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Build your own Houseboat - Any plans for house boats, and a man's dog?

by By a Man, and his Dog!

Any tips, plans, or ideas for building a man's houseboat?

Any tips, plans, or ideas for building a man's houseboat?

I'm looking for plans to build your own houseboat. I am thinking of building my own boat, a basic man's boat, for me and my dog. It would be used only on Greers Ferry lake in Arkansas.


I want a 45 or 50 footer with front and real deck, one bedroom, refrigerator, cook top stove, air conditioning, shower, and the head is optional.

I also want a walk around rail like the Gibson houseboats, and I would love to have flybridge, but that is not a must. If there's no flybridge, at least a sun deck.

From a speed power point of view, I guess twin outboards of about 90 to 100 HP, I need 15 MPH as this is a big lake. I may tow a fishing boat to the other part of the lake.

Any good ideas for me, or sample set of building plans.

Thanks for your help, a Man & his Dog.



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Reply - Answer
Welcome to the houseboat forums, and congratulations on the decision to build a "man's houseboat".

I'm sure to get some flack from my wife for this post, but I will venture to guess that when you want to "build a man's houseboat", you mean a boat with the basic amenities, easy to run, keep clean, and very functional for fishing and your dog?

On
a personal note, I have had a few houseboats in my single days, that could have been classified as a "Man Cave" style boat... :)

As to finding some sample os study plans, you can have a look at our following links, free Houseboat Building Plans, and also Build a Houseboat with Plans.

I am sure that you will get many building tips and ideas, from other houseboaters that are either single, divorced, widowed, or by choice.

When I met my wife, and the first time that she came aboard my houseboat, she could see that I was a typical male. I liked to keep my fishing rods, or my tools inside the boat, nice and warm and dry :)

Since my wife and I now live aboard our houseboat together, I am no longer allowed to keep my rods or tools in the living room :(

Maybe we will get some good ideas on how to build a woman's houseboat next? Come on ladies, share your ideas with us...



Lastly, hopefully some of our readers will share and post comments about their building a man's houseboat ideas, tips, or 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


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Comments for Build your own Houseboat - Any plans for house boats, and a man's dog?

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Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Handmade Houseboats
by: John Corse

You may find a book "Handmade Houseboats" by Russell Conder helpful. Although published in 1992, it contains lots of helpful info on various methods of construction and different types of houseboats, as well as on living on board. Available from International Marine, a division of McGraw Hill.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		More comments
by: John

Be sure to have a small runabout with this houseboat. There are a lot of places that will allow you to park your houseboat permanently in the lake or rive as long as it does not interfere with traffic.

They can't tax you or charge you fees. Additionally, marinas are legally obligated to offload your sewage tanks for free because if they did not, way too many creeps would dump their sewage in the water.

I would say that when you are building your boat, make room for a large battery bank recharged with a diesel generator and then have an inverter wired in. The inverter takes DC power and changes it to AC power.

That way you don't have to constantly run your generator. The diesel is more fuel efficient and the life span of a diesel gen over a conventional internal combustion engine is much longer.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Additional comments
by: John

I almost forgot, be sure to have your back patio area screened in. There are a lot of places where the mosquito swarms will eat you up in the late afternoon and early evening.

I will never forget a 3 day cruise on Lake Superior aboard a 38 foot sloop where we were literally chased back inside because of the MASSIVE swarms of mosquitos who were blood thirsty.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Building a houseboat
by: John

You should check with GlenL Marine. They have over 300 boat building plans in addition to houseboat plans and they are very good and complete from start to finish.

They are HIGHLY recommended and the prices are reasonable for the plans. They also have free builder forums for discussions on issues.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Single handed captain, handling and docking.
by: Jerome

I agree that when it comes to building a houseboat for a single person, instead of building one for a family will require different amounts of storage and sleeping quarters etc...

But when it comes to planning or designing a houseboat, just remember that many of the boats functions will have to be handled alone, and ease and accessibility are of importance.

Just be sure that when you design it, you might want to have doors leading out to the port and starboard catwalks to make it easier to handle, dock, and undock her.

Just my thoughts....

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