First "boat" build

[Zach Strief]

I lurk on these forums a lot and occasionally pop up with a simple question for all of the talent that lives here. This one is a little more complicated and in a completely different realm from what I normally do and understand. Our family takes a trip to orange beach Alabama every year. The condo that we stay at has a lazy river that the adults all spend hours in while the kids ride the water slides. Two years ago I found a floating cooler that I cut up and turned into a floating waterproof stereo. It was pretty jimmy rigged and it's time to upscale. I am going to build a boat to house a stereo and cooler so we can float with tunes and adult beverages. I need to make the boat omni-directional because it inevitably spins in the lazy river. Has anyone ever seen or build a boat meant to go any direction? I was thinking if I took a basic flat bottom boat design... And built every side like the front it would work ok. Any ideas or guidance would be awesome. It should be a lot of fun for me to build because I've never done anything like this. Thanks ahead of time for the help.

[mickey cassiba]

I remember reading a description of a small round boat called a coracle...p'raps would suit your needs.

[John B Mooney]

Zach, as Mick says, a coracle (http://koti.kapsi.fi/hvartial/coracle/coracle.htm) is a relatively omnidirectional boat that is fairly easy to make and will carry a lot of load for its size.

I'm not sure you need the boat to be omnidirectional, though. When it's drifting with the water, any boat is omnidirectional. It's only when it's moving through the water that a boat's shape makes any difference. For your purposes, you could build and waterproof a big plywood shoebox and it would drift just fine. Just plan the load so that its weight is as centered as possible, and make it deep enough to carry the weight and wide enough not to tip over and dump your beer and your boombox in the water when it gets hit by waves. Your idea of making the sides all angle outward should make the boat a little less likely to ship water from passing boat wakes or other waves, and would be a good refinement, but extreme angles won't be necessary (since the bow of the flat-bottomed boat is built to deal with moving the boat through the water).

I'd probably use about a 45 degree angle, mostly because the dimensioning of the frames will be easier. A little gentler slope will make the boat a bit better able to ride over passing waves gently, but will take up more space on the car. Actually, if I were you, I might make the float fit the available roof rack dimensions and use it to carry cargo to the condo as well. Make it out of light marine plywood and waterproof it with fiberglass and epoxy (put some padding under it on the roof racks, and make places to pass tie-downs through it). Make a cover for it and your cargo will stay dry as well.

None of this will look particularly elegant on the water, but it should float just fine, and we are talking about a music and beverage float to be used while tubing on a river here. Only you can decide how elegant it needs to be (and how much effort you're willing to put into that elegance).

Hope this helps,
- John

[Zach Strief]

Thanks guys!! I'll start it up next week. I researched the coracle and I think it will probably be a little tough for me to balance precisely. John thanks for the guidance. I agree this will not be elegant at all. When you're going to the "redneck riviera" not much is! I'm going to put your recommendations into action. Thanks for the suggestions guys.