Seaworthiness of Houseboats

[44'cruisingcat]

Years ago, we hired a houseboat from Brooklyn. (NSW, not NY.)

At the time NSW was implementing it's holding tank regulations, and no sewage was to be discharged overboard. However there were no pumpout facilities available in the broken bay/pittwater area.

So the houseboat (and other charter) operators asked the waterways authority how they were supposed to empty their holding tanks.

The answer? Take them 3 miles out to sea! I guess THEY thought houseboats were seaworthy....

In reality, this is probably the kind of thing you'd want:

EAGLE 49 POWER CAT boat details - BoatPoint Australia

[boatman61]

do a conversion....

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by boatman61

do a conversion....

Great boats for beach parties, especially in the S. Pac islands. Use drive'm up the Saigon R.

[Waterway Guide]

It should do fine on most parts of the ICW...until you get waked!

[AquatiCat]

But you WILL get waked. A deck gun might cut down on careless powerboater wakes... or on careless powerboaters... better make that a deck water cannon, just to be on the safe side. We watched two large power vessels obliviously wake one of the very low freeboard houseboats you find in the rivers and wetlands near Appalachicola, FL. Everyone was hailing the two moron$ via radio but in these cases, indifference appeared to accompany deck altitude (directly proportional to total horsepower? Inversely proportional to age? Hard to tell).

[zeehag]

friend of mine with one sed they suck for seaworthines...... he also had a sloop--old colin archer kind of traditional wood gaff rigged cruiser....sold the houseboat...

[denverd0n]

Florida Keys? Sure. ICW? No problem. But out in the Atlantic!?! No way!

Frankly, in a houseboat, I would not go out of the ICW on the east coast of Florida. Not even on a beautiful, calm day. Simply because you never know when the wind might come up, or a squall might pass through, and then the inlets can become pretty hairy.

Now, on the Gulf coast, I might go outside here and there. As others have said, though, houseboats are not designed for even the mildest of "rough" seas. They are NOT "seaworthy." They are made for protected waterways, and that's where they should stay.

[psneeld]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

Forgive my nativity on this topic, as I know that there has to be some reason that people don't cruise with houseboats more. Maybe they do and I just haven't noticed. But would it be possible to take one to the Florida keys, up the ICW or out in the Atlantic, and around the Great Lakes? What about to the Bahamas during a good weather window? Could a houseboat be modified or designed better to let wind pass through big sliding doors, or to have more hydrodynamic hulls? It seems like this type of boat would be ideal for the Great Loop where you are avoiding most of the bad weather. Am I missing something?

Is it the windage, they need too much power, that anchoring would be hard in a storm, you can't carry enough supplies, the waves, the construction method isn't strong enough?

They are great for most boating except if run fast do consume a lot of fuel.
They also aren't too good in anything more than about 2 foot chop although some are much more seaworthy...to the extent they resemble trawlers or motoryachts. Many do the intracoastal (maybe not the full loop).

Running to the Bahamas is only a question of gambling on smooth seas. Big gamble...but doable.

[mrohr]

Originally Posted by psneeld

They are great for most boating except if run fast do consume a lot of fuel.
They also aren't too good in anything more than about 2 foot chop although some are much more seaworthy...to the extent they resemble trawlers or motoryachts. Many do the intracoastal (maybe not the full loop).

Running to the Bahamas is only a question of gambling on smooth seas. Big gamble...but doable.

Doable? This is just poor advice. The Coast Guard is busy enough.

[rgscpat]

There are some hybrid sorts of houseboats that have a bit more of a trawler hull that would be more seaworthy than the average houseboat.

Size helps a bit... if you scale up a houseboat with a mostly flat hull instead of pontoons enough, you get something about like this:

[Swift Drift]

Google "cruise-a-home"

[psneeld]

Originally Posted by mrohr

Doable? This is just poor advice. The Coast Guard is busy enough.

You have and OPINION...I have one too....doable isn't exactly a strong endorsement to do it anyhow...

Someone who knows what they are doing is probably better off making that crfossing than many of the newbie sailors around here with pretty significant sailboats that everyone oooohs and ahhhs at.

[SunDevil]

Originally Posted by Swift Drift

Google "cruise-a-home"

That is more of the design concept I was thinking. A houseboat that could get wet, but still have a lot of living space for the size. Maybe having two hulls would let it be a few feet wider, and I would like solar panels on the roof so the height would be a little lower. Like this:
The Boat - Slow Boat

But with a modern design and simple interior (I like the top half of the boat and the open deck of this design)
The Houseboat [Pics Inside] « EraNostra

I might be getting out there, but

wouldn't this type of SWATH pontoon work better in the waves? (That has a shape only an engineer could love) You would have thought that they would add a trampoline to the front...

I haven't paid attention to the weather this time of year between Florida and the Bahamas, but does it ever get really bad in the winter?

[delmarrey]

This thing should be in the Nautical Oddities thread. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ties-9020.html

[psneeld]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

That is more of the design concept I was thinking. A houseboat that could get wet, but still have a lot of living space for the size. Maybe having two hulls would let it be a few feet wider, and I would like solar panels on the roof so the height would be a little lower. Like this:
The Boat - Slow Boat

But with a modern design and simple interior (I like the top half of the boat and the open deck of this design)
The Houseboat [Pics Inside] « EraNostra

I might be getting out there, but

wouldn't this type of SWATH pontoon work better in the waves? (That has a shape only an engineer could love) You would have thought that they would add a trampoline to the front...

I haven't paid attention to the weather this time of year between Florida and the Bahamas, but does it ever get really bad in the winter?

Well...yes the weather can get snotty in the Gulf Stream...my first USCG helo rescue was from a 600+ foot Japanese tanker that had waves smashing over the bow and the stern we were hoisting from was rising and falling nearly 40 feet. Couldn't determine the actual wave height...it was dark and I was too scared to focus on anything but the hoisting evolution...and those waves were just from a bad cold front...not a hurricane.