Buying a Dhow to Move Cargo

[James S]

I've got a couple hundered tons of construction material and equipment to move to a small Island in the RedSea.
I had hoped to hire this out to the local fistermen...but now their high prices and low reliability have caused me to handle this in house.
Lead time is a bit short so I've decided to buy a new 20meter fiberglass Dhow manufactured here in Yemen.
I'll have the factory make some hatch and hold modifications to make it more cargo friendly.
These things are a rough bit of work, to put it nicely...they are made for local consumers.
Heres a the specs and couple pics.

This is going to be an interesting project..For the most part I'm going with the "when in Rome" when it comes to the initial set up.
I will upgrade to hydraulic steering.

1 LENGTH OVER ALL 21.50 M
2. LENGTH W.L 14.65 M
3. BEAM MAXIMUM 4.35 M
4. DEPTH MOLDED 3.00 M
5. MAXIMUM DRAFT AFT 1.72 M
6. MAXIMUM DISPLACEMENT 45 TONS
5. FUEL TANK CAPACITY 4500 LIT
7. WATER TANK CAPACITY 1500 LIT
7. FWD STORE
8. FISH HOLD CAPACITY 37 M3
9 AFT STORE
10 MAIN ENGINE YAMAHA 286 HP RANGE
11. SPEED MAXIMUM (LIGHT CONDITION ) 12 KNOTS
SPEED CRUSING ( FULL LOAD ) 9 KNOTS
12. FIBERGLASS STANDARD CABIN WITH 8 ALUMINUM WINDOWS
13. 4 CREW BUNK BEDS
14. WOODEN ROOF OVER THE CABIN LAMINATED WITH FIBERGLASS
15. FIBERGLASS CONSOLE WITH LOCKER
16 FIBERLASS TOILET AT THE TRANSOM END
17. FIBERGLASS KITCHEN WITH DOOR
18. AFET AREA ON SHEER FIBERGLASS RAILING
19. ENGINE ROOM HATCH WITH AIR VENTS
20. NAVGATION LIGHTS – STANDARD
21. 4'' MAGNATIC COMPASS
22. ELETRICAL - 10 LIGHTS WITH SWITCH PANEL
23. FENDER - 1.5"X 4' HARD WOOD FENDER AROUND THE SHEER
24. 6"X 6" HARD WOOD MAST WITH 3'X4" FARMAN
25. FIBERGLASS ENGINE BEDS
26. STEERING – MECHANICAL WITH S/S RUDDER & M/S KEEL SHOUE & ANDODE
- HYDRAULIC STEERING OPTIONAL
27. EXHAUST – DRY TYPE WITH SILENCER OR WET TYPE.
28. ELETRIC BILGE PUMP WITH OUTLET LINE
29. 1' HAND PUMP FOR WATER TANK
30. ANTIFOWLING PAINT BELOW WATER LINE AREA.

[Blue Stocking]

WOW--my kind of project. Sounds like an "adventure" LOL. Wish I was in a position to volunteer to come-along. Good luck.

[James S]

Yeh…it’ll defiantly be an adventure; I wish you had the time to volunteer as well.
This is a fast track thing.

I just visited the factory Thursday for the first time...will go back next Tue and sort out the mods details with the "engineer"...with any luck she'll be done 3 weeks later.
Its one of those "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow"
and its still full of holes but hey....sometimes that’s how it goes.

It’ll be launched in Mukalah on the south eastern coast of the country and then head west, past Aden, to the island of Miyun at the southern mouth of the Red Sea.

After that’s it’ll shuttle between there and the port of Mocca (home port of the original coffee) also on the Red Sea.

[Blue Stocking]

James,

Hows the project coming along. Helping a friend upgrade a small barge to start moving material to an island on which he is building a house, and thought about you.

[James S]

Blue Stocking
Well its been a roller coaster...this Dhow with the Mods I need is coming in at around $110 K. that includes a new 4.5m dingy.
There is nothing used for sale in this country so I started looking a bit further a field with that budget in mind.
I found a lovely little 120ft Swedish built tanker in England for about $75k...had lots of correspondence with the owner...easy to convert to dry cargo.
I started looking at what it would cost to drive her here...blah...blah ...blah…maintenance costs of the big steel hull verses the fiberglass Dhow….blah…blah…blah.
Long story short…I leave in the morning to the Dhow factory to do the deal.
I’ll stay until Tue. Working with the engineer drawing cut lines for the hold and working out some details of the segmented (6pieces) new main hatch cover.
It’ll cover an opening about 2.5m wide by 6m long.
Already started building the 5m boxed wooden mast and boom to handle the dingy.
Its all fun and games on this end.
Where is your progect…any pics of the barge….are you rigging a crane?

[Stillraining]

You live an exciting life James...wow 45 tons in that thing looks like it might be a little scary though..be consevitive on that first trip my friend.

Question..Yamaha is that gas?...You can do better eh?

[James S]

Just back from the boat.

Gross tonnage is 45..that includes the weight of the boat....about 15 of that is the boat...30 for cargo...its still a lot...If we can load the weight low we should be all right….we don’t need to go to max in any case.

