Thread: Nice rowboat, nothing fancy.

Here ya go. Obligatory boasting pix, after a quick clean up this morning. I'm quite pleased with the thing. It's a very elegant boat.

Can't wait for the launch report.

Launch report will require transporting the beast to water. Sort of like leading a horse to, but without the mind of its own to complicate matters.

So, yesterday I had a think about how to transport beast to water. Fortunately Ye Olde Truck came with a couple of steel frames that the original owner used to carry his small tinny. The frames are only 1.8 m (6') apart, so not really enough to carry a lightly built 19 foot rowboat over any distance. That means I need some sort of cradle to extend the support base.

I had a look around my sundry bits of wood, and remembered I had two straight 3.9 m lengths of 140 x 19 merbau decking. These are long enough and stiff enough to make the basis for a good cradle. I rummaged out a few other bits for crosspieces. The 6x2's in the middle are an old rafter cut in half. The 3x2's at each end are cut from the side rails of an old timber bed base I found in the roadside throw-out.

I'll cut the 6x2's down in the middle a bit, so the sheer of the boat sits nicely on all four crosspieces. I'll also throw in a bit of diagonal bracing, and a couple of support legs at the rear that the cradle can stand on when it is slid down off the racks (ie: front still up on racks, rear on ground). I figure turning the boat over and getting it on the cradle will be easier with the cradle slid down to ground level at the rear. Sliding it up and down is easy enough (tried it last night) so no problem there. The finishing touches will be a few bolts or lashings to hold it securely when it's all up top. I'll just wing it on the details and sort something that works.

This has turned out well. With the boat upside down on the 3x2's each end, the overall height is just low enough for me to drive in under the shade sail with about 30mm clearance. Rear overhang is legal, which is a handy thing, and the amount of boat hanging out from the front of the cradle is still fine.

Ok, I have this cradle thing sorted now. Just gave it all a few test runs, getting the boat up and down, to see make sure it all works. The pictures should be mostly self-explanatory.

It turns out that I'll be able to use the old steel frame and its rollers without much modification. The only thing it needs is drilling two holes through the forward top bar. The rear top bar already had these two holes, coincidentally just slightly outside the 140x19 merbau stringers for the cradle. That gave me an idea. All I need to do is drill two more holes in the forward top bar, then fix two blocks of wood each side to the merbau stringers, situated over the holes in the steel top bars. These blocks are then drilled to take bolts, which will hold the cradle securely to the steel frames.

Since the holes will be right up against the sides of the stringers, standard bolt heads won't work very well. I'll get around that by using t-head bolts, which will sit nicely against the stringers and hold themselves from turning while I do up the nuts with one hand. Easy.

Sliding the cradle and boat combination up and down takes a bit of effort, due to the friction once it gets off the rollers and onto the frames. The frames are currently topped with exterior boat carpet. I may grab some high density polyethylene strips and fix those on top of the steel to reduce friction, but it's quite workable as it is. The weight itself is fine. It's just the friction which is a bit of a nuisance at some points.

Since the boat is so light, getting it on and off the cradle and flipping it over is a piece of cake. No worries there.

Ok, so why not just leave the cradle up on top of the truck all the time and just put one end of the boat up, then slide the boat up onto the cradle without having to move the whole kaboodle at once? I tried it. It doesn't work as well. It takes a bit more of a heave to move the whole lot at once, but it's less stuffing around overall. The rowlock blocks and stemhead and the chocks for the gunwales all add up to too much trouble when trying to slide the boat up on its own. It's better to have the cradle down, put the boat on, then slide it all up in one hit.

A V8 starter motor, with a drum mounted on it's shaft, to crank up a cable, attached to the aft end of the frame assembly, seems like a logical route. A trailer winch could work, though you do have to crank the thing. I'd also make the distance off the top of the truck as low as practical, just to make things easier.

Very clever stuff and indicative of your excellent efforts on this project. More pictures please . . .

