This project is the perfect candidate for an oval chain ring. It gives you more mechanical advantage when your legs are in the position of least mechanical advantage, definitely check one out!!!
I always look forward to your videos. I really like the upgrades of previous builds. Attention to detail is unbelievable. Cargo bikes, patoon boat, machinery upgrades, love them all. The belt sander is #1. Keep up the great work, and thanks for sharing!
I used to race the Tornado catamaran both here on the north sea and going to regattas farther south. Your catamaran is a nice craft for your use and conditions. Love seeing your ingenuity and builds.
Some great upgrades to an already nice boat. I enjoy following your thought process as you manufacture solutions for all of the problems with the past iteration.
What an amazing build! I feel like the tops of the open pontoons could be easily closed off with some lightweight, cut-to-size tarps, if somebody would want to make the boat more splash resistant, and mitigate the danger of filling the floaters up and sinking.
Yeah this has been on the "list" for a long time, I might add this at some point but also have never really felt the need for it. So far I haven't come close to any situation where there's a concerning amount of water in the hulls (you'd need a LOT to really affect buoyancy enough to become an issue). I also bring a bilge-pump for emergencies but have never needed it. The only water that usally gets in the hulls comes from small leaks, some of which I haven't been able to locate to this day 😅
@@PhilVandelay I think the inflatable bags should be more than enough. You could try filling the pontoons with water in the next summer and check if it stays afloat. Obviously near shore. Worst case you get a bit wet.
@@_aullik Late reply but that sounds like a somewhat unnessary adventure given the fact that Phil already weighed the whole thing. Came in at some 60 whatever kg. The floaters seem to be at least 20 liters, maybe even 25 each. This volume of air provides boyancy for 80 to 100kg the boat plus cargo can weigh more than the water displaced. Empty there is no question it won't sink. With cargo, well that would depend on the cargo.
I never saw the original design and build. Great boat and mods 👍. Good looking city as well. Hopefully everything else about it is as nice as it’s physical beauty.
Nice one! Thank you for showing some of Hamburg too. Looks like a lovely place. There is a company based there i have always been interested in working for. Might be worth a visit! For the belt drive tensioner you can use a smooth idler and pull the belt in rather than pushing it out like you have it now. This can really improve the belt wrap around the pulley making slipping less likely. Also might help with the packaging around your steering cables. Atb
Yeah I actually tried that, unfortunately the current belt is too long for that (rubs on other parts if you push it inside) so I'd have to get a shorter belt or make the distance between the axles slightly longer. The list of possible improvements for this thing is virtually endless
um den Riemen zu spannen, könntest du eventuell auch einfach ein großes Riemenrad zwischen den beiden Riementrums laufen lassen, bei den Fixie-Fahrern geht das zumindest mit Kette Nachtrag: es heißt ghost ring
Thanks for the update on your awesome machine. I thought of a possible improvement. You could hinge the beams on the seat support, so that they fold back against the frame and pin in place. This way the boat is only 3 pieces instead of 5.
Robert Murray Smith has recently made some interesting videos about fans and propellers. One of the weirdest things was adding little nubs to the leading edge, like a whale fin. It actually seemed to make a difference.
Another great and informative episode. I too have been working on various drivetrains for my pedal powered kayak (with 2 outriggers for fantastic stability). My latest version replaces the chain ring on a bicycle drive with a sprocket for a toothed belt. The right angle gearbox is from a Milwaukee right angle drill adapter. Light, but appears to be more than adequate for strength. You can also get much higher gear ratios with a toothed belt and sprockets than with bicycle sprockets and chain. And of course it is far quieter than the chain drive it replaced. Your design looks elegant and very robust. My first hull used 6 mm plywood. All up weight was 80 pounds. My newest prototype will be all 12mm extruded polystyrene (pink foamboard insulation) with epoxy fiberglass inside and out. Stronger, lighter and more rigid than the plywood hull. Not in the water yet, but my goal is to have the all up weight at 50 pounds or less.
yeah having a drive belt in front too sounds good, due to the resonance from the frame the current drive is a bit noisy. Some people also use the gear head from an old angle grinder for the gearbox, should work fine as well. I happened to find the one I'm using on eBay, it's originally part of some kind of electric window shutter system. Love all the different solutions people come up with for these boats
I run a long hollow drive shaft from the front and don't have any mechanism in the back. The shaft has a bearing just before it goes under water. The hollow shaft is flexible enough it can flex/bounce over rocks rather than break. What I lose in efficiency because the prop/shaft are not parallel to the water I more than gain back because I have half the number of bearings/bushings and the frontal area from the drive shaft (drag losses) are less than the frontal area of a belt/drive/rudder assembly. Everything is a compromise and they are all fun. Can't wait for the next episode @@PhilVandelay
I’m with solar guy here, with that length of driveshaft the “Thai long tail” seems the best setup, plus it’s simple to make it pivot up for beaching or defouling.
