Skimmer

[Norske3]

Worth a look..picture "her" in wood of course...a Reul Parker in glass ..ignore the glass part..check the Sail Mag review.

www.creativemarine.com/skimmer/default.html (http://www.creativemarine.com/skimmer/default.html)

[Steve Paskey]

Nice-looking boat. As much as I like wood, it's a pleasure to see an attractive, sensible fiberglass boat based on a traditional design, rather than the usual plastic tub. (Heck, I'll even admit to owning one -- a 16-foot sailing swampscott dory built by Roger Crawford of melonseed skiff fame.)

If you read Water Craft (a British boating mag, better in many ways than WB), you know that such boats are common in Britain. "Character yachts," as they're called. But they're uncommon on this side of the Atlantic, with Harding's Doughdish (a glass Herreshoff 12-1/2), the melonseed skiff, and the fiberglass catboats (Marshall and Menger) being perhaps the best known current examples. (But let's not forget the late great Stone Horse from Edey and Duff.) As for imports, the Drascombe Lugger and Cornish Shrimper may be the only glass character boats to migrate here from Great Britain in any numbers.

Yes, I'm a heretic. Fiberglass does have certain advantages. Malcolm Forbes, who owns a Crawford dory, has written a lively little piece about the abuse suffered by his boat before he bought it -- a decade of complete and utter neglect, including years spent sitting outdoors full of rainwater. The damage was minimal and cosmetic. See:
www.duckworksmagazine.com/columns/ahoy/malcolm/crawford.htm (http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/columns/ahoy/malcolm/crawford.htm)

Regardless of the relative merits of wood versus fiberglass, glass is now the dominant material for commerically-built boats and will be for the foreseeable future. Hats off to anyone who can make a living building and selling a boat like the Skimmer.

[ 05-11-2003, 06:42 PM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]

[Robert Cox]

You call that a sincable boat. The bace price starts at $40,000 and doesn't even include electrical. I didn't add them up but there must be another $10,000 worth of options for that boat and it's got almost the same specs as my Vacationer. Main difference being the centerboard and displacement.

No thank you. I'll stick to my plywood boat for that kind of money.

I will admit though, for a plastic boat, it sure is purty. smile.gif

Bob

[Steve Paskey]

No offense, Bob, but Skimmer is quite a bit larger and a good deal more capable than the Vacationer. (Skimmer's length on deck is 4-1/2 feet longer than Vacationer.) The larger 26-foot Princess sharpie or one of Parker's cold-molded sharpies in the same size range would be closer comparisons.

To build something comparable to Skimmer with good materials would likely cost more than $10,000 (without electronics) and well over 1,000 hours of someone's time. And how much would it cost to hire Parker or someone equally skilled to build a wooden boat like Skimmer? To give one example: Sam Devlin's KESTREL, a 26-foot sloop, is $85,000 including sails if Devlin builds it.

I fully understand where you're coming from: for you, me, and a lot of other people, $50,000 for any 26-foot cruising boat, wood or glass, is not sensible. So maybe sensible was the wrong choice of words.

Then again, "sensible" is relative. There are people who are able to spend $50,000 on a boat and don't have the time, space, or inclination to build a 26- foot cruising sharpie. (I know they're out there -- just look at the prices of the boats reviewed in a mag like Cruising World!) For them, Skimmer is more sensible than most of the glass alternatives -- if only because the shallow draft will take them places that other 26-footers can't go.

[ 05-12-2003, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]