My attempts at designing a cradle boat for Tiffs soon to be born nipperoo

[Wild Dingo]

So Ive done me narnah this morning after months of scouring the net and other places for a good looking set of plans for a boat cradle... I wanted something that looked like it would float if it was taken of the stand and put on the water something that looked authentic... I know others have done it and posted pics and Ive asked before if anyone has plans or such but none have been forthcoming for whatever reasons... I decided to change that

So anyway I simply couldnt find anything so I decided to start drawing...





Then I started marking the ply for the mould that I will use to create the base of the boat...



Then I layed an extention cord as smoothly as possible around the curve sighted up...



To be continued....

[ 10-17-2005, 01:38 AM: Message edited by: Wild Dingo ]

[Wild Dingo]

And so taking heart in hand and trusty new ubeaut B&D Firestorm jigsaw firmly in hand (MATES!! These things are the ducks flamin knuts!! Brilliant! )... I cut the mould form out...And it looks smickey mouse...



Lay an old babys cradle mattress on top... right on halfway and it just touches at the corners of the mattress... perfek!



So I layed that on another better looking (not that this matters in the base) peice of ply and drew it out flipped the mould and lined her up and drew her out again...

Then rev the firestorm up "zapppooohhh" and there she be...



To be continued...

[Wild Dingo]

Now for the good stuff for those who are thinking of wanting to build one heres the basic offsets to this stage (I will update as I do the rest)
Height of stand - 37in (940mm)

Base of boat cradle LOA... 42in (1066mm) Note this is not the overall length of the stand and cradle just the boat section
Base Beam... 20in 7/8ths (530mm)

Space stations as follows...
Stem - Stn 1 = 5in (127mm)
Trans - Stn 9 = 5in (127mm)
Stns - 1 - 9 = 4in (100mm)

Half measures...

Transom - 4in 2/8ths (108mm)
Stn 9 - 7in 5/8ths (194mm)
Stn 8 - 9in 2/8ths (234mm)
Stn 7 - 9in 7/8ths (252mm)
Stn 6 - 10in 4/8ths (266mm)
Stn 5 - 10in 4/8ths (266mm)
Stn 4 - 10in (254mm)
Stn 3 - 8in 7/8ths (225mm)
Stn 2 - 7in (178mm)
Stn 1 - 4in 2/8ths (104mm)
Stem - 4/8ths (13mm)

Thats it so far!! Will try to do daily updates so as its done we can "prove" it and others if they wish they can have a go at building it.

While this is so far only the boats base its a start from which to begin

Cheers

[Wild Dingo]

oooh if your wondering about the largish vacant area at the stem yes theres another at the transom end... my thoughts go to making some breast hooks and a locker accessable from the top down by way of a hatch this could be for blanket and nappy (diaper) and other bubbys stuff storage the actual interior will be not that much larger than a normal cradle

Cheers!

[Dave R]

So, Shane, how many boats do you have abuilding right now. Is it three or four or five?

That cradle looks like a good start. Sorry, I didn't know you were looking for a cradle plan. I could have sent you what I did for my little guy. Here's the only picture I've got access to at the moment.

[Wild Dingo]

Man Dave aint that the cutest!

So Im recreating the wheel... again! seems Im always doing that

Now mate Ive only got the bum done so if your of a mind to send what you have on yours Id sure like to have a gander... perhaps incorporate some of it mmm like the boat! although the sides dont appear very high... Ive so far worked my figures from an existing old one that we have from Joshy which has seen far better days but his sides were 12in from base to top rail yours wouldnt come near that would it? and the frames how are they done with regard the bub when hes wiggling around as they do so he does himself no damage?

Gotta ask with those high stands either end how stable is it?... just wondering as every cradle Ive ever seen has the uprights close to the cradle proper and connected direct rather than with the rigging as youve done

Unusual and original... I like it!!

Possum on seeing your little bloke made this comment so I gotta ask "oooh isnt that bubby small... soooo tiny" so for peace and harmony could you post his weight and such? or email it if you would prefer... ours have all been over 8lbers and were expecting Tiffs to be bigger as Bens (her fiance) so huge but if her little nipperoo is bigger than 8lb shes going to have a battle of it I reckon as shes only a flea of a thing... mmm so was her mum~!

Cheers and thanks mate!

ohhh how many? mmmm weekender valgerda and canoes so 4 on the hop oh plus this wee thing... but thats okay slowly slowly till the sheds up and Im more organised presently just working on the big bits get them sorted will help a lot later... oh and Im in the midst of renovating the bathroom and main bedroom and creating levee banks near the creek ... so Im fairly busy and as the weather gets better and better so I will be even busier!! not enough hours in a day unfortunately I have to force myself to take a break!

[ 10-17-2005, 10:06 AM: Message edited by: Wild Dingo ]

[Dave R]

Shane, I'll fill you in on all the details shortly. I have to run off to surgery and do some work.

[Wild Dingo]

No worries ive gotta buggar of to bed anyway.. so take yer time! dont mess up the surgury on my account mate! Im sure whoevers on the slab wouldnt appreciate it over a wee cradle eh

[Wild Dingo]

Okay Im up!! Whahhoooo bright new day... ready to arc up and get some work done!

soooo wheres Dave?? musta been some huge massive bit of surgery he got stuck into

[holzbt]

Cradle Boats

[Tristan]

Dingo, have you figured the righting moment on that boat? displacement? prismatic coefficient? etc. etc. Don't put the cart before the horse. Got to do a complete study before you fly into building!