Wow ! I've been thinking for a while about a prop drive pedal boat design to DIY, and this is everything I dreamed of ! I would love to see plans if you ever decide to make them !
Stunning....interesting build, well-explained (in flawless English) with perfect video to support the explanation. I hope you get a million views again. You deserve it.
You are so inventive Phil! This project and several others that you've done are really cool and a testament to the ability to use pedal power equipment. Nice work as always!!
New follower here. Wow, just wow. Your project video back so many fond memories of my days as a machinist. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the excellent narration. Oh too, I appreciate your including the disassembling step that exploded. You kept it real.
i have always wanted build something like this but incorporate a 10 speed derailleur system (from the rear wheel) to see if you could build up to a faster speed. love the rotary table! over here in the US people dont even know what those are and will give them away cause they have no clue how to use them.
Cool video. Thanks for the update. I followed the entire build. Next time you upgrade consider making the rudder fold up process tool less as well. It could free swing with some latches maybe.
I really enjoy Your's projects, bikes, bike rack, now this boat... Nice, smart designes, nice craftsmenship, nice videos. Really good work, thumbs up, thank You.
Great project. Instead of using air bags I think I would simply enclose the ends with a solid water-tight hatch. That way you could use the space for storage for picnic, coats, some rope etc.
I’m impressed, especially the bicycle attachment. If you want to provide some anti sinking qualities for your aluminum boat a little expanding foam int the tips under the caps of the pontoons would be enough to keep it at water level if swamped.
Yeah I actually considered just closing and sealing the tips completely as they're not really needed for storage. Then again, it would make it difficult to locate and fix leaks if there are any. Adding foam sounds like an interesting solution!
@@Mike-oz4cv uh, the foam is there to keep the boat at water level, not float it? A gallon of air can float about 4 kg. 16kg would float the entire boat but the goal of the foam is to keep it from sinking. That’s why you find a little foam block up front on life boats and water wings for children aren’t the size of the children.
@@davidgutting4317 Aluminium has a density of 2,710kg/m³, steel has around 8000kg/m³. Humans are close to water (1000kg/m³). The boat (if you put holes in it) probably displaces about 20l of water, so you have to displace another 46l of water to make it float.
I happen to have proa with similar layout to your boat. Couple of things I thougt you might find useful/interesting. First - floatation bags probably need better support than a single strap. Once the hull is filled with water the floatation bags do some literal heavy lifting and they do wanna escape through every crack and slit possible. Water is probably colder than air and if the air in floaty bag gets colder the volume decreases and bag might lose its firmness and start to move more. I know you said that you will probably use your boat in fair weather and sinking is unlikely but it will feel silly to see the floaty bag float away, after some bigger boat has bumped into you... Secondly - about beam attachments to hulls. Again not real concern with your boat but traditional Pacific proas (tied together with rope) allow some flex to beam/hull joints. A too stiff joint will eventually brake in waves when a little loose joint will allow two hulls move somewhat separately (important in bigger waves). ...just my two cents.
Good points, I've actually thought about these too and would agree with you on both. Fully inflated I don't see how the bag would pull itself out but if it gets a little deflated it might be possible. I've actually had this idea to close and seal the tips of the hulls completely so the bags aren't needed. As for the beams, yeah they probably wouldn't do well with bigger waves, I think the other direction you could go is to make the frame as stiff as possible instead of making it flex, right now it's kind of inbetween but I don't really see an easy way to do either with this design without overcomplicating things. There's the additional factor that the trampoline nets are stretched between the center and the hulls so the entire construction is under tension and needs to be static to keep it that way. I think if there was some slack in the frame, you wouldn't be able to get consistent tension on the nets so they'd sag. I am very aware of the limitations of this design so I try to stay away from situations where I'd be pushing them.
