Hmmmm, do I need more HP?

Me thinks this little vintage 4hp will push her just fine … whaddya think?

Where is the rod holders for trolling ?

Agreed, but might need a long shaft.

LDUBS said:

Agreed, but might need a long shaft.

Click to expand...

That’s on an aux tilting bracket to lower it down …

You're going to need some really long oars in case the OB fails.
Nice house. No yard work and not far to go to get fishing.

About 15 years ago a friend of mine inherited a houseboat. It was docked in VA off the Intercoastal. She had never owned a boat, and knew nothing about it but liked the idea of having it as a weekend place to go hang out. I got talked into going along to check out the boat and maybe driving it back with her. She had a woman she worked with drop us both off down in VA at the boat. To my surprise it was absolutely immaculate with a near new motor. The problem was it was 65ft long with a single 115hp Yamaha motor. It had a flybridge and full navigational instruments including radar and a high end sonar/depth finder.

We spend a few hours going over the boat, making sure all was well and headed up into the Chesapeake Bay to head for the C&D canal to come back north, the plan was to travel north through the Chesapeake Bay, to the C&D Canal, then into the Delaware River, down to Delaware Bay to the Cape May Canal, and up to a location where she had rented dock space in NJ.
I had the week off and fully expected it to take more than a day, what I didn't expect was for it to take four days.

That boat had a top speed of 4 knots all out. I even had someone there dive under the boat to check of growth but it was clean, the motor ran fine, it was just too small. The boat also did not handle any sort of rough water well, taking water over the front deck in even the slightest sign of a wake or wave. She learned fast that the front doors and windows had to remain closed underway at all times. We stopped the first night after getting something to eat at a marina and realized then how long it was likely going to take. I even thought about docking it somewhere and offloading some of the furniture and weight on board to speed up the journey but figured that effort wouldn't likely make enough of a difference to even save a full day of travel.
It was slower than walking the distance.

It didn't do too bad on fuel, and it was at a time when fuel was pretty cheap. It had a pair of 200 gallon tanks which we topped off not having any idea how much it was going to burn but it only took about 70 gallons at the first fuel dock we came to. It sipped fuel the rest of the way not needing a fill up until we got to the C&D canal, and again in Cape May.

It took over 32 hours to traverse the Chesapeake Bay and enter the C&D Canal where we found a place to dock and resupply for the rest of the run. It rained most of the way so that didn't help much but the full remote controls made keeping moving in the constant drizzle doable. The Autopilot also likely saved a ton of fuel. The fact that it drew little water overall made shortened the trip a bit too since we could cut a few corners knowing that it only needed about 3ft of water to be safe. The radar and sonar played well with the autopilot too so it kept the thing out of trouble the whole way. I was more concerned about overhead clearance at a couple points but nothing was really an issue that way.

The boat only sat about 19 ft tall at the top of the fly bridge canopy with the lower level deck being about 24" above the water line. It was a mono hull not a trimaran so it also had storage below the lower deck and a small generator which kept the batteries charged that ran the night lighting, interior power inverter, and the batteries for the electric hull thrusters for docking. The generator also sipped fuel, being made by Bosch, a unit I never saw before, nor have I seen one since.

What I couldn't see was who or why anyone would order a boat like that, spending that much money, and then opt for only a tiny outboard. I later found out that the owners who bought it originally bought it without a motor, and they added the outboard so they could avoid the towing charge to get the thing to a haul out location for an annual hull cleaning. We found papers where they charged them $11,50o to tow it 1 mile to a marina that could lift it and clean the hull the year before.
I also found out that she had gotten quotes for having it 'delivered' to her place up here but was quoted more than she felt the thing was worth to her. It was too big to haul out and come by land, it was too fragile to tow at any speed so it was going to take the same amount of time no matter what. What we did saved the cost of labor.

Once back here it never moved again, while she owned it, which was about 8 more years, then someone bought it and had it taken to somewhere in Alabama. No clue how they got it there but I certainly wasn't volunteering for that one.

By the time we got the boat to her dock we were both pretty tired of the thing. Any fun had been long since exhausted having to deal with both fuel, finding places to stop for supplies, and a few minor issues along the way. She also spent the first day sea sick so she was of no help at all for the first part of the trip.

If I knew exactly how slow it really was I'm not sure if I'd have volunteered for the job but at the time I had nothing better to do that week so it wasn't terrible and I did spend the whole trip fishing, mostly to save time having to stop and eat.

The biggest issue we had was losing the steering on the first day after a hydraulic fitting came loose and leaked fluid at the upper helm. At first I just shut down the remote and steered with the thrusters till I could find a place to anchor it to see what was going on. The wind and rain made that pretty miserable but I found the issue pretty fast and were able to continue on the remote and autopilot. Otherwise it would have meant navigating by sight from the lower bridge out in the weather on the deck. It had a canopy but it was also early October then so the temp was maybe 55 degrees or so all day the first day, but it got up in the high 60's the during the next three days.

Using the remote controls meant the boat could be driven from anywhere on board. If the weather was bad and the way ahead all clear, I could stand in the main living room area and drive looking out the forward bay window, or from the second floor bed room window if I wished but the lack of good visibility from anywhere but the fly bridge concerned me not having run that thing before. I only trusted the autopilot for brief moments here and there of when I had to leave her at the controls. (I never told her that it was on auto pilot I just told her to hold the wheel and keep a look out for obstacles and other boats a few times, she thought she was really driving the boat which gave her a bit of confidence to be at the helm. Something I figured she was going to need if she ever had to move it by herself in the future. From what I later learned, that never happened. By the time it needed a major maintenance she sold it and walked away with what ever cash she managed to get out of it then.

It is very common up here for most houseboats not to have any engines on them at all, saves $$$$$ on registration and insurance!

Note these are on tidal estuaries, so you just strap a small skiff to it and go down or out with the tide. And when you need to bring it back in the Fall, wait for the incoming tide to begin and have at it.

Offshore around Glostah one year, the engine of my father’s 30’ Chris Craft broke down and we pushed her all the way home ~16-miles with a little 8’ dinghy with 3hp Evinrude motor on it … with the tide of course!

At my friend's cottage he has a floating dock. 8x16 all wood with 2 plastic pontoons. We mounted a BBQ, 4 Muskoka chairs, a table and umbrella, swim ladder and a 1968 Johnson 9.5. the 9.5 is adequate for the hydrodynamics of this unit and will push it easily slow and wide open maybe 2.5 mph depending on wind direction. I'd imagine that 4 would move that house but would likely be overcome by any more than a whisper of a breeze.

LOL from the looks of that rig, you shouldn't be in a hurry to get anywhere but the cooler