Today my friend Eric Kimes and I weighed his HB Marquesa 18’ skiff along with the Lithium 18 skiff I built for him 2-1/2 years ago. We also weighed the Beryllium 19’ skiff seen here.
In town just down the road here In Mt. Olive is the main weigh scale for all the feed trucks. Extremely accurate scale. It’s all farming here.
What we did was record everything in videos so no fussing later from the gallery.
We weighed the truck with the skiff on each trailer. We then weighed the truck alone. We then took the skiffs off the trailers and weighed again.
Now what I have done in my time is weigh every single piece of hardware that can be put on a skiff. From screws, to wire, rub rails by the foot on down to electrical fittings. It’s extensive. All down to the .01 ounce.
With this list I know exactly what the rigging part of the Beryllium weighs and any other skiff ever built. The cool thing about this is it’s pretty much the same weight that goes on all skiffs. Rub rail weights differ a bit but not by much. Then it’s down to steering wheel makes.
So what I installed on my 19’ long lithium skiff is pretty much the same thing as what goes on all skiffs. Just add or subtract some ounces for the rubrail.
Batteries play a big roll too. On the Beryllium I bought a 58lb marine battery.
I will post all my numbers on my blog for the accountants on here.
So... by the numbers,
The Beryllium 19 weighs all up fully rigged as seen above without fuel...1120 lbs.
Less motor and rigging as a bare hull, hatches etc...676 lbs.
the Lithium 18 is a solid glass hull, built with 1-1/8” thick core for all the interior structure. She is a tank.
Fully rigged with a tiller Tohatsu 50....1198Lbs.
Less engine and rigging...bare hull and hatches with 24 gal aluminum fuel tank....834Lbs.
the HB Marquesa 18 has a 115 Evinrude on her, with a trolling motor on the bow. She weighs rigged as such at 1602 Lbs.
Less engine and all rigging...902 for the bare hull. She floats nice and high.
The total weight for all rigging on the Beryllium skiff which includes Sea Star steering, everything is 183 lbs.
I added and subtracted this weight from the other 2 different skiffs using my master weight list
ok now what I did was look up current hull weight quotes from manufacturers today.
The Chittum 21 is the closest hull in size to the Beryllium 19.
They say 750 lbs for the hull weight. So if you subtract the 182 lbs as a close rigging weight then their hull weighs 567 Lbs for a 21’ skiff ?
HB says their Marquesa hulls weight is 695 lbs.
Subtract the basic rigging weight of 183lbs then the bare hull should weigh 512 Lbs.
I wonder what’s up with the “hull weights”.
Now I have the hull dimensions of the above hulls so I know what their displacements are which means it’s very easy to just look at the waterline to know how much they really weigh. And I have my weight list.
Now onto what I spent on my build.
I keep very meticulous records. Total cost for the skiff seen above including all jig work, extra tables, fully rigged with an epoxy outer hull and the rest in US Composite polyester resin using Divinycell core and AWLGRIP paint, Print cost to have the plans on hand,Etc.
She came to $9,787.05.
Now add the Yahmaha 70, it’s prop and the trailer cost.
Oh yea don’t forget to buy the plans, $350.00 + printing costs.
Helps keep me in my black beans and rice lifestyle.
something to ponder...
I used just over 225 yards of materials in this build. This comprised Basalt cloth, eglass cloth and matt.
I spent $1,070.00 on the above materials if I used all carbon cloth weave materials at lets say $23.00 a yard that means an all carbon skiffs needed material would be $5,175.00. Now subtract the above materials and you get $4,105.00 all up cost.
To do this on the CHITTUM 18 which is way smaller than the Beryllium above You will be charged $15,000.00 more for just the carbon cloth upgrade.
Go figure...Hal’s a genius
This is the scale showing truck, skiff on the trailer.
Total 9,200 lbs.
- 7600 lbs truck weight
= 1600 lbs trailer and skiff
- 480 lbs trailer
= 1120 lbs hull and motor skiff fully rigged
- 261 lbs motor and prop
=857 lbs skiff hull rigged
- 183 lbs rigging complete
=676 “ bare hull weight”
Beryllium 19 hulls displacement draft weight at 6” is 1373 Lbs.
So add fuel at 20 gals x 6.3 lbs per gal = 126 lbs.
Looks like she will draft at around 6-1/2” - 7” as built with sports aboard.
launching on Monday.