboard in a boat this size - typical of his designs

http://www.parker-marine.com/sco451.jpg

http://www.parker-marine.com/sco452.jpg

Perhaps the board could be replaced by bilge keels or leeboards. It calls for 12,000#s of inside lead ballast http://www.parker-marine.com/desc45scshooner.htm

[Larks]

Have you thought of building a catamaran?

Plenty come up when you google "easy to build catamaran" or "plywood catamaran"

http://wharram.com/index.php

http://easycatamarans.com.au/

[Rigadog]

Maybe go for a smaller boat. Two years doesn't seem long enough to get all that accomplished. You might complete the boat, but the cruise will be a short one. Look at the weight of these projects, the amount of material that you have to put together in an intelligent, artful way. What about buying a used boat? (A used Wharrham?) Or build something smaller perhaps?

[MiddleAgesMan]

Not to rain on your parade but when I read you will use B/B pine plywood I stopped right there. Pine plywood is barely suitable as house sheathing. It's heavy, refuses to lie flat, and will delaminate if you spill a cuppa coffee on it.

[michigangeorge]

I'm in agreement with MiddleAgesMan. Use the house lumber to build a house!
Buy an existing boat (its a buyers market) and spend those 2 years enjoying the water with your family instead of working your butt off building a vessel of no value (if you actually finish it and the oddsmakers would bet you don't).
Best of luck to you :-)

[getthemack]

Okay, the question may soon be moot. I found a 1969 "River Queen" steel-hulled houseboat, 45' long X 12 X 14" that my wife LOVES. It's been in a tobacco barn since 1982 and the interior looks sharp. I'm going down this weekend and go over the hull with a spike every inch, but I expect to find nothing; it has a small engine compartment that was dusty-dry and clean, with some kind of a red oxide paint well applied everywhere. I was there at night though, so......

It just seems to me that a river cruise in a houseboat makes a lot of sense, compared to attempting to straddle the line. I expect the market for the old girl in New Orleans or Shreveport will be pretty good too. I really was worried about the prospect of trying to market an nontraditional wooden craft somewhere I didn't know anyone, but with only three grand (plus refit) invested I can't see going far wrong.

I'm still going to repower her with a diesel. The power now is a 300ci ford engine and a v-drive with a marine cylinder head and underwater exhaust, a tiny rudder with a cable and pulley system. Everything looks exceptionally well found and rigged, nothing loose, everything secured and routed well.

Crossing my fingers,

[Larks]

Sounds interesting, good luck and make sure you show us some photos!!!

[getthemack]

Okay guys....I'm now the owner of a 40 y.o. steel houseboat. Amazing how 1960's trailerlike the interior is, and how shippy she feels underway (Yes, I had her hauled directly to the river) I probed the hull on 1" centers, then fapped it with a ball-peen about the same...declared her sound...two coats of $76.00 a gallon bottom paint...and we all went for a weekend cruise. SWEET!

Does anyone have any experience with keeping a boat moored in a river??? Whaddya do when it floods???

Bob

[Larks]

Photos?

[RFNK]

Does your wife sometimes say to you `What just happened?' Rick

[2MeterTroll]

Okay guys....I'm now the owner of a 40 y.o. steel houseboat. Amazing how 1960's trailerlike the interior is, and how shippy she feels underway (Yes, I had her hauled directly to the river) I probed the hull on 1" centers, then fapped it with a ball-peen about the same...declared her sound...two coats of $76.00 a gallon bottom paint...and we all went for a weekend cruise. SWEET!

Does anyone have any experience with keeping a boat moored in a river??? Whaddya do when it floods???

Bob

crank it up turn on the sodiums, let out some scope and stand watch for the duration or run it out to sea till the flood goes away. its not the flood that will get you its the trees.

[py]

I like a guy who just gets on with it, good stuff mate, go cruising with your wife and kids, I reckon you are going to have a hoot.

[getthemack]

I just found out why I hadn't been able to post any from another thread....soon

[getthemack]

Quick note, wireless service is spotty on the ol cold river. cruise is going nicely, gas motor purring along at about 1-1/2 gph kids still alive marriage unscathed. Heard about Haiti? I may be going down there for a month or two...I wish I

[getthemack]

Does your wife sometimes say to you `What just happened?' Rick

Alla time!

[Larks]

Again - photos???? Whadya think this is? A cruise??:D

[GaryK]

What happened to the 48 sheets of ply and 20 gallons of resin?

[bljones]

What happened to the 48 sheets of ply and 20 gallons of resin?

... and the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each
one was...