I had dreamed of owning my own boat for many years. I owned a canoe which I used in fresh and salt water almost daily in central Florida way back in the eighties and nineties. But I really wanted a boat I could easily fish in the flats of the Banana River, Mosquito Lagoon, or in Lake Tohopolega, or out in the Atlantic Ocean far off shore in search of Blue Fish, Spanish and King Mackerel, Red Fish, Tuna, and Dolphin or Mahi-Mahi.

Then in the late 90’s I moved to California, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Here I found the ocean conditions rough and tumble most of the year, and water and wind too big and uncomfortable. For years I went fishing with my friend Rick B. and Whitebear on their Seaswirl Stripers. These are fine offshore fishing boats, but for me I desired something a bit more personal and not factory made.

And so I started thinking that I could build my own boat. Crazy idea but I’m trained as an artist, and I have very often set my sight on lofty goals. Did a lot of research and thought I wanted to build an outboard powered dory. But I changed my mind when reading how slow dory’s can be and how tippy. Since I wanted to fish and crab for Dungeness crab, and CoonStripe Shrimp on the ocean, I wanted a boat with good handling characteristics in a following sea as well as an oncoming and quarter sea, and it needed to be very stable at rest. The bow needed to be turned up for large swells and big wind waves and chop, and it needed reserve buoyancy for when I really loaded the boat up with fuel and ice for Tuna fishing.

And then one day I stumbled upon a book called a A Skiff for All Seasons, by Renn Tolman. This book was wooden boat plans in book form! The author assumed you’d never built an epoxy and fiberglass encapsulated, marine grade plywood off shore fishing boat. He very clearly teaches you the basics of using these materials, and step by step goes through the process of building a diy wooden fishing boat.

I decided this was the boat. Fast forward a few years, and you can see my progress on this Tolman Skiff boat project

You can also check many other Wooden Boat Projects in the links below. Most of these projects are of the four different kinds of Tolman Skiffs.

Some keywords to help the search engines and boat building enthusiasts find us.

Renn Tolman

Tolman Skiff

Wooden Boat

Wooden Boat Projects

Wooden Boat Plans

DIY Boat Plans

Build your own Wooden Boat

Stitch and Glue

Tack and Tape

Wooden Boat Plans in book form

Skiff Plans

Offshore fishing boat plans

build your own offshore fishing boat

scarfing

lofting

boating forum

boat building forum

wooden boat building forum

Tolman Skiff Seabright

1. Renn Tolman – Tolman Seabright
2. Renn Tolman

Other Boat Projects

1. Anderson Boatyard

Articles

1. Bob Lanham’s – Vacuum Packer
2. Renn Tolman – Becharof Adventure
3. Bruce Armstrong – Canadian Adventure 2003
4. Bruce Armstrong – Canadian Adventure 2007
5. Bruce Armstrong – Alaskan Adventure – Homer Wooden Boat Show
6. Bruce Armstrong – Alaskan Adventure – Homer Wooden Boat Show Version2
7. Trailer Boat Magazine: Kevin Bedoe’s Tolman Tolman Skiff Jumbo
8. Tolman Skiff Builder’s Shops
9. How to Build Your Own Boat Trailer – trailer.pdf
10. Tolman Tips – From the Tolman Group
11. Suzuki DF140 SetUp_Manual_2.pdf (file download)
12. Groundfish, a Case Study – groundfish.pdf (file download)
13. Process Sashimi Grade Tuna – Sashimi.pdf (file download)
14. Asbury Park Press – Nolan’s Ark
15. Audio Interview of Renn Tolman (halfway through)
16. Kevin Beddoe Article – Duckworks Magazine
17. Bruce Armstrong’s Review of A Skiff For All Seasons
18. Bob Southwick’s 2005 Trip to Homer
19. How to Catch Shrimp
20. How to Rig a Shrimp Trap
21. San Francisco Bay Coffee Roasters
22. eTrade is Evil
23. Curtis Hanson – Tolman Skiff Widebody (for sale!) New!
24. How to Catch Shrimp
25. DIY Boat Building
26. Wooden Boat Building
27. Stitch and Glue Boat Building
28. Wooden Boat Plans
29. Wooden Skiff Plans
30. Curtis Hanson – Tolman Skiff Widebody New Images (for sale!) New!
31. Wooden Skiffs For Sale
32. Protoco Crab Trap
33. Danielson Crab Trap
34. Shrimp Recipes
35. Prawn Recipes
36. Shrimp are tasty little critters
37. An Early Example of a flat bottomed Tolman Skiff

