Shanty Boats

[BBSebens]

So, lets discuss this idea. I think its fantastic!

Being a younger guy of the current technologic generation, I am finding that I really appreciate being able to get away and "un-plug". This concept of a shanty boat makes a lot of sense in the PNW and San Juan Islands where the waves don't generally get that big.

Imagine this: Build yourself one of these shanty boats and a mini-tug. Tow the shanty boat like a barge with your tug-boat, drop a big anchor, and then you have a home-base that you can explore from. You keep all the gear in "The Barge" and set up the tug for exploring! How fun is that?! And you can play Tug-Boat just like the big boys!


Another, crazier idea. What if you could pull your shanty boat over the the ramp, float it onto a flat-bed trailer, and make it into a travel trailer. More or less the same concept isn't it? Could make a great travel base for those people who want a boat and an RV but, don't actually want to have both.

[Breakaway]

Yup. Now we need a " The Perfect Shanty Boat Tender" thread.


Kevin

[Hunky Dory]

[QUOTE=Breakaway;3262774]Yup. Now we need a " The Perfect Shanty Boat Tender" thread.

One without a motor?

[Gib Etheridge]

Go for it!

[tomlarkin]

I've actually thought seriously about this exact idea. I built the perfect tug and I've been looking at shanty boats for a while. My thought was to have built in lifting points and have it lifted onto a small flat-bed trailer when it's not being used. I've towed a few boats around the lake and think towing a barge would be a lot of fun. Pulling it through the locks might be a challenge though. The shanty boat needs a roof-rack to hold the windsurfer and kayaks, and a really excellent anchoring system if the tug will hang off of it at anchor.

[Ethan]

I have a buddy who did almost what you're describing.

About 10 years ago, he and his brother built an "economy" version of an Atkin Retreat and used it, along with a Boston Whaler tender, to fish and lounge about in the Florida Keys. They couldn't go anywhere fast or where the waves got too big, but it was a great concept when utilized within its limits. Definitely served as a means to escape the mainland craziness, a situation that has only worsened in the years since.

For transport, they placed both onto a flat bed that they pulled with a 3/4 ton pickup. Obviously, the on/off loading required a small travel lift, but as this was a once or twice a year 1-week trip, that was more economical than anything they could devise in terms of self launching/recovery.

They even retrofitted an acrylic panel into the bottom of the Retreat (after 2-3 years of use), hung dive lights over the side at night, and enjoyed the show. My only personal experience with the boat in water was salvaging the pieces off Islamorada after it had become an artificial reef in about 6 feet of water lol! Nobody will admit exactly what happened, but I have some ideas. Anyway, all pieces recovered so no environmental incident.

Matt, shantyboats are once again coming into their own. More and more, people are looking to get onto the water in them for a number of reasons. And not just on the coast - I had the chance to fly down the Tennessee River valley last summer and was amazed at how many shantyboats were on the water. Literally hundreds, exclusive of the more tradtional houseboats. The article on Harry's boat was a great start, but left there I think you'd be missing a prime opportunity to take it a little further. Possible ideas would be analyses of other designs (not a rehash of what's been done before), an article about the design challenges that need to be addressed in order to combine economy and livability, and location pieces that show the unique and creative ways people are enjoying them.

Thanks for this new section, btw. I'm betting it will produce more than a few gems that will find their way onto the magazine's pages. Please keep up the great work.

[skuthorp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF5enf9VsU0

[Breakaway]

[QUOTE] Re: Shanty Boats

Yup. Now we need a " The Perfect Shanty Boat Tender" thread.

One without a motor?

Well, you could hang an outboard on the shanty, or build a well, and make it self-propelled. Then you could tow a rowing skiff as in Skuthorp's video above. Or you could a variety of power boats--from a 10-foot skiff to a runabout type boat--to tow the non-powered shanty. It would depend on what your vision for the exact use would be, and of course your location. For instance areas with more current, would require a more powerful tender maybe.

Kevin

[Bobcat]

I really like this idea. I do see that waterfront property owners will raise hell if a shanty boat anchors for an extended period in front of their expensive beach.

