Ready for "superstructure"

I am making this post as my wife and I are preparing to go to Guatemala on a mission trip Wednesday. I am involved with a mission where we have over 100 kids in our sponsorship program. Our web site is www.hope-mission.org. We will be gone for a week and then go to the river for a week or so from Christmas to New Years to get in a little fishing and relaxing. Will have some more posts next year or sooner.

Well, after much welding, all three pontoons are as ready as they are going to get. I have added an angle on the bottom of two of the pontoons (in a v shape) for what I perceive to be directional stability. Then they were pressure checked one last time.

I built a jig in my shop and suspended the floor framing (see photo) above the pontoons so as to be able to build the superstructure between the pontoons and the floor.

I am building in this manner so as to be able to use the area under the floor for mounting tanks (gas, propane, sewer, etc.) and to be as safe as possible. Also, I will be able to adjust where the tanks go so as to balance the load so the boat will sit right in the water and I will be able to insulate the floor so we can use our houseboat year around. I am planning to trailer this boat if I want to.

I will post again when I make some more progress.

A few specs on our boat so far

Just wanted to put out some specs and details about building my aluminum pontoon houseboat. I am using .090 5052 aluminum with a few bends for strength.

One thing I found out when pressurizing a more or less rectangular object, the first time it will scare you to death. You will need a guage that reads very low. I am pressure checking at 2 psi. At that pressure, each section looks like a pregnant guppy and sounds like it is going to come apart.

The picture shows the detail of the pontoon shape. The bottom is 18" and at an estimated 7500 pounds, should draft 8 or 9 inches. Above the sealed bottom will be areas of storage for water, fuel, sewer, etc. The floor will be above the water high enough so as to avoid being washed over with waves.

General overview

I have started this post to show my building of a pontoon houseboat. I hope it will be helpful to someone wanting to do the same or for getting ideas to apply to whatever kind of boat you may be working on. I hope to not embarrass myself.

My wife and I enjoy the river and want to be able to travel leisurely on the river. We started out to build a small houseboat that we could trailer and if we like it well enough, we will get a larger one and possibly sell out house. Or we may want to just keep the small houseboat or maybe sell it. Who knows.

The plans that I have drawn are for a 12' wide x 34' long houseboat on 3 aluminum pontoons. The cabin will be 12'x 24'. I have not finalized all the appliances and such, but I would like to have enough of a solar and battery system to be able to only need a small generator to run occasionally to charge the batteries. I haven't figured all that out yet.

Would like to use 2 outboard motors, but may use one. Will use a msd device.

Larry & Donna