Initial steps to build a boat

I’ll be publishing articles about the goal of building a boat.

Instead of articles, think of this as a blog.

2026-08-29

Today paid 70 euros for the first month of the location where the boat will be built. The first step is building the trailer/hangar but during the past few days there was another aspect that I wasn’t considering: weight and security. The boat is heavy and building a trailer is a dangerous activity when the weight of the boat is only supported on the two bottom wheels. I don’t feel confident of building a trailer by myself that will not endanger other people on the roads because it is untested. Thinking deeper about the topic, I have decided to simply buy an existing trailer that was built by professionals and adjust the boat design to land on top of the trailer.

Trailers for this size are expensive, the most adjusted option starts at 4000 EUR but at least comes with all road-certifications and ready for the purpose of moving boats. The idea is to change the design of the boat to resemble a catamaran (two side floaters) while the trailer fits inside with wheels hidden/covered by the floaters. Therefore it won’t be able to “slide” into the boat, the plan is to place jacks on the floaters that lift the boat up on its own so we can place the trailer underneath while parked on solid ground. The wheels will still catch some water but hopefully with enough planning they stay above the water line most of the time, except when ballast is needed and the floaters are filled.

I don’t have yet a solution to make the trailer move on its own as initially expected. The worrysome part of not having mobility is that the cars have to approach the water dock and this is dangerous on its own for the driver and the car.

Despite the immediate expense of 4000 EUR, this accelerates the building process by at least 3 months or more and provides a certified platform to work, instead of risking the self-built trailer to be denied being used on the roads. Furthermore, the trailer is slightly modified only with addons, so that when the yearly inspection is performed then it will pass without losing its compliance. In overall a good deal, let’s see how the implementation goes.

2026-08-25

Bought a tent 8x4 meters for 351 euros in grey color. I’m not sure about the quality during rain and winter. I’m sure that it will need to be fortified to survive winds. In either case this should not take longer than a year to be built, which is doable when assuming we get a proper architecture in place.

2026-08-23

Signed a contract with Mr. F. to use his farm as location to build the boat with a tent inside. He is a cool person, the place is safe and close to the river. It is a bit troublesome to travel 15 km for reaching the place but at least safety is covered since he lives in the farm with his family. Took my own family (Diana and Eva) which also enjoyed seeing the dogs and location itself.

The price 70 EUR per month, which is cheaper than what I was expecting to pay (about 125 EUR/month).

2026-08-10

The folder with files was created. Claude is helping with the design and calculations. In the past I’ve done this by hand using Tinkercad which was useful but with Claude it looks far better and can do calculations albeit it is tiresome talking to a bot and getting it to understand what is on my head.

In either way it gave good ideas and is fantastic as talking partner to iterate ideas and try out different concepts. I still don’t have an idea of how to create a detachable hangar that goes underneath the boat.

2026-07-27

Was visiting a house boat today in Woodridge (Suffolk, UK: 51.0901 1.3210) and it was great. Really wish to enjoy that kind of life albeit some things to be worried about: costs to “park” at a harbor, maintenance of the hulk underneath the water, fuel consumption. All those things are a big weight on the wallet.

#boat