Ottawa, Nov 2002

This houseboat has a ferrocement hull and a cabin framed with posts and beams. The materials are cheap, long lasting, and suitable for amateur construction by a "handy lad native to the spot engaged in the building of some sort of boat." I knew a handy lad who, with his father, built a 42 foot ferrocement sailboat in the 1970's. It is still berthed at a local yacht club. It doesn't show its age like the wooden and fibreglass boats, and requires little maintenance. The interior of that boat is very quiet. It must be good for sleeping aboard. The photo shows a 6" cabin coaming but not the 6" bulwarks. The flared sides in the photo should be plumb and rounded.

There are timber framed structures in use in North America dating from the 1700's, earlier in Europe. This type of framing produces generous open spaces unlike the confined trailer park ambience of houseboats for sale on the Internet. I like the 12 foot headroom in the two front bays. The framing on this houseboat is basic, simple mortise and tenon joins made with simple tools. Timber framers offer courses in more elaborate joinery for builders who want to try something fancy. The timbers are 8x8 white cedar. In eastern Ontario where I live white cedar is a weed. Thousands of rustic cabins are built on cedar posts. People plant cedar as a year 'round hedge. Its used for post and rail fencing in parks. This summer I paddled past a stand of cedar which would be ideal for framing the houseboat. Winter is the time to put on a pair of snowshoes, grab an axe and chainsaw, and hike into the bush to cut the trees. The logs would be hauled out over the ice by a team of horses. Working with a team of horses is a wonderful boatbuilding experience. The logs can be squared rough their whole length with a chainsaw or just where needed for joinery. The shaping of the timbers is done on the ground. They are raised in a single day by a crew of friends and favour-owers. If the houseboat is to be lived in all year in Ottawa it had better be insulated. The 8x8 framing leaves plenty of wall space for that. Cedar 8x8 beams can span 12 ft. The longest span in the houseboat is 10ft. Cedar is a preferred wood for timber framing. Hardwoods can be used at the cost of additional weight. The photo shows 8x8 corner braces which should be 6x6.

The cabin dimensions are mostly multiples of 4 ft so lumber yard material can be used to finish off the interior with little waste. The raised platform at the front is for a bathroom with space underneath for the usual tanks and for stacking cases of beer, or my preference, laying in gallon jugs of home made cider and country wine. Now that the model has been made I see I'd rather put the bathroom along the starboard side. In our area hand pumped lake water can be used for washing. I'd run a pipe through the outside wall and install a second shower head on the foredeck for outdoor showers in summer. I'd also want to design a homemade composting toilette to reduce dependence on pumpouts. We men can use a urinal to presort most of the liquids from the compostable solids.

The galley is also near the front. The idea is to keep all the plumbing together. A galley stove, a compact 'fridge, and some lights will consume one 25 lb cylinder of propane every two weeks with some seasonal variation. That was my experience living in a cabin. Twenty five pounds is the size of the propane cylinder on barbecues. For safety the cylinder has to be outside on the foredeck.

There is a storage room in the middle of the boat on the starboard side. I've collected a lot of junk over the years that I can't live without. That makes the storage room a necessity. A lot of the junk is seasonal stuff, like winter skis and summer camping gear. The axe and chainsaw go in the storage room too, along with all the other tools, the jack stands for working on the old pickup, and so on. On top of the storage room is a sleeping loft accessed by a ship's ladder. The ladder also goes to a sliding hatch onto a rooftop deck. Under the ladder is where an airtight wood stove would go. Eventually I'd make a wind powered ceiling fan high up in the centre bay to circulate the air.

The last of the interior space is the stateroom aft. I would want two big soft chairs here, a fold out sofa for guests, my desk and office stuff, and a dresser. There is a door into the back of the storage room so it can be used to hang clothes in. Apart from the galley counter there is no built in furniture. I'd bring in landlubber furniture which is a lot easier to do and more flexible than making the built in kind you see in boats. There would be a short ladder to a back window as a fire escape in case the ex-wife and her lawyer friend show up at the front door. There is enough space and plenty of light along the port side of the stateroom to put up a pair of sawhorses to build a canoe, kayak, or dingy.

This is the view from the north. It is also the side to tie up alongside a wharf. The windows are small to keep out winter winds. Cold fronts come through Ottawa from the NW. They can blow all they want against these walls. The round windows look nautical while providing privacy from people passing by on the wharf. Each of the interior spaces has at least two of these small windows to admit some daylight on the north side.