I don't really think it's worth complicating it with winches. I'd be happy to complicate it with wenches, as I can see that being fun, but I think winches are unnecessary for this application. It's quite manageable as it is, at least at my current age. I might need to be more cunning in another twenty years or so (which is when the wenches could be handy).

It does require a bit of effort to get things all up top, but it's not gut-busting effort. It just needs a good shove. The cradle without the boat requires far less of a shove, so weight matters. This prototype cradle is the no-bucks, quick build version, made out of what I had lying around and using basic domestic carpentry methods. If I was to get a bit more sophisticated, say by using stringers built as plywood box beams with 4mm sides and 2x1 paulownia top and bottom, I reckon I could come close to halving the weight of the cradle without much effort. The other point is that I could slightly reposition the rollers, and add another pair to the forward frame, so that the cradle was always rolling rather than sliding.

I may do all of this at some stage, in fact I probably will, but for the moment this basic version is fine IMO.

Regarding the height, I had thought of cutting the steel frames down so that the boat just cleared the cab roof. This would make it easier to get the boat and cradle up and down. The drawback is that Ye Olde Truck also came with another steel frame that holds up a very good weatherproof soft canopy that has windows, vents, and sitting headroom under it. I never asked, but it seems clear the original owner meant this to be used as camping accommodation. I could save a considerable amount of height, but then I would have to also substantially modify the canopy and its frame if I wanted to use them, and the canopy would no longer have sitting headroom. Since it is all currently set up and ready to go, I'm inclined to try it out a bit before getting into modifying everything.

The other thing is that the current height enables me to walk around the back of the truck without cracking my cranium on the cradle, which I'm sure will be handy at some point.

Re more pictures: what in particular do you want pix of?

Damn. I just had a better idea. D'oh.

Ok, so when I bought the plywood for the planking (3mm quandong) I grabbed four sheets of it just to be on the safe side. As it turns out, I only needed to buy three. I even have a bit of the third one left over, about one third of a sheet wide and of full length. IOW, I have 1 1/3 sheets of plywood that would be ideal for the sides of box beams. I also have plenty of cedar left over, since already had a reasonable stash of that. This means that assuming I am not above buying a bit more epoxy glue, I have the materials necessary to build a another cradle that weighs about half as much as the current thing.

Apart from the weight, this would have other advantages. I made the current thing 3.9 metres long because the bits of decking were 3.9 metres long. The catch there is that at the legal rear overhang, the boat sticks out a bit past the rear of the cradle. This means that:

a/ the cradle needs legs, and bracing for them, to keep the boat off the ground when the cradle is slid down.

b/ when shoving the whole lot up I need to grab the transom and shove on that to start with, since the way the boat sticks out means I can't grab the cradle easily.

c/ when I hang the whole lot from the ceiling of the carport, which is how it is going to be stored, there will be legs hanging down to about eye height.

The legs and bracing add weight. Shoving on the boat rather than the cradle isn't ideal, even though it is strong enough. The legs hanging down in the carport, while ok, is not ideal. If I make a new cradle I can make the box beams long enough to extend right to the ground at the rear, so no legs required and cradle will be easy to grab. With no legs required, this means nothing in the way in the carport.

Naturally, I would think of this after I make the first cradle, because brain was stuck on "Let's do this fast and easy, and I have these two bits of decking." Brain getting stuck is a recurring problem. Need less sticky brain.

My very best ideas and innovations, are always after I've completed something and had revelations about a better way.

I've had a few more ideas today. Current cunning plan is to put lawnmower wheels on the bottom of the legs. This will basically turn the whole shebang into a big wheelbarrow sort of thing. This in turn means it will be easy to store the thing in the (6.5 metre wide) carport next to the truck, without having to hang it all off the ceiling. I like this idea.

All I have to do is slide the thing down until the wheels are on the ground, then get underneath it and grab a handy crosspiece, walk it all back about 6 feet, and squat down to drop the front on a couple of sawhorses. I can even take the sawhorses with me so that I can drop the whole thing down level for launching and retrieving, if I want to, which may make getting the boat on and off the cradle easier if there's a strong breeze up.

