1911 80-foot Skipjack on eBay

[Steve Paskey]

If you always wanted to be an oysterman, here's your chance:

Historic Skipjack (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2236451895&category=14055)

[TimH]

She was replanked with treated lumber??? geez :rolleyes:

[Jack Heinlen]

Big girl. Most are a bit smaller. Last I heard she's out there dredging mostly mud.

Somebody has tried to keep her working.

Sad. There is no place for this fine old girl.

[brian.cunningham]

:cool: wish they had more pictures

[Garrett Lowell]

She'd be better served if converted into a yacht.

[Matt J.]

She's a workboat, not a yacht. Treated lumber is acceptable practice. There's a workboat (motor, not sail) in the marina where RARUS has wintered, and she's getting some new bottom planks. Looks like "standard" treated 2X12" SPF bing cross planked on there. Neat to see. I think it makes sense, the use those boats saw / see, makes fancy stuff just... what's that expression? Guilding the lilly?

Hope someone has the dream and the means to save her.

[Dutch.Rub]

...no bids...

[Dale Genther]

Matt's right these Chespaeake waterman use whatever is cheap, available and works to keep their boats going. Last weekend I watched the owners of a bout a 60 ft. buy boat repairing damaged seams by splining them. They were using cedar shingles from a house. The coated the thinner end of the tapered shingle with some goo them pounded them into the seams. The goo helped hold them in place ane sealed the spaces between the 8 or so inch wide shingles. They said they have been doing this of over 20 years. The buy boat is still a working boat used for seeding oysters on the Chesapeake. This boat has probably been working a hard life for 80 or so years, while we spend huge amounts or time and money to get a few decades out or our pleasure boats. Maybe we are a bit to anal at times. I know I am.The buy boat got a new coat of topside paint also, Ace Hardware housepaint.

[Jack Heinlen]

Yeah, the watermen of the Cheasapeake are, from what I've seen on my visits, past masters at jury rigging and patching with common materials.

It was one of the guiding ideas of one of the leaders of the wooden boat renaisance, Lance Lee, that one reason wooden boat building had declined was because of the fancy finishes. He promoted workboat finishes: simple paints, linseed oil and pine tar, applied to good but simple material: cedar, oak, pine. It is a bunch easier to maintain than finishes on a boat with a lot of shine. Some people don't cotton to the look, but it makes a bunch of sense.

How are the arsters doing down that way? I'd heard of experiments with Asian oysters that had fouled up in some way. I assume it's the same as it was ten years ago, the last time I passed through, or that skipjack might have garnered a bid or two.

Sad. Unless something turns it around one of the last examples of working sail is going to go down. :(

As to turning one these boats into a yacht...it's been done, but I wouldn't want to do it. The ones I've seen up close were pretty rough and tumble affairs. As we've said, patched together with lead flashing and roof cement; momma's drawers and sealing wax; just hanging on.

They sure look pretty under sail with their dredge over the side. I know a guy up here who worked a couple winters on them.

Very cool, but sad.

[Dale Genther]

Jack - The oyster situation here is pretty bad. Hadly any at all. I have heard lots of discussion on the Asian oyster thing, but to my knowelege nothing is actually being done yet. As far as workboat conversions is concerned, I think it would be better if they stayed workboats but if conversions can save them its probably best. Two of my friends have made very nice yacht conversions out of old buyboats. The one guy just bought another to "save". The one he just bought is largely rotten on deck, but the longleaf pine hull is apparently sound. Still a lot of work. Luckly he loves the things and has enough money to save them. In Rock Hall harbor a lot of the workboats are still wood, it seems are though every year one of more of them "goes down". But they yank them up, fix them. and their off crabbing again. Pretty cool to watch life here, its like going back in time.

[Jack Heinlen]

Sorry to hear that about the arsters down that way.

And I'm not agin converting a skipjack or a buy boat to a yacht, but it takes a lot of skill and or money. Most were in pretty rough shape the last I saw them. The one thing you gain is keeping an old vessel afloat, and maybe that's enough. It would be best if you figered out a way to keep the arster growin, fer shur. Keep those boats working!

[Dale Genther]

Jack - both of the Buy Boat conversions my friends have done are excellent. But as you said it takes time and lots of money. These old buy boats are heavy displacement and have huge holds in them that make for a wonderful cabin. I've been on them on a choppy day in the Chesapaeke. Thet sure do blast thru the chop. Going thru a 3-4 ft. chop at 8-9 knots, spray everywhere. Great fun!

[cs]

That would be so cool to own something like that. :cool:

Chad

[Matt J.]

Now if anybody asks, I'll deny I said this but I can't help but think if they'd shut down the crab and oyster industry, and then heavily restrict the catches - as they did with the rockfish - then we'd have a rebound. Trouble is, every yahoo with a tub that floats goes out at every opportunity, and catches everything they can. My coworker grabs a bushel or two every weekend, our neighbors try hard to do the same. Then the hundreds of professionals catching obviously lots more.

I think, though, the crabs and oysters are going to see far, far darker days before those restrictions even become a consideration. There's too much money be made, and public demand for bay seafood. Not to mention the interstate wrangling over rights between PA, MD, and VA that no one will ever give up their catches first.

OF course i'd deny it, RARUS is in a working yard, with 20-30 workboats all around her. They've been frantic trying to get ready for the Rockfish season that just opened Saturday.

It's a shame, and I don't think the answer lies in importing foreigners. It lies in not killing every last one of the locals. A little self restraint would go such a long way. My coworker alone last year, probably caught, May to September, 20-30 bushels... that's a lot of crabs killed because he figures he's got a right to them, and it's better than being with his wife.

[Paul Pless]

Thankyou Matt

[Dale Genther]

Matt - A might agree with you if most of my friends wern't watermen and my boat wasn't pretty well surrouned by their boats. So I'll keep my opion to myself! Its an issue on the bay that causes tempers to rise pretty fast.