Categories of craft
OK... I've fleshed out most of the Design Catalog with ideas, designers and plans that interest me. This has been a valuable exercise for me, I believe, since I've noticed a "clustering" of the field into a handful of categories. I've decided to list and give an overview of each of those categories with the idea that if I can figure out what category of boat I'm building, that will narrow the selection field drastically :-)
I know, its obvious, but...
Cutting to the chase, my interests seem to be:
- Ocean Passagemaking - not going to happen in the short term. No time, money or experience. Don't need to be investing in a craft for that big of an adventure when I don't have the experience to know what I'm choosing. Now I think I could come up with something reasonable (Diesel Duck, anyone?), but that's more boat that I can realistically support at this phase of the game.
- River Cruisers - This is the name I'm using for various coastal and river craft. These are often a little longer, narrower sharpie type boats designed for more inland waterways. Many have made the Great Loop cruise successfully. Often they have more windage and exposed glass than ocean craft... on the flip-side, they are usually fairly shallow draft and can get into places many boats can't.
- Pocket Cruisers - Again, this is a name I've come up with from somewhere encompassing smaller boats designed for the type of use I'm looking at. Arbitrarily, these are 30' or less in length, and usually 8'6" beam or less... this lets them be legally trailered in the United States without special permits. Some are displacement craft, and more are planing or semi-displacement. Since I haven't finished the "narrowed down" page, check this wider overview.
- Tug Yachts - a sub-set or specialization of the above Pocket Cruisers world... mostly these are Pocket Cruisers with better (or at least different) aesthetics.
- Dutch Barge - OK, I'm just stuck on this one... I like it :-) They come in a wide variety of designs, looks and capabilities. I'm calling it Dutch Barge here, but really its a European Canal Boat category...
I'm going to see about fleshing each of these out in the pages below and see what falls out.
Dutch Barge
My last (for now) pass at covering available and interesting Dutch Barge designs.Last mostly because I think I'm going to rule it out for now, although I really don't want to. As a coastal cruiser, I think they would be great for U.S. River and ICW (Intercoastal Waterway) use.
The flip side is that most of the designs I can find are for significantly larger craft, and all metal construction. I like and want the all metal construction, but I don't think its practical for me right now. The lack of tools and especially a good place to build it just about does it in. Not to mention the fact that its hard to buy steel "as you go"... I can order steel in bulk and get it shipped to me, no problem, but I don't have the cash for a big order... a few pieces of wood "as I go" is much more practical.
The nicest professional designs that I have looked at are from (there are plenty of other references to both these companies elsewhere on this site):
Both of these firm will sell kits and/or CNC cutting files to have the "kit" cut locally (in the case of Branson).
Tom MacNaughton has the preliminary plans for his Eventide which is quite a nice boat, and would be home-buildable I think... although again the downsides of steel and the higher plan costs ore difficult factors for me. I know... if you're worried about the cost of plans, then you shouldn't be building a boat... well... probably true, but again, its a large lump payment, as opposed to smaller, pay-as-you go things.
I have only been able to find designs (really two versions of the same design) from one plans company for Dutch Barges for wood/home build purposes. As many as are built in the EU, I would have expected otherwise, although I seem to see much more "sail-away" building there, where the steel work is done by a professional shop and then the DIY homebuilder does the interior.
The available plan is from Selway-Fisher, a well regarded plan supply company.
The craft comes in a 32'x10' version:
This is a shortened version of the 45’ Teign Motor Barge and has the same flat bottom panel for maximum capacity and ease of construction. We have the plans for the hull construction only in, strip plank and steel...
and a and 45'x12' version:
In stead of using a slab sided hull seen on so many modern steel barges, we have been able to use the ability of strip planking to produce a hull with well curved topsides and modelled the barge on the old Teign gravel barges.
Construction simply starts by laying down the flat bottom using the shape given on the plans. The bottom is a sandwich of ply and baulk timber. On this, the frames/floors are then erected (again the shapes are given on the drawings and the hull sides are planked with 2 overlapping layers of 1" strip planks. Quickly and using fairly basic facilities and tools, a very strong hull can be made by using this method. With a length of 45' and a beam of 12' the barge has a large amount of space to fit out the interior as you wish.
Downsides include:
- Limited wheelhouse space in this design (see previous "Seating for 5?" post regarding wheel hose space)
- wider beam (10' width will require a permit for over-the-road transport in the U.S.)