The Yamaha is deisel 285HP https://www.frenchmarine.com/product.aspx?PID=963&CID=82
One of the challenges I have is a short time line....I need to go with whatever gets me moving stuff in 4 weeks....these engines are commonly used by the fisherman.
I talked to a couple of them and they're happy with them.

I’m also having a 4.5meter dingy built that I’ll carry over the new main cargo hatch…To handle it I’m making a 5meter wooden mast and wooden boom with hand crank wire winches.

Wait till you see what I’ll do for anchors…..LOCAL!

[David M]

James,
Interesting project. I agree, load the boat relatively light for the first trip or two. While underway, do the following.....

Since the chances of being given a set of stability curves from this manufacturer is slim to none, you are going to need some sense of the boats stability. Measuring the boats roll period, this will give you an indication of the boats metacentric height (stability) from the following formula.

This is a rough estimate formula for determining stability using roll period. The actual determination of stability is generated by the stability curves, which you probably will not have.



GM is the metacentric height in feet.
B is maximum beam of the vessel in feet.
T is the roll period in seconds. (A longer roll period is an indication of less stability which means a shorter GM (metacentric height)).

Almost never do yachts deal with major changes in stability since they are not carrying large amounts of cargo. Your boat will have major changes in stability. Understanding this is fundamental to everyone's safety.

Another option would be to do an Inclining Test. I would strongly advise that you do this in order to generate a somewhat crude stability curve.

Additionally, knowing how much you can safely load onboard will save you money by avoiding under loading the boat, costing you more because of additional trips.

I'm curious, if you don't mind, what are these building materials for?

[Stillraining]

Cool...

I did not even know Yamaha made a diesel....Over here we have river jet boats that have Yamaha power heads installed as inboards running the fans so I incorrectly thought it was along the same inboard configuration as those things...which for that application is pretty a pretty clever arrangement... a friend had one for a couple years till collage funds were needed for his daughter...No steal head in the rivers anymore anyway...but it is fun to skim down a river in less the 10" of water at 25 knots...

I know you well enough to know you will think of everything..no worries..Keep having fun you raskel.....wish I were there to help out.

[James S]

Thanks guys.
You're right David....there are no stability curves. I’m looking forward to using the formula you posted.
I'll do some investigating on inclining tests.
You can see from the lines that these are narrow boats relative to their length.

The material and equipment are for the construction of a radar site and a local control center on the island of Miyun in the middle of the straights of Bable Mendab at the southern mouth of the Red Sea.

The material is varied….aggregates and cement, rebar, masonry blocks, terrazzo floor tiles, form material, 40 meter high tower (to be assembled), doors and gates, water tanks, and lots and lots of electronic equipment.

This is one of several sites, but the only one not accessible by land.

When we finish we may use the boat to help support a small hotel we have on the island of Socotra…its about 250 miles off shore.

[GordMay]

For your information:

Capacity of vessels - technical information sheet
➥ http://www.msq.qld.gov.au/resources/...tion_sheet.pdf

Inclining test unified procedure No.31
➥ http://www.iacs.org.uk/document/publ..._31_pdf184.pdf

[MarkJ]

Hey James! Sorry I missed this thread!

Sounds like fun! Good luck with it.

You can take me or a ride when we get there


Mark

[Hampus]

Originally Posted by James S

I found a lovely little 120ft Swedish built tanker in England for about $75k...had lots of correspondence with the owner...easy to convert to dry cargo.

Cool project! What was the name of that swedish ship?

What is it that you do for a living exactly? It sounds like it's similar to what I'm doing, only you get to do it in sunshine and I get to do it in rain and 2 degrees C. Want to trade? I get to spend six months in shorts and t-shirt and you get to spend six months huddled up in a raincoat, gloves, knitted sweater, heavy boots and still freeze your butt off! Sounds good?

/Hampus

[James S]

Thanks Gord

You bet Mark.....we'll take her for a spin.....I'll bring the gloves!

Hampas, here’s a link to that lovely little tanker...she’s so sweet.
The owner says the pictures were taken in September.
I sure appreciate the offer to swap projects ...NOT!

Glued up the mast and boom today.

Boats for sale UK, Used boat sales, Commercial For Sale Bunkering Tanker / Potable Water Tanker - Apollo Duck

[James S]

I made the mast and boom each about 6 meters long....I'll trim them down to around 5.5.
The mast tapers from 15 cm at the bottom to 10 cm at the top.
The boom was more work..its 8 cm on the ends but is curved on all four side and thickens to 12 cm in the center.

The only choice of wood in the market was some real knotty Pine and what is locally called Miranty...looks like mahogany...that’s what I used.
The choices for glue was white wood glue or urethane...you can see from the pictures I went with the Urethane.

I was lucky I had a bunch of square drive SS screws left over from another job.
Tomorrow a bit of sanding...then on to fabing up the hardware.

Also found a couple of one ton manual wire winches...nothing SS or particularly fancy but well built.