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This is a build of a 20' Tolman widebody in a 20'6"x 13' rental garage by someone with almost 0 wood working experience. The boat will be used in southeast Alaska for Salmon and Halibut and camping/ exploring.
A little background, my wife and I moved up to Juneau, Alaska in May from Colorado for work. In Colorado we had a jeep and were 4 wheeling, exploring, and camping in the mountains just about every day off weather permitting. There’s 0 legal 4 wheeling in Juneau and the nearest trails involve a couple hour ferry ride so we needed a new hobby. The local joke is you need a boat to make life tolerable in Juneau. We had never owned a boat or done any ocean fishing and decided to buy a starter boat. When I was home in July we bought a 17’ Alumaweld Stryker, it had a newer 60hp e-tec and a lot of newer done kinda right but cheap to get it out the door work. It got us out on the water though after a trip to spend 3 nights at the cabin in Taku Harbor and heading down to see the glaciers in Tracy arm (75 miles each way) it was pretty obvious the Alumaweld wasn’t the right boat for us. The leaky top and windshield were a ton better than riding in an open skiff and the boat just didn’t have the range, power, or weight capacity for anything besides day trips. We caught some fish, had a ton of fun, and started the steep learning curve of boat ownership and handling. I learned a ton about boat work fixing all the half ass work and it will be a nicely dialed in boat for the next owner.
While looking for ideas for our next boat in September I stumbled upon Tolman’s and bought the book. After reading it a couple times, pulling the tape measure out in the garage a million times, a couple posts on fishyfish asking questions, and some deliberation towards the end of November I pulled the trigger and ordered up a stack of marine plywood and some LVL’s. We considered a lot of options. We decided we wanted a keep it 5 years boat with a hard top, more power, more range, somewhere to sleep out of the weather. We looked at new boats, used boats, and finally decided to build a Tolman. Our garage is 20’6”x 13’, it’s a rental and there wasn’t an option of building a garage extension so we settled on a 20’ widebody. Yes we’ll want a bigger boat though this boat will serve our needs a lot better than our current boat and we won't be inheriting someone else's headache. I wasn’t willing to take on the commitment of building a great Alaskan and we didn’t have the room for it so this boat will have to do. I'm really glad I'm learning on a 20 footer instead of a monster 26 footer, the mistakes are much easier to fix and it's a lot less of a time commitment.
The general plan is
-20’ widebody (7'6" wide with a 3" chine flat on each side, 8 degree deadrise)
-Shortest lengthwise possible cuddy to sleep 2 adults
-Hard top, sliding side windows, glass front windows with wipers, long enough top/ sides to fit 4 people
-115HP 4 stroke, 6hp Suzuki Kicker (all ready have), leaning towards a Mercury 115 Pro XS CT or now that the Suzuki 115B drive by wire motor is out a suzuki
-Middle of the road finish better than a 0 fairing work boat though not yacht quality
-No rear deck or built in fuel tanks the first season to dial in weight balance for a self bailing deck
-Be fishing summer of 2021
I work at a remote mine camp and am home for 2-3 weeks and then gone to work for 2-4 weeks at a time. I try to put in around 100 hours per round of days off. I got home from work December 6th, started the first cut December 7th, and headed back to work December 22nd. The following posts are getting caught up to date.
First order of business was getting the garage in order and acquiring woodworking tools. I owned almost no woodworking tools besides a cheap circular saw, a jig saw, and a couple hand tools. I did my best to get the garage cleaned up and make as much room as possible. I built a rack for grinder wheels to free up the drawer they were occupying in the tool cart so woodworking tools had a home, built a rack for clamps, turned my machinist tool box shelf / scrap metal shelf into an epoxy station, and generally cleaned up the garage. My garage is tiny so organization is key. I moved as much junk as possible including my welder into the spare bedroom with a less than pleased wife. I picked up a bunch of stacking bins and hardware for assembly fasteners and built the “I can’t find it block” for all my drill bits and router bits I think I’ll use on the build. When I got home from work I had 15 sheets Hydrotek BS1088 Meranti waiting for me. After a couple black Friday deals and a bunch of trips to home depot I had acquired most of the tools necessary to build the boat.
