Here is a cool project I have always dreamed of doing; building a raft completely powered by the sun, big enough to camp on and to take it on a journey down Canada’s historic Rideau Canal.

Does this concept seem a little familiar?

Perhaps you caught YouTuber Steve Wallis doing something nearly exactly like I want to do. I have always wanted to do this and Steve did it nearly exactly the way I want to do it as well – aside from a few minor things! Check out his video if you want the big gist of the project:

So then, the project!

The goal is to build something that is relatively low cost, because of the sheer scale of the project. I want to build the deck out of 2×3 spruce, inexpensive lumber as the frame and then something lightweight for the decking – but more likely something inexpensive like chipboard. The raft will likely not last long but that’s not what is the most important.

Floatation will come from inexpensive 55 gallon barrels – usually available for around 40$ each or less depending on the source. Steve (above) secures his by way of ratchet straps – I was thinking of stainless steel bands which are often used in automotive applications and might be available in reels – which would be ideal. I am not ruling out ratchet straps though – they are the more economical option after all!

How about propulsion?

That is the part that excites me the most! On Banggood, Amazon (USA), Amazon (Canada), AliExpress, etc… You can buy some big electric motors that are intended to be used on electric go karts, scooters and golf carts and such and a full-on electric boat is the perfect opportunity to mess with one! It would either have a chain drive to a propeller shaft or just use a universal union. I would either source a used propeller or simply design and 3d print one (or more!) to play with! On top of all that, it would be a blast to check the current draw versus the boat’s speed and see if I can adjust the timing with some circuitry!

What about energy storage and production?

Glad you asked. LiFePo4 is the answer – these are batteries, shortened from lithium-iron-phosphate, which have very good energy density, but are much more stable than lithium-ion batteries and far lighter than lead-acid batteries. I do have a few lead-acid batteries for backup but LiFePo4 batteries are getting far more affordable on sites like AliExpress and more recently, Amazon (Canada). Plus, again, the point of projects is to play with cool stuff!

As for energy production, the choice is simple; I would fill the roof with as many solar panels I can afford. The sweet spot here in Canada seems to be these 100w solar panels and I figure a few of these would suffice, but 6 would be my goal. Let’s be honest, solar panels are most effective when they are oriented perfectly towards the sun and on a boat, which bobs on the waves, is nearly impossible. So although I will be able to generate electricity while under way, I doubt that even with 600W of potential power, I will achieve energy generation more than what I consume.

What about the journey?

This might be interesting to some of you not from Ottawa – but we have here a huge network of locks, canals and rivers which go from the Ottawa River, in downtown Ottawa, all the way to Kingston, on lake Ontario.

This trek is over 200kms of river, and is up river half way, down river the other half, and has a large amount of locks to go through. This trip could easily take over a week to complete in one direction only – and that is in a regular boat not the slowpoke raft I am planning on building.

The boat would be big enough (barely) to sleep on, have a cooler with food and supplies and can have charging for electronics – maybe even a small workbench for prototyping under way – and lots of other cool stuff. There are quite a few towns on the way and so supplies will not be problematic and the plan for the nights is to anchor or moor somewhere safe and get back under way the next morning.

Some of you might know this already but I really like fishing but don’t get much time to do much these days. A few weeks underway in a boat that will likely need time to recharge seems like the perfect opportunity to drown some worms!

How about stretch goals?

I have some, but they are financially unfeasible at this moment. Firstly, the raft would be much more efficient as a flat-bottom barge style boat instead of having two “pontoons” made of barrels. The lumber cost goes up less than the cost of the barrels, but the big extra expense would be epoxy. Wood would not last long underwater without epoxy. The epoxy is somewhere in the region of 500$.

Ardupilot is another technology I would love to play with. The gist is that you can use off-the-shelf remote-control vehicle parts to make nearly anything autonomous – aside from obstacle avoidance. The system is relatively cheap but it would require a bit of specialty gear to retrofit it to full-size craft steering.

The eventual end to this project would be a full-blown all-electric speedboat. It would be lots of fun to rip around on a brushless powered, 10Kw (13.5-ish horsepower) tiny speed boat (think something the size of a large PWC) or probably more practically, an electric houseboat I could spend large chunks of summer on!

So what do you have, and what do you need?

What I have:

• 2 lead-acid batteries and I feel like it may be enough to start with
• A trolling motor
• A MPPT Charge controller
• 100w solar panel

What I would need still (and why this project is far in the future)

• A bunch of 100w solar panels (as many as possible, ideally 6 or more)
• A bunch of LiFePo4 batteries (I have not done the calculations for how many would be adequate, but I need to figure out the propulsion first either way)
• Some MPPT charge controllers (again, not sure how many yet)
• A large motor and controller – I mean, wouldn’t you want to mess with one of these bad boys!?!?
• Some barrels
• Around 300$ of lumber
• A hitch for my car and a trailer
• Wiring, hardware, and time

As you can see, this is squarely in the “dream” category for now because I need more than I have for this project – but I am working my way up and get closer and closer every year. You can also see why this is more suited for sponsors, as these are large costly items that I would much rather not get from a viewer – I will eventually buy my own or get some of these things sponsored.

If you are a sponsor who wants to collaborate on this project, contact me and we can see what we can work out – otherwise, just enjoy the content and dream along with me!

-Dan