BARBARA ROSALIND, paddle houseboat

 

The genesis for this design was a really fun trip with Martha (then GF now wife) and Bozo (really fun boxer dog) from Canberra to Goolwa via the NSW South Coast & Melbourne, returning along the Murray River, in a fun if noisy V6 Ford Capri in 1983.  Back home I sketched up a generous steel paddle houseboat, adopting one feature of Mr. Wes______'s (my then Boss) planned retirement motor yacht: the ability to carry a small car.  A quick cost estimate put an end to that project, and nothing of it now remains.

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                                                                          Then I started a more practically sized paddler in timber, finished the design (but not the drawings)

                                                                          and put it aside at the beginning of the 1983 Canberra sailing season  ......  and now 40+ years later

                                                                          and in my dotage I hope to reviving it via DELFTShip (my hands & eyes certainly cannot reproduce

                                                                          the original penmanship now !!) (though I have still the drawing instruments that I used).

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                                                                          I had thought my workbook long gone, but since have found it with it all (?) the calculations

                                                                          pertaining to weight, buoyancy, stability and propulsion (including the paddlewheels) etc.,  

                                                                          maybe,  just maybe I will be able to (re)launch this dream ....

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                                                                          Principle Particulars

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                                                                          Length Overall                                11.7 m (incl. rudder)

                                                                          Beam Overall                                    5.2 m

                                                                          Draught                                             0.35  m

                                                                          Displacement                                    7.5 tonnes

                                                                          Engine                                               7.5 kW (10 hp)

                                                                          Estimated Speed                               5.25 knots (@ half load, in flat water, wind astern)

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                                                                          Arrangement (as of September 1983)

 

                                                                          Aft are two cabins, one with a double berth, the other with upper and lower bunks.  The  the head (S)

                                                                          and galley (P) are near amidships with the saloon forward, the saloon having small dinette, two full length settees, the command console and a small pot belly stove ~~  Bozo and I got very cold at Mt Gambia en route to Goolwa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​​Propulsion

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The engine / gearbox are mounted outboard and athwartships on the port sponson.  This drives the paddlewheels via chain or belt drives that reduces the engine RPM to the paddle RPM.  The port-to-starboard transfer shaft is below the cabin sole and similarly driven.  Anyone with half a brain will substitute a brace of outboards, saving themselves a lot of money and work ....

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            Caution

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                         BARBARA ROSALIND is for flat water (river, small lake etc.) use only!

                         This ship is NOT ready to build!! 

                         If  / when the drawings are completed they likely will differ from images above !!!​

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