Land Sailer

[ferbal]

I found a cheap trailer with awesome potential on Craigslist the only catch was I had to take the 22 foot sail boat strapped to it. As I was towing it home I got to thinking that the sailboat cabin was exactly what a camper trailer is supposed to be, just wrapped in a boat. So I am going to attempt to turn the boat in a camper. Worse case scenario the idea fails and I cut it up and throw it out. I would have to do that anyway so why not try to re purpose it first.

Kells 23 Sailboat before surgery

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Took about 6 feet off the back

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And a little off the front.

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[me&z]

Interesting.

The foamies have joked about a boat/camper. But you might be the first to attempt turning a real boat into a camper. Good luck.

BTW: you seem to be suffering from the dreaded "big picture"" problem. I don't post pictures here and have no idea how to solve it. But you might not be getting responses because we can't see your pictures because they are too big.

[ferbal]

Thanks for the heads up on pics. I think I got them fixed. But yes I am planning on using some foam to seal the front and back ends of the "boat". I am thinking I may build the front back out a bit for nicer lines, but I need to finish my deconstruction before I get into the rebuild.

[dirtsailor2003]

Certainly interesting. Are you going to permanently attach the hull to the trailer?

[ferbal]

Certainly interesting. Are you going to permanently attach the hull to the trailer?

I don't think so may current idea which is subject to change is to put it on a couple of skids so I can drop it off the the trailer and use the trailer for other stuff and winch my cabin on when I want to go camping. Still ideas though, I am making this up as I go along.

[ferbal]

Who would have thought that a 1900 pound boat has a 600 pound kick up keel hidden beneath it? I lost a day fighting with that giant chunk of iron but I won. I have decided to start at the front and work towards the back. I am cutting the boat at the water line and using some angle iron to to frame it out as I work back. I will lose a few inches off the floor, but it will give me a flat bottom while keeping most of the interior fiberglass cabin. I am not sold on the sanity of this project yet, but I am still having fun.

Side View you can see the front where I have started to cut at the water line.

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Front View basic frame concept seems sturdy enough.

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[Jst83]

Very interesting idea

[ferbal]

Just a quick update...I have not done much since the snow hit, but i did get the bottom on and have been debating how to proceed after it warms up. My big issue is lack of head room. Plenty of room to throw a queen size mattress in it but if I want to do anything other than lay down I have no head space. I am thinking I may scrap the interior and add like a 24 inch sidewall for a more usable camper.

[greygoos]

Your idea may be an affordable alternative for camping. I traveled the east coast this winter from Syracuse down to Key West. I noticed that in many locations where you can a launch a boat you could park your boat and trailer up to 24 hours for free or in some areas 10.00. Most of the locations had picnic areas with bath houses and showers. They would not let you park an RV over night.

[ferbal]

I scrapped the boat idea. I got it cut down, and reinforced, but I was not happy with the interior space. Not enough head room and the door was less than ideal. I thought about trying to save parts of it, but I figured if I was gonna work that hard at it might as well go back to the drawing board.

Basic idea is to drop a truck cap on to my trailer and call it a camper. I got the cap on craigslist for $100 am using 3/4 emt conduit for my frame. The welds are ugly but 3/4 emt seems up to the task.

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