Mhaighdean Mhara Dry Docks

So here is what we have so far. Everything looks really good with the exception of the ceiling joists being set at about seven feet. I am heading over to the factory Monday morning to see about having the uprights raised to 7' 6". It doesn't sound like much, but the interior height is exactly 6' 10" minus the floor and ceiling thickness plus the decorative exposed beams you end up with head clearance in the 6' 6" range which is terribly close for the average 5' 10" to 6' person. The extra six or eight inches brings the head room clearance to a full foot.

Here is the trailer with Jen standing inside for general proportional sizing.

I still need to get the trailer frame to a public scale to get the starting weight so we know how much room we have to allocate to materials (hull, walls, framing, windows, cabinets, etc) and also goods.

• Gross Vehicle Weight (Frame) - TBD (factory estimate is 1,200lb - 1,500lb)
• Tongue Weight (Frame)- TBD

Here you can see the general size the Mhara will be.

It also shows the positioning of the axles. 40% of the ship will be past the center point of the axles, 60% to the front. Obviously we will need to pay attention to the weight and positioning of the built ins and furniture to ensure we maintain the general 60/40 load balance for travel. We will have some 'play room' with the trunks and other items we load in, if the ship ends up a little off balance empty we can load our goods in the part of the ship that needs it.

However, I hope to keep the balance correct.

So the statistics:

• Total length - 24' 6"
• Tongue - 6' 6"
• End to Tongue - 18'
• Height - 6' 10" (will be raised to 7' 6")
• Width (max) - 8'
• Width (between Wells) - 6' 3"
• Center of Tandem Axle to End - 8' 1"
• Center of Tandem Axle to Coupler - 16' 5"
• Center of Tandem Axle to Bow of Ship - 12'
• Spacing between uprights - 40.5"
• Balance 67% / 33% (total length)
• Balance 60% / 40% (actual physical ship [no tongue])

The bedroom to be..... or "Insert Captain's Cabin here......."

We are using the extra space to put the bedroom in the aft of the ship. It will rest on a 12" raised platform for both dramatic effect and with doors added to the front of the platform extra storage. The platform will be eight feet from the back, which also conveniently hides half the wheel wells.

Inside the storage compartment I will put 1 inch rails to guide the storage totes and keep them in place. The back totes will have a rope so they can be pulled forward thus allowing us to utilize the full eight feet of space.

They used nice sturdy I-Beam steel for the cross joist. This gives us excellent strength but keeps each beam lighter than solid pieces.

The sealed wheel wells. I wanted sealed steel wells since they will be inside/inline with the ship. We get maximum usable space by extending the walls out the legal eight foot maximum this way.

Contact the Captain!