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Motorized Pontoon Boat

In the summer of 2022, I was contacted by a friend of mine Cal Bryan (as seen left). He informed me that he was planning to acquire 6 55 gallon barrels, and he wanted me to help him design a pontoon boat. After an initial design was created, we assembled a work party with other friends, and we built the base boat in a night. Later on we added two main additions: first, we added a small motor, and second, we added a wheelhouse.

Hull

The hull consists of a frame of 2"x6" pine boards constraining 6 barrels.

Deck

At its base the deck consists of a few plywood sheets secured to the frame.

Constructed

With the help of our work crew, Cal and I built the design, and added a few polishing touches such as paint

Transport

The main difficulty was transportation to the lake as there were no boat access ramps locally available, so we were forced to awkwardly carry the boat down into the water

Test Voyage

We conducted our maidan voyage under the power of paddles. We conducted several tests including anchoring and capsize drills.

Motorization

Due to the slow speed of the paddling, we decided to pursue motorization. We acquired a cheap motor which we mounted to a bracket on the back of the boat. We additionally constructed a wheelhouse and connected steering and throttle by wire which actually works much better than expected.

Reflection

This was a cool project to work on! It's not every day you get to build a boat. It wasn't the most complex project, but it was interesting to design with water in mind. The control by wire was pretty cool, and credit to Cal for the idea. While it's not the fastest thing in the world, you certainly get some looks cruisng around the lake on a homemade pontoon boat!

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