Shanty Boat

[jstrubberg]

So, here's the latest thing to stick in my brain and start the wheels spinning...

We love to camp, but we love the water even more. Living in Missouri, we have rivers all over the place.

What about a shanty boat instead of a tiny trailer? I'm thinking a design that could be used on the trailer as a camper and on the water as a weekend getaway. We've got a couple of rivers here that could take us as far as the Great Lakes or New Orleans if we wanted to spend the time getting there.


For those of you who haven't seen one, a shanty boat is a small houseboat with character. 18 to 24 feet seems to be pretty common. I think you could come up with some very comfortable cruising quarters for two.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ ... 530f4c6e24
http://relaxshacks.blogspot.com/2012/01 ... at-in.html

This is probably the best commercial design I've come across;

https://www.boatdesigns.com/20-24-Water ... ducts/899/

I'm thinking 20-22 feet, still small enough to trailer and launch, a gas-sipping 20hp outboard and around a 10mph comfortable cruising speed. A queen bed dinette, a head and shower closet, small galley and some seating space, maybe a closet, a small generator to turn an equally small AC unit when the nights get too still. Maybe throw a railing around the topsides, add a ladder and have a sundeck?

What do you think?

[Phooey]

That is so cool. It reminds me of a floating vardo. How lucky are you to have rivers like that to explore. Can't wait to follow your build.

[Oldragbaggers]

This is such an exciting idea, if I weren't at work (on my lunch hour) I would be jumping up and down right now. Way to get the juices flowing!!!
Like you, we are water addicts too. This is an awesome blend of passions.

[jstrubberg]

Becky;

I can already see us motoring along with a pair of electric bikes strapped down up on the sundeck, ready to go when we make port at the next town we haven't poked around in.

N'awlins would be a fantastic voyage.

I can see some Sketchup time coming on this weekend.

Hey, what about stealing a page from trailer construction and using foam sandwich construction for the cabin? Most of the plans I've seen call for 2x4 construction for the "house", but that's a lot of weight and a lot of wood to try and protect from the elements. I wonder if a 1/4" x 1" foam X 1/4" sandwich wall could bear the weight of using the sundeck?

Hmm....

[jstrubberg]

Slow,

I'm sure there are places this boat wouldn't go, but most of these draw 8-10 inches of water. You can ask the crew to move to the back porch and beach them, then step off dry-footed.

[Oldragbaggers]

Becky;

I can already see us motoring along with a pair of electric bikes strapped down up on the sundeck, ready to go when we make port at the next town we haven't poked around in.

N'awlins would be a fantastic voyage.

I can see some Sketchup time coming on this weekend.

Hey, what about stealing a page from trailer construction and using foam sandwich construction for the cabin? Most of the plans I've seen call for 2x4 construction for the "house", but that's a lot of weight and a lot of wood to try and protect from the elements. I wonder if a 1/4" x 1" foam X 1/4" sandwich wall could bear the weight of using the sundeck?

Hmm....

I like it, I like it, I like it!!
Foam construction sounds like a great idea, but I wonder if the lack of weight would make it more easily buffeted around by the wind considering how much above the water area you'll have. But you know me, I'd be sheathing everything in fiberglass for sure!!

[jstrubberg]

That's actually one of my worries. I can see making St. Louis and just deciding to keep right on going.

[angib]

I think this is one of those great ideas that struggles to convert to reality. Those shanty boats are pretty big and heavy by teardrop standards - over 3000 pounds including a trailer and maybe 5000 pounds, so it's not a small thing to tow.

The critical detail is how you fit the boat on a trailer to use on land. Those Waterlodge designs are 8 feet wide and flat-bottomed, so you would need the boat to ride above the trailer wheels, so it's going to be at least 10 feet high on land. The alternative is that you design the shanty boat with the trailer in mind, possibly cutting away either side of the lower hull to clear the trailer's wheels/fenders.

Another thing to look at carefully is how you get into the boat on land - erecting a ladder that travels in the bottom of the trailer and climbing up each time you get in and out gets quickly tiring (and quite dangerous after a drink...).

There is one British boat that you should look at, as it was designed to do nearly exactly what you want - the Wilderness Beaver. The one odd feature is that it is designed for exploring British canals which mostly have locks only 7 feet wide (yes, really!) and so the boat is only 6'10" wide, which makes it pretty easy to fit on a trailer and stay within an 8'6" maximum trailer width.

One thing they really got right was to rig the boat to travel backwards on the trailer which means you can build some access steps on the front of the trailer so that it is easy and safe to climb in and out of the back of the boat.

Wilderness Boats 1 Wilderness Boats 2

[D.J.]

This is a tiny version of the camper boat . Many years ago I ran across a set of plans for a slide-in camper trailer that you would back up to the end of the dock and flip the entire thing over from the back end . The camper top then became the boat bottom . I will look for the artice but I haven't seen it in 20 years . ... D.J.

http://www.adpost.com/au/vehicles/2727/

[jstrubberg]

All great stuff, angib! The largest of the Glen-L designs boasts a dry weight of 2400 lbs. As stated above, I think I can beat that by using some foam sandwich construction to replace some of the proposed 2x4 construction, but lets be realistic and say 2500 lbs. I'm pretty comfortable pulling that with a small pickup.