Tolmanskiff Tolman Skiff Standard

1. Neil Andrews – Tolman Skiff Standard, Tolman Skiff Widebody, Tolman Skiff Jumbo
2. Bruce Armstrong – Tolman Skiff Standard
3. Kevin Beddoe – Tolman Skiff Standard, Tolman Skiff Jumbo
4. Kevin Beddoe’s – Personal Tolman Skiff Website
5. Jon Berger – Tolman Skiff Standard
6. Bob Casler – Tolman Skiff Standard
7. Brian Fagan – Tolman Skiff Standard
8. Jeff Hazelwood – Tolman Skiff Standard
9. Dave Lambert – Tolman Skiff Standard
10. Dave Morgan – Tolman Skiff Standard
11. Joe Nelson – Tolman Skiff Standard
12. Todd Powell – Tolman Skiff Standard
13. Steve Reed – Tolman Skiff Standard-For Sale!
14. Richard Seagraves – Tolman Skiff Standard, Tolman Skiff Jumbo
15. Jim Shula – Tolman Skiff Standard
16. Renn Tolman
17. Phil Walker – Tolman Skiff Standard
18. Dave Wright – Tolman Skiff Standard

Tolmanskiff Tolman Skiff Widebody

1. Tom Anderson – Tolman Skiff Widebody
2. Neil Andrews – Tolman Skiff Standard, Tolman Skiff Widebody, Tolman Skiff Jumbo
3. Doug Buescher – Tolman Skiff Widebody
4. Nicola Caria – Tolman Skiff Widebody
5. Jim Crawford – Tolman Skiff Widebody
6. David Dobler – Tolman Skiff Widebody
7. Charlie Gieseker – Tolman Skiff Widebody
8. Paul Hail – Tolman Skiff Widebody
9. Curtis Hanson – Tolman Skiff Widebody
10. Doug Huvar – Tolman Skiff Widebody
11. Gary Kendall Widebody – For Sale!
12. Adam Kondrashoff – Tolman Skiff Widebody
13. Glenn McLain – Tolman Skiff Widebody
14. David Nolan – Tolman Skiff Widebody
15. John O’neil’s – Tolman Skiff Widebody
16. Gary Porter – Tolman Skiff Widebody(s)
17. Mike Schlechter – Tolman Skiff Widebody
18. Ben Stuart – Tolman Skiff Widebody – For Sale!
19. Mike Rudolf – Tolman Skiff Widebody
20. Russ Taylor – Tolman Skiff Widebody
21. Renn Tolman
22. Liam Tovey – Tolman Skiff Widebody
23. James White – Tolman Skiff Widebody
24. JIm Wilcox – Tolman Skiff Widebody
25. Ron Williams – Tolman Skiff Widebody
26. Friedhelm Wurfel – Tolman Skiff Widebody

Tolmanskiff Tolman Skiff Jumbo

1. Neil Andrews – Tolman Skiff Standard, Tolman Skiff Widebody, Tolman Skiff Jumbo
2. Kevin Beddoe – Tolman Skiff Standard, Tolman Skiff Jumbo
3. Steve Bolton – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
4. Walter Bovich – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
5. Ray Brown – Tolman Skiff Jumbo w/diesel
6. Kenneth Chace – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
7. Stephen Dampier – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
8. Brian Dixon – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
9. Russ Dodd – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
10. Kenneth Dodson – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
11. Aaron Enstad – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
12. Craig Floerchinger – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
13. Jerry Johnson – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
14. David Klistoff – Tolman Skiff Jumbo 25′
15. Bob and Bruce Lanham – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
16. Stephen Mailloux – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
17. Charley Martin-Berry – 26’Tolman Skiff Jumbo
18. Jesse Morgan – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
19. Paul Nelson – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
20. David Nolan – Super Tolman Skiff Jumbo
21. Jim O’Meara – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
22. Fletcher Poole – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
23. Neal Schlee – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
24. Richard Seagraves – Tolman Skiff Standard, Tolman Skiff Jumbo
25. Bob Southwick (Walk-N-Bob) – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
26. Bob Southwick (Walk-N-Bob) – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project
    • K’ Marie’s Adventures
    • K’ Marie’s Adeventures
    • K’ Marie’s Adventures
    • K’ Marie’s Adventures
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project step 1
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project step 2
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 1
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 2
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 3
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 4
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 5
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 6
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 7
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 8
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 9
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 10
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 12
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 13
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 14
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 16
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 17
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 18
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 19
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 20
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 21
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 22
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 23
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 24
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 25
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 26
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 27
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 28
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 29
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 30
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 31
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 32
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 33
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 34
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 36
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 39
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 42
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 44
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 47
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 48
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 49
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 54
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 56
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 57
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 68
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 69
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 71
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 73
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 76
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 77
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 81
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 82
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 86
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 91
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 93
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 95
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 112
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 115
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 119
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 124
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 129
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 133
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 136
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 139
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 141
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 143
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 147
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 151
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 153
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 156
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 161
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 164
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 167
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page 169
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page Mayday
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page delaminate
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page beddoe bow
    • WalknBob’s Tolman Skiff project page big view
27. Robert Strawbridge – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
28. Robert Strawbridge – Tolman Skiff Jumbo – Personal Site
29. Renn Tolman
30. Martin Wagner – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
31. Mike Wagner – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
32. JIm Ward – Tolman Skiff Jumbo
33. plywood stitch and glue
34. stitch and glue (tack and tape) skiff
35. stitch and glue boat designs
36. Marine Grade Plywood Test