There is a circular outboard motor well under the foredeck, like I've seen on the small boats used to herd logs. The operator stands on the deck holding onto a circular rail, steering by wheeling the rail around. I'd make a similar rig for the houseboat. To use the motor a circular hatch on the foredeck would be lifted; the outboard motor in the well would be lowered into the water so the prop is below the hull; the rail in the well would be raised up waist high; the motor started; and the boat would go where you want. That rig would just be for moving the houseboat around in a bay or marina. For long moves there is a towing ring bolted through the centre sill (bottom beam) and sticking out through the ferrocement bow above the waterline.

This is the view from the south. The big windows admit sunlight for passive solar heating and lighting up the inside of the structure. Inland where I live, cold fronts bring clear skies, so the coolest days area also the sunniest, and sunlight through windows warms rooms on coldest days. Personally, I like lots of sunlight. Sunlight deprivation can slow a person down, especially in winter. The roof could overhang more than is shown. A bigger overhang admits low winter sunlight but shades against higher summer sun when heat is not so welcome. A big overhang also protects the siding from weathering. The vertical siding on the houseboat is 1x6 rough cedar, home sawn or lumberyard fence boards. They don't need protection. Most people can't wait for the sun to bleach their cedar siding to light grey. I'd melt rolled rubber roofing onto the top. It's on the roof of my house and its great long lasting stuff. The front would have a white grit surface to reflect summer heat. The rooftop sundeck at the back would get the no grit surface and be painted white. There would be no flat solar panels on the roof. In winter they get covered with snow and don't work.

A good day stay indoors and work on the kayak.

Dimensions

Hull: 40 x 20 x 4 ft
2 ft side decks
2 ft stern deck
6 ft fore deck with motor well
6" bulwarks and coamings

Cabin: 32 x 16 x 12 ft
20 x 16 x 12 forward bays
16 x 12 x 12 galley/dining
8 x 4 x 12 entrance
8 x 4 x 8 bathroom, 4 ft tank space under
10 x 5 x 8 storeroom, 4 ft loft over
12 x 16 x 8 stateroom, rooftop deck over

note: the lengths and widths can be reduced 20% for a smaller houseboat while preserving lumberyard dimensions

Windows:
13 round 12" diameter
2 narrow 8" x 3'4"
2 narrow 8" x 5'8"
4 tall 1'4" x 8'
2 square 2'8" x 4'4"
2 clipped corners 5'8" x 3'
1 clipped corners 5'4" x 2'
1 clipped corners 2'8" x 2'

note: windows are easy and cheap to have custom made. I had most of the ones on my house made to order locally cheaper than ready made.

Weight
(unfinished interior)

6,216 lb 5/8" ferrocement hull
5,806 lb 8x8 eastern white cedar timbers, 6x6 corner braces
3,489 lb 2x10 spruce joists on 16" centres
1,871 lb 1x6 rough sawn cedar vertical siding
760 lb 1/2" fir plywood floors and roof
227 lb 1/8" window glass double glazed
----
18,367 lb total

6 1/8" draft
4,167 lb/in incremental draft

Drawings: (click to enlarge)

Bio:

Ideas for two houseboats came to me when the competition was announced early in 2002. The one presented here is based on a timber framing book I have from the high inflation back to the land era of the 1970's, from a magazine article I recall from that time on some open concept houseboats with big windows and lots of hanging plants in False Creek, Vancouver, and from an interest in ferrocement boats. I got what additional information I could from the Ottawa public library, did some sketches and calculations, and then put the ideas aside to prepare for the boating season. During a cold wet fall I spent the time cooped up indoors preparing the ideas for an entry in the competition. I don't have any CAD software on my old 386SX computer with its DOS operating system, and I can only draw with a ruler and compasses in my hand, so decided to make a rough model and submit photos. I scaled the model so some 1/2" thick sticks I had on hand would rip into 8x8 beams. It took three tries to make a hull out of wet newspaper and four paste. The stuff warps a lot as it dries. A few days after the model was finished there was a rare half day of sunshine when I was able to photograph the model outdoors in natural light, getting covered in mud from groveling on the wet ground to get good angles. The next day the winter snows came early, a two day storm, but by then the work was done.

The other idea for a houseboat for which I did not have time to prepare a contest entry was based on a California ski chalet made from a 24 ft diameter redwood wine vat 16 ft high, and a jack up oil drilling rig. I checked the data I have on bending plywood and calculated I could make a cylindrical houseboat cabin out of bent plywood the same diameter as the ski chalet, and a larger plywood cylinder for the hull with pipe legs to stand on. 

I have designed and built four very cheap small paddle and sail boats which I use to explore the many waterways in and around Ottawa. I have written descriptions of both boats and waterways for my National Capital FreeNet web page at www.ncf.ca/~ag384 to assist others who share an interest in these waters. Photos and descriptions of three of the boats, Dogskiff, Loonie, and Delta,
have appeared in DuckWorks Magazine.