Selecting Our Project Boat:
The Search for Toy Boat 2:

Our project boat was a result of some hard work, and more than a little luck...

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Background

Design Parameters

The Search

The Finalists

The Winner

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Design Parameters

The first thing I did was to try to make a reasonable assessment of the capabilities I needed in an offshore boat:

• Adequate speed - In my experience, a comfortable running speed in the ocean is somewhere around 20 -25 mph. Assuming a 10+ hour fishing day, a maximum running time of 3 hours (+ 3 hours back) would still leave me around 4+ hours to fish. That means I could potentially be fishing 60 - 75 miles out.
  
  
• Ability to run in reasonably rough water  - In Southern California, I would need to be able to run at cruise speed in 2 - 4' fairly long swells, with maybe 1-2 ft wind chop, and 5 - 10 knot breezes
  
  
• Ability to survive really rough water conditions if needed . Comfort not a priority.
  
  
• Space to mount a minimal set of electronics: radio, sonar, small mapping GPS unit, and the ability to power everything (including the bait tank). 
  
  
• Ability to handle 2-3 "scoops" of live bait like anchovies or sardines
  
  
• Adequate range  - Using the 1/3 - 1/3 - 1/3 rule ("Use 1/3 of your fuel to get out, 1/3 to get back, and keep 1/3 in reserve for bad weather, etc."), I would need enough gas to go 60 * 3 = 180 miles.
  
  
• Adequate room and storage space to allow two people to fish comfortably. This included the ability to handle a large number of fishing rods - I really enjoy light tackle and salt water fly fishing, and estimated that I would need to carry between 5 and 10 rods per person- several  spinning or conventional rods, plus at least a couple of fly rods.

Aside from the boating and fishing issues, it turns out I had a couple of other constraints:

• Size - I wanted to be able to keep the boat on a trailer in the garage, which restricted the total length on the trailer to 19' 6", the maximum height to 7', and the maximum width to something well under 8' (had to be able to get out of the other car!).
  
  
• I wanted to use as much stuff off my old boat (a well-equipped V-hull aluminum bass boat) as possible. A quick assessment:
  

Toy Boat 1

• The desire to use the old motor (a 90 HP Johnson 2-stroke) had some immediate implications. After a bit of research (see the article "How Much Power Do You Really Need?" in this issue), it appeared I would be OK with a hull up to around 1500 lbs.
  
  This automatically limited the size of a fiberglass hull to around 18 feet or less. This meshed well with the garage length limit, which also restricted LOA (length over-all) to somewhere around 18' (allowing 18" for the motor, and assuming that the trailer would have a removable tongue).
  
  On the flip side, there are not a lot of aluminum hulls in the sub-18 ft. range that are rated to handle 90 HP. Most aluminum hulls in that size range seemed to work best with outboards in the 50 - 60 HP range.
  
  
• Handling and seaworthiness requirements implied a V-hull of some sort, preferably with a fair amount of deadrise through the transom, flared bow with a pretty sharp entry, and some intelligent use of chines and strakes to control spray.
  
  
• Based on various rules of thumb, I thought I should be able to achieve 2.5 - 3 miles per gallon at cruising speed. This implied a fuel capacity of around 40 - 60 gallons.
  
  
• Maximum fishing room implied something like a center console layout or a small walkaround cuddy cabin, with as much under-deck or enclosed storage as possible.
  
  
• Live bait requirements implied a livewell size around 40+ gallons. See the article on "Small Boat Livewells" in this issue.