Creating a Bookcase from a Boat
Our wheelbarrow boat isn't designed to be a bookcase. It's primary design consideration is to be a practical boat on the water that can be easily transported like a wheelbarrow. A permanent wheel is built into the bow, and the oars fit through keyholes in the transom to be used like wheelbarrow handles. It's a dream to transport, and you'll spend as much time chatting with admirers as being on the water.
But, it also happens to make a perfect elegant bookcase. At 7'10" it fits vertically in rooms with standard height ceilings. And, it's got gorgeous lines. If you're going to make a bookcase from a boat, the boat has to look good.
Best of all, customizing it to take the shelves is a fifteen minute job. The oarlock sockets just happen to be placed in the ideal locations for installing the shelves. Four half inch aluminum tubes are inserted through the stainless oarlock sockets to create robust supports for the shelves. 1x5" boards are used for the shelves, and these just need to be trimmed to length. The boat can be converted back to a rowboat in two minutes (it may take you a little longer to organize the books).
The middle board/shelf is simply placed on the frame that supports the middle seat.
While the boat does sit securely in vertical orientation when loaded with books, we do recommend securing it to the wall to keep it from tumbling down if children or earthquakes are a concern.
Structurally, the boat will have no problem supporting the load.
And why would one want to turn a perfectly good boat into a bookcase? Well, the fact of the matter is many boats end up languishing in the backyard, an object in the way, slowly decaying in the UV light. Perhaps an injury keeps you from going on the water, or the grandkids are no longer coming around. As a bookcase, it is no longer a liability, but something for friends and family to admire. And all the happy memories that go along with it are sconced within this elegant piece of furniture. And when the need arises, it can be readied as rowboat in short period of time.
And best of all, when your partner asks if you're getting another boat with a roll of the eyes, you can say no, you're buying him a fashionable piece of furniture for the house.
The Wheelbarrow Boat is sold as plans or a kit, and is designed for beginner builders. Build time is 40-60 hours.
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