River Rat Design

River Rat Design »
River Rat by Spike Hampson , Park City, UT

$Subject: River Rat nearing completion Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 12:47:39 -0600 From: Spike Hampson Hello Glen-L, Three and a half years ago I started construction on a River Rat, and now I am about one month away from the anticipated launch. I built the boat according to directions, but opted to increase its length (as specified in the plans) to over 21\'. I also designed and constructed a cabin for the boat that has a clamshell top capable of being raised about 10\" to allow for ventilation. I chose to install a Kodiak jet unit for propulsion and decided on a Rotary Power Marine Corporation rotary engine (supercharged; 240 horsepower) to drive it. This undertaking has been a wonderful obsession and is only the first part of a larger project. Eventually, I intend to use this boat to travel from Wyoming to Buenos Aires by way of rivers and protected waterways (except in the Caribbean, where I plan to island hop on good weather days). My planned route is as follows: down the Powder River into the Yellowstone and then the Missouri; up the Mississippi and Wisconsin to Portage where the boat would be transferred a few miles to the Fox; down the Fox River into Green bay and then along the north shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron before taking the Trent-Severn Waterway across Ontario; down the St. Lawrence and along the Quebec and New Brunswick coasts to just south of Prince Edward Island where the boat would be hauled the 20 miles necessary to get it to Chignecto Bay and the Bay of Fundy; south along the entire eastern coast using the Intracoastal Waterway; through the Caribbean by island hopping (there would be three 90-mile stretches of open water but in all other cases the distances between islands would be less than 45 miles); up the Orinoco to the Casiquiare distributary and from there down the Rio Negro and Amazon to Manaus; up the Madeira to near Santa Cruz in Bolivia where a portage to the Paraguay-Parana watershed; and finally down that system to the Rio Plata where Buenos Aires is located. I apologize for overwhelming you with all these details, but as you can see I am rather preoccupied with this entire scheme.$

$By the way, just so you know, about three years ago I built a Rob Roy canoe that my son and I have enjoyed enormously. This year I made a couple modifications to that craft--a small oak keel to make it track a little better and a removable backrest that permits easier paddling when sitting on the floor of the canoe. I haven\'t yet tried out these modifications and neither have I taken any photos of them. I\'ll keep you posted.$

$Subject: River Rat Date: 8/6/02 Hi Barry, Thanks for your e-mail. I had not seen Ray Macke\'s website and now I am looking forward to reading about his Missouri River adventure. He appears to have done a wonderful job building the Cabin Skiff. I seriously considered building that boat -- and actually purchased the plans -- but finally decided on the River Rat because of its extra size.$

$Anyway, my plan is to leave for Buenos Aires next spring when the feeder streams of the Yellowstone have sufficient water flow -- probably in early June. I don\'t know when I last corresponded with you, but I launched my boat on July 4th and problems were minimal. The engine runs extremely well, the electrical system shows no glitches, the boat handles very nicely as far as motion and response to rough water are concerned, and the hull seems to be durable. I\'m happy. Only two significant problems remain: engine (or more likely jet) noise is excessive and the steering is very tricky at slow speeds. The first I will attack with more insulation; the second will be addressed with practice. I plan to take the boat to Lake Powell for 6 days in early October, and then the winter months will be spent setting up the interior for the extended cruising I am planning to do.$

$I\'ll attach a few photos of the boat in the water (please forgive me if I have already sent them to you--I can\'t remember). Top speed is around 31 miles per hour and she gets onto a plane around 18 mph (I added trim tabs to achieve this). Boaters tell me that the elevation here (about 6,500 feet) diminishes performance substantially and that at sea level I can expect an additional 5-7 miles per hour--but maybe that\'s unrealistic.$

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