Mississippi River Skiff under power

The beautiful September weather got us motivated to try out a new spot.  We drove over to Horse Shoe Lake State Park near Collinsville ILL.  With Sunday traffic it only took 30 minutes.  It is exactly 26 miles from our front door.  It is a pretty lake with lots of access.  There is a 50 hp limit and it is mainly used by folks fishing.
We got the skiff in and finally got some video of it under power.
Here it is...

USCG certified capacities for the MRS

After a few back and forth e emails with the Coast Guard clarifying the formulas, we have the certified Maximum Capacity numbers for the Mississippi River Skiff.
They are as follows:

MWC  717 pounds
MPC    497 pounds (calculated with a 20 HP motor)  This is Person Capacity
 Number of Persons  4
 Maximum Horse Power  20

As we ran through the numbers we found the size and width of the skiff could handle up to a 35 hp motor.  But through our testing we felt it should be limited to a 20hp to keep the stern from squatting too much.
So if we limited the HP to 20 the formula allows for more person capacity.  This brought us up to 3.75 persons.  With the addition of 3.15 cubic feet of flotation, the skiff is certified for these numbers.  We will be adding floatation this week.
The USCG has tables for calculating engine. battery and fuel tank weights.  To see them, follow this link:
uscgboating.org/regulations
Or This one:
Gov Printing Office How you arrive at these figure is as follows:

Sinking!

We received our Manufacturers ID from the Coast Guard awhile back.
Our ID is "SEA", awesome.
Any builder of boats has to register with the Coast Guard and meet regulations for safety.
On our application we listed the Mississippi River Skiff as one of our models.  We have since decided to move on to the next design and not produce additional hulls of the MRS.

The de-watering with a submersible sump

Filler up!

But the Coast Guard, now under the auspices of Homeland Security called and wanted us to certify that the MRS meets regulations.
To do this there are calculations that need to be done.  They all start with the maximum capacity of the craft.  This is the weight that sinks the boat to the shear line.

  

To do this we hauled the skiff over to the pool at the house of our friends the Walters.  We shot a video of the whole sinking that we were going to compress into a high-speed clip. Unfortunatly the battery died and corrupted the file.
We did have a successful sinking.  The skiff stayed in trim and evenly sank to its shear line until water spilled in and out but would sink no further.
There are no floatation compartments.  It is simply built of wood encapsulated in a glass/epoxy skin.
It took 72 minutes at a flow rate of 6.451 gpm.
This equals 464.472 gallons.
At 8.33 pounds per gallon, the maximum capacity is 3,869.052 pounds!
We will tackle the rest of the Coast Guard calculations tonight.

New shop / new plan

We have been off the computer awhile enjoying summer.  I had the fun job of taking our youngest son to Camp Sea Gull in North Carolina.  We had never seen it but heard it was the place to go for sailing.  Wow, what a place. A beautiful setting on the Neuse river near Pamlico sound and the facilities are first class !  Boats every where.
Check out this link:
http://www.seagull-seafarer.org/
After a great trip to North Carolina we packed up our shop and home and moved to a nicer home slightly closer in the the city.  It has plenty of room for the boats and the shop space is functional too.
We are setting up a small part shop in a large utility area and the big molding will take place in a two bay garage.
Our first order of business is beefing up our shafts.  We had a couple of failures so we are reworking the layup schedule.  The first new test shafts feel much stiffer.  We put more CF tow under tension as the first layer of the shaft.
We will break some to see the difference.

We registered with the Coast Guard as a boat manufacturer and received the Manufacturer's code:
S E A
How about that!  It wasn't taken.
SeaNymph was the previous manufacturer with the designation but it has been out of business over 10 years.
Ron Hassler of PPG Marine gave us a visit on behalf of the Coast Guard to inspect our operation and see about compliance to safety regulations.
In our application we listed the Mississippi River Skiff as one of our boats.  In order to sell the skiff we have to calculate the capacities and powering of the craft.
Ron walked us through the calculations.  The Coast Guard has formulas that are based on the maximum capacity of a boat (the weight needed to sink it in still water). To get and accurate number for the maximum capacity,  the easiest way to figure it is to get a flow meter, fill the boat to sinking in a pool or pond.  Then when you have the water volume, calculate the weight (fresh water is 8.34 pounds to the gallon).
We will do this and properly label the boat before a sale.
The MRS is a great boat but for our next boat we are interested in a molding project.  In a future post we will share some of the ideas we are working on.

Skiff at Polestar Marina show

We had the skiff out this past weekend at  Polestar Marina.  There was a car and boat show.
Here is  a photo of it with it's new gunnel.
We sold the Johnson 25 because it was just too large an engine for this hull.  The power was no problem but the weight made the stern sit too low in the water.
The ideal size would be a 5 to 15 horse power.
We are looking for an older Evinrude of Johnson.  The older styles look better on this boat than a newer motor.  Of course a brand new Mercury would look pretty good too.

Mississippi River Skiff: Outer Gunwale

The Mississippi River Skiff is getting a few finishing touches.  Yesterday we installed the outer gunwale.  It is composed of two trim profiles cut out of Poplar.  The first piece covers the glass skin of the hull and wraps around to the inner gunwale.  On top of that is set a half round of Poplar.
These were epoxied to the hull.

Fishing expedition with the River Skiff

We took out the Mississippi River Skiff on Creve Coeur lake to see how we like the skiff for fishing.  There is plenty of room and it is stable enough for two to stand and cast.
Here are some photos of the trip:

  

Varnish day

This morning we masked off the Mississippi River Skiff in preparation for it's varnish.
I decided to use a satin varnish on the sole and gloss everywhere else in the interior.  Around mid afternoon the sun was off the boat so we sprayed the sole and by late afternoon we began on the gloss work.
The oars also got a coat.
The outboard was scratching the woodwork so before the masking we bent and installed a 1/16 inch brass plate on the transom.  It looks sharp and will take the abuse better than varnished cherry.