I’ve always thought the Bo-Jest was such a neat looking boat. This is truly the type of boat you don’t see everywhere and can rightly be called a “Character boat”. It’s certainly not something you can just buy at a local boat shop! Today’s video is of Tom Smitherman’s boat taken at last years Gathering in Tennessee. Tom did a wonderful job and it was so exciting to get a tour of his handiwork. I love his story about what his wife said to him when he was considering building his first boat. Let’s just say she isn’t laughing anymore…

Tom's Bo-Jest--beautiful!

Tom provided some construction photos of his build in our Customer Photos section. He shows several photos of flipping the boat which are interesting–looks a lot bigger when you have to turn it over. The Bo-Jest is an 18 foot pocket cruiser which is also a tug-style design. This is a semi-displacement vee-bottom hull which means it will be fuel efficient and stable. This type of boat isn’t meant for speed, but nice slow cruising. The cabin has full standing headroom with a 360 degree view which makes it seem really spacious. It has a vee berth for two up front and Tom has a bench seat in the cabin area next to a fold-down seat for his granddaughter to sleep on. She travels quite a bit with them. As is common when building your own boat, Tom changed around the arrangement of the cabin to suit the needs of his family. He has a small sink and a private head which I’m sure is appreciated by the ladies he travels with. Another of my favorite photos is of the Bo-Jest in Venice. This one was built by Thomas Walli in Sweden and I’ve always loved the beautiful photo he sent with the buildings in the background–very striking. He also built a very nice boat! The Bo-Jest can be powered with an inboard or outboard and is built with sheet plywood. You can find all the details and get the plans and full size patterns to build your very own Character Boat in our online catalog. Thank you Tom for the great interview! Enjoy… (This video was done by Chris Dixon of Vineyard Productions in Georgia)