tollman skiff cost

[akriverrat]

hello there, i am new to this forum and found it researching tollman skiffs. i have owned a few boats and currently running a 21 foot inboard jet. with more and more of my time being spent out on the open ocean and the unforgiving rise in gas prices and the current price in ocean boats i have decided to check into building my own boat. the 24 foot jumbo is for now my main pick and was wondering if i could get any feedback about total costs from start to finish what owners might have in there boats. jsut intrested in the basics and what is powering your vessel. i see precut kits are around 5 grand but i didnt see where the fiberglass package was included, and of course windows, power, bellytank, and so on all adds up. i understand there will be many different variations but i will apreciate them all. thanks in advance.

[David G]

riverrat - my best advice would be to join (if you haven't already) the Yahoo Group called tolmanskiff. They are focused on the several lengths and variations there. There are a number of successful builders and in-process builders who can answer your questions.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tolman...guid=162041822

[kengrome]

David G's advice is the best you can get as far as more information about a stretched Jumbo is concerned -- or the Widebody or Standard for that matter.

I have some different info for you though, in case you are truly concerned about fuel economy. In Renn's new plans for his Tolman Seabright Skiff he says:

What the world needs is a truly economical planing-hull power boat. Sure, Tolman skiffs are economical compared to other boats in their class due to their relative light weight, but the sad fact is an 18-wheeler running down the highway fully loaded gets better milage than I can get in my Jumbo skiff. A diesel engine would doubtless make it more efficient, but diesels are not commonly made as outboards, and the usual ways to install them are as outdrives (inboard/outboards), which are very expensive to buy and to maintain, or with conventional straight shaft-and-rudders, which result in boats that are deep draft and difficult to trailer because of a keel or other appendages. Neither drive system appeals to me.

Enter the Seabright skiff. This type was developed by many different builders for fishermen along the New Jersey shore that had to launch over beach due to the scarcity of harbors in the early 1900s. These skiffs used conventional inboard engines (gas in those days) with straight shafts and rudders, but what made them special was that the prop, running in a tunnel, which along with the rudder was placed entirely above the bottom of the hull. Thus these skiffs drew no more water than the hull itself, which because of its flat bottom, was often only inches. The peculiar shape of the stern, with its pod-shaped underbody and cut-away transom, gave these boats a good turn of speed, several times that of displacement-type boats (think sailboats), yet they were more efficient, at least at lower speeds, than conventional planing hulls (like Tolman skiffs, for example).

I'm currently building Renn's new version of a Seabright skiff and I have a couple pictures here. You can clearly see the tunnel-stern section in one of them:

http://www.bagacayboatworks.com/imag...ht02/index.php

This boat is designed for a 20-25 HP inboard engine. It has none of the clogging or inefficiency issues of a jet boat yet it can run full speed in maybe 8 inches of water. It should be seaworthy in offshore conditions too since its hull is based on the tunnel-stern Seabright skiffs of William Atkin. Take a look at his 'tunnel-stern Seabright skiff' designs if you're interested in more background about this kind of boat and why Renn based his new boat on one of the Willaim Atkin designs:

http://www.atkinboatplans.com


So ... you say you're concerned about fuel economy, but you're considering building the same boat that Renn Tolman complains about when he talks about the not-so-great fuel economy in his Jumbo. Hmmm ...

Clearly he thinks his Jumbo is a gas hog compared to the fuel economy he COULD be getting with his new boat -- and he doesn't even use the 140 HP outboard on his Jumbo that many other builders seem to think is minimal for this boat.

Bottom line:

You might want to consider his Tolman Seabright skiff instead of the Jumbo if you're happy doing 15-20 mph while your 20-25 HP inboard diesel sips fuel.

Note that these tunnel-stern Seabright skiffs get squirrelly if you try to run them any faster than this. They are optimized for low-end planing speeds and simply do not handle well when you overpower them. Obviously this speed limitation is not for everyone, but conditions don't always let a higher speed planing boat run at those higher speeds anyways, right? Besides, the cheaper the fuel the more likely you will be to use your boat without feeling the financial pinch ...

[pipefitter]

About twice as much as what works out practically on paper.Towards the end, after looking at it and dreaming,you will tend to throw money at it to get it done. Usually in the form of hardware,paint,trailering and rigging considerations. That used,bargain set of motor controls suddenly doesn't look right on the boat etc and the Edson wheel sure looks better than the one from ebay and how 'sandpaper' and 'frugile' doesn't fit in the same sentence anymore.

[Paul H]

It really depends on how you fit it out, and what you can find deals on e-bay and Craig's list. Material costs have jumped a fair bit in the last few years, and I built 22 1/2' widebody (wished I'd had the space and foresight to make a 24' jumbo)

Anyhow, most folks building such jumbos are using 45 gallons of epoxy, which is $2500-3000, figure $2k for wood, $2k for fiberglass, $1k for misc fillers, screws. So say $8k for the hull, but it could approach $10k. That is for a full pilothouse and cuddy. Main engine will run around $10k w/ controls, $2k for kicker, $3500 for a trailer, $1000 for electrical, elctronics run from handheald vhf and gps to thousands. Saftety stuff $500.

Thus, you'd be doing well to get it done for $25k, and I'd budget $30k, and don't be suprised if you go over that by a couple thousand. Then again, a similar sized new aluminum hull would be double that, and it would suck more gas, be louder and colder.