The hull is 18 feet 1 inch long and 5 feet 1 inch wide and has a squat, classic whale boat type shape.  Topsides to keel is no more than 22 to 23 inches.  The center board should not draw more than 2 feet and is ballasted internally with cement set around the centerboard slot.  All internal bulkheads and seats are wood coated with glass.  The hull may be wood covered with glass or just glass.Mast stay rigging is still attached to the topsides and a modern swivle main sheet cleat is still attached to a center cross- beam.The boat has dimensions similar to a Rhodes marlin, but it is not a

Today we all showed up at Joe's house south of Portland to turn his 18' Tolman Skiff. It only weighed about 500lbs so it was a usual Tolman turning, a few minutes of work and lots of boat looking.

Joe has done a fine job. His graphite bottom is smooth and shiny and he did a great job of fairing the seams. His attention to detail will make the rest of the job go fast. The usual length for the Tolman Standard skiff is 20ft. but Joe's is only 18'. Everyone agreed that the boat looked great and this was going to be one good working skiff.

After the turning and mandatory hour of boat looking and talk, we all settled down to a feast of taco salad and other goodies. See more photos...

Here's my duckboat, the Peregrine. I designed and built her myself. I couldn't find a professionally designed boat out there that filled my needs, and there's still not one. There are a lot of great duck skiffs out there, Devlin has several, and recently, Jacques Mertens finally designed one, the DS15, which should be a great boat. Problem is they are V bottom boats, and I and just about everyone that hunts in South Louisiana needs a flat bottom boat. Gatorboats had the Duckhunter, another good boat, but it doesn't plane well. So I designed my own. Here are a couple of other pics:

- 1957 Thistle 1014 - Restored in 2002