FishyFish Tolman Alaskan Skiff and Boat Building Forums

Not really an adventure (that’s a good thing in a sense) but we did get the boat out for the second time this summer.  I’d been planning a 4 day trip in PWS for the weekend, but my wife needed to study for a class she is taking, my daughter wasn’t feeling well, and the forecast was for rain all 4 days.  I just couldn’t see 4 days in a tent in the rain being much fun, so the trip was reduced to a day trip on Saturday.  I’d wanted to go to Deepwater Bay, but looking at the Islands in the sound I imagine there is still a lot of snow where I wanted to go.

Anyhow, I figured heading to the South end of Perry and Lone Island might offer some halibut habitat, a spot to drop the shrimp pots and not be too long of a run from Whittier.  The day started out overcast with rain and some mild fog on the water, pretty much the miserable grey look.  Even with the fan running inside the cabin, the windows were constantly fogging up.  I imagine the dog getting wet while we were waiting to launch and I parked the truck, as well as plenty of wet clothing didn’t help matters.

The water conditions were pretty mild, not glass, but other then wakes from passing boats I could run as fast as I wanted.  I guess with the 50# of ice in the cooler and 6 gal portable tank aft I had more weight aft than my previous trip.  WOT yielded only 5400 rpm 31 knots.  I tried to keep the throttle at 4100 rpm, which yields 6 gph @ 21 knots, occasionally I’d bring it up to 4400 rpm for 24 knots @ 7 gph.  WOT was a bit shy of 11 gph, I’ve seen 12 gph last year at WOT, maybe the throttle bodies aren’t opening up all the way.

After dropping the shrimp pots in a bit over 100 fathoms, I headed over to a hump that I hoped held halibut.  I hadn’t made the connection yet that small kids, heavy halibut gear and slow fishing means you won’t keep your bait down long enough to hook into fish.  That and the ripping tide had me using 3# sinkers, which is just too much for kids to attend to and make sure they aren’t on the bottom and possible snaggin.

So, we headed to shore in the bay on the south end of Perry.  There are some beaches with well rounded rocks, so with an incoming tide we just headed in and I drug my spare anchor up the shore and tied off.  It would have been a nice spot for a picnic, except for the bugs and the rain.  Se we headed back out for lunch.  I lifted the dog onto the anchor deck and while he was walked along the shelves into the back of the boat on previous trips, he was having none of that.  He got scared and climbed on top of the cuddy and laid down.  So I had to bring the boat sideways into the shore, got him to jump off, then back up the side of the boat.

The charts showed a rock pile nearby, so we cruised over to it and proceded to drift over it and jig.  We made 3 or 4 drifts and ended up with 1 greenling, 4 black bass and 5 quillback rock fish.  The kids were getting tired so we headed back to where I dropped the shrimp pots.  I only have two pots, but each has 4#’s of lead to sink them, and another 5# on the line to keep it from coiling up on the surface.  Hand pulling that string was a fair workout, not exactly worth the dozen shrimp, but at least I didn’t loose my pots.

The sun statrted to try and burn through the clouds as I pulled the pots, and overall it was a decent day.  The wind picked up a touch heading back between Perry and Culross Island, so I had to slow to 17 knots.  As we got into Wells passage the water calmed down and I was able to get back up to 21 knots.

I burned right at 20 gallons for the trip.  I figured out the reason I wasn’t getting fuel burn on the past trip is when I changed the LMF-400 tank size the configuration changed and it was looking to get fuel burned from a fuel meter, not from the engine.

I’m looking forward for some serious fishing trips soon, and a few over nighters.  It’s tough to drop $200 in operating costs for a day trip.  The rock fish are good eating, but I need some halibut, and full shrimp pots!

Adam,

It's a 55 gallon tank.  Here are some pictures of the original instal, I subsequently moved it forward something like 27" to improve my balance.  I didn't take any pictures after I moved it.  With the deck raised 1 1/2" over the stringers I have just enough room to run the fuel fittings, but it's tight.  In hindsight I'd raise the deck 2", maybe even 3" as my scuppers are often below the water line.





Here's the rear plumbing cluster as it comes up in the splashwell.  I ran the fuel and vent lines through 2" pvc, and have an additional 2" pvc pipe to vent the fuel tank area.  You definately want a vent at the front of the fuel tank.  When I originally plummed the tank I just had the factory vent, and I'd have to trickle in the fuel to keep it from bubbling up the fill hose, takes a long time trickling in 55 gallons!

Excellent story as always, enjoy reading about your usage of your completed boat, gives all of us who still have to launch inspiration to keep at it, thanks.

Paul,

It's good to hear that your Widebody is performing well for you.  It is amazing how many different ways people use Renns' designs.  I am sure that Renn is quite pleased with the reception that he has gotten from the hobby boat builders of the world,  much of the credit is due to Steveoh for spreading the word.  When you are fully loaded for camping,  do you know how many miles per gallon you are burning "mpg"?  If the widebody gets less than 3 mpg,  then I will probably get a slightly larger tank.  I can't wait to  put my boat  into a full lock down turn,  I probably wont do it with my wife onboard though.

thanks

Adam

Just for the hell of it I looked up some of Dave Nolan's old Yahoo posts (search for him under "widebody22" for author).  His posts make for great reading.  Check out his post number 2311 back in August of 2002.  He describes one offshore fishing trip in the widebody - "close to 60 miles on about 14 gallons."  that's  4.2 miles per gallon offshore. He also gives his thoughts on how far he can go in the widebody with various tank arrangements.

You might notice one of Bruce Armstrong's posts - number 2233 back in July 2002, in which he says he might be getting 7.5 miles gallon with his 100 horse standard.  I think maybe Bruce was mistaken there, maybe from using a flowmeter type gauge incorrectly set up.  High tech can't beat a measured amount of fuel in a tank and a notation of exact time fuel runs out over distance. 

Anyway, the whole point of all this Adam is to substantiate your 3 miles per gallon as being reasonable for your 20 mile range usage with an 18 gallon tank.  Go with the 18 gallon tank at most and keep the boat light.  You can buy Tempo 6 gallon outboard tanks or 5 gallon Blitz tanks at Walmart for a song if you ever need more range.

Dave Wright

From newbie:
GPH sounds right most statistics are mentioning Gallons Per Hour.  My old 19.5 I/O Glastron, 130hp Volvo-Penta used 9 GPH at about 3800RPM which was about 42mph on the speedometer.  Used to take about 4 hours round trip to Boothbay Harbor, Maine from Gardiner, Maine.  But, this was at about 3200rpm.  I used to listen for that magical sound, at 3200 rpm, which told me that I was saving the engine and gasoline for the long trip home.  I refuse to pay the additional $1+ for marine gas.  After filling up I usually had about 6 gallons left in the tank.  Pretty close to the 10% rule.  Using a 36 gal tank.
Guesstamating from Gardiner..20 miles to Bath, don't have my ocean charts available, about another 8 miles to Boothbay then the return to Gardiner.  But, 3 wake zones made up about 6 miles of this figure.
GPH is a more realistic figure.  No miles per gallon unless you have a GPS.
Haven't decided on POB HP yet.  Got a long ways to go.
Sorry, got off the Tolman Forum.
But, that's why I'm going to have an OB affixed to my Tolman 20'
JMB

Dave,  Paul,

Thanks for the insights,   if the Widebody gets 4 or even 5 miles per gallon,  then the 18 gallon fuel tank will be big enough for 90 percent of the boating that I plan on doing.