Advice from Shawn Grady

More info!
Love,
Taiga

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shawn Grady <shawngrady@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:04:54 -0400
Subject: RAFTS!
To: Taiga312@gmail.com

Hi, I recieved your email regarding raft design and your trip. I am going
through your questions point by point and finding myself with a lot to say!
I wanted to give you a quick first response while i work through the list.
The biggest piece is propulsion. lots of things float but you have to be
able to control your craft and get out of the way of other vessels. The law
(and in my opinion safety) requires you to be able to make way against the
current and manuever effectively. the current can get up over ten mph in
some nasty spots but i'd say generally its 2-6. however, people do it in
canoes, kayaks, row boats. maybe you could have six rowing stations(
there's not enough room to sail on a river. and they're too bendy.) it
depends on your priorities. every river raft i've been party to has had a
motor. gas outboards are easily available and work. the miss rockaway had
twin diesel car engines converted to run propellers (they didn't ever really
like doing that.) and we ran them on biodiesel. one of the older neutrino
river rafts had paddle wheels run by a truck engine. a lot depends on what
size vessel you want to build and that depends on the number of people you
have and if you want one big boat or a bunch of smaller ones or a couple
mediums... I will leave you with a fact you may or may not know. a cubic
foot of water weighs 62 lbs, a cubic foot of foam weighs 2 lbs. so a cubic
foot of foam displaces 60 lbs of weight. if you put a 60 pound dog ontop of
a cubic foot of foam the foam would be totally submerged just below the
surface. if it's a 30 lb dog half the foam will be above the water.
anyway I will get back to you with more later. your project sounds
exciting! good luck!
Shawn grady