by Weston Farmer
LOA 25' 7 1/4", BEAM 8',DRAFT 2 1/2', DISPLACEMENT 5340 POUNDS.
Here’s a boat for the skipper who wants a bottom that can take it. She’s a 26-foot, 16 mph, storm-taming sea skiff—a design proven in the white water of a New Jersey inlet. She draws only 21/2 feet.
It is surprising the number of letters I have received asking for plans of an economical, small cruiser of orthodox construction. It would appear that boat-wise watermen know that fuel costs money these days and that a fast boat, if used much, will soon chew up a lot of dollars. Also, these men all agree that it is very little more trouble to build a boat in the usual time-tried manner than it is to try to build to the limit of economy. Standard methods are best—the boat lives far longer. To meet the demand, I have designed Robinson Crusoe. This lightfooted, mediumweight cabin motorboat is 25 feet 7¼ inches overall by slightly more than 8-foot beam, and draws about 2½ feet under the skeg. She will weigh approximately 5340 pounds and will travel at 13-16 mph with from 50 to 72 hp. This makes her a nice compromise between economy and speed. A 50 hp engine will gulp less than half the fuel of a 100-horse motor, and the latter would give but a couple more miles an hour speed. I have chosen the over-all length as being about the minimum for a boat that doesn’t have to wait on weather. For a light-footed, easily driven hull, of tested sea-keeping ability, I’ve selected the true Jersey sea skiff bottom as developed along the middle Atlantic Coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May. These true sea skiffs always have hard bilges, flat buttocks aft, flat runs, flat floors and, usually, lapstrake or clinker planking. Now lapstrake planking of itself is no fair claim that the boat is a true sea skiff. One sees some boat companies building ordinary oversize round-bilged clinker launches these days; many of these hulls are not true sea skiffs. It takes really hard bilges and that good flat hind end, as developed by such famous skiff designers as E. Lockwood Haggas of Atlantic City to produce true sea skiff qualities. Robinson Crusoe has that Jersey sea skiff bottom as developed over generations along the Jersey coast. The arcuate raked stem, sometimes misnamed “clipper bow” (which is something entirely different) is a consideration to the current trend toward boats with beaks. If you don’t like the beak, run the stem rake up straight and the boat will look even more like a Jersey sea skiff. Aside from that, only a few points of arrangement are unusual. I’ve provided a bit more cabin space than is sometimes found in this type. It’s the kind you need cruising some wet morning or when anchored in a secluded cove. The Layout will sleep two easily, will feed several hands adequately for short periods and lends itself well to that informal disarray usual with spur-of-the-moment boating. Robinson Crusoe will be cheap to build, cheap to run and she'll behave buoyantly at good speeds in a chop, even when the weather blows up a lump.
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