Thanks, nice update. Just curious about two things. Would it help/be an advantage to have a shaft going down that tube to drive the propeller rather than a belt? Second, seeing as it seems like you have power available, would a duel propeller setup give you more speed/efficiency? :D
Depending on the strain on the legs, playing with the pedal chain sprocket, bigger means more speed but more pressure on the legs ( gearing up anywhere in the system ), smaller means more pedal spin. Really get tricky, a chain derailleur, Just you on the boat, high gear, zoom around that lake. A passenger or two, it's been a long day, low gear just to get back home, even if it isn't that fast. ;-)
you can use a larger chainring for better speed with the tiny propeller. dutch bike bits make chainrtings up to 80t for recumbents and velomobiles. i use a 70t one on my flevo bike. (youtube ate my first comment)
Wow, you seem to have a well-equipped workshop! This is my first time here - nice work! I think it might make sense to fill the gap between the two propeller shaft bushings with grease, or fit a grease nipple to the block straight away. That might keep the amount of water that collects there, and the corrosion from the combination of stainless steel and the aluminium, somewhat in check. But perhaps this will also only really be a thing with seawater.
Yeah I actually considered just drilling a hole in the bottom so water can't stay in the center but eventually forgot. I did grease the shaft so we'll see... The thing about this boat is that it was never intended to actually stay in the water after use, so parts aren't permanently submerged (that was the only reason ball bearings worked for a while for example). But still, the residual water in there might cause some corrosion, I'll find out when I unpack it next year
By not using a rudder you can get rid of a lot of the drag, especially when turning. Simply put a driveshaft yoke near the leg and steer by swiveling the propeller leg. If its in the right place, the leg should swivel and tilt.
This was actually my original plan for this build, having the prop assembly rotate. But I figured it gets too complex and takes too long to build, at least for this current round of improvements, so I'm working my way up there in increments. Thanks to everything being quite modular I can always experiment with additional drivetrains in the back but this way I have one that works ready to use. It would definitely be the most elegant solution
An impressive build. I noticed the prop blades, as built, are not protected from ground contact. All propeller outboards have a skeg extending below the diameter of the spinning prop to help protect the blades from contact damage.
Yeah that makes sense for a motor powered prop, but with this one you'll just feel the drive jam as soon as the prop hits anything, so you're not likely to spin it into pieces like a motor would
Phil, is there any device that would retain the drive belt if it popped off? You would be up a creek without a paddle, literally, if the belt fell off in the water. Even a small hoop fashioned out of aluminum TIG filler would suffice. Just something to prevent the belt from going in the water if some seaweed/leaves/etc got jammed in the system.
Yeah that's actually built in, although more as a convenient coincidence. If you look in one of the last shots of the drivetrain, you can see one side of the belt actually loops between the two cables for the steering. It can only fully come off if one of the cables is removed. Good thought though, because losing the belt actually has happened in the past (I also bring emergency paddles btw, but this thing is very annoying to paddle at least if you're alone due to the width)
You might want to play with one of my patents . Only if it is not commercial of course. use a string drive variable drive , with a fin system, horizontal for shallow and long distance and vertical for manoeuvrability and sprint speed. About 35% more effective than any shrouded prop system, zero cavitation.
Hats off for the reasonable choices over all. I think the only thing i would have done differently would have been going with paddlewheel for simplicity instead of the whole disco with the propeller. Did you compare the weight of the metal hulls vs fiberglass when you were doing the initial build? What would the weight difference have been?
I went with Aluminum because it's more sturdy, it can dent but is very unlikely to crack in a collision like fiberglass can. But also I'm a metal guy so fiberglass really isn't my domain. As for paddles, a propeller is much more efficient and compact, and I actually like to overengineer things ;)
Fiberglass would have been a lot heavier, for the high $ option CF would probably be lighter but without the robustness of metal at this scale. I have a 5m long DIY trimaran (fiberglass+ plywood) that's not a lot lighter than this cat while being a single person craft (adult + child at best)
If you make the plate that locks the rotation of the drivetrain larger, you only need one screw and have the space to use one of those tool-less knobs.
great job, impressive, and you could still increase speed considerably if you would put the weight more to the front making the boat more balanced/horizontal in the water reducing drag. Tip from someone who used to do competitive sailing ;).
I live in a forestry region and everything I make is wood. I own a hand drill, jigsaw, and a miter box. I would be interesting if you could design something I could make with those tools. Who do you imagine would actually DIY a metal boat besides you? I saw your previous catamaran video and I thought the whole point of it was ASMR
Nice upgrades, can you not hinge the two rails that the hulls attach to so they fold up towards the seat then you could just fold them down and lock rather than hand screwing components
Unintended Explosive Disassembly! LOL!!! I like this design. Nucanoe has their Pivot Drive. But it's horribly inefficient. Solid shafts and gear boxes is much better. Would be fun to have a full cog set and a derailleur to have various speeds. I have friends in Hamburg. Very nice place. Loved the waterways. If I moved to Germany, that would be the place.
