The Tropic 12

Whether you're into chasing Barra, Mangrove Jack, Red's, Trout or Snook, the Tropic 12 is an ideal small estuary/ river boat. Easy on the pocket and packed with features left only to your imagination, the Tropic 12 maximizes it's space with its open and roomy interior, loads of storage and fish-able cockpit space. The design itself shows forward seating, but if you’re into casting lures amongst the mangroves and along river banks and wanting a forward casting deck instead, then you can simply convert the forward seating arrangement into one. The design also comes with side decks for those wanting a place to store rods or when trolling the sand flats etc and she also has storage compartments within the seats .

Within the seats there are 2 large sealed lockers, for all those items you may want locked away, while still retaining the foam filled buoyancy compartments in the outer seat sections, as required to comply with the standards. Designed for ease of construction for the first time builder, it had to be simple and easy to build, without spending everything you have.

TROPIC 12 FEATURES

Just some of the features the Tropic 12 includes:

Sleek yet simple and functional lines
Shallow yet lightweight hull design for fishing the flats, estuaries and mangroves.
Tiller steered
Side pockets for all your gear plus more
Front casting deck for lure fishing plus easy access to the front locker and trolling motor when deploying
Portable fuel tank
LEVEL flotation for compliance (we comply to the ABYC standards)
Engineered to "Class" or Commercial shipping standards for those offroad or offshore fishing adventures.
Easily handled by 1 person when trailering

Tropic 12 Frequently Asked Questions

What is included in the Tropic 12 Plans?

In regards to the Tropic 12 plans, it includes:

9 sheets in total (7 x A1 sheet size and 2 x A0 sheet size - full size bulkhead patterns)
Full size patterns for bulkheads/ stem frame and transom
Builders manual
Bill of materials
Nearly 50 build photo's for you to preview and assist with your build (A picture tells a thousand words" as the saying goes)
Tip's and Tricks" e-book for building your boat
Plus a lot more

Below is an example of the type of plans you receive

Is the Tropic 12 Builders Plate Compliant? (Australia/ USA/ Canada and the EU)

Yes.
We use the ABYC standard (https://abycinc.org/). (We do not use the AS 1799 standard, as we feel that this standard is full of "holes). Using the ABYC standard, all boats under 20ft MUST meet LEVEL flotation. It also means that the boat must meet certain stability criteria in regards to traverse stability, wind heeling criteria and max Hp allowed.
The Tropic 12, as designed exceeds the requirements for LEVEL flotation compliance. This covers the boat itself/ outboard/ people and cargo.
This standard is accepted worldwide. (Australia/ USA/ Canada and the EU)

We do not design our boats to meet BASIC flotation. To me, "Basic" flotation is dangerous.
Hope this helps

So what does Ply/Composite Construction mean?

So… what is Ply/ composite construction?

The term “composite means that if you use 2 or more materials in your construction layup, you must take into account for the mechanical properties of each material used. i.e. with Plywood and glass used we have to take into account for the materials Tensile strength/ Bending strength/ compression strength/ Shear strength and Modulus of Elasticity) in your engineering calculations. When you do this, its now "composite" construction.
Once it passes Tensile strength and bending strength for a particular area, we move to the next section. This method of engineering is applied throughout the whole boat.

Now… simply building a plywood boat and wetting out some glass on it is not composite construction. Its just a plywood boat with glass laid on.

All our Plywood and Strip plank designs are engineered as composites and in this regard, we engineer out boats to “Class” rules. In other words, we use Commercial ship standards. Here we use ABS or the "American Bureau of Shipping (https://ww2.eagle.org/en.html)

Here’s just one small area within one of our designs as an example of the calcs we do with all our designs.

I hope this helps

Mark Bowdidge (MRINA)

Can I get replace the ply/ composite structure with foam core?

No.
By doing so, your:

1/ Making the boat too light. This means the boat will float higher in the water, exposing the chines which in turn results in the moment of inertia of the waterplane being reduced which results in an unstable boat.

2/ Taking the weight out of the bottom of the boat also raises the overall centre of gravity which further adds to an unstable rolly boat. Why? Plywood has a density of approx. 600 kgm^3, whereas foam has a density between 80-240 kg/m^3 (pending foam core used). So in effect, you've taken out between 60% to 87% of the weight that's down low. Whoops. Now you have a serious problem with stability.

3/ The boat will become too "flighty" when on the plane.

BUILD THE BOAT AS PER THE PLANS and you won't have an issue.

Can I make the Tropic 12 from Aluminium?

No.
Aluminium construction requires a different method of construction and scantlings. Also, being that aluminium is far heavier compared to Ply/composite construction, everything changes. Weight/ power/ stability/ seakeeping/ safety standards and more. It all changes. This means that the boat as a whole will need to be re-designed/ re-engineered/ re-drawn and throughout all this, making sure it meets the required stability and safety standards and flotation standards in the event of swamping. (Our boats meet LEVEL flotation requirements, not BASIC flotation.)

Tropic 12

SPECIFICATIONS:

Proudly Australian Designed