Project Boat

[Snuffly]

Hi folks, Snuffly here,
Just thought I would make a post to tell you a little about myself and my project boat "snuffly 568"
I'm a 54 year old long time fan of boats, starting when i was a sea cadet as a teenager back in the 80's, hooked ever since. Over the years i have owned a few sailing dinghies & small motor boats. My fondest memories at sea are from the 2, week long cruises on the square rigged brigantine T.S. Royalist which is the UK sea cadet corps flag ship

November 2021 my son, Jamie, & I bought a 22ft grp cruiser as a project boat, sadly august 14 2022 my son aged 16 died after a short sudden illness, I now plan to complete the boat and have decided to name her in his memory, he was an avid online gamer, his gamer tag was snuffly 568, which I will be using as the boats name.

We chatted endlessly about the boat, coming up with ideas for her, then coming up with new ideas to replace those we had already agreed upon. one of the ideas that he was most excited about was having a stern mounted paddle wheel to push the boat lazily along the canals, we also discussed at length having her completely electric powered, so that is what i intend to do, have her as an electric stern wheeler.
I started work on her last week, I began removing all of the old superstructure to make way for the new, next step will be to remove the interior moulded seating, prior to a good clean up. before the actual construction can begin.

I anticipate many challenges ahead, more than a few headaches and probably lots of (hopefully minor) injuries and cursing, I will keep everyone posted on the progress made.
Any and all advice, tips etc will be gratefully accepted.

 

[[194497]]

So sorry for your loss, I can't imagine the pain of losing a child.
Strangely I saw a stern-wheel narrow boat a couple of years ago - I had no idea that anyone had ever built one!
My concern would be the steering - small cruisers often have outboards which make them highly maneuverable at slow on no speed through the water. How would a sternwheeler steer through right places on the inland waterways?

 

[Snuffly]

So sorry for your loss, I can't imagine the pain of losing a child.
Strangely I saw a stern-wheel narrow boat a couple of years ago - I had no idea that anyone had ever built one!
My concern would be the steering - small cruisers often have outboards which make them highly manoeuvrable at slow on no speed through the water. How would a sternwheeler steer through right places on the inland waterways?

Thank you,
while researching steering, the most common answers i found were - twin rudders either forward of the paddle wheel, or aft of it, sometimes both,, some people advise an additional rudder at the bow, others advise an additional rudder either side amidships, the option that intrigues me most is the curiously named "monkey rudders" which seems to be a rudder either side of the paddle wheel, that i assume sits slightly below the wheel, with another rudder aft of the wheel (see attached picture of a model utilising this system), initially i will see how i fare with 2 rudders in front of the paddle wheel

 

[Tradewinds]

Having lost my son in 2020 I know something of what you’re going through.
It’s great to see you tackle a project like this and I hope it gives you comfort as you tackle the ‘what ifs’ and ‘why’s’ - questions which are always at the forefront of one’s thoughts as one tries to come to terms with the loss of a much loved child ( at least they are with me).
Good luck with the project.

 

[dankilb]

One suggestion I’d share at this early stage is either a) don’t rip too much out (or rip out as required for access - not as a one hit demolition job) or b) template pieces as you remove them (e.g. interior joinery/bulkheads etc.). It’s a pain making new templates to fit the endless curves upon angles that a boat presents. Much easier if you have old pieces and/or templates from them to work from. Otherwise good luck with it. A noble mission for sure.

 

[Snuffly]

Having lost my son in 2020 I know something of what you’re going through.
It’s great to see you tackle a project like this and I hope it gives you comfort as you tackle the ‘what ifs’ and ‘why’s’ - questions which are always at the forefront of one’s thoughts as one tries to come to terms with the loss of a much loved child ( at least they are with me).
Good luck with the project.

Thank you

 

[Snuffly]

One suggestion I’d share at this early stage is either a) don’t rip too much out (or rip out as required for access - not as a one hit demolition job) or b) template pieces as you remove them (e.g. interior joinery/bulkheads etc.). It’s a pain making new templates to fit the endless curves upon angles that a boat presents. Much easier if you have old pieces and/or templates from them to work from. Otherwise good luck with it. A noble mission for sure.

Thanks for the suggestion, there are a few holes in the floor already, through which I can see that a number of the wood floor supports are rotten and will need replacing, the boat has been untouched for at least 3 years and was full of rainwater to the point where the floorboards were floating, there are 2 decent enough bulkheads that i am going to try to salvage and re use, the reason i plan to remove the moulded seats is i want to replace them with storage units and reposition the seating

 

[Rappey]

) don’t rip too much out (

I think its already way beyond that point

 

[Rappey]

A paddlewheel is a very interesting and unusual choice. What sort of size paddlewheel do you imagine?
A rudder works very well with the thrust of water over it so i would have thought behind the paddlewheel would be the best location plus it can minimise the rudder draught.
I cant imagine what you are going to build but i will watch this thread with interest
How about a paddle each side of the hull amidships. Maybe no rudder needed

 

[Snuffly]

A paddlewheel is a very interesting and unusual choice. What sort of size paddlewheel do you imagine?
A rudder works very well with the thrust of water over it so i would have thought behind the paddlewheel would be the best location plus it can minimise the rudder draught.
I cant imagine what you are going to build but i will watch this thread with interest
How about a paddle each side of the hull amidships. Maybe no rudder needed

Hi Rappey,
i guess the size of the paddle wheel will be a case of trial and error, thinking of initially experimenting with 3ft diameter x 5ft across to see how it goes.
no can do with the side wheels, the boats beam is 6ft 10 already , which is the maximum width for cruising the entire Uk inland waterways network, which is what i hope to do, eventually

 

[Rappey]

I would guess at something between the sizes of a pedal bin and dustbin .
And now for something completely out of the box - How about the paddle being able to turn left and right by means of a centre pivot point ?

 

[Snuffly]

I would guess at something between the sizes of a pedal bin and dustbin .
And now for something completely out of the box - How about the paddle being able to turn left and right by means of a centre pivot point ?

now that is food for thought, It may not sound like it, but i was originally trying not to over-complicate things, that said I don't think i have ever heard of a paddlewheeler that has a side to side pivoting wheel, I shall have to do some research on that