I want to build a small fun little boat to (i exaggerate when i say boat. I thinking something like 4 ft long by 2 1/2 ft wide) it would act as a cool looking ice chest for going down the river with. I am going down the frio river, it doesn’t have hardly any rapids and is vary slow moving ( the main problem would be it scrapping bottom on the slow shallow parts.
weather or not to boat will float is not a problem (it will be made completely of styrofoam and will be coated with a surface that is resistant to scratching from rocks)
what i need to know is:
What is the best hull shape for what I am trying to do?
Wide flat bottom, like a john boat.
It will take up very little water (draft) compared to other types.
You could reinforce Styrofoam with a few layers of fiberglass mat (not cloth, mat is much more rigid) and some Epoxy resin (not polyester or fiberglass – it will eat the foam) I would still test the epoxy first to be sure it wont eat the foam but it shouldn’t. You should get a slow cure epoxy because it builds up less heat curing, fast cure might heat up too much and melt the foam.
sounds cool! good luck!
I would say the john boat is the best answer as you can tie two lines to the boat one on each side of the bow. so the john boat won’t want to twist so much which is the problem I think your worried about.
if you are floating with the current (instead of paddling) then a rectangle flat shape should work well. my only concern is that you do not make it top heavy because it could flip over and spill out the good stuff.
if you wanted to use an old plastic insulated igloo type cooler then you could make a two pontoon float with wood cross beams and have the bottom of the cooler floating in the water for stability and floatation.
another idea is to just tie an igloo type plastic cooler inside an intertube. low cost and simple.
hope this helps