With extra tugs it could potentially house as many people as required. I personally wouldn't want mine to get any larger then this though. Simply because you could already easily house four to eight families which is a great sized group. Big enough to survive, repopulate to some extend, protect themselves and make others thing twice about attacking.
However I did say it was close to perfect. There are a couple improvements to the design. Weapons storage on every boat, nothing major but a rifle locker with a few dozen rounds would suffice, just to make sure anyone caught on those rafts without a weapon for some reason aren't at a complete loss. A ground vehicle and emergency life-raft/small boat should be on every raft, this is for obvious reasons and there should be more then enough to allow everyone on the vessel save passage off. The ground vehicles should be of various kinds and what the crew is familiar with, motorcycles or dirt bikes if anyone knows how to drive them would be best for scouting and saving fuel, jeeps and 4X4 pick-ups would be best for gathering supplies and moving bigger groups around on the ground. I would also add more water reserves and mounted weapons. The water seems like an oxymoron because of sailing on the river but the river water may be contaminated and not easy to reach, to this end a system which gathers water from the river and purifies it while the engine is moving would be extremely useful.
Possibly the biggest thing to note is that this craft will be a target. Everyone will want it and raiders will do anything to take it or make sure at the very least no one else has it. This is why I suggest more mounted weapons, the more mounted weapons you have, the more people it suggests you have on board. Even if you only have twenty people on board, they would not expect every person to have a mounted weapon so having just the site of twenty mounted weapons will make you look like a much more powerful force. Partially because it will make you a more powerful force, in the rare case you face enemies on all sides having mounted weapons on all side to meet them is never a bad idea. Basically the moral of this is it is never a bad idea to have more weaponry on a large craft like this. It will protect you practically but more importantly it will make you look more powerful then you actually are which can be of huge benefit when dealing with raiders, authorities, or even other survivors. A couple things to note about mounted weapons, make sure the swivel but do not turn fully around, if any enemy reaches one you do not want your own gun to be able to fire back on the ship or the crew. Also don't be afraid to abandon the mounted gun for your sidearm or rifle. Some mounted guns, especially those with shields, can be used as cover as well. If the enemy has bored the ship (and your gun can't swivel onto the deck) keep close watch on your sides and back if you need to stay on the mounted gun to hold more attacks back. If you do not need to stay on the mounted weapon after being boarded, do not do so. It leaves you wide open to attack from behind while your attention is completely focused ahead. One last quick note is to fire in bursts, most video game players will think this has to do with the barrel over heating, in part it does yes. But more then that it has to do with your aim. Firing constantly will throw your aim off more then you would believe. Fire in quick bursts back and forth, left and right. Either mowing the enemy down in waves as you go back and forth, or concentrate on one side then the other side, left and right, back and forth to make the enemy funnel in front of you. In an ideal world you would have a second gunner with an assault rifle firing at the enemies being herded into the centre lane by the bigger gun. If the second shooter is not there this strategy still works as it discourages flanking and slowly you will be able to narrow the lane like a trap that closes the wall in on both sides to crush the attackers in the middle.
If anyone ever builds this or has tons of money they don't know what to do with, let me know. We will be good friends.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and Poseidon make your waters run smoothly, Mike D.
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