“Bright Star” is a Tolman Jumbo 24, from a design by Renn Tolman of Homer, Alaska. As are all the Tolman boats, she is a plywood stitch-and-glue wooden boat, and light for her size.
The Tolman Alaskan Skiffs began as 18′ open boats, built for fishing in Alaskan waters. The basic design has evolved. Most now are cabin boats 22′-24′ long, with a few built at 26′, and built by the people who plan to use them.
Ray built her on our backporch. It took 2.5 years, from delivery of plywood to launching. We customized ours as a cabin cruiser, for cruising and fishing. Recently, we switched from a chemical toilet to a composting one, and are well-pleased at how it works. Two sleep and live comfortably on Bright Star, and last year we created a bed space for a family member to join us. It worked very well.
The boat is powered by a Cummins diesel MerCruiser 1.7L, 120hp, inboard/outboard. Cruising speed is 18 mph and cruising weight, fully provisioned and stowed, is 3800 pounds. Being light for its size, Bright Star is easy to tow. We use a Dodge Ram diesel 4-door pickup.
This boat gets great fuel economy. With two 36-gallon tanks, we have a range of 300 miles, at speed. So far, we have 7900+ statute miles under our keel. Note: This is at WBF appplication time. More cruising happens in the 2023 season.
Local home area day trips and cruising have been in the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. But most of our cruising has been up north, in salt water. Having a trailerable boat allows us freedom easily to go farther, and get into salt water in Washington and BC. As former long distance offshore sailboat cruisers, we find it great fun to get to places faster, and have more time for fishing, exploring, and in ports for seeing the smaller communities.
We’ve explored the South Sound, spent a lot of time inside, along Vancouver Island, in the San Juans, more time in the Gulf Islands, went up the Fraser River, and north on the BC mainland side. We cruised in the Broughton Archipelago, taking the ferry Coho over to Victoria and driving up to Port McNeill to launch. An outside trip from Port Townsend to Walters Cove, almost to Brooks Peninsula, taught us that when the fishing boats are filling the harbor in Tofino, we should stay put. Ask us how we know this boat can fly.
Cruising was put on hold during 2020 and 2021. With more time at home, Ray began building another boat. Based on a Tolman hull design, it is a 21′ open speedboat, modified to be all-electric, with solar panels and Tesla batteries, built for use on a lake.
More information on the building of cabin boat Bright Star — www.backporchboat.org/
— Ray Brown