Between day jobs and a pair of young kids each, we have spent nights and weekends building a prototype boat called "Little Tahoma". The key methods and concepts demonstrated with this prototype are:

• A 2-piece hull designed for expedient manufacturing from advanced composite materials and a Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfusion Molding (VARTM) technique

• Expanding foam fill to create an extremely strong, watertight, and buoyant hull

• Net positive reserve buoyancy when fully swamped, i.e. you can fill the boat with water until it's spilling out over the transom and it maintains positive, level flotation

• Self-bailing decks, i.e. the deck you sit and walk on is above the static waterline and has a drain overboard, so any water that comes into the boat is passively drained out by gravity, no bilge pumps needed

• Smooth ride and predictable handling, giving comfort in the choppy conditions we get in the Salish Sea while maintaining stability and surefootedness

• Gunnel mounted accessory system to host a wide variety of accessories and allow the operator to quickly adapt the boat to different uses such as cruising, entertaining, fishing, camping, utility, or anything else they can imagine

We are pleased to report that we have successfully demonstrated ALL of these objectives with the Little Tahoma prototype. It is made from 2 infused pieces of fiberglass, filled with expanding foam, floats full of water, self-bails, handles great on and off plane, and hosts gunnel mounted accessories. All of the lessons learned from manufacturing and testing Little Tahoma have been integrated into the full size design.