I have legal/economic questions

[Captain Graham]

Originally Posted by jubal

Morbid curiosity if the dude with the green cabin filled those bins with some kind of foam would his vessel be more buoyant?

I even if he just sealed the lid to the bin it would protect the bins from flooding.

The bins are full of air so putting anything into the bins that weight more then air will add weight and make the bins less buoyant.

BUT bins filled with just air are unsafe because if they develop a hole water will fill them and you will sing.

Bins filled with foam would be safer because if they get a hole water will not fill the bins.

[PaulvR]

Raft, why? You can get a 1970's glass fiber boat for nothing, literally for nothing, often from a dump yard. It would take some work to get sailing perhaps, but not too much to live aboard is you are handy.

[nyboater]

I think the biggest problem you're going to have is finding a location that would allow such a structure. Very few locations are allowing floating homes. More and more localities are creating zoning laws to eliminate these types of structures. Most of these come as a result of complaints from waterfront landowners who have paid great sums for their property as well as paying great amounts in property tax for the privilege of living at the water's edge.
I think that in order to have any chance of success you must have your structure considered as a boat and the specifications necessary to achieve that success are going to depend somewhat on locality.
We build houseboats that specifically are used by liveaboards. Building them to be able to be registered, financed and insured as boats has been necessary for our success.
Good Luck, there is no better way to live than on the water

[Ryan]

I've used very similar rotomolded floats for floating scientific instrumentation platforms. After almost 10 years, they are holding up well. Not as cheap as floats used for floating docks, but stronger, with SS threaded inserts for mounting.

Originally Posted by jubal

Anyone ever use the manufactured plastics pontoons



Are they worth it? 192 bucks for 17 inch by 36 inches

[carlosproa]

So back in the early 70’s my father who was an architect designed and we built a floating “palafito” or wooden floating home to be placed in one of many Cayos or Keys in the Venezuela region of Morrocoy.
The buoyancy square were made of 4 styrofoam blocks of about 8 ft deep by however it took to cover the platform. Each block was glued , painted, and covered with roofing tar, a layer of very heavy plastic film and tar again making a 4 layer sandwich
The houseboat had no engine and was transported by two powerboats side by side to the spot close to the mangrove line of the key. For anchor we used 4 engine blocks of 8 cylinders. They served as hiding holes for spiny lobster, and the anchor depth was about 8 ft with anchor rode interlaced with 3 strand rope to serve as a shock absorber when the winds pipe up.
The roof was slanted to catch rain to a tank that we would manually pump to a higher tank to achieve water pressure. There was no electricity, either kerosene or propane. We had a marine toilet discharging to a 50 gal drum that was treated and disposed of far away from the house in open ocean.
I lost most of the pictures, but here are some of it while it was under construction. The design was very clever, two rooms with built-in bunk beds in L formation for a total of 8 beds for the kids, one room with a queen size, one bathroom dividing the two bunk bed rooms and a storage room across dividing the kitchen and the owners room. The kitchen had a table made out of a single door pane that would flip to the outside loft, kind of like a Murphy bed. This made it easy to cook and pass the food and drinks from the inside to the outside. At each end of the houseboat was a covered patio, one of them had a building ladder to a second floor tanning loft, and the ladder was used as a trampoline for diving, etc. Both patios had hooks for two hammocks each.

[Cynara]

Another poster wanted to build a raft to live on off of the keys. I told him the days of tom Sawyer were over. He said there are many people still take rafts down the Mississippi. So there is option. Do Facebook videos and make your fortune.

[Narfi]

https://www.boatbuildercentral.com/p...at-plans-gt27/

https://www.boatbuildercentral.com/S...GT27_STUDY.pdf

[landsend]

Carlos,
I remember the palafitos in the area of Morrocoy. We visited/camped out on the out islands and cays many times. Cayo Borracho was my favorite. Isla larga and Patanemo were a blast. Take care.

[carlosproa]

Originally Posted by landsend

Carlos,
I remember the palafitos in the area of Morrocoy. We visited/camped out on the out islands and cays many times. Cayo Borracho was my favorite. Isla larga and Patanemo were a blast. Take care.

Is a beautiful area. We just need to kick the communists out.

[Tetepare]

Originally Posted by carlosproa

Is a beautiful area. We just need to kick the communists out.

I’d love to go and see that place. Can’t help with the communists, I’m fresh out of helicopters. So many places, so many crappy people prevent us from enjoying.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by landsend

Is a license to hunt TROLLS required on CF ?

They are like taxi medallions in NYC used to be. Hard to find and expensive to buy.

If you suspect a troll flag the post for mod review.
In general calling another member a troll or implying it is offensive and we will whack you for it.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Sailshabby

Religious persecution (and I’m not making light of it) will look like child’s play if you drag a ramshackle boat/raft anywhere near most shorelines in the US…

Apparently you don’t realize that in some places in the world religious persecution can be fatal.

While there are some entitled waterfront homeowners that might want to kill any vessel anchoring in their view most are not so stupid as to hire hitmen.

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by siamese

Sorry, but I'm going to have to challenge the premise that religious persecution is at the root of your problem, and that a raft is going to solve it.

I think you need to dig a little deeper.

That is not what was said.

You see "religious" and now the rest of the text finds zero application.

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by Adelie

They are like taxi medallions in NYC used to be. Hard to find and expensive to buy.

If you suspect a troll flag the post for mod review.
In general calling another member a troll or implying it is offensive and we will whack you for it.

Thank you for stepping in!