Sailing is our main boating passion, but we thought it would be fun to have a fast run-about to explore the Columbia River and surrounding areas. After building a couple of smaller sailboats the 25’ Surf Runner design as a stitch-and-glue by Sam Devlin looked like a good candidate for a power boat and the next challenge. Sam was kind enough to modify his original design to take an outboard motor versus an inboard.
The hull was built upside-down in our “barn” using mostly okoume marine plywood and meranti cold-molded over the bottom. The first changes I made were to add chine flats, for earlier planing and better carving, and a tunnel for a bow thruster. The latter to help in windy marinas with strong river currents.
After bottom paint, flipping the hull, and getting the sole in, we realized how little headroom there would be in the cabin and decided this wasn’t going to fly as is, particularly with my wife. So, I designed a cuddy cabin with 14” more headroom at the helm bulkhead and 10” more at the forward end. While not intended to be an overnighter, there are two 7-foot berths and a porta-potty now with adequate headroom. The cuddy makes all the difference in the world for us.
Other features include a 200 HP long shaft Yamaha outboard, 60-gallon fuel tank, tilt wheel with hydraulic steering, trim tabs, an electric windlass, and suspension built into the pedestals for comfortable helm and co-pilot seating. Cabin sides, transom and trim are done in sapele.
Construction will be a little less than 3 years part-time. She is still unnamed but will have a name and be ready to launch by June. The build is photo-documented at https://brownz.com/surf-runner-construction-blog/