This is the first and only boat I have ever built. She took me 18 months to finish with around 500 hours invested. The mark of a good project is the question, "would you do it again?" In this case I would say yes. It was an interesting project that was both fun and rewarding.

There is something to be said for being 50 miles offshore in something that you built with your own two hands. I have never been in love with an inanimate object but I say with no embarrassment, I love my boat. I think it has something to do with "giving birth"- starting something from scratch and seeing it turn into this beautiful object. I'm sure you hear that a lot from people that build their own boats.

I use my boat to primarily chase tuna and yellowtail off the coast of San Diego but also trailer it down to Baja where I fish for EVERYTHING. Our biggest fish landed on the Madelisa is a 255# Blue Marlin. We have caught and released multiple Striped Marlin, sailfish and have landed three Big Eye Tuna from 107 to 119LBS.

She fishes great and handles the ocean with ease. I power her with a 90 Johnson, and with the trim tabs I installed, probably get around 3.5 -4 miles per gallon. I have an internal 55 gallon belly tank that gives me a range of around 200 miles.

She is fairly light(1200lbs dry) and trailers very easily. The drive to Cabo is around 1000 miles and we have done that twice. We have fished the Loreto area the last couple of years because it is only 700 miles south and believe it or not, we do it in one day...one very long day. But we fish the next day and it is usually WFO on the Dorado.

The highlight of the Madelisa's fishing career is winning the Make a Wish fishing tourney off San Diego last year. My girlfriend and I got a double hook up on Big Eye tuna and we landed them both. Mine was 108.9 and hers was 118.6. We were the smallest boat out of 64 and won the whole thing.

As you can see I get excited when talking about my boat. This is her 7th season and I still get a thrill driving her to the tuna grounds and spanking the albacore.

Regards:

KEvin L. BEddoe  KLBeddoe@aol.com 

P.S. The hull is per Renn Tolman's book but after that I customized it to my needs.