Little Tahoma’s first big test on the water

WE have been making great progress developing our designs and business plans for Alki Watercraft! As things have matured, there have been some fundamental assumptions we've had to go back and re-think, but this iterative process has resulted in an even more capable and affordable design baseline that we are very excited about. We are accepting no compromises on delivering a product that is affordable, safe, capable, and flexible. We appreciate your continued enthusiasm and engagement, and trust us, no one wants to unveil our design and announce our initial production run more than us. Stay tuned!

For this month's newsletter, we'll share the story of our first day of testing with Little Tahoma. The approach for testing was to incrementally expand the envelope, starting with tests of basic safety and flotation right at shore, then slow speed maneuvering, then higher speed handling and ride characteristics. A chase boat was also utilized to provide an additional layer of safety and a platform for close observations. We were blessed with a perfect calm spring day on Elliott Bay.

Test Objective #1: Does it float? YES!

Test Objective #2: Does it float with someone in it? YES!

Test Objective #3: Does it float with someone in it, and full of water? YES!

Test Objective #4: Is it self-bailing? YES!

We simply pulled the plug and monitored to see if the water pumped itself out.

At this point, we had proven the boat would safely float and self-bail in the event of an emergency. This layer of safety made it easy to progress to the next step of testing, and take the boat away from shore under its own power.

Test Objective #5: Demonstrate low speed handling.

First departure!

Chase boat launching!

Drone camera airborne!

Low speed handling tests were generally uneventful, but it was thrilling being on the water in a boat that we had built with our own minds and hands.

Test Objective #6: Demonstrate planing and high speed handling.

I was immediately impressed with how composed the handling was at speed. Little Tahoma was cruising comfortably at 20mph, and hitting wakes at that speed was smooth and drama free. Cornering was natural, and she felt stable and predictable in the turns. This objective was a huge success.

We got some great aerial footage of this first run from our drone cam.

As you can tell, this first set of tests was an absolute success. Little Tahoma accomplished every objective we had for her with flying colors. We definitely had observations and some things we wanted to experiment with, but the results for a totally clean sheet design were overwhelmingly positive. We have since taken Little Tahoma as far as Vashon Island, Blake Island, and Lake Washington. We have grand designs to take her out to the San Juan Islands, but first we need to get our first production model going.

Back to work!