[Hughman]

Hanging cradle boats from "davits" might look yar and all, but don't be tempted to hang a cradle. Put it on a stand, or a PROPERLY designed rocker.

The little sailor will end up on the floor. He/She will learn to swear at you sooner than you believed possible!

[Dave R]

Shane, I'm here now. I'll send you a PM with a link to some drawings and a picture.

Despite what Hughman says, there's no way a little nipper could tip the cradle I built far enough to fall out. Now at 18 months old he can't tip it far enough to spill the mound of stuffed critters out of it. I can't even tip it that far leaning on the gunwale at the widest point. Of course he hasn't slept in the cradle for quite a number of months but that's only because he could climb out of it but I've not seen a cradle that a one year old couldn't climb out of. At that point they belong in a proper crib.

Edited to add: Clear out your PM messages, man. Your box is full. I sent you an e-mail to your southwest e-mail address.

Now it's almost my turn to count sheep. We don't chuck 'em here in Minnesota though. We just count 'em being chucked over the fence.

[ 10-17-2005, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: Dave R ]

[Wild Dingo]

Thanks Dave email recieved Just downloading the Hulls program now
Cheers!!

mmmm maybe its me but I cant get hulls to recognise those files Dave... damn will play a bit more later

Thanks also to everyone... Tristan mate? no way am I going through all that for a bubbys cradle my frind just no way! am done with being pedantic and such just gonna build me daughter a nice wee cradle in the shape of a wee boat is all

Thanks also holzbt for the link cheers

[StevenBauer]

Shane, I can't find a picture of the one I built 13 years ago when Holly was on the way but it was a little pram from The Expectant Father's Cradle Boat Book. Think two transoms 3/4" thick,with 1/4" or 1/8" plywood sides and bottom.

Steven

[ 10-17-2005, 11:40 PM: Message edited by: StevenBauer ]

[StevenBauer]

Here you go, I built the bottom one, not the strip planked Bahama Dinghy.

[Dave R]

Shane, check your e-mail. Hope that helps.

[WX]

Shane, some years ago I was going to make boat cradles as part of a business, unfortunately the same year the govt brought in a standard. This standard governs dimensions and the one that sank me (pun intended) was the height from mattress base to rail/end height and it's 12 inches. The result is the cradle ends up so big the baby would be most in it or the cradle loses any sheer and looks like a bathtub...but you are building for family so go for it.

[Tristan]

OK, I've given this more thought. This baby will outgrow that boat cradle in a year or so. Best thing would be to build a 30 foot cruising boat that you, whoops, I mean SHE or HE can enjoy for many years!

[Dave R]

Tristan has a point.

My biggest fear with the cradle I built is that Ian will decide when he's six or seven that it might be fun to see if that little boat will float and drag it down to the pond.

According to the software calculations, the boat could handle about 40 lbs without sinking but that is 0° of heel. It wouldn't take much to swamp it.

[Wild Dingo]

Dave Ive done it all with that Hulls program and printed of the offsets... and will work out what the XYZ things all about (bein tired and not mathamatically inclind its eluding me just now) but I cant seem to get it to do the "nesting" thing I can get it to come up but when I press the button the ruddy thing shows a tiny pic of say the transom in the bottom corner of the first sheet... then overlaps and overlaps every successive thing I click... isnt it supposed to do a sort of layout of how to lay it out on the ply?

mmm will try to grab some time tomorrow and have a bit of a muck around with it

Now Tristan!! settle up matey! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

WX Im not about to get into making them to sell ol son rather for the new to arrive grandhoon... I looked at the one that Dave put the pic on and wondered at how high/low the sides were and then figured well it wouldnt be too hard to add another plank if need be... no worries thanks for that mate

As for you Steven! MORE reading material???... sigh... well if you must! Hows the young fellas Elf going? launched yet?

oh and Dave my pm thing hasnt worked for several years now... it ALWAYS says its full but its empty but still it wont accept any so I just dont use the thing

[ 10-18-2005, 12:02 PM: Message edited by: Wild Dingo ]

[Dave R]

Shane, I'm glad you got Hulls to work. It won't lay out the parts. You have to select the center square of the piece and drag it where you want it. Note that you can set up the size of the "plywood" and rotate or flip parts as needed.

When you save that layout, you'll get a Nesting text file from which you can get points.

If you don't care about what the view looks like on the Nesting page, you can leave all the parts in the lower left corner. The nesting file will show coordinates for points as if you were going to plot each one in that corner but it doesn't matter if you know what you're up to anyway.

By the way, scroll down toward the bottom of the Nesting txt file to see the dimensions in metric units.

By the way, Ian quit sleeping in the cradle at about 6 months of age. Even if it had been deeper he wouldn't have been sleeping in a cradle any later than that because by six months he was getting up on his knees and pulling himself to his feet. He was walking at around 9 months.

I haven't seen any cradle that is deep enough for a kid who can stand himself up.

[John B]

We already had an heirloom/family cradle so it wasn't an option for us. However, it was the whole cradle boat thing in W.B that inspired me to start building the wee kids stitch and tape dinghies. I've built 4 so far.. 1 every couple of years or so.

[Kevin G]

I built both the Bahama Dinghy and Jordan's cradle boat. It hangs fine from the davits and I attached a short line from the bottom of the boat to the cross piece on the davit stand and this way it will not allow the cradle to swing.
Check out Jordan's web site for the cradle I built. The "Sea Pup". Both were a lot of fun to build.
Wish I had a reason to build another.

Kevin