Houseboat Build - In Progress

[gm280]

About $30,000 once it's completely fitted. It will have a Solar PV array of 1 to 1.5 kilowatt and in addition to the 60HP outboard will have 2 high thrust trolling motors and on one side a kicker motor on an extension bracket. I will be traveling long distances and have no desire to ever get stuck. Galley will have a compact refrigerator and 2 burner gas stove. I'll have a bank of 6 to 8 deep cycle batteries along with charge controller and inverter enough to power a small window unit AC. Most of this (PV, inverter, AC etc.) I already have and has been sized and tested. The hulls and deck will by far be the biggest cost.

Do you have a way to charge on the fly? Because those banks of batteries will have to be maintained along the way to do what you are looking for.

 

[Scott Danforth]

youre going to need a gas powered genny

 

[Jim Hawkins]

youre going to need a gas powered genny

As I said, I will have up to 1500 watts solar PV panels that will be more than enough to charge my batteries.. In addition I will have the 12 volts coming off the outboard when under power and the AC will only run hot nights for sleeping.

I have already tested the system with the AC plugged into a 2500 watt inverter on only 3 batteries and it ran that little AC like it was nothing. The electric motors will only run with full sun and a full battery bank. The rest of my power consumption will be tiny.

I will have a genny, BUT only for emergencies. I am no novice to systems like this, I will have ample power.

 

[redneck joe]

Where you at? Hot nights are relative....


That big of a boat needs a good kicker if not going dual outboards. What's the plan?

 

[Jim Hawkins]

Where you at? Hot nights are relative....


That big of a boat needs a good kicker if not going dual outboards. What's the plan?

I'm feeling pretty good about my wall framing after being unsure of my technique. Here is a cross section of the lams. I threw one of these pieces in my rain barrel and let it soak for weeks until it was so waterlogged that only the surface of the block was at the surface of the water..Then I took it out and molested it with a hammer trying to make the glue joint fail. It would not! As a side note, I did not use pressure treated wood because I feared water but because I fear the drywood termites that are in abundance here.

I'm in the Florida Keys so it gets warm sometimes. On a boat in open water with an almost constant breeze moving through the boat the only really hot nights will be the ones mid summer in a dead calm. I dislike AC, and in my house, unlike most people here who run the AC year round, I only use it for a couple of the hottest months.

The boat will only be moving at 10 to 15 mph max much like a sailboat with a displacement hull. I will not be in a hurry. The emergency kicker motor will be a 15 HP extra long shaft, also like a sailboat. The main motor is a temporary 60HP 2 stroke with a very low pitch pontoon prop. When I upgrade the motor it will be to a 4 stroke not larger than 90HP.

 

[redneck joe]

Ok cool you think in a stiff wind, with that sail of a houseboat that 90 would be enough? Are you a liveaboard? Anne agree on wind; most every night we spend on the boat a quick dip in the water and in your case a slat removing Sandown and the breeze is enough.

 

[redneck joe]

Just had a thought.... Are you going to weigh prior to launch? In case you need a third toon?

 

[ahicks]

Regarding "enough power", we rented 75' houseboats with a single outboard. I don't remember what the horsepower was on them, but I think they were less than 100 (85hp maybe?). That was plenty for any situation we ran into. You don't get in a hurry with a boat like that, when underway, or maneuvering! I WOULD be looking for the largest diameter prop available though, to maximize the amount of thrust available.

A 200 hp engine might make it go a little faster, but it's not going to handle a cross wind docking scenario one bit better. Maybe rig the kicker on some sort of retractable front mount to act as a "bow thruster" for situations like that?

 

[Jim Hawkins]

Just had a thought.... Are you going to weigh prior to launch? In case you need a third toon?

No need to weigh, I already know what the component parts weigh and how much weight I'm adding. Take a look at this picture, the toons are big. For perspective, look at the man standing all the way back behind the boat. Note the line for bottom paint - only about 8" of the hull has bottom paint and sitting in the water now only two plus inches are covered. Doing the calcs for displacement I can add over 5000 pounds just to get the waterline to the top of the bottom paint. I could put two full size pickup trucks on here and still only half submerge the pontoons and anyway, there is no room for a third toon. As I said before, my problem will be to have Enough weight.