- strip/plank construction - not necessarily bad, but doesn't work out well for a boat that is stored out of the water or on a trailer... of course for this size range, a mooring/slip is more reasonable, but higher cost
River Cruisers
The 'river cruiser' class is a style of craft that seems to have been most popular around the early part of the 20th century, but has since fallen out of favor. I still like the looks and mana of the capabilities are well suited to my desired uses:- Shallow draft
- Good accomodations
- Trailerable (some of them, anyway)
- Lower power requirements (fuel economy)
Mundoo II and III
The Mundoo designs are based roughly on Bolger's box keel hull (see below) and are proven in Australia. The Mundoo III at least is offered in an electric power design and has been successful in that configuration. The forward cabin gives another bed (I have to sleep 3 at least) without using as much interior space. The tradeoff is that you don't have the easily accessible forward deck area.
Mark Van Abbema's V39 and V28
The V39 is a proven design (at least 3 have been built - one has made the entire Great Loop, one most of the loop I believe, and another has only recently been launched). It's outboard powered, although i have corresponded with the designer who feels it would be similar effeciancy to the Mundoo hull form. The biggest complaint. I have seen about the design is that the flat bottom pounds in chop.
The V28 is a new design that hasn't been built. Its a combination of an earlier V20 craft that Mark and his father built which was successful. Taking that hull form (V bottomed to reduce pounding) and enlarging it a little and putting a V39 type cabin on it.
Both of the Van Abbema designs are available inexpensively.
Atkin's River Belle
The Atkin's River Belle is a much older design, but includes Atkin's "radical" tunnel stern hull form. Its a hull design that has seen much success in other boats. There was one modified River Belle built that the user was very pleased with. The ability to power with an electric setup is the biggest question for the River Belle. Atkin's spec'ed an 80hp inboard motor to acheive up to 15 mph (planing speeds I believe). This is going to be prohibitively power hungry for electric, I think. What isn't clear is how well these hulls perform at lower speeds.
Bolger's Sitka Exporer/Windermere/Tahiti/Dakota?
Bolger has several of his "box keel" designs, a couple of which might play in this area... The Topaz is a nice little "day" cruiser, double ended with outboard power (in a well). The Windermere is a similar sized (31') liveaboard layout for 2. The Champlain is a 22' "small" craft of a similar look.
The Sitka Explorer is a nice looking design that as far as I know was never fully completed.
His Bell's Puffer is another "unfinished" design that strikes me as very similar to the Florida Bay Coasters... high freeboard, "tall" craft, but with lots of room to live aboard.
I'll mention one more here. Phil Bolger has hundreds of designs and no online (or otherwise) catalog, so its tough to find fitting boats without contacting him - which is only possible via fax, postal mail or phone. The Dakota. Probably the closest design to the other craft mentioned here, its a 38' craft designed as a river cruiser. Its the basis for the Mundoo line of craft. The picture above is a modified interior layout, but is the best profile drawing I ran across.
Tug Yachts
Another installment of "interesting to me" boat designs... trailerable but "real boats".
Chesapeake Marine Design Redwing 34 Tug is a new cabin/topside design for the older "lobster boat" looking Redwing 34. Nice looking boat, with a couple of downsides. Plans are a bit higher priced. More importantly, the beam is 10', thus making problems for trailering. Lastly the hull design is pretty flat-bottomed and skiff like (?).
Devlin CZARINNA 30' - This is a smaller version of Devlin's Sockeye. It's shorter, less displacement (thus cheaper to build), has that great looking fantail stern (although that's going to cut down a bit in on-board space and add to build complexity). Beam is a nicely trailerable 8'6". I can see removing the designed internal engines and using Re-E-Power pods with the batteries where the engines were designed to be.
Chesapeake Marine Design Trailer Trawler 28
Specifications:
Length 28'-0"
Beam 8'-6"
Draft 2'-6"
Weight 11,000 lbs
Power 40 hp
Another trailerable sized craft... power requirements look like electric might be do-able, although with all of these the space to put solar cells is a bit limited. PassageMaker's recent Trailerable Trawlers article liked this design also.
Tom MacNaughton also has several tugs in his collection... some nice boats, but most are a little short or beamier than I'm looking for. He does bring up the interesting idea of having a liveaboard barge to go with your small tug... anchor the barge and explore in the tug. Interesting.
Take a look at the following links for more info:
Bantam 18 - Modest harbor tug and work boat
Evening Song 25 - Live aboard house boat barge for the tug to push
Bufflehead 22 - A real little cruising tug for two
Evening Hush 32 - A very large live aboard barge for tug boat living
Osprey 30 - A liveaboard tug for four
Puffin 36 - A family freighter
Merganser 40 - A very substantial steel commercial tug