You are speaking my language
I have had and worked on (on paper and in my mind) the two canoes joined together idea for years, for use while camping on the huge, long lakes in SE British Columbia. A second version was using two cataract inflatable pontoons instead of canoes, since these would be more easily transported in the back of a pickup truck.
I thought about decking two canoes together using two sheets of hinged marine plywood, cross braced with stout aluminum poles, and held on to the boats with webbing straps, so I could sleep and camp on the boats while staying out on the water. This decking would allow me to stay off shore at night while camping, and save on camp ground fees. This would also be especially nice while traveling in black bear country up there. The whole deck would be hinged for transport in the back of a standard pickup truck.
My idea was to use tarped over canoe float bags in both the front and rear of the canoes to keep wave water out of the boats and to also maintain high flotation levels. The mid section of the canoes would have strapped in home-made custom designed gear boxes, lined with styrofoam. These would be accessed thru hatches in the plywood decking.
On the deck, one long gear box with a padded top seat would double as bench seat and also as a bed at night. I would use some model of a small two man tent to put over it to keep out rain and bugs when necessary. The tent would stay down while under power though, to avoid unecessary wind resistance.
A small 5 hp gas engine could easily be mounted on the rear on some kimd of a bolt on transom, with the gas tank also nearby on the deck.
So, yeah, keep thinking about the canoe-a-raft idea......it is doable!
