Merchant's Houseboat

Most of the larger bodies of water on Plavithen are used for shipping and passenger travel, but in the last 15 years or so, they have also become home to fleets of floating homes.
Generally-speaking, they resemble heavy rafts with pontoon arms, some number of sails, and a large, comfortable structure in the middle with 2-4 rooms. They are used primarily by merchants, but they have also been used by adventuring parties and mercenary companies, and at least one troupe of entertainers has used several in combination to make a sort of multipart floating stage and put on some incredible performances out over the water.
The biggest downsides to these craft are that they tend to be large and ill-suited to anything but calm, shallow waters.
A variant uses the size of the vessel (and the corresponding breaks in line of sight created by that size) to add additional chambers for smuggling (or sometimes just lower-temperature storage) below the water line. Keeping those chambers sealed can be tricky.

Purpose / Function

These boats exist to provide some of the advantages of a normal house to those who live their lives traveling on the water. While not usually luxurious, they are significantly more comfortable than the bunks on a normal ship.

History

While boats that can be inhabited for an extended period of time have existed on Plavithen for centuries, smaller boats designed to be lived on are a relatively recent development.
The practice began gaining popularity about 15 years ago when a group of merchants, sick of spending their time in the uncomfortable confines of a traditional ship as they traveled a four-city trade circuit around the shores of the Caldaminian Sea, finally had enough and hired a shipwright to make them something more comfortable.
What they got back was essentially a massive, reinforced raft with a few heavy sails and a couple of mechanically-assisted rowing stations.

Alternative Names

Floating House, Lake Shop, Trader's Boat

Type

House