By Rogers Winter
LOA 15', BEAM 5', DRAFT 9 1/2", DISPLACEMENT 960 LBS.
No showroom skiff, this 15-footer will respond ably in just about any kind of water and weather. Plenty of seagoing sense has gone into this sturdy design
The rough-water ability of the average small utility boat is enough to make a preacher cuss and angels weep. Far too often, newspapers carry stories about people upsetting in outboard-powered skiffs and drowning. Often the accidents are caused by carelessness, but more often they are the result of a combination of high wind, rough water and boats so lacking in seaworthiness that they would be safe for use only on small millponds. An otherwise properly designed outboard skiff can be fast in smooth water, but get out into a good chop and she will just about pound her bottom out. Let the water get a little rougher and she will plunge down the face of a wave, burying her nose and throwing up ten feet of spray.
There are many bodies of water where roughness is the rule and not the exception—Long Island Sound, Barnegat Bay, the Delaware, the Chesapeake, the big sounds of the Carolinas and Georgia, the Great Lakes, Puget Sound, Mississippi Sound, the Gulf of Mexico and many others. To the sailor who llves on these waters, possession of a good outboard skiff is on a par with having an affable wife who is also a good cook. You don’t part with either—at any price. A couple of years ago, this designer built a utility skiff designed expressly for rough-water use. He has used it on fishing trips as far as ten miles out into the Gulf of Mexico, trolling for king mackerel with an 18-hp outboard on the stern. Many have been the times on these trips when some astonished boatman has surged alongside with 50 to 100 hp astride his transom and offered immediate rescue. The offers were always politely declined, usually because the rescuing boat was not so safe as the one about to be rescued. Despite encountering some fairly rough seas and high winds, the designer has yet to see this boat take a drop of water over the gunwales, except that blown in by the wind. He can also troll all day on 12 gallons of gas, whereas those owning boats with big motors need a federal subsidy to keep abreast of the gas-company bills.
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