HB 20 Build

[Johnhb20]

Hi fellow boat builders have just purchased HB 20 house boat plans for my first bigboat build I did build a 16ft canoe last year. Wth our trailer laws over here I have to bring the HB 20 back to 8 ft hoping this can be done. If it can be done would you just leave the middle strip out of the bottom pannels and still use the same size butblock.The bow bottom panels with bow and transom could now be done with one sheet and the bulkheads could be cut six inches each side to bring it back to eight ft. If you could let me know how I have gone here , and what else has to be addressed that would be great .Thanks Johnhb20.

[TomW1]

Hi fellow boat builders have just purchased HB 20 house boat plans for my first bigboat build I did build a 16ft canoe last year. Wth our trailer laws over here I have to bring the HB 20 back to 8 ft hoping this can be done. If it can be done would you just leave the middle strip out of the bottom pannels and still use the same size butblock.The bow bottom panels with bow and transom could now be done with one sheet and the bulkheads could be cut six inches each side to bring it back to eight ft. If you could let me know how I have gone here , and what else has to be addressed that would be great .Thanks Johnhb20.

John I think it could be done. I will give you my ideas, but wait for Jacques the designer to answer for sure. First the gunwales are 14" wide, reduce both by 2" to 12", that is 4", then reduce the wide center passage by 8", that gets you your 12" that you need. I don't have the plan so don't know how wide that leaves the center passage. This will be done when you cut the frames.

You some how double posted delete your other one.

Regards, Tom

[Johnhb20]

Thanks for the reply Tom and your ideas on how to reduce the width of the hb20 , I’ve been thinking frames and the bottom coming in a ft but there will be more to it I think. Hopefully I get a re ply from Jacques and we can work it out very keen for the build to go ahead, if it can’t be brought back to 8ft I will look at leaving it at 9ft. Had trouble deleting that 2nd post. Cheers John.

[rick berrey]

HB18 has a 8' beam so it should just be a matter of taking a foot off of each frame bringing total beam from 9' to 8' . You could request an outside measurement of the HB18 frames .

[VT_Jeff]

Here's a slightly different way of solving the trailer width issue:

[TomW1]

Here's a slightly different way of solving the trailer width issue:

[TomW1]

Thanks for the reply Tom and your ideas on how to reduce the width of the hb20 , I’ve been thinking frames and the bottom coming in a ft but there will be more to it I think. Hopefully I get a re ply from Jacques and we can work it out very keen for the build to go ahead, if it can’t be brought back to 8ft I will look at leaving it at 9ft. Had trouble deleting that 2nd post. Cheers John.

Nope not really, it would also mean bringing in all of the frames in 2" also on each side of course. I did not mention that as I thought it would be apparent. But you cut them smaller as you go. It is commonly done in boats in Europe and there in Australia where the beam has to be reduced. The HB20 is really an easy one to do as the sides are flat and the bottom is flat. You just cut the bottom a foot narrower. On a boat with a V-hull we reduce the sheer by an inch or so as most of them are only over 8' by a couple of inches. Or put in an inwale instead of a rubrail and put on a thin piece of metal as a rubrail.

Lets hope Jacques answers soon. I will e-mail him.

Tom

[Hed]

Hi John,

Just check with your Police Permits Department in your state. I am sure you can get a permanent wide load permit if your load is a bit more than the 2.5 metres wide. So before you go changing your plans just check with them, I think you will be okay.

Hedley

[TomW1]

Hi John,

Just check with your Police Permits Department in your state. I am sure you can get a permanent wide load permit if your load is a bit more than the 2.5 metres wide. So before you go changing your plans just check with them, I think you will be okay.

Hedley

Good thought here in the US it is just a small fee $10-$20 US. It is only 30.48cm your looking at.

Good luck on checking this out.

Tom

[Johnhb20]

Thanks guys for all of your reply’s I’m pretty well committed to 8ft for the hb20 with the drive way to my back shed for storage.Also some of the rivers l have earmarked are narrow in spots, the Murray up our way is the very narrow as is the Goulburn river.Rick Berrey idea of the HB18 outside frame measurement sounds good. Thank Hedley for your input I did check out permits and as you stated one can be obtained but I have to try and get it back to 8ft. Thank again fellows for all your inputs hopefully we can come up with a recipe to change this boat back to 8ft it would be great to see it on our local rivers. Cheers John.