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What is a Shanty Boat?

Well, i can hear you saying: "what the heel is a shanty boat?". It's true that we don't really have a shanty boat tradition as they have in the US of A. During the Depression Era, we did have shanty towns. Every major town areas where the poor and unemployed would build rough shelters from corrugated iron, hessian cloth and found timbers. Well shanty boating emerged from the same tough economic conditions, except that shanty boaters traded and fished on the river throughout the US.

Harlan Hubbard has a great book on the topic, but a more concise description follows:-
"There were scores of shantyboats moored to the banks of the river, where you could find all the gamblers, the poor, the unemployed, the fishermen, and the drunks living at the edge of society".
Reference: https://peoplesriverhistory.us/blog/tell-us-about-shantyboat-communities/

So, what guides me in my shanty boat build is to be unique, use cheap or recycled materials, aim for comfort and practicality over an extravagant, showy, new-looking boat. I just don't give a damn what anyone makes of it. If I can go on the river in peace, relax, read and drink coffee with a few create comforts, I'll be a very happy shanty boat man. 

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