The height is definitely an issue. I don't anticipate being able to get between the wheels on a road-legal trailer, so the deck is going to end up 4 feet or so above the ground. Drag is also going to be an issue. A ten foot tall box isn't going to make for much fuel economy!

Still, trailering this rig would be more in the nature of a portage than a permanent solution. I don't want to build anything that I have to pay berth fees to keep in the water. I'd much rather put it on the trailer at the end of the cruise, take it home and clean it up.

I will have to think about the climb up and down. I agree a ladder is not ideal.

Speed is the other consideration. We've got more than enough water here in Missouri to poke around on, but if we wanted to cruise to New Orleans, I'd estimate 8 days down and 14 days to get back. Roughly a month long voyage! Takes a little different mindset over a long weekend in the trailer...

[wagondude]

Check these out also: http://www.bateau.com/proddetail.php?prod=HB16

Also check out the builder forum. It is easily as nice and helpful as the group here.

[mezmo]

Shanty Boats do look neat.

Other than liking their looks and 'simplicity' are you wedded to
the idea of only a 'genuine' one ? Just thinking that maybe you could
modify a pontoon boat to look like one, as that'd allow you to use
a pontoon trailer -or- Perhaps you could could build one that
had hardwalls that folded up-n-down [or telescoped ?], to get
around the extra height problem while in transport.

This is evidently a UK item, also AU too possibly. It had the trailer
and hull integrated. Site has pics, including restorations that show
some of its construction details"
http://www.caraboat.com/Forum/
Some pics of one for sale:
http://www.caraboat.com/Forum/index.php?topic=240.0
'Caraboat' also appears to be a generic term for any combined caravan and boat.
http://shantyboatliving.com/2012/vintage-caraboat/

Just an interesting item:
http://www.pedalpontoonboat.com/

Interesting design for a larger footprint on the water while being narrower
for trailering/road transport:
http://www.elasticat.com/
An interesting page, giving his method of plywood-foam-plywood
composite construction, using fiberlass and epoxy as exterior covering:
http://www.elasticat.com/compositepanels.html

Just for info and to see if anything could be useful for you.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[jstrubberg]

Norm,

Building over pontoons was my first "great idea" , if you will. You can haul off abandoned pontoons around here for free occasionally. I even found a pontoon houseboat needing a ton of TLC that I could have had for under $2000.

The problem is that pontoons just don't carry much in the water. That's why the top sides use aluminum so extensively. I would need three pontoons to have a good margin of error on my estimated load. Pontoons also have a nasty habit of diving underwater if a wave exceed their height. I've driven a few, and I don't trust them except in the very calmest of conditions. The one advantage of pontoons is tat there is less hull in the water, making them easier to push.

I plan to make this boat LOOK like a shanty boat. They are a neat piece of history, especially here in the Midwest. Really though, the purpose is to build a long term (weeks) camping boat that won't cost the mortgage to operate. I also don't want anything that draws more than about a foot of water, as that would limit the waterways we could use too much. The result also ha to be trailer able. There are areas I would love to float that are prohibitively hard to get to without trailer ring, and as I said above, I'm not interested in paying for a permanent berth. Too restrictive, too expensive.

So here's the current list of requirements;

Home-buildable
Trailerable
Can be pulled by a mid size pickup (dry weight under 3000 lbs)
Sleeping for four
Seating for six
Covered porch (or porches)
Functional sun deck
Galley with sink, running water, camp stove
Hot water
Propane heat
Air conditioning
Generator (3kw?)
Grill
Head/sit down shower
Ability to cruise at 10-12 mph
Minimum 60 gal fuel tank
20-30 gallon fresh water tank
Grey water/black water tanks (20/10?)
Draft of no more than 12-13"
No less than 12" of freeboard
No more than 24 feet in length
No more than 8 feet in width

[angib]

Don't forget the trailer weight. My rule of thumb is that boat trailers weigh about a quarter of the weight they are carrying.

And also remember any weight being carried in the boat. Belongings, food, drink and other stuff like camp chairs kinda add up.

[alaska teardrop]

So, here's the latest thing to stick in my brain and start the wheels spinning...

I'm thinking 20-22 feet, still small enough to trailer and launch, a gas-sipping 20hp outboard and around a 10mph comfortable cruising speed. A queen bed dinette, a head and shower closet, small galley and some seating space, maybe a closet, a small generator to turn an equally small AC unit when the nights get too still. Maybe throw a railing around the topsides, add a ladder and have a sundeck?

What do you think?

I think it's a cool idea JS - that's what I think & it spins my wheels too.

You might look for a welded aluminum flat bottom river boat as the basis for the hull. Or better yet, design your own hull using 3/16" plate & hull stiffeners. It's fast and about all it takes is a welder & a worm drive saw with a carbide blade. At first blush it may seem expensive, but a boat, as is said, is a hole in the water for money. For safety & protecting your investment in time & money a proper hull seems a worthwhile beginning.

Another thought. At least 75-100hp four stroke for good gas mileage & getting up river.

Fred