Pontoon Boat | engineeringportfolio

Pontoon Boat Project:

Project Objective: {Written November 2014}

My friends and I are planning to build a pontoon boat this summer for float trips on the river. I began with a draft in Inventor Pro, and continued to specify from there. Though it is not yet built, all of the materials are planned and calculated for cost. The pontoon's eight 55-gallon barrels will hold around 3,500 lbs, almost 3000 lbs on top of the weight of materials (around 20 people). This page will be updated with finished pictures of the boat when it is complete.

First Draft:

Drawing:

Final Design and Cost:

The Final Project:

The Experience:

We spent about a week gathering materials and constructing this giant boat. For the first test, we took it to a small, calm lake, and floated out into the water with four guys. It floated perfectly, and barely even sunk into the water. Now thinking our boat could support the whole squad, we took it to the river and brought all of our friends. The force of the flowing river, opposing the downforce of our heavy load, caused a great strain on the boat. Though we floated

along for a few minutes, the screws soon tore out of the wood, releasing all of the barrels from the platform we were standing on. We should have considered the length and threading of our screws. The pontoon boat was only somewhat successful, but was a great learning experience for the engineering process in the real world. {June 2016}