Proboat.com Boat Design Contest

If you think the average SUV is expensive to run around in these days you probably don't own a power boat.

I don't know scientifically know what the average mileage of power boats is and at any rate averages can be fairly misleading, since they are after all a compilation of extremes. I do know from my experience around a few boats that 2 mpg is quite common and that 1 or 1.2 mpg isn't rare either. That said it stands to reason that with gas pushing or going over $5 per gallon at many docks, running the boat any distance gets quite spendy.

So what can be done about this? Drill more oil? Clean up the speculators? Get rid of our gas guzzling boats and switch to sail boating? Sure maybe... but what about designing a better boat? After all more oil might help in the mid-term, getting rid of oil speculators is the right thing to do, and let's face it not all of us want to crawl around at 6 knots ( don't get me wrong I love to sail and own a couple of sailboats too) so why not build a better boat.

The folks at ProBoat.com (publishers of Wooden Boat Magazine and Professional Boatbuilder) noticed that there has been a dearth of fuel efficient, seaworthy boats in recent past and decided that it was time to throw down and sponsor a contest. The idea is to come up with a small power boat that is seaworthy and fuel efficient, burning 2 gallons an hour while doing 15 knots with a 650lb payload.

So all of you designers and aspiring designers out there now is the time to rise to the challenge and build a better boat, after all when have we ever had the ability to communicate ideas, access research on past design efforts, and learn from others attempts than now.

I don't know about you but I've got some ideas of my own, I'm thinking of something between a Tolman and a Simmon Sea Skiff but with a stepped bottom and done in foam core composite, light, seaworthy, efficient, easy on the eyes, and low maintenance..... So what's your idea?

Learn more about the contest here.