34 ft Friday Harbor Ferry

A 34 ft design from Jay Benford's catalog, drawn for Airex cored fibreglass or plywood construction, so the same hull can be built in whichever suits the shop. The 34 was drawn after the Waterbed 30 for a group who wanted more room, and she has 50 to 100 per cent more living space inside than most 40 ft houseboats. Twin skegs protect the propellers and rudders and let her take the ground upright, and twin small diesels give good manoeuvring and economical running. An office version is also drawn, with two staterooms, a head with a five-foot tub, a washer and dryer stack, an office, galley, living room and pilothouse: 320 square feet enclosed on the lower deck, 170 in the upper house and 30 in the pilothouse, where the yacht version has 400 square feet in total. One of the ferry-styled houseboats, which began as an answer to the question of why a liveaboard had to choose between a house trailer on a box and a planing boat that drank a gallon a mile. Drawn to the shape of a small ferry, so the cabin runs almost the full width of the hull, the accommodation is enormous for the length, and the hull is easily driven at displacement speeds.

Benford publishes a displacement of 26,665/23,000 lb in coastal cruising trim, which is tanks full with the crew and their stores aboard rather than a shipping weight. Plans are sold to owner-builders, and study plans are sold separately for anyone wanting to look before committing.