As a lifelong boater, get a trailer. It's much, much easier all around and can be done by yourself. Attach the barrels for sure. Watch out for windy days and T-storms!
As a lifelong boater, get a trailer. It's much, much easier all around and can be done by yourself. Attach the barrels for sure. Watch out for windy days and T-storms!
No offense intended here at all, not at all, but I've got images of a Charlie Chaplin silent movie flittering in my head...Float well.
Are you talking about the webbing with the ratchet thing? http://www.harborfreight.com/set-of-...aps-67386.html
What about final attachment? Would you go around a few floor boards, around the barrel (maybe crisscross the barrels), then leave the ratchet thing where? Just curious. I'd personally like a solution that works. The ratchet thing on top would create a trip hazard, and down under and it may rust all to be heck....or would it? By the way, thanks. Could help our original poster too.
Edit: Just remembered our floor boards of the dock run the opposite direction that all the barrels face, so wrapping up and over would be difficult if not impossible. At least that's what my brain is seeing....and that is not saying much. I think I would still be left with attaching to the framing underneath somehow, which I could try to line up the ratchet thing to the upper sides of the dock, but it would still get wet a lot.
Looks very cool and I'd love to hear how everything turns out, but personally I'd consider replacing the deck screws holding the whole thing together with large bolts. With any wave action, the twisting and torque might cause some structural issues.
Also if you use a bugnet while onboard, be careful not to get yourself trapped inside your hammock if something goes wrong and you find yourself in the water. Hammocks with integrated netting make excellent bodybags.
But be safe, have fun and post a report!
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hppyfngy : I think I like these better, and they handle more weight http://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece...set-90984.html Opinion please.
Everyone seems determined to view this as a vessel, in the sense that it will get underway, and make, albeit short, voyages. If that is the case, a host of complications arise, courtesy of various government agencies, not to mention common sense.
I'm seeing something else, entirely: a glorified swimming float that can be floated/walked into place, anchored, and enjoyed.
Ben? What say you?
Dave
"Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self."~~~May Sarton
B, I wouldn't see anything like that as a permanent solution. Nylon and exposure and rust as you pointed out. I was just looking at his situation as I had the impression it was going to be transported, floated, and then removed and transported again. And I just saw the straps he already has as being at least more suitable than 550.
Could be mistaken on his objectives. I'm not really sure what your answer is...
Some say I'm apathetic, but I don't care. - Randy
I think it's somewhere in the middle, but closer to a swimming float than a boat. The most ambitious plan I have for it at the moment, depending on how the small-scale tests go, is to float down some of the smaller rivers in the area. The vision I have for the raft is just to find a nice, mellow spot on a lake or a calm river where I can drift around and relax. The only propulsion that I might want is to get and stay away from the shore, but I plan on letting the river do most of the work of getting down the river for me.
Should the raft prove to be capable of supporting it, I think it would be fun to spend the night in the hammock on the water, but I'm planning on tying off the raft to the shore and hanging the hammock in the trees come bed time.
The time and place for the maiden voyage have been decided! I'll be launching the raft at Battle Ground Lake State Park in the afternoon of June 14th. The lake there is spring fed, so there is little, if any current. It should provide a perfect location for running the raft through it's shake-down cruise. So now I've got two weeks to put the deck on it =)
/edit: Here's a pic of the lake:
Last edited by ben-bradley; 05-30-2013 at 13:54. Reason: added pic of the lake
Be dangerous, but good.
Just a thought, since it's a State Park have you check to see if they'll actually let you do it? State Parks around NC have more regulations than Carter had peanuts!
If they thought of it I believe the boys in Raliegh would regulate which toe you can insert in the water first!
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