Grumman Canoe Trimaran Houseboat!
I got this idea…to vacation for a week or so down a big historic river. Big enough to sail on in a small boat. I figure the boat should be roomy yet light and maybe even portable if you encounter a dam or portage (maybe that should be ruled out, might be asking too much).
Rowable or paddleable. Room for a little outboard maybe.
I was thinking that if you take a big grumman canoe and put two little ones alongside it that you could deck it over with plywood sheets which bolt thru the gunnels. Connect the boats to each other with just a couple thru-hull bolts with gaskets. Trim to shape—you get a nice big oval kind of. Install mast. Make a little cubby the whole length of the forward half of the center hull, clip another roof piece on top of it (deal with mast somehow) which can be removed. Leave back half of center hull open so that you can sit on the sides and put your feet down into that hull, as a cockpit, making it nice for seating and for tacking. Put that second roof piece over the cockpit whenever
you like to make a complete platform (erect a tent over it?).
Put oarlocks in the outer gunnels, possibly the center seat of the center hull will still be exposed so that you can sit there and row without hitting your head or back on the cubby—but the rowing width should be fine—the width of the other canoes basically equalling rigger lengths. (Then rudder it up as usual…)
Cut rubber gasketed doors accessing the outer hulls for stowage.
This seems to be a CHEAP light rig that would still move fine thru the water. Wouldn’t need leeboards. Would probably track just fine. You could sleep, cook, shelter in the cubby. You would have plenty of reading, lounging, wandering, fishing room on the deck. Free spacious lodging behind any quaint riverside town of choice, or remote beach you find in some intercoastal waterway. Possibly the portability would help in transport if you have a truck with rack that can hold 3 canoes.
