Double Wacky Lassie | SouthernPaddler.com

Double Wacky Lassie

Drew

Member
Jun 16, 2005
5
0
Hamilton Ontario Canada
I have been dreaming of building a raft...
Looking for opinions from all you Huck Finns out there. I have built few Wacky Lassies and was thinking of building two of them with enclosed tops as pontoons, putting a deck on top, hanging 6 hp motor on the back and pitching tent on top. Got the idea from the JEM plans but the wacky lassie format is very easy to build with all its straight cuts.
Any chance of this working?
Thanks for your input
Drew
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
Drew said:
I have been dreaming of building a raft...
Any chance of this working?
Drew

Drew...

Building boats and making them work for you is nothing more then imagination and the ability of making them. Your idea sounds good to me , a pore boy house boat.

Why not try it if anythng you will have two boats to paddle if it fails and if it works then you will really have a fun boat..... It is a win .. win situation. :D To me it sounds like a good idea.

Chuck.
PS. When you try it keep us posted on the progress and how she works on the 1st camping trip.
 

bearridge

Well-Known Member
Mar 9, 2005
3,092
4
way down yonder
Friend Drew,

Ya didnt tell where ya gwine ta paddle that raft? Since ya aim ta put a tent on it, I figgered it mite be a ocean raft. Ask Truthful Jack. He 'n Thor built some rafts outta reeds. Actually, Jack showed Thor how they done it back in the old days. :mrgreen:

regards,

bearridge
bodine old salt school

The French are a smallish, monkey-looking bunch and not dressed any better, on average, than the citizens of Baltimore. True, you can sit outside in Paris and drink little cups of coffee, but why this is more stylish than sitting inside and drinking large glasses of whiskey I don't know. P.J. O'Rourke
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Drew,

The way I see it, you have three design problems to chew on:

#1 How to deck over a canoe so it will not leak, and will ruggedly support a superstructure.

#2 This deck will probably be detachable.

#3 How to attach & detach the deck to the canoe, and the superstructure to the supporting canoe decks.

Of these I would expect #1 to be by far the most difficult. I guess I'd start first by designing the deck both for seaworthiness, and then for ease of attachment.

I've also read that in a rig like this, you want the noses of the mounted hulls to be a bit closer together than the aft ends. You don't want the hulls to be parallel. If they're parallel, head-on waves stack up in between the hulls and overflows up above.
 

Drew

Member
Jun 16, 2005
5
0
Hamilton Ontario Canada
I hope to take a the "poor boy's houseboat" down the Grand River south of Brantford and head out to the sea (Lake Erie). I don't know how many dams there are along the way but the Deck will have to come off so we can portage around. Apparently comercial boats used to go upstream as far as Brantford using a system of locks. Now the Grand is broken into a few sections where people can boat.
Drew
 

Swampy

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
1,736
0
Southeastern North Carolina
Drew, you have already paddled this river o make sure no tree canopy limits your boats heigth right?

Sounds to be a perfect family boat to fish from and maybe do some burgers along the way! :wink:

I would think that a small inspection door on each pontoon where you can empty water and inspect the interior would work out OK.


Please keep us posted on this work. (And I don't see waves unless you head out into Erie ... :shock:
swampy
 

Drew

Member
Jun 16, 2005
5
0
Hamilton Ontario Canada
Well the kitchen addition is almost done, so now we can finally get to work on the pontoon boat. If I get the last few drawers built I might even get to do this with my wife's blessing.
We went for a drive along the Grand River this summer and it looks pretty doable. I also bought a canoeing guide book published by the Conservation authority which over sees the river. The two dams we have to portage around are in open areas for easy landing and launching. The only concern is that late in the summer the flows below the dams are minimal so the water might be shallow.

My concern about the planned boat now is size. My two boys( 9 and 11 ) and a friend (12) and myself 180lbs need enough space to spend a few days aboard.
I am thinking of making each pontoon 14- 15' long x 2' wide. I hope to be able to use 3 sheets of 1/2" spruce for the deck giving us 8x 12 of living space. We can always camp on shore if this is to tight!

We hope start in January and work on it every Saturday fo 2-3 hours so it might take a while.

I will keep you updated.

Drew
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Drew,

You might consider splitting up the crews. Maybe either take only 2 boys at a time on a raft trip, or have one or two in solo or dual boats - that they helped build themselves, of course.

Get them into Boy Scouts where they'll be taught the canoeing merit badge. This will ensure they can both swim and captain a craft. Momma can be a great help with this too.

IE: Center the boats around the boys, and the boys will center around the boats.
 

Drew

Member
Jun 16, 2005
5
0
Hamilton Ontario Canada
Looking for some input,

I have been playing around with the pontoon size and shape. I am set on 16' by 24-26" at the centre with a 10-15 degree flare on the sides. My question is should I bring the back end in to 8-10" wide transom? This was my original plan but I notice on Glenn-L pontoons they are just 24" wide through to the transom. Is there a benefit to either shape. I realize that a double ended boat has less drag but would this be significant for a low powered raft? Would the wider transom help to float the weight of a 6hp motor and fuel can at the rear?
Hoping to start cutting things out next Sat.

Thanks for your comments so far,

Drew
 

JEM

Well-Known Member
Drew said:
Looking for some input,

I have been playing around with the pontoon size and shape. I am set on 16' by 24-26" at the centre with a 10-15 degree flare on the sides. My question is should I bring the back end in to 8-10" wide transom? This was my original plan but I notice on Glenn-L pontoons they are just 24" wide through to the transom. Is there a benefit to either shape. I realize that a double ended boat has less drag but would this be significant for a low powered raft? Would the wider transom help to float the weight of a 6hp motor and fuel can at the rear?
Hoping to start cutting things out next Sat.

Thanks for your comments so far,

Drew

A transom on the back of the pontoons will support more weight. But it will, as you said, increase drag. A trade off.

To get the best of both worlds, you could cut out a motor well and have the motor closer to the center of the platform. You will get more efficient power and the weight of the engine and gas won't drop the back end as much.

The trade off with that is it will reduce some of your available deck space.
 

Drew

Member
Jun 16, 2005
5
0
Hamilton Ontario Canada
Well i guess i forgot to keep you guys up to date. I finally have some time to tell you how the boat worked. It was great!! Thanks for the comments. How do I post pictures?
We ended up only doing two days on the lower secton of the river due to some political issues. i.e. natives claiming territory and doing things like burning tires on the road and throwing things off bridges. Seeing how the first section of our trip was through the reserve and under the bridge they were occupying my wife thought it best to start down farther.
We spent the night in our tent on the river and did one portage around a dam. Boy did we feel small when we got to lake Erie and went out around the Port Maitland lighthouse.

I well share a few more adventures when i get some pictures.

Drew