Dampier’s Wooden Tolman Skiff Jumbo Boat Build and Adventure Installments

1. Build the Tolman Skiff Transom and Saw Horses
2. Scarfing Bottom Panels and Boat Canopy
3. Lofting and Heating Up Crystallized Epoxy
4. Fairing the Shelves (Gunnels)
5. Stiching and Gluing the Bottom Panels
6. Scraping Fiberglass and Chine Shelves
7. Routing Slots for Chine Shelves and Gluing up the Botom
8. Glassing the Bottom of the Tolman Skiff Jumbo
9. Finishing Bottom, and Begin the Framing
10. Installing the Bowstem, and Fitting the Stringers
11. Fitting the Bottom to the Stringers
12. Glue Stringers to Transom
13. Glue Bottom to Stringers
14. Scarfing Side Panels
15. Port Side Panel Installed
16. Starboard Side Panel Installed
17. Taping Bottom and Sides and Transom
18. Fiberglass the sides
19. Catch a 34lb Salmon!!
20. Sanding and Glassing Bottom
21. Graphite Epoxy on the Bottom
22. New Used Escort Trailer
23. UHMW Strakes on the bottom
24. Fitting the Trailer
25. Spray Rail Construction
26. Spray Rail Installation
27. Spray Rail Graphite Epoxy
28. Tolman Jumbo Turning!
29. Filleting and Fiberglass Taping the Chine
30. Birth of My First Child!
31. 30 Gallon Aluminum Fuel Tank
32. Side Decks or Gunnels
33. Bowpipe Drilling and Installation
34. Glassing and Taping the Stringers and Transom
35. Raise the Stringers, Boat Leveling on the Trailer, Tuna Fishing
36. Collision Bulkhead
37. Collision Bulkhead, Forward Cuddy Bulkhead, Bow Deck
38. Rear Cuddy Bulkhead
39. Rear Cuddy Bulkhead
40. Cuddy Cabin Bunks
41. Finish Bunks and Cuddy Side Panels
42. Finish Bunks and Cuddy Side Panels – Dupe
43. Life is complicated. Cuddy Sides and Roof Glassed
44. Deck at Transom
45. Fish Hold, and Deck
46. Stringers, and Remote Air to Protect My Health
47. Rough Day, Web Stringers, etc.
48. Fuel Tank
49. More Fuel Tank, Primed, and Epoxied, Fuel Filler, Rear Deck and Electrical Runs
50. Splashwell, Steering Station
51. Splashwell, Battery Boxes, Cuddy Cabin Arc
52. Battery Boxes, Cuddy Cabin Arc Continued
53. Battery Boxes, Transom
54. Fairing Battery Boxes, Wheelhouse Framing
55. Drag the Boat Out for a Look See, Sanding, and Looking at the Wheelhouse Profile
56. Wheelhouse Framing, Window Cut Outs
57. Glass Up the Window Frames, and Adjust Trailer Winch
58. Boat Building Project 55
59. Boat Building Project56
60. Boat Building Project 57
61. Boat Building Project 58
62. Boat Building Project 59
63. Boat Building Project 60
64. Boat Building Project 61
65. Boat Building Project 62
66. Boat Building Project 63
67. Boat Building Project 64
68. Boat Building Project 65
69. Boat Building Project 66
70. Boat Building Project 67
71. Boat Building Project 68
72. Boat Building Project 69
73. Boat Building Project 70
74. Boat Building Project 71
75. Boat Building Project 72
76. Boat Building Project 73
77. Boat Building Project 74
78. Boat Building Project 75
79. Boat Building Project 76
80. Boat Building Project 77
81. Boat Building Project 78
82. Boat Building Project 79
83. Boat Building Project 80
84. Boat Building Project 81

Links

1. Weather Links
2. Boat Links
3. Tackle Store Links
4. Fishing Site Links
5. Fishing Regulations Links
6. Miscellaneous Links
7. Diesel Links