“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. Being light for her size, Bright Star is easy to tow. We use a Dodge Ram diesel 4-door pickup.

Ray built her on our backporch. It took 2.5 years, from delivery of CNC plywood for the hull to launching. We customized ours as a cabin cruiser, for cruising and fishing, and have enjoyed short trips and extended cruising. A few years ago, we created an extra berth, and have had family members join us. Sharing the boat with family who will carry on with it has been special. We also switched from a chemical toilet to a composting one, which works very well.

The boat is powered by a Cummins turbo diesel MerCruiser 1.7L, 120hp, inboard/outboard. Cruising speed is 18 mph and cruising weight, fully provisioned and stowed, is 3800 pounds. We get great fuel economy. With two 36-gallon tanks, we have a range of 300 miles, at speed. We have 8750 statute miles under our keel, and miles to go this season.

Local home area day trips and cruising have been in the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. 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 seeing the smaller communities.

We’ve explored the South Sound, and spent lots of time “Up North”, mostly inside Vancouver Island, in the San Juans, the Gulf Islands, up the Fraser River, and north on the BC mainland side. We cruised in the Broughton Archipelago, taking truck and boat-on-trailer on the ferry Coho over to Victoria and driving to Port McNeill to launch. An outside trip from Port Townsend, west and up the outside of Vancouver Island to Walters Cove, almost to Brooks Peninsula,
taught us that when the fishing boats are filling the harbor in Tofino, we should stay put.

With cruising put on hold during 2020 and 2021, and more time at home, Ray began building another boat. Based on a Tolman hull design, with some changes to the topsides, it is a 21′ open speedboat, fitted with a 100hp electric motor, solar panels and good lightweight lithium batteries, built for use on a lake.

“Bright Star” is still our favorite (speedy) moving home on the water.

More information on the building of cabin boat “Bright Star” — https://backporchboat.org/