To move the whole lot around when it's down off the truck, I can just put my hand under the bow and use the boat itself as the "wheelbarrow handle". It's easily strong enough for that.

ETA: Just had a funny thought. I'm basically making a trailer for the boat, except that instead of towing the "trailer" behind the truck I'm putting it on top.

Originally Posted by Sumbloak

I've had a few more ideas today. Current cunning plan is to put lawnmower wheels on the bottom of the legs. This will basically turn the whole shebang into a big wheelbarrow sort of thing. This in turn means it will be easy to store the thing in the (6.5 metre wide) carport next to the truck, without having to hang it all off the ceiling. I like this idea.

Lawn mower wheels will not handle soft (read sand at the waters edge) terrain too well.

Whitewood

True, but my carport has a cement slab. I wasn't really thinking of using the "trailer" to roll the boat down into the water. The boat is so light that I may as well just pick it up. It'd be easier than pushing and pulling the whole shebang around on wheels if the terrain wasn't perfect. The wheels would just be a convenient way of getting the lot away from the truck for storage.

Got the "trailer" figured out a bit more. First thing was wheels. I remembered there was an old wheelie bin sitting in the shed. The council has provided new ones since then, so this old one was just sitting around. I was planning on sitting it somewhere, sans wheels, to make weed tea for the garden. No, not that sort of weed.

Anyway, this means I didn't want the wheels on the bin anyway, and they were wheels, with a nice solid axle (13/16 solid steel). So, that lot came off the old bin and I cut the axle down into two stubs. Instant trailer wheels. Plenty strong enough for the job.

Ok, so next I wanted something to hold the "trailer" up at the front when it was just sitting around. Thought about it a bit, and decided that the blocks on the sides of the stringers, to take the two front bolts to the front steel frame, could be dual purpose. They can have two extra holes in them, and the same four bolts that hold the cradle/trailer to the steel frames can be used to bolt removable legs to the front of the trailer. Since they are removable they won't add to weight when putting the trailer up on top, and no extra fittings are required.

The plan is to unbolt the thing from the steel frames, slide it down until the wheels are on the ground but the front is still up on the rear frame, bolt the removable legs on, the pick the front up off the frame and lower it to the ground (which is actually quite easy). Then it will sit on the ground nicely, or can be towed around by hand just by lifting the front of the boat with one hand. Easy.

Also cut the middle two crosspieces down a bit more and added an extra pair of chocks to the crosspieces at each end. This enables me to carry the boat right side up if I want to, which may be handy for short trips, or even for just working on the boat a bit. Choices are always good, although I think trips of any length would be better with the boat inverted. Apart from anything else, it means no worries with covers and rain.

So, it's basically all sorted now and just needs detailing, glue, and some extra fastenings. I'll also taper the stringers down, from inner crosspieces to the ends, just for looks and to save a bit of weight. The stringers don't need to be full depth right to the ends anyway, so looks and weight saving is the go.

Once it is finished (structurally) I won't need the strongback to sit the boat on any more, so I'll be able to dismantle that, which will be good. So, that's the current plan. Finish trailer/cradle/trolley/wotchacallit and get rid of grotty old strongback, then do all the paint and oil on boat and trolley.

Oh, and make oars of course. No good without oars.

Go a bit more done on the cradle/trailer. Just some bullnosing and sanding, then glued and screwed the frame and chocks together. The removable front legs are glued and screwed too, so all it needs is the back legs sorted, then some bolt holes to hold it on top of the truck. I'll drill those in situ. I'll be doing a bit more this evening, and should basically have it all finished on Friday night.

Ok so that will loeave saturday (68hrs0 and sunday9 another8 hrs) should be bale to finish the oars , and be in the water sometime next week,, of course you'll fill in your pare time with the painting etc.