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the TONGDEE long tails By Sean Walker What are we about? We are about sport boats. First off let me describe what our boats are used for. All out boats are for shallow rivers and lakes and most of all fun. When we say shallow rivers we mean 6 in. of water, sometimes less. We are always experimenting with ways to make our boats perform better and be even more fun to use. The long tail facilitates shallow water use but the boat must be of a design that will handle shallow water too. Our boats are real performers, so much so that their use is limited only by the amount of water needed to allow the propeller enough depth to drive the boat. Jet skis and jet boats often make this shallow water claim but unfortunately they need the intake for the water jet pump to be under water and if the water is shallow it will defiantly scoop up debris from the river bottom that will severely damage the pump impeller. The only other boats that can operate in water this shallow are Airboats and Hovercraft, we build them too. We usually build small boats. Our 11 ½ -foot boat has a maximum capacity of three people. The Nitwing handles two persons and is 10 feet long. Our mini boat, the 8 foot Ruranit is a single person boat; it can be called a PWC (personal water craft). So our boats can go in shallower water than a jet ski but not as fast or nearly as heavy. They are a fraction of the cost of the Jet Ski to build and very inexpensive to operate too. They easily fit in a pickup truck with a single person doing the lifting I am in the process of designing and building an airboat. An airboat is a boat that uses an airplane propeller and is quite fast. Check out my hovercraft, it goes on land too. If you are interested about how the motor and tail is set up go to the long tail motor link. there you will find a detailed description. Personal goals of the designer Well, here is where I write what it is that drives me to design and build these boats. It’s as I have said elsewhere, play, fun, thrills, and exhilaration. Everyone should have something similar in their lives to be happy about. It is something that turns you on so to speak, an escape from boredom. More years ago than I care to mention I was one of the few people who opened up the Golden Triangle of Thailand and other areas to motorcycle riding. At that time there were few highways but mostly back roads in poor condition. The degree of difficulty made for an exciting time but those days are gone now that anyone can travel here by road easily. I had to find new adventures and more remote jungle areas so I began boating. I soon found out that the Thai long tail boats were too heavy to transport to the many areas that I have now explored with my light weight boats. I was also able to improve on the shallow water use as well. I am not saying Thai long tails perform poorly they don't, they are slower work boats. Mine are much faster and have enabled me to further my life's adventure, the exploration of the jungles of Thailand. I saw the challenges, developed building criteria and went for it. My success is that I am having a lot of fun. I do have long-term ideas for production models but for the time being I am discovering what I can build and play with. My thing is designing and building prototypes. That is what I want to do. I have been designing, building and using my boats for a long time now and I have made great strides in doing what no one else here seems to be doing. Going fast economically and going where no one else can, in very shallow water. Transportation for me is in my pickup. They don’t transport boats much here in Thailand; boats are confined to a given area on a river or lake. Thai long tails don’t easily fit on a trailer; they are too heavy and long. Boats here can be trailered but there aren’t many launching ramps. There are hardly any places where a trailered boat can be launched without difficulty. My boats are a breeze to launch and use. Speedboats here and indeed everywhere use too much gas. It takes 1,000 - 2,000 B. to travel 80 Kilometers a 2-3 hour run. This amounts to an average cost of 600 B. (18 dollars US) per hour. This is the cost of going fast. With my speedboat you can travel at a slower but similar speed and spend only 170B. (4 dollars per hour US). I admit my boats are usually small, but I like them that way. I could make them bigger but that would cut down on their shallow river use. A maximum size for shallow river use is 14 feet long. I will make bigger boats eventually and you can bet they will not cost much to operate too. Using the boats of my design it is now possible to go quite fast economically, this is facilitated by my engine set up and hydro hull design. I am fast and many times cheaper to operate, and can be easily transported by pick up truck or car top anywhere in the country. If you compare speed wise, a speedboat or a big fast long tail is three to ten times its cost and are gas hogs as previously mentioned. All our boats are very maneuverable sport boats. Our boats use 6.5, 13, and 23hp. engines. I am experimenting with bigger engines on one of my boats and will someday attach a hydrofoil. A hydrofoil is a wing that is used underwater as a wing on an airplane is used in the air. It lifts the boat completely out of the water and the boat then rides along on these underwater wings. A hydrofoil is for high speed in deeper water. I have already built a hovercraft and will soon build an Airboat. This is what I mean when I say our boats are designed for a specific use. Everything I can do to make a boat work well in shallow water and high-speed lake use with small engines will be accomplished. I have developed a new category of boats and my boats are the only ones in it.
the following text and pictures reflects the building history from many years ago and working up to the present time
THE RURALEN LONG TAIL Many years ago I took up boat building using the stitch and glue fiberglass plywood technique. This is the building process I still use. I started out designing and building my first boat the Ruralen, pictured above. A 12-foot skiff that uses a long tail setup. It was a good vee bottom skiff of a normal type. It putted about at a fair clip with a 5.5 hp. engine. The performance was what one would expect from a boat of this kind. But it was too heavy as one person couldn’t lift and load it into a pickup. Furthermore I wanted better performance. So I designed the boat that is described next, a smaller 8- foot boat the Ruranit. I could load it into the pickup myself.
THE RURANIT LONG TAIL Performance over sleekness. This particular boat is now old and still in great shape after many years of rapid running. The Ruranit is basically a nice one- two person mini-boat that uses 6.5- 13-hp. engines. It is quite fast and excels at running up river rapids and in maneuverability, a light sport boat. But my kids wanted to go along and it was too small for comfortable use. Also it didn’t have enough area on the bottom for an engine bigger than 13 hp. I had plans for more speed. I really needed to design a 12-foot boat as before but I wanted it to be a light and a speedy craft at home on the lake and shallow rivers. So I sat down at the computer and designed the next boat, the Rurawing. It is lighter than the one person the Ruranit and its length is 11- 1/2 feet long, it is big enough for the three of us. It can fit into a pickup too.
THE RURAWING LONG TAIL The Rurawing is an 11-½ foot by 4-foot wide flat bottom long tail boat. It has nearly as much hull in the water for stability as a square bow Garvey but it has an unusual looking pointed bow. The bow is designed like this for a wide bow at the hull bottom. So at slow speeds it performs well as an ordinary skiff but when throttled up it hydroplanes riding on less than three feet of hull length, (see above picture). Its flat bottom gives it very shallow water capabilities. It has a reinforced fiberglass hull bottom and two bottom skids to prevent air from getting trapped underneath at high speed. So it is at home on swift shallow rivers and also on lakes where there are wind and waves present. It has enough hull to support a larger engine. The sides are upswept and as I have previously described it is pointed at the bow facilitating the ability to cut rather than to bluntly plow through a swell as a Garvey would. I have taken a square bow boat on a lake in a heavy swell and it was not pleasant. The Rurawing takes a swell a lot better.
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