Seaworthy Inboard Skiff

[Alan D. Hyde]

What's the largest size inboard skiff that anybody here has had experience trailering more than once a season? Other than road regulations and weight limitations for the tow vehicle, what's the practical max?

As far as height off the road, I would assume 13'6" or 14'. Other thoughts?

We're in the middle of flat land here, folks, and I like to have the boat at home where I can work on it and keep an eye on things. No oceans around here, except for the air... but Lake Michigan's a pleasant few hours drive away.

Alan

[Ian McColgin]

I don't tow but my winter (and one summer) dock is right by a town ramp. Actually great entertainment to just put a case on ice on a Sunday morning and watch.

Anyway, I'm not sure there is a limit. I've seen people launch some pretty big stuff - like 25' cabin cruisers and really big 'cigarellos'. The folk that are any good do it easily with gear commensurate to the job. The loosers have trouble launching a 13' whaler.

You obviously understand the loads a heavey tow impose on the vehicle. Three thoughts if the boat's on the big side:

Have a very powerful winch to draw the boat onto the trailor - perhaps motorized since some steep ramps mean you'll be pulling the boat uphill.

Have a good wheel to lower under the trailor toung and a rear winch on the vehicle so you can lower and raise the trailor without putting the tow vehicle in the water. Inland there you'll not be facing ramps that are really slick at low tide, where it's better to leave the truck at the top, but you may have places where the ramp is so gentle that being able to get the trailor out way past where you can get it still attached to the truck is a good thing.

Have a couple of nice highguide poles on either side at the back of the trailor so once you're aimed in everything is pretty much self-aligning and a cross wind won't mess you up.

G'luck

[ishmael]

You don't speak to your intended use Alan, and that is critical.

Thinking about the Chris Sea Skiff we are discussing on the building thread, ours was my grandfather's last boat. It plyed the water of a large inland lake in Michigan, often with half a dozen people for a fishing trip, or for an excursion up or down the long inland waterway there in the tip of the lower pennisula. The "Barj", a 26 ft Sea Skiff was perfect! Room to seat a crowd in comfort, and move around. Powered by a flat-head six.

But too big to trailer, which gets back to your use.

A boat I've always admired is Atkin's Pemaquid, featured in the current Wooden Boat. A twenty-one foot Banks dory, with small inboard and lug rig. It would be great for one or two to knock around in, go fishing, even do some camp voyaging on inshore waters, but it wouldn't seat a crowd, fishing or otherwise.

What do you imagine using the boat for?

Jack

[Alan D. Hyde]

Well, Jack, sometime I'd like to have a boat that my wife and I, and a couple of children, or another couple, can sleep on over a week or a weekend of activity on the water. Mostly on Lake Michigan probably, but we might try circling NorthEast out the St. Lawrence Seaway (or cutting through the Erie Canal), then down through the intracoastal, along the Gulf, and then back up through the Mississippi... All it would take is time, and a reliable boat.

Alan

[ishmael]

And how important is trailering? The boat you describe sounds quite a bit like the one you have, or like something similar.

I think the CC Sea Skiff is a great boat. That essentially glued lap hull of old-growth fir ply is incredibly strong, light and resistant to reasonable lapses in regular maintainance. There are slightly larger ones, with real cabins etc, and all but the smallest would have to have a berth, rather than live on a trailer. Plus, they don't seem nearly as popluar as their Lyman cousins, so a thirty footer can still be quite reasonably priced.

Another issue is time. You have a project at the moment, when maybe what you really want is a boat?

Good to knock this around.

Jack