[BBSebens]

I've actually thought seriously about this exact idea. I built the perfect tug and I've been looking at shanty boats for a while. My thought was to have built in lifting points and have it lifted onto a small flat-bed trailer when it's not being used. I've towed a few boats around the lake and think towing a barge would be a lot of fun. Pulling it through the locks might be a challenge though. The shanty boat needs a roof-rack to hold the windsurfer and kayaks, and a really excellent anchoring system if the tug will hang off of it at anchor.

Tom, I was actually thinking of you and Coot when I thought of this idea. I hadn't thought about the Locks, since i've never been through them. But that would be fun!

A shanty boat like the one on the cover of WB with a few toys on the roof and an extra large anchor would be really fun.

[Greg Nolan]

I do see that waterfront property owners will raise hell if a shanty boat anchors for an extended period in front of their expensive beach.

With regard to salt water, in most jurisdictions the beach below mean high water is usually publicly owned, as is the underwater land in front of privately-owned waterfront property. The 1% may own most waterfront property, but they generally do not own the water, the water's edge, or the underwater land -- that belongs to the 99%. Of course, there may be restrictions on any anchoring, not just long-term, for a variety of reasons, including the need to keep waters open for safe navigation.

[Ian McColgin]

I lived briefly on a shanty on a slough off the Willamette back in the '70s. Not a nice modern shanty but a cottage on a log raft. It was a fun marginal sort of community, which I in general like, but there were unresolved environmental problems that, to judge from the plans listed, remain unresolved. Proper handling of human waste, sometimes including grey water, matters. Even really good solutions, like the AirHead composting toilet, leave the nitrogen problem of urine disposal a bit adrift. These are things that are not a problem in isolation. The world is not harmed by one person exercising the 'Sea Dog's Prerogative" at dawn. But a colony . . . .

Like many, I've doodled shantey boats, especially inspired by Atkins' Retreat, and like many I've toyed with how to put some attractive curve to those remorselessly straight lines. The lead article shows that this can be done just fine. Lovely.

[JonWilson]

I've loved Shanty Boats since the days of The American Boys Handy Book (first published in 1882). My friend Paul Sullivan built one with and for his son Henry, and they had a lot of fresh water fun with it. But these times call for a new and trailerable variation, which can effectively double as a travel trailer, as a few of you have mentioned. A little like what Farhnam Butler and Cy Hamlin attempted to do with the Amphibi-Con (for which the WB Store sells plans), but that's an amphibious Boat, not a Shanty. We need a Shanty design contest, don't we?

[BBSebens]

In regards to trailering the shanty, I think it would be neat if you could make the whole boat the trailer.

Heres what I mean: Assuming your prepared to get wet, axles could be mounted to appropriately constructed hard point in the hull. Basically, a few places to pin in the leaf springs. Then, install the tongue into the bow, and out it comes. Hook up brakes when out of the water. Lights could easily be apart of the whole thing.

I wonder what the DOL would make of trying to license something as a boat and a trailer.

[Bobcat]

I've loved Shanty Boats since the days of The American Boys Handy Book (first published in 1882). My friend Paul Sullivan built one with and for his son Henry, and they had a lot of fresh water fun with it. But these times call for a new and trailerable variation, which can effectively double as a travel trailer, as a few of you have mentioned. A little like what Farhnam Butler and Cy Hamlin attempted to do with the Amphibi-Con (for which the WB Store sells plans), but that's an amphibious Boat, not a Shanty. We need a Shanty design contest, don't we?

Agreed

And I seem to remember a boat that had axles that bolted on to make it a trailer

Jon, I get such a kick seeing you listed as "Junior Member".......

[Ian McColgin]

Atkins had a plan for turning Retreat into a trailor. Not so clear is just how much fun one would have either bolting it on or taking it off depending on whether one's hauling out or launching. I think it makes more sense to have a flatbed trailor with one of those low friction coatings or a bunch of small rollers. Such a trailor could be handy for other chores when not carrying the shanty and in any event not much more of a pain to store than some sort of bolt on axel, springs and tow tang.

[BBSebens]

As always Ian, an excellent point.