 

[Jim Hawkins]

Regarding "enough power", we rented 75' houseboats with a single outboard. I don't remember what the horsepower was on them, but I think they were less than 100 (85hp maybe?). That was plenty for any situation we ran into. You don't get in a hurry with a boat like that, when underway, or maneuvering! I WOULD be looking for the largest diameter prop available though, to maximize the amount of thrust available.

A 200 hp engine might make it go a little faster, but it's not going to handle a cross wind docking scenario one bit better. Maybe rig the kicker on some sort of retractable front mount to act as a "bow thruster" for situations like that?

Yes ahicks, you have the picture. a motor geared for high thrust with a large diameter/ low pitch prop.

 

[HotTommy]

Astronaut Frank Borman said, "A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill." I think the same would apply if I were operating a house boat. If I found myself in a situation were a 90 HP engine and/or two anchors wouldn't let me safely ride out the situation, then I likely made a serious error in judgement earlier on.

 

[Jim Hawkins]

With the walls finished I turn to cutting roof joists. A 2 X 6 I felt was too big and heavy and 2 x 4's too small so since I wanted to cut each one with an arch for water runoff I used 2 x 6's and narrowed them down to 4 1/2 inches at the center with a 3/4 inch arch. To cut the curve I screwed an aluminum extrusion to the 2 x 6 and used that to guide the edge of my circular saw. These will be set on 16" centers and span 8' 8". Also, because the joists will be exposed from underneath they are all sanded and will be stained and sealed before I install them (I think).

 

[Jim Hawkins]

Fiberglass! The part of this project I was dreading.

Before I assemble the walls and roof I wanted to have all the plywood that makes up the top deck covered with glass so that once assembled all I will have to do to dry it in will be to glass the joints of the plywood.

In anticipation of glassing the 1/2" PT plywood I bought a sheet or two at a time, selecting the flattest,driest sheets from the top of the pile. Then stacked under my house with spacers to let air circulate between sheets and putting a fan on it. That was months ago and now that I am ready for it, the wood is very dry. Each sheet was then sanded with 80 grit sandpaper and cleaned of dust.

I used 3 of my rafters to give the wood the same arch it would have when installed. I spaced the rafters 2' apart and put a screw in each corner. (I was surprised when the resin had set and I removed the screws the plywood held that near exact arch.)

It was cheaper to buy a roll of glass than to get just what I needed so I got 1 roll of 50" wide 1.5 oz. chopped mat. This I lifted up with a pipe inside the roll so I could roll it off as I needed. I calculated I would need close to 1 gallon of resin to wet out a 4' X 8' area of mat. I decided to do this in 1 quart increments and so took old soda bottles, cut off the tops and marked with tape the 1 quart fill line. I filled 4 of these with resin and then did one more pint size and poured out mekp in little cups for each one.

I dreaded doing this with memories of resin kicking way too soon so I used the minimum amount of catalyst and as luck would have it the temperature dropped from the 80's to the 70's. Perfect! For wetting out the plywood I took 1 quart of resin and thinned it with 20 -25% styrene. This was just the right amount to generously coat the bare plywood and I applied it with a 3" brush. Spreading the resin took 1 hour and couldn't have gone easier. I simply poured resin out of my pre-measured containers and used my fiberglass roller tool to push the puddle of resin along. When the first sheet was set it had dry spots of areas with too little resin so for my second sheet I used more resin and found by working a nice puddle along it took no more rolling to saturate the mat than just what was required to move the excess resin along.

 

[HotTommy]

Yeah, I don't think this is your first project. .... Looking good.

 

[gm280]

Nice progress and I am watching to see how this comes out. Thumbs Up!

 

[Jim Hawkins]

A couple more ideas this could morph into, all the same basic layout.

 

[redneck joe]

What material did you use for the floor decking?

 

[Jim Hawkins]

The deck above the fiberglass pontoons was framed with 1 1/4" X 3" aluminum channel about 1/4" thick and covered with 3/4" PT plywood which was then glassed over and given a top layer of paint. This work was all done by A&M Pontoon.

 

[HotTommy]

Someone is bound to ask this so I'll go ahead and do it. How did you protect the aluminum from the PT plywood? Was the plywood encased in fiberglass before it was attached to the aluminum?

 

[redneck joe]

hopefully it was the 'good' PT I've heard about.


On the flooring - with the ply take the salt? I know here in skinny water territirry a toon floor has about a 20 year lifespan is kept moored.