Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

[Dunaruna]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

She's build for comfort, not speed. 10 knots maximum. Most of the other 40ft boats on the lake have twin 15hp or a single 40hp (some mercruisers and volvos but not many). Mine will be the first 50hpEFI 4stroke - don't want noise disturbing my sunbaking .<br /><br />It weighs about 12 ton at present, when I'm finished it'll be up around 15, can't imagine getting her up on plane .<br /><br />Can't anchor, lakes way to deep. Have to tie up to bank every night or marina pen.<br /><br />Aldo

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

DR, ya mean your houseboat didn't have any pontoons under it when you bought it? You could have put it in your back yard and saved a lot of money!

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Nah! His in-laws would probably come for a visit, park the car on the lawn, and never leave. It’s the same everywhere.

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

No pontoons, no motor, no roof, no hot water system, no heater, no wiring, no swim platform. Basically it was as you pointed out - a garden shed . <br /><br />Hey but the ad looked inviting - " renovators delight, first home buyers welcome, cosy, why rent when you can buy, needs TLC."<br /><br />Aldo

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

In the second pic you will see a tractor with lots of hydraulic toys attached - thats mine to use next weekend (what exactly do all these levers do? ).<br /><br />O'k, the boat is sitting in a shed, the shed is the original slip for houseboats (hasn't been used in years) Railway lines run from the shed down into the lake, in front of the boat is the railway carriage that the boat SHOULD be sitting on - but it ain't. The whole dolly/carriage setup is attached to a massive winch (the cable drum is 6ft in diameter) I'm gunna use the tractor to lift the toons onto the carriage, lift the boat up a metre or so and then roll the carriage under the boat. Sounds simple doesn't it? HELP! <br /><br />as for collapsing toons, they are fully ribbed internally and compartmentised (6 seperated compartments per toon). Its a legal requirement to have 12 pressure tested compartments on a 40ft toon boat, 6 will keep it afloat - just. Some people put hatches into the compartments and use them for storage but my budget wouldn't stretch that far, maybe one day. They look fragile but their not - we used a forklift to put them onto the truck and I couldn't detect any flex at all. BTW, they are upsidedown on the truck, not on their side.<br /><br />Aldo

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

The only thing that was missing was the 'white picket fence'! <br /><br />Actually those pontoons look like Saturn rocket boosters. I'm surprised they could lay them on their sides. Rocket boosters collapse of their own weight unless standing straight up.<br /><br />Now how do ya git dem under de boat??

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Just an update: Took friday, sat & sunday to fit them. Finished the side trim, fitted the motor, finished the swim platform.<br /><br /><br />Because of the draught we've been having the lake is at 43% capacity, the slip rails come out of the water at 45%. I missed out by 2 weeks and now I have to book a 60ton crane to lift the boat off the rails and into the water - I'll take plenty of pics. <br /><br />toon1 <br /><br /> toon2 <br /><br /> toon3 <br /><br /> toon4 <br /><br /> swimplatform <br /><br /> sliprails <br /><br />Aldo

 

[redmopar]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

One word, MASSIVE. I like. That project is big enough it actually scares me and that is saying alot. It looks great though. Falls under the category if your gonna go, go all out. Good luck!

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Scared! yep that just about sums it up - sometimes I feel as though I've bitten of more than I can chew on this one. Its been a steep learning curve with all the various aspects of getting this beast back in the water but I must admit that I've enjoyed the challenge.<br /><br />Aldo

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Aldo – what did you decide as far as electrically isolating (or not) the aluminum pontoons from the steel frame? Pix of where they join?

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

18rabbit, in the pics above, in toon4 & toon3 you can see the fixing method (not a close up - sorry). I used ss bolts with nylocs, the bolts are sheathed in nylon tube and then nylon spacers to give a gap of approx. half inch between the toons and the frame. I then connected 4 (each corner) copper earth straps (toon2, upper right hand corner) and two large magnesium anodes bolted to the rear of the toons (toon3). Rodbolt said that magnesium anodes are available for the bigfoot but not downunder yet - I'm still searching. I have run earth wires to every electrical appliance but I am also connecting an earth lead from the starter battery to the frame, the motor has pos & neg leads running to the start batt. The end result is that alloy/steel is electrically connected but physically insulated. <br /><br />Aldo

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Sounds right. You’ll be in fresh water so you probably won’t have a problem. In salt-water use, I have seen severe corrosion of the aluminum under the flange of the nylon insulator.

 

[Triton II]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Holy sheet Duna... that's the smallest toon boat I've seen... NOT. Thanks for the interesting pics, which lake is that... Eildon?

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Yep eildon. Ever been down that way triton? <br /><br /><br />Aldo

 

[Triton II]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Aldo,<br /><br />Seen it from the air, but never boated on it. Any good? (D'Oh, dumb question, of course you're going to say it good seeing as you're building a floating hotel to go on it!)

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Yeah I love lake eildon, been holidaying there for the better part of 30 years. <br /><br />Its close to civilization but not too close, good fishing, good hunting and the weather is mild. The best part is that most of the city folk think its always empty so they don't bother going there, It holds more water than sydney harbour and has about 500 kms of shoreline.<br /><br />Aldo

 

[Triton II]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Cool. Bet the water is too. You say good fishing, I've never done any fresh water fishing so maybe it's time to hook up the quinnie and have a go!

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

This is turning into a midday soap opera.<br /><br />60 ton crane was booked for next Saturday (I booked it 4 weeks ago). Got a phone call yesterday from the crane company saying that they PROBABLY won't be able to do it on saturday but MAYBE one day next week, me being so meek and mild - I described to them in detail where they could shove their crane. This close to Christmas I'm feeling a little scre**d.<br /><br />So I bury myself in the yellow pages trying to find another crane company, first phone call I make is hopeful. They happen to have a 100 ton crane in the vacinity of my lake (pure luck!)- so the driver goes and takes a look so that he can give me a quote. While he's there looking at my houseboat he decides (without telling me or his boss) to do the job there and then because in his words the job was a "breeze". My boat is floating .<br /><br />This all happenned yesterday within a 4 hour period, I am both very disappointed (that I didn't witness the event) and elated thats its all done - its a very weird feeling. Sorry, no pics . If I can shuffle work comittments around I'll be going up to the lake tommorrow to 'run in' the motor and check for any cracks in the walls (the crane used slings and a spreader bar) and make sure they didn't scratch my new toons .<br /><br />Aldo

 

[Triton II]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Cool Aldo, sorry I missed this post as I can't get iboats up and running on my home PC and I had yesterday off to go to my son Stuart's school certificate presentation day. Send pix of the thing when you get the chance... hope the crane didn't damage the toons!

 

[John Carpenter]

Re: Electrolysis in fresh water - Update

Loved the pics of those pontoons...but the one of the swim platform has me confused. Swim platform? Hell son, around here we would call that a deck! Great project.