[Ethan]

+1 for the design contest

[Bob Cleek]

Another, crazier idea. What if you could pull your shanty boat over the the ramp, float it onto a flat-bed trailer, and make it into a travel trailer. More or less the same concept isn't it? Could make a great travel base for those people who want a boat and an RV but, don't actually want to have both.

I'm afraid it's been done!





The 45-foot Terra Wind travels both on the road and on water thanks to wheels for the road and propellers and a rudder while on water. The manufacturers will soon also offer a trailer to tow behind the rig whether on land or water. It will carry a car plus a golf cart or jet ski, and double as a "party barge" with a flat roof for sunning and use as a diving platform. Each motorcoach is custom-built with a price tag of between $850,000 and $1.2 million. The coach is 102 inches wide just like its land-locked cousins, diesel-powered and includes a 110-gallon fresh water holding tank, plus an unlimited supply outside the coach available by bucket. The price does not include fishing tackle, and presumably the coach is not fast enough to pull a water skier.

[Woxbox]

Yep, I'd like to see this as a contest too -- especially with the partner tug requirement.
Extra points for powering the tug with wood.
More extra points for including a sauna option.

[BBSebens]

I'm afraid it's been done!





The 45-foot Terra Wind travels both on the road and on water thanks to wheels for the road and propellers and a rudder while on water. The manufacturers will soon also offer a trailer to tow behind the rig whether on land or water. It will carry a car plus a golf cart or jet ski, and double as a "party barge" with a flat roof for sunning and use as a diving platform. Each motorcoach is custom-built with a price tag of between $850,000 and $1.2 million. The coach is 102 inches wide just like its land-locked cousins, diesel-powered and includes a 110-gallon fresh water holding tank, plus an unlimited supply outside the coach available by bucket. The price does not include fishing tackle, and presumably the coach is not fast enough to pull a water skier.

I wish I didn't all ready know about this. Im a car enthusiast and a boater, and this thing does little more than make me gag. UGH...

Yep, I'd like to see this as a contest too -- especially with the partner tug requirement.
Extra points for powering the tug with wood.
More extra points for including a sauna option.

Design contest with partner tug! Excellent idea!! Imagine a Tug-Integrated-Barge! Only slightly less ridiculous than the floating palace above...

[Wavewacker]

Bolger has a catamaran that used a bolt on bow and has a lift top, a small cabin cruiser type. Now, instead of all windows, use more solid walls and smaller windows for energy efficiency to live on. Unbolt one of the bow sections (made a little longer) and there is the dingy...

I'm kinda considering a garvey bow with a cabin. About 30' with a 25/40 hp. Fold down cat walks with rails. Similar to the canal boats with a large aft deck, mostly covered with winch crane set up. Then build a minature for the dingy, sit on the roof of the minature (being a storage box).....LOL

[Breakaway]

I'm kinda considering a garvey bow with a cabin. About 30' with a 25/40 hp. Fold down cat walks with rails

Here are your plans!

http://www.bateau.com/studyplans/GT2....htm?prod=GT27


Kevin

[Jim Bow]

Somewhere in my dim past I either saw or read about a fellow who built a shanty on some sort of landing craft. He kept an old Willys aboard and would drop the ramp where it was do-able and head inland for groceries and stuff. Got a feeling it might have been in the Whole Earth Catalogue in the early 70s. Nice outfit.

[CWSmith]

I like where I live, but if I were in Virginia this would be my Inland Waterway and Dismal Swamp Canal getaway boat. That said, I have a friend who thinks this would be great on the Great Bay here in NH.

[Woxbox]

There was a series a few years ago in Small Boat Journal about a couple of guys who kept a shanty boat behind Plum Island in Massachusetts. They'd moor it back there in the spring and leave it sitting there to use as they had time until fall. I seem to recall that they had a tin skiff of some sort to get to it and tow it out and back.

Makes lots of sense to me. Such a boat probably needs to have a real low-rent look to it to keep the vandals and thieves away.

[Breakaway]

Here an idea, albeit in aluminum, but I imagine the concept could be realized in wood: The boats twin hulls are connected by a sliding bar that allows an 8-foot beam for trailering but expands to 11 feet for cruising; the "house" is some sort of flexible/fabric.



