The Steamboating Forum

I've been spending quite a bit of time poking about online looking for some good stitch&tape plywood boat plans for building. Obviously I've been focusing primarily around Edwardian style launches, but I've been noticing that most of these plans require a purchase. Now, I certainly don't MIND purchasing plans, but I really would like to get a look at some before i buy.

So this led me to look at alternate options for a boat, and seeing what else is out there that might work. I came across these plans for a V-bottom fishing boat that can be made with either plank or ply construction. The boat specs are interesting. It's basically a 6 foot beam boat that comes in multiple lengths, from 17 to 28 feet.

Now, the plans would be hard for me to use as I don't have metric tools to work with and almost all the measurements are metric. But it makes for an interesting study. I was going to attach the PDF but the forum won't allow it. So I uploaded it to Rapidshare.

Here is the download link:http://rapidshare.com/files/352154511/y5649e.pdf.html
(It's got a 10 download limit, and it's only good for 60 days.)

What do you guys think?

Changing metric to imperial only requires a hand held calculator.I build houses in Canada and all the Building Code books are in metric and I refuse to change so am constantly using the calculator.A 4x8 sheet of plywood is not any different neither is a 2x4 so why is Canada metric? I dunno!! As for the hull the only glaring problem would be stuff a big steam prop under there.Even with a small prop as shown the skeg and little prop hang quite far down in harms way. Den

farmerden wrote:Changing metric to imperial only requires a hand held calculator.I build houses in Canada and all the Building Code books are in metric and I refuse to change so am constantly using the calculator.A 4x8 sheet of plywood is not any different neither is a 2x4 so why is Canada metric? I dunno!! As for the hull the only glaring problem would be stuff a big steam prop under there.Even with a small prop as shown the skeg and little prop hang quite far down in harms way. Den

Yeah, I guess conversion wouldn't be too bad.

Regarding the prop, I don't think it would be as bad as the diagram indicates. Keep in mind in the design they have a small diesel engine that is immediately in the stern. So it would have a sharp downward angle on the shaft. Actually, I just checked it, and at the designed shaft angle the shaft would be above the gunwale at the midpoint of the boat were it long enough to reach a mid-mounted steam engine. So with an engine located more amidships the angle would be shallower. Although that doesn't deal with the very shallow draft this vessel has. I suspect the design would have to be altered slightly to deepen the hull to allow for a lower prop position.

As I said, It's mostly for study purposes, although it might make a nice starting point for a new design.

Thought I'd add one more note:

I decided to go ahead and purchase some boat plans so I could have something else to compare with. For $30.00 I picked up a copy of Reliable Steam's "traveler" plywood boat. Incidentally, they now e-mail you the plans in PDF format rather than mail you a CD. It's a much quicker way to get the plans and very convenient. My congratulations to Reliable Steam for switching to this much easier and faster method!

Would you believe it is nearly identical to this fishing boat? the stem is a bit more vertical, and the beam is slightly smaller (5' - 6" vs 6' even) but for all intents and purposes it is the exact same boat. That includes the "hanging" prop design that the fishing boat has. Go figure.

Not that the Reliable Steam plans are bad, they certainly aren't. But honestly, the free plans for the "fishing boat" are not only more complete, but include several length options and far more detailed construction steps. This includes a really neat touch, a cantilevered design using a rubber boot that allows the entire prop, shaft, rudder, control arm and engine to tip up and forward so that the craft can be "beached" without damage to the prop. Pretty impressive!

I'm in a bit of a quandary as I really do want a boat that's a bit bigger than 15 ft, but I think anything over 20ft is going to be too big. The Fishing boat has 2 options, a 17ft and a 20ft that would both be great options. But then I end up back at the traveler plans with a boat specifically designed for steam. I think what I may end up doing is combining both of these plans to come up with my own unique design that picks the best options from both boats.

No matter what I do, I'm going to pick up some boat building books so that I can get a bit more familiar with the subject before I start buying lumber.


EDIT: I found the original source for the boat plans, it's on the FAO Fisheries website: http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5649e/y5649e00.htm

They also have some other e-books available:

building a sawn frame fishing boat - ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/012/s8660e/

building a fibreglass fishing boat - ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/003/t0530e/

small steel fishing boats - ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/012/ak803e/

Thanks for posting that link to the boat plans. What a superb booklet! Three cheers for the UN for producing such a useful document. I was just slightly concerned to see that it was published in English, but I notice that the FAO site supports half a dozen languages, so I guess that it is available to everybody (my French was not up to finding it in French though!)

I suspect that one could tweek the stem to about upright by lengthening the hog slightly and putting a tighter curve on the gunwale after the first frame. You could also add a traditional skeg from about 3/4 of the way down the hog from the bow. That would allow a slightly larger prop than shown but with full protection.

Too bad I already bought my hull...!

Regards to all.

Pete

They are nice plans. I'll absolutely be using them in some fashion moving forward.

I think you are right about the skeg, I can probably just make it "taller" as I go down the length of the hog towards the stern by either laminating wood together or simply using larger stock and planing it down. I've already been looking into modifying the stem as well to make it much more vertical.

Actually I've decided that 17 feet will probably be the length I end up with. 15 feet is a bit too small for me, my wife and my two kids, and 20 feet will be too large to build in my garage as it's only 20 feet long to begin with! So a 17 ft boat with a 6ft beam is likely what I'm looking at. I know that's a bit "beamy" and will reduce my top speed, but I'm not looking for speed, I want stability and room to move around the boiler and engine.

I'm really looking forward to this project. I've been wanting a boat for as long as I can remember. Although growing up I wanted a sailboat, Steam power is actually much more practical for my life now, but still retains that special charm you just can't get from a powerboat.