Will It Float???

Well, I'm sure it will float, but I am a bit concerned with where the seating position is relative to the center of the boat.  It seems a bit far back.  I'm afraid I'll be paddling along with the stern dragging and the bow sticking up in the air.

I found FreeShip, online, that would calculate the center of buoyancy and total displacement if I had an accurate set of hull cross-sections.


To get accurate hull sections I drew a grid 10 inches by 20 inches on a sheet of plywood.  Then I pulled the ribs at the bow and stern and each of the deck beams and photographed them on the grid. I also measured exactly where those ribs were along the length of the boat.

Then I recorded where the ribs intersected the grid and entered points in a spread sheet (data for four ribs shown above) with conversion to the format that FreeShip imports and with graphs to visual-check the data.  



FreeShip validated that the displacement would be sufficient to float me (whew!) but the center of buoyancy definitely looked a bit far forward of the designed seat position.

Ok, now I am concerned.  There is one way to be sure - do a "Saran Wrap" float test once there is enough of the hull put together.

Thanksgiving was coming up and the kids will be home with their spouses.  It would be a fun family project to wrap the boat in industrial stretch-wrap and see if it will hold water long enough for Dad to test it.

I just had to get the boat far enough along that it could get wrapped!