A little background, my wife and I moved up to Juneau, Alaska in May from Colorado for work. In Colorado we had a jeep and were 4 wheeling, exploring, and camping in the mountains just about every day off weather permitting. There’s 0 legal 4 wheeling in Juneau and the nearest trails involve a couple hour ferry ride so we needed a new hobby. The local joke is you need a boat to make life tolerable in Juneau. We had never owned a boat or done any ocean fishing and decided to buy a starter boat. When I was home in July we bought a 17’ Alumaweld Stryker, it had a newer 60hp e-tec and a lot of newer done kinda right but cheap to get it out the door work. It got us out on the water though after a trip to spend 3 nights at the cabin in Taku Harbor and heading down to see the glaciers in Tracy arm (75 miles each way) it was pretty obvious the Alumaweld wasn’t the right boat for us. The leaky top and windshield were a ton better than riding in an open skiff and the boat just didn’t have the range, power, or weight capacity for anything besides day trips. We caught some fish, had a ton of fun, and started the steep learning curve of boat ownership and handling. I learned a ton about boat work fixing all the half ass work and it will be a nicely dialed in boat for the next owner.
While looking for ideas for our next boat in September I stumbled upon Tolman’s and bought the book. After reading it a couple times, pulling the tape measure out in the garage a million times, a couple posts on fishyfish asking questions, and some deliberation towards the end of November I pulled the trigger and ordered up a stack of marine plywood and some LVL’s. We considered a lot of options. We decided we wanted a keep it 5 years boat with a hard top, more power, more range, somewhere to sleep out of the weather. We looked at new boats, used boats, and finally decided to build a Tolman. Our garage is 20’6”x 13’, it’s a rental and there wasn’t an option of building a garage extension so we settled on a 20’ widebody. Yes we’ll want a bigger boat though this boat will serve our needs a lot better than our current boat and we won't be inheriting someone else's headache. I wasn’t willing to take on the commitment of building a great Alaskan and we didn’t have the room for it so this boat will have to do. I'm really glad I'm learning on a 20 footer instead of a monster 26 footer, the mistakes are much easier to fix and it's a lot less of a time commitment.
The general plan is
-20’ widebody (7'6" wide with a 3" chine flat on each side, 8 degree deadrise)
-Shortest lengthwise possible cuddy to sleep 2 adults
-Hard top, sliding side windows, glass front windows with wipers, long enough top/ sides to fit 4 people
-115HP 4 stroke, 6hp Suzuki Kicker (all ready have), leaning towards a Mercury 115 Pro XS CT or now that the Suzuki 115B drive by wire motor is out a suzuki
-Middle of the road finish better than a 0 fairing work boat though not yacht quality
-No rear deck or built in fuel tanks the first season to dial in weight balance for a self bailing deck
-Be fishing summer of 2021
I work at a remote mine camp and am home for 2-3 weeks and then gone to work for 2-4 weeks at a time. I try to put in around 100 hours per round of days off. I got home from work December 6th, started the first cut December 7th, and headed back to work December 22nd. The following posts are getting caught up to date.
First order of business was getting the garage in order and acquiring woodworking tools. I owned almost no woodworking tools besides a cheap circular saw, a jig saw, and a couple hand tools. I did my best to get the garage cleaned up and make as much room as possible. I built a rack for grinder wheels to free up the drawer they were occupying in the tool cart so woodworking tools had a home, built a rack for clamps, turned my machinist tool box shelf / scrap metal shelf into an epoxy station, and generally cleaned up the garage. My garage is tiny so organization is key. I moved as much junk as possible including my welder into the spare bedroom with a less than pleased wife. I picked up a bunch of stacking bins and hardware for assembly fasteners and built the “I can’t find it block” for all my drill bits and router bits I think I’ll use on the build. When I got home from work I had 15 sheets Hydrotek BS1088 Meranti waiting for me. After a couple black Friday deals and a bunch of trips to home depot I had acquired most of the tools necessary to build the boat.
