Course How To

Bayou Belle Houseboat - Scow hull, trailerable, plywood, wood frame

by Burnsy
(Canada)

The building of a trailerable Bayou Belle houseboat.

The building of a trailerable Bayou Belle houseboat.

The Bayou Belle houseboat with a scow hull, is trailerable, built with plywood and wood frame. I have had the plans of the Bayou Belle for 40 years, but never had a place to build the craft. But now I have my home and newly built garage, so voila!


I have it closed up for the winter months, and will finish it this spring when the weather gets warmer. I'm looking for a 40hp outboard for power.

Over the years I have built and rebuilt the craft in my head, and after many drawings have made modifications in the original plans to make it even easier, and stronger to build.

The plywood hull took about two weeks to build, and the cabin structure three days. I should have the houseboat ready for the water in another month, when the warmer weather hits our province.

Looking at the technical details, she is 22 feet in length, and 39 inch sides, with 6ft 3 inches in the cabin structure, and a 96 inch beam. This should make her a very trailerable houseboat.

The windows will be installed in the spring. I salvaged them from an older 22ft RV trailer, as well as the window frames, and I got other parts from the RV.

Regards, Burnsy.



Advertise Houseboat Business Advertising
You can advertise here for pennies a day!
Are you a boating related business and want to
increase sales and profits with targeted traffic?
Act now to get our 1/2 price sale, limited offer




Reply - Answer
Well Burnsy, congratulations on your progress, and thank you for submitting the picture.

I can see that you are well prepared, you have found an old RV to salvage for windows and other parts, since that will greatly reduce the overall cost.

We are all looking forward to a picture of when you launch her. Do keep us up to date :)



Lastly, hopefully some of our readers will share and post comments about their own Bayou Belle houseboat experiences. Feel free to use the "Click here to post comments." link found near the bottom of this page.


Thanks again for sharing, IAN from all-about-houseboats


Free Bonus Offer

To show our deep appreciation to all of our readers and visitors, here is the link to our free houseboat magazine, the INSIDER. Go ahead click the book and sign-up, it's free and filled with great articles, tips, information and website updates.

free Houseboat Magazine - The Houseboat Insider


Comments for Bayou Belle Houseboat - Scow hull, trailerable, plywood, wood frame

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Bayou belle houseboat details
by: jones31

I've been searching for a build of this boat for a long time. I am 31 and have had the plans for a couple years but I found the plans lacked one or two very important details EX: notching bottom frame for keelson and bottom seam etc...

However other than that I found the boat in a 1974 issue with three different versions; house boat, fishing, and sport utility. The latter being what I want to build.

If you find the 1974 issue that should help you a lot with the plans and details though.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Houseboat scow design
by: Anonymous

Been thinking about designing a 45' loa x 8' beam x 4' sheer
scow in three 15' sections, and must be trailerable.

I'm figuring frames of 2x6 fir on 2' centers, 3/4" plywood, fore and aft open decks with a 15' centered cabin.

Power I hope, will be my 50hp 4 stroke.

Your thoughts, JV
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Too bad you waited so long.
by: roger

Hey Burnsby, I to have mulled over building a houseboat ever since I was a kid in 1959 when I first read a Popular Mechanics magazine.

The magazine had plans to build a Popular Mechanics houseboat and it was a 24 ft and looks a lot like the bayou bell.

I live in northern Ontario with lots of lakes but only a few camping spots. So I to am building a boat as I am 61 years young and just retired.

I am going with a modified P.M.\bayou bell houseboat. This has been a life dream. I will start in December but my problem is that the boat was in 2 different issues!

I have the first one which was printed in Dec 1959 and I need to know what was in the Jan 1980 issue?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and if anyone needs the first issue I can give you a copy.

Roger.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Building a Bayou Belle houseboat
by: albert in st louis

Hi, I am thinking about building this Bayou Belle houseboat. I am wondering whether or not it will sit level in the water when moored with a large outboard motor and two 10 gallon gas tanks in the rear.

Thank you, Albert
Rating
starstarstar 		Any more pic's?
by: gillbillyy

Please post more pic's, I would love to see more on how you mounted your motor and fuel tanks.

Click here to add your own comments

Return to Plans for Building a Houseboat..

Continue Reading Our Popular Pages

Manufacturers
Live on a Boat
HB Forums
HB Rentals 		HB Buying Guide
Boat Build Plans
New Houseboats

Parts/Accessories
Trailerable Boats
What's New / Blog 		Pontoon H-Boats
Marine Insurance
Transport/Movers
Loans & Finance

Our collection of houseboat ebooks

Ebook Boats Collection on Houseboat Books

We just love houseboats, do you?
Join our monthly HB Insider for free



Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.