I’ve been obsessing over the design for a small, shallow water skiff for a couple years now, and I finally pulled the trigger and got the ball rolling. I’m in the Big Bend region of Florida and want something that will let me fly fish the tidal creeks by myself, spin fish with 2-3 people, cruise the rivers with my wife and son, and camp from. Shallow draft, versatility, and seaworthiness are the goals.
After looking at a variety of plans, I ended up basing this on Spira’s Ka-Joe design. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but the ply on frame designs allow for very easy modifications. I ended up shortening the boat, widening the rear, adding more V throughout, and a different transom design. It will be between 17’-17’8” long depending on how the nose shapes up, 58” max beam, 48” max bottom width tapering to 44” at the transom.
I’m attempting to incorporate some features of the higher end poling skiffs. Most of them feature 2-3 degrees of deadrise, so I added 2 degrees into the frames, and am building a curved transom with a steeper rake as Beavertail and some of Chris Morejohn’s designs are using.
The frames have been built and sitting in my shop for a few months as I’ve been tweaking them, and I have a bunch of jobs lined up where we aren’t working out of my shop for awhile, so I ordered the fiberglass and epoxy over the weekend and threw a strong back together today. If all goes well tomorrow I will have the frames squared up and clamped in place, as well as the chine logs and keelson mounted.
I still have to build the transom and have been debating the shear height. Currently it is 22” at the bow and tapers down to 17” from midway back. I know that’s higher than most poling skiffs, but I really want to be able to venture into open waters when the wind picks up a bit. There are a lot of exposed areas here that will get 2’ rolling whitecaps with 15 mph winds and aren’t safe in a low shear skiff. Hopefully I don’t regret building it that tall and it ending up poling horribly. If it does I can always chop it down.
After looking at a variety of plans, I ended up basing this on Spira’s Ka-Joe design. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but the ply on frame designs allow for very easy modifications. I ended up shortening the boat, widening the rear, adding more V throughout, and a different transom design. It will be between 17’-17’8” long depending on how the nose shapes up, 58” max beam, 48” max bottom width tapering to 44” at the transom.
I’m attempting to incorporate some features of the higher end poling skiffs. Most of them feature 2-3 degrees of deadrise, so I added 2 degrees into the frames, and am building a curved transom with a steeper rake as Beavertail and some of Chris Morejohn’s designs are using.
The frames have been built and sitting in my shop for a few months as I’ve been tweaking them, and I have a bunch of jobs lined up where we aren’t working out of my shop for awhile, so I ordered the fiberglass and epoxy over the weekend and threw a strong back together today. If all goes well tomorrow I will have the frames squared up and clamped in place, as well as the chine logs and keelson mounted.
I still have to build the transom and have been debating the shear height. Currently it is 22” at the bow and tapers down to 17” from midway back. I know that’s higher than most poling skiffs, but I really want to be able to venture into open waters when the wind picks up a bit. There are a lot of exposed areas here that will get 2’ rolling whitecaps with 15 mph winds and aren’t safe in a low shear skiff. Hopefully I don’t regret building it that tall and it ending up poling horribly. If it does I can always chop it down.