Excellent design, I really like it. Do the rivers there have lots of current going upstream? If that was the case I'd probably make an input into the drivetrain mechanism for a brushless cordless drill of the 20v lithium type. I have a unit with a propeller that hooks to my drill allowing for emergency propulsion if both my trolling motor and gas motor have issues on my little plastic fishing boat. It's for redundancy, but when going upriver I've needed it before because I couldn't paddle fast enough to overcome the current.
The river has almost no current, there's watergates on all sides separating it from the source and other bodies of water, it really is like a big recreational swimming pool. As for the motor, they are strictly forbidden in these waters, I mentioned it in the beginning of the video
@PhilVandelay Oh, I see. I did hear you mention that, but all the rivers I've been on have currents-so I always keep a backup for long trips. Anyway, really like your videos...thank you.
@@ProlificInvention Yeah I guess it's an unusual setup, but the area I mentioned in the beginning really is one of the most harmless areas to use a boat anywhere (it's not even deep - I think 3 meters at the most). But there is also the main river Elbe here which connects to it and that one is a major shipping lane and access to one of Europes biggest harbours, on that one you can of course use a motor, but the currents there are so strong, going there on this boat is very risky (not to mention the huge commercial ships). At the end of this video that's actually where I'm testing the boat, although far away from the busy areas in a little side basin that's mostly a parking spot for river barges. Even that felt sketchy and I had to wait to go inbetween tides because otherwise you'd just get swept away in a tiny boat. I did consider getting a motor for this kind of thing, but I think even with that it's not a good idea. I actually do have this pipe dream of building an actual motorboat some day to go on the main river - main issue there is paying for the mooring. We'll see!
I wonder if you could down size the pontoons quite a bit? Certainly looks like there's quite a bit still above water. I think, since you do the machining, selling a kit and also some of the parts would be good, if worth the time and work. Would be interesting to see if a shaft drive could work on an SOT kayak. Thanks!
This is made to carry 3 to 4 people max so you do need the buoyancy eventually and with the open hulls I also wouldn't want to risk it dipping under the water line. Actually, I thought the opposite a few times, that the hulls could be even bigger! As for selling a kit, I doubt there would be enough interest in this to make it in any way profitable, I'm actually thinking about selling the whole boat at the moment as I'm kind of over this project
You could use full ceramic bearings underwater without any fear of corrosion. They are a little expensive though. From what I understand, it isn't prop rpm that matters so much as the angle of blades, even with 'foot power' it could be possible for cavitation to take place. You would also be better off having tensioner on the 'outside' of belt as it will increase 'wrap' , a smooth tensioner wheel would probably create less friction (maybe?)
yeah the tensioner is definitely not optimal yet, I tried what you mentioned by pushing it inwards but it didn't work due to clearance issues. I'd have to get a belt that just barely fits over the pulley first (or extend the axle distance)
I know you're not peddling really fast or anything but maybe consider a splash guard to be screwed into the T-Channel where the drive train and belt are?
Beautiful work and a great design. Enjoyed your video. I want to do similar but wooden hull just for me only and sliding seat rowing to flywheel / prop drive. Then I can use leg and arm power. Keith Burton from Wroxham, Norfolk, UK.
Yeah I actually tried that with a locking handle (you can see it earlier in the video) but it ended up getting in the way. You only really flip the drive up once or twice while you use the boat so it's not a huge issue, but having a handle there would reduce the risk of dropping tools into the lake so it's definitely something I want to add eventually
I'd love to have one of those myself being legally blind and not able to have a car. I cycle everywhere I go. I would change one thing though. For the choice of drive train I'd go with a paddle wheel instead of a propeller making the whole system a lot simpler, and in my opinion more efficient.
awesome build, i somehow think a small electric "pedal assist" would not break the rules of an electric driven boat since it is just a peddle assist :).....a man can dream, would love to just see how you would build it. Cheers brother!
It would definitely break the rules, but if it's inconspicious you might be able to get away with it so I have thought about it. That being said, police boats do patrol the lake especially in summer and the fines are hefty if you get caught with a motor. E-assist would help a lot to access the "no motor" zone from outside though (the area where I'm testing at the end of this video is actually on the main river where anything goes including freight ships)
