On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:25:56 -0400, hk wrote:

What is also ridiculous is a home brew builder claiming his boat is as
strong as a factory built boat. What does your boat weigh, sans engine,
fuel, et cetera? Under 1000 pounds? The last 18-foot boat I had weighed
1650 pounds and was built like a tank. My current boat is 21' and weighs
almost 3000 pounds. I bet you think weight isn't relative to strength in
boats capable of running in heavy water.

Depending on the care taken by the home-builder, he could well have a
more solid boat than a factory boat.
Factory boats *are* hand-made, by factory workers.
Some of them might come in with a hangover, and the QC guy might have
one too.
Many things can wrong during the build process, and get hidden.
The home builder has the advantage of *knowing* nothing went wrong.
How spotty the manufacturing process is can be seen by reading about
Carolina Skiff problems, which I've seen in the forums.
Now, I'm not scared about buying a CS, but if I built a boat myself I
would *know* exactly what I'm getting.
Same holds true with a lot of stuff, including car mechanical work and
woodworking.
Regarding weight, I've read where major brand factory-made boats
all come out at different weights, due to different guys doing the
glass/resin/epoxy work. Sometimes it's a significant difference,
maybe 100-200 pounds on an 18'.
The CS owners were measuring the thickness of their transoms and came
out with a bunch of different measurements, varying an inch or so.
According to CS itself that was "normal" and attributed to different
workers doing the job, and maybe something about their transom board
supplier - can't remember exactly.
As far as weight/strength ratios and heavy water, it's more
complicated than you suggest, otherwise we'd all be in iron or cement
boats.
Since the Tolmans are long-time Alaskan water boats, I wouldn't worry
about their "strength."

--Vic