On Aug 19, 10:15 pm, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:
On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:11:58 -0500, Vic Smith



wrote:

This "tunnel boat" is real interesting

"In case you have never read about the boat, I?ll give you the specs:
It is twenty feet long and 76" wide. It is strip built out of tulip
poplar and is powered by a three cylinder Kubota Diesel tractor engine
rated at 20 hp. It will run 20 knots in six inches of water and gets
about 28.6 nautical miles per gallon of Diesel fuel running at its
most economical speed of 10.5 knots."
http://robbwhite.com/rescue.minor.html

Tolman started one, but look like he retired before he finished it.
http://www.fishyfish.com/renn_tolman/index.html

Seems a boat like this could be mass-produced in glass and find a
market with today's gas prices.
But maybe not.

Penn Yann had a very similar design only with a rounded chine rather
than a square chine. They worked well enough I guess, but it never
really caught on.

It's an interesting design, but I'm confused about the tunnel system.
Looking at the drawing, it would appear that the prop sits half way
out of the water.

Than can't be very efficient.

Those pics of Cedar Key are great. It was a sailing trip to Cedar Key
that convinced me I needed a power boat for shallow water hence my
Tolman. CK has no place to dock a sailboat. I was told that if I
could get my boat (28' S2 sailboat with 4' draft)into a dock by th
waterfront I could keep her there for $50/month. Since i had fallen
in love with CK, I was determined to do so. Waited for high tide
gaging by watching depth on a piling thru binoc from anchorage, had my
son hang offa the shrouds with all my water piled on that side to heel
her, ran all out for the dock. Plowed a deep furrow thru the mud but
i got there. Most of the time, she sat nearly dry with her keel stuck
into truly slick black mud. A month and half later, I left on a high
tide plowing the same furrow and scraping a few barnacles from the
keel.