Nested Skiff

[Swamp985]

Evening all. I'm about to embark on my first build, but am planning my second... I want/need a ~500 lb capacity skiff/Jon with a hard enough bottom to outfit with a long tail mud for play in my local swamp, shallow enough to access the skinny winter Waters of South Louisiana, and light enough to be lifted and craddled on the roof of my second build coastal cruiser. The cruiser will be a ~28'ish trailerable shallow draft sedan.

Now for the questions... I've seen rave reviews of the FS18's performance, do the smaller boats in the line have that same performance (with a long tail) within builders past experience? Has anyone else attempted nesting a skiff on a trailerable mothership? Any thoughts, words of caution or triumphs?

[Fuzz]

Welcome Swamp!
Just bumping this for you so someone who might know will see this.

[BrianC]

I would think any of the smaller Garvey hulls would work: GV10, GV11 or GV12. All are around 100 lbs. if you build to spec and all have capacities well above 500 lbs. The flat bottom of the GV12 would pair well with a mud motor running in shallow water; the GV10 or GV11, with their small amount of deadrise at the transom, would also work and would run better in a light chop.

[TomW1]

Welcome Swamp. Agree with BrianC any of those he suggested would work. They are small buy pretty mighty. Another might be the GF11 at 105lbs and a displacement of 800lbs. You really have to decide on what you want to do. A mudbug can over whelm the wrong boat as I am sure you know. I am not sure also not sure what type of boat you are referring to in your 28' build. That is a big boat.

Tom

[Evan_Gatehouse]

Uh, there is no GV12. The V stands for vee hull and the 10,11, and 13 are all shallow V hulls. Best suited for somebody who wants to go fast in slightly choppy waters. The GF12 is flat bottom so will have slightly lower draft (1/2" or so) but will be heavier.

I carried a GV11 on my back to a guy's roof rack on his car. It wasn't pretty. If you want light, the GV10 will be lighter but you must built in okume marine plywood to keep the weight down.

The GV10 is a very spacious (wide) and stable and will easily carry 500 lb loads. But because it is not a flat bottom it will be slightly deeper than a flat bottom of the same width & length.

This gives a bit of an impression of the size and how high it will float when not loaded heavily. (about 3" draft in the photo)



I'm about 240 lbs in the photo, motor is another 85, 15 lbs of gas makes about 340 lbs. And I swear that is about 150 lbs of groceries in front of the boat. That is taken with a wide angle lens that is making the boat look narrower than it is.



When using it for long term cruising our GV10 would hold me (240 lbs) wife (about 180 - hey she's 5'11") and our daughter who was about 140 lbs when we stopped cruising. EASILY. We would put 6 adults in it sometimes for shorter trips but it wouldn't plane then of course.

[Swamper985]

Thanks all. I will take a look at the garveys. The tadpole will be my fishing platform and the weight requirement is to ensure a 2 man crew and gear have no issues with stability/water worthiness.

Looking at pics of the garveys, it appears it has high gunwales. My idea of nesting on the mothership is to come over the transom and under an extend fiberglass roof. To make that work, the gunwale height of the tadpole boat can't be much more than 16-24", or I have to think about a mothership design that has a drop down transom door to act as a ramp. I'm not worried as much about wet ride/chop, any crossings involving unsettled water would be in the mothership with the tapole only needed once on station.