Kevin

[Ian McColgin]

It's not a shanty boat unless you could happily take a northeaster next to a clam flat in February.

[Breakaway]

I dont know, Ian. I think with the house "retracted" she'd lie head to wind as well as many. Of course it loses points for looking more like a Sno Cat than a boat.Keivn

[SScoville]

I commissioned a 27 foot planing, houseboat/cruiser from Devlin a few years ago - his Lingcod 27. After much thought and after stepping aboard a 20x8 shantyboat, I realized the shanty boat made much more sense to me. First, I would not need a full size truck to pull it. It would cost much less to build and own. Going aboard one, I realized that there was plenty of room in a 20x8 barge type boat - plenty. The other issue I struggled with was this idea of a tender. I want an outboard skiff large enough for 3 to fish from to use as a tender. With a planing boat, you'd need to either stow the boat aboard or tow at displacement speed. So, unless the cruiser is very large, you're back to displacement speed. I had some lumber on hand and Harry Bryan was selling his plans for 20 dollars at the time, so I started one.

Why not use a boat trailer instead of a flatbed?

Here's my new problem: I'm going to have to trailer 2 boats to the landing if I take a skiff along. I plan to use an outboard for the shanty boat.

[Ian McColgin]

My thought of flatbed was two-fold: To spread the stress on what's mostly a large flat bottom; and to make for a more multi-use trailor. Whether flat bed or boat trailor, the shanty boat is large and heavy enough to require some serious changes to any suitable boat trailor. For less money and less work a series of bolt-on roller bunks could be added to a flatbed. Both boat trailors and flatbeds have easy tilt options that could much facilitate getting the unit up on a shallow ramp.

But depending on what deals there are around on what trailors, it's six to one, half dozen the other.

[Ethan]

Well.....kinda. The thought I'd add to Ian's last post is tilt trailers don't like to have items winched onto them when elevated with the winch afixed to the elevated end. In my experience, the dislike increases proportionally with elevation. Single hydrauic cylinder not designed for side loads, do you see, as oppossed to a roll back tow truck that is designed for such loads. Impossible, or even bad in all situations? No. But you'd have to pick your ramps with that fact in mind.

[Breakaway]

I wouldnt use a tilt bed. Some rollers or slick plastic bunks: back up and hit the brakes.

Kevin

[Ethan]

I wouldnt use a tilt bed. Some rollers or slick plastic bunks: back up and hit the brakes.

Kevin

That'd work..........once.

[Breakaway]

Been working for me for about thirty years launching 10 x 16/18 floating duckblinds. YMMV.

Kevin

[Ethan]

Lol....OK......but.......

I presume your blinds are fabric? I'd think the rigid cabin structure of a shantyboat, with a progressive moment from the axis of decel when the hull hit the water, would experience some "issues" haha.

Could you post a pic of your rig, Kevin? I think it's an interesting approach and I'd like to understand it better!

[Breakaway]

Nope. Ply on frame barges, complete with raking ends and a bilge, fiberglassed. Atop this is a stickbuilt house, sheathed in painted plywood, and surrounded by rails into which we install the grass for camo. Inside is a bench with folding backrest for storage, two tiers of shelving, a locker and room for four men, a dog and a couple of kerpo heaters etc.

Didnt mean to sound abrubt, my point is that if you gently back up and tap the brakes, you can get the boat off without the complexity of a tilt trailer. In fact, if its real shallow, tilt is a hindrance, cuz you may bottom out before you get off. Again, just my experience. Here are some pics of the smallest of the three blinds I hunt, after launching for this season.




Kevin




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[Ian McColgin]

Holy shotgun, Nimrod! More than the average blind. Amazing.

[Garret]

A tender idea - why not use a miniature push tug? Basically a yawl boat (complete with ropework on the stem of course) that nestles into a small concave section of the transom - obviously the frame of the shantyboat would have to be designed to handle the forces.

Attach cables/ropes/straps from the outer edges of the transom to the yawl boat & off you go. The yawl boat would not have to be hugely heavy for something like this & might be fairly economical for puttering about if powered by a small diesel. Some work would be needed for visibility: retractable tower on the yawl boat? Trapeze setup with a tiller extension? Wouldn't that get looks! Or - you could go high tech & mount a backup camera on the bow of the shantyboat. Guess it wouldn't be a backup camera then....

Trailer: It seems to me that the forces on a trailer are quite different from those on a boat in the water. Why not make a trailer that's basically a wide frame with padded angle iron along the outer edge, a few cross members that line up with frames & then strap/bolt the shanty down on the trailer? Seems to me that building that might well be cheaper & stronger than building in attachment timbers that can handle the spring attachment points.

I gotta say that the whole shantyboat thing has me thinking - so thanks to WB for the article!

[Jim Ledger]

Here's my shanty boat and tug in 1978. Kevin, you might recognize the location.

[Breakaway]

Here's my shanty boat an tug in 1978. Kevin, you might recognize the location.

I'm going to say near Triton Lane....The Barge.

Kevin

[Jim Ledger]

It was tied up behind the Barge in 1976, but this picture was taken a little west of there, opposite Round Dune. There was a little building on the bay side called the Sail Loft.

[Breakaway]

It was tied up behind the Barge in 1976, but this picture was taken a little west of there,

Ok, so that's ( what I call) Greenback Island in the background, left. Cool.


Kevijn

[Woxbox]

Some work would be needed for visibility: retractable tower on the yawl boat? Trapeze setup with a tiller extension?

Up periscope!

Actually, an autopilot remote is all you need. Then you can relax with a cup of coffee on the shanty foredeck, or behind that grand, forward-facing picture window when the weather turns inclement. What about the throttle, you ask? Install one of these beauties, and let the engineer take care of the rest.

[Mad Scientist]

Not an autopilot; just one of those voice tubes (partly visible at the right of the photo) to augment the engine telegraph, and the crew aft with the outboard. You get to enjoy the fresh air and view; your crew gets to 'enjoy' the noise and fumes.

Gotta love tradition!

Tom

[Garret]

Not an autopilot; just one of those voice tubes (partly visible at the right of the photo) to augment the engine telegraph, and the crew aft with the outboard. You get to enjoy the fresh air and view; your crew gets to 'enjoy' the noise and fumes.

Gotta love tradition!

Tom

I like it! Make sure the crew wears greasy overalls too?

[Hwyl]

I like it! Make sure the crew wears greasy overalls too?

My dear chap,spotless white overalls and white carpet in the engine room. Don't you know nuthin?

[Garret]

My dear chap,spotless white overalls and white carpet in the engine room. Don't you know nuthin?

You gots a higher klass boat than I do.... However, I'll strive to upgrade to at least dingy white.

[Hwyl]

On a serious note, Bolger made his houseboats look like boats, partly for the reason that they would be more accepted by the neighbours. Littoral rights are complicated and people do get moved on. Ian's(I think) point about the holding tank is valid and worrisome,some anchorages have a pump out boat available.

Of course if you had Garret's dedicated yawl boat, you could put the holding tank in that, connections would be like hooking up a semi trailer.

A couple of months ago , Carl Cramer posted a video in Wooden boat of the week called PechaKucha, the first speaker is Eric Sponberg, his ideas look a little unwieldy, but he effectively says that everyone who is looking at a house boat has been influenced by "sleepless in Seatle" , here's the video


Here's the houseboat, it was for sale for $2.5m

[Old Dryfoot]

I've dreamed of living aboard for better than 30 years now and I've never seen Sleepless In Seattle so that theory is out the window.

On the topic of making a boaty looking houseboat, how about something that borrows from the Benford Florida Bay Drifters? They were designed to be a simple and affordable live aboard and drawn along the lines of the Florida Bay Coasters.

A simple barge hull with some shape to the ends and then a house imitating something like this?

36 footer...


42 foot


Another Benford design that is well suited to a live aboard would be Square One, a pram on steroids according to the designer.


Then to continue off on a tangent with the Benford designs there are his delightful 30, 34, and 45 foot Ferries. I don't think any of these are in the real spirit of a Shanty boat however but they are fun to look at and daydream about.