As seen in the "Launchings" section of Wooden Boat magazine ! (the January / February 2013 issue)
18 foot 10 inch length over all
49 inch beam
Built on the lines of 1870's river skiff as drawn by Howard Chapelle in his book American Small Sailing Craft.
Set up as a rowing or outboard powered craft.
USCG certified Capacities:
Maximum Weight: 717 pounds
Maximum Number of Persons: 3
Maximum Horse Power: 20
Composite construction of epoxy / glass laminate encapsulating poplar and western red cedar with walnut, black oak, and cherry trim. The entire hull bottom has an additional layer of kevlar.
The boat has 4 ash and cherry oars for the two rowing stations, bronze oarlocks, bronze cutwater and a stainless bow eye. The bow deck has a removable cover that is lockable.
Transom has a brass plate to receive an outboard. A long-shaft 5 to 15 hp would be ideal.
The exterior finish is Interlux Oyster White over Interlux Epoxy Primecoat.
The interior glass is UV protected with spar varnish.
 |
| With outer gunnel added |
The following links cover the construction of the skiff from the beginning.
Mar 26, 2012
Mississippi River Skiff: rowing like Lincoln. We had a trip out to Elsah Bar, a tiny island on the Mississippi. (It is the island above the "B" in the blog title photo.) Patrick M. joined us. He is a well known Abe Lincoln performer.
Mar 16, 2012
Mississippi River Skiff: Christening. We christened the skiff this weekend and had great fun trying it out with the Johnson 25. The 1970 Johnson is a little more than is needed to drive the hull (an 8hp would be plenty). But it is ...
Mar 08, 2012
Mississippi River Skiff update: Epoxy Primekote. This week we applied Interlux Epoxy Primekote to the hull. I like this primer. It does stink to high heaven but provides a very hard sandable surface with just the right amount of ...
Feb 05, 2012
In the rain and fog we launched the skiff at Piasa harbor and rowed out to the sand bars in the Mississippi channel. The boat is great. It has great stability and with it's flaired stern sections, hardens up in a heel. We had 5 eager ...
Feb 02, 2012
Mississippi River Skiff update: Oar leathers. We needed some oar leathers for our new oars. So I drove to S & T Leather in St. Louis city. The place is a wholesale supply and has a small city sales area. We just needed a small ...
Jan 28, 2012
Mississippi River Skiff update: Bow Eye. Today we installed the bow eye. To do this, we drilled through the brass cutwater from the rear. Before it was installed we drilled a centered hole through the bow stem. Now all we had ...
Jan 23, 2012
Mississippi River Skiff update: cutwater. Yesterday we formed and brazed the cutwater for the skiff. Here is the piece before installation. We also drilled and counter sunk 4 holes. It will be screwed to the cherry bow. To see the ...
Jan 11, 2012
Mississippi River Skiff update: OarLocks. The pinion of the oarlocks are set 12.5 inches past the edge of the rowing stations. This is the distance we find best for the stroke geometry in this hull. If they are set farther abaft you ...
Jan 07, 2012
Yesterday we moved the skiff out of the shop onto a trailer with the help of the visiting students. The trailer came with our 14 foot Rhodes Bantam. The Bantam is on blocks so we could use the trailer. The only problem is the ...
Dec 22, 2011
The Walnut base that was laminated to the sole of the boat is directly under the center of the seats. We set a laser plumb on the base to find the spot to drill the seat. This was marked, the seat was taken to the drill press and a ...
Dec 16, 2011
Mississippi River Skiff update: seats. Today we did the glue-ups for the seats. Some figured walnut boards are used for the seats and they are edged with black oak to match the gunwales. The hull exterior will end up with an ...
Nov 15, 2011
Mississippi River Skiff update: We just glassed the MRS. After a final fairing and sanding, we glassed the hull with 9oz glass cloth set in low viscosity Raka epoxy with a slow hardener. This gave us plenty of time to roll out all ...
Nov 27, 2011
The exterior of the hull has been glassed, kevlared, and faired. We removed it from the forms and got our first ever look at this hull form. Are there any other Mississippi river skiffs of Howard Chapelle's lines out there? It is on ...
Aug 17, 2011
Mississippi River Skiff. We are making great progress on the Mississippi River Skiff stations. It will be our biggest boat to date at over 18 feet. After our experience using steel stations for the Niangua canoe, we knew the ...
Sep 12, 2011
After the new poplar had thoroughly dried we planed the strips down to 3/8ths of an inch thick and started the hull's sides. Working down on the form is different. It is the opposite of our past projects but for this boat it is working ...
Oct 12, 2011
Mississippi River Skiff: Skeg. We have given the hull it's first course sanding (40 grit). At this stage we are setting the skeg. According to Howard Chapelle's lines, it should be 6.5 inches at the stern and taper to 0 before station ...
Sep 25, 2011
Oars for the Mississippi River Skiff. Having never made an oar before we referred to Shaw and Tenney's beautiful oars for inspiration. On their excellent web site they indicate how to calculate the proper length of an oar for ...
Oct 06, 2011
Mississippi River Skiff update: The boat is formed. The glass and one set of oar locks arrived. The hull will have a laminate of 9 oz glass with Kevlar below the waterline. The interior will have 6 oz glass all set in Raka epoxy.
Aug 25, 2011
John is director of their forestry department. Recently he hired a portable mill to cut trees that they are culling. Great timing for the River skiff. Beautiful wood, staked up neatly on a ridge line overlooking the Mississippi river.
Dec 09, 2011
This will make the glass work more difficult but will yield a stronger boat. Pieces of ... I would like the boat to look more traditional. Instead ... Labels: bow deck, Chapelle, gunwales, hull interior, Mississippi river skiff, MRS, seats ...
Dec 11, 2011
Before we start that we just had to see the boat with the seats in, so we cut walnut for the rowing stations. They were set ... to Facebook. Labels: black oak, gunwales, Mississippi river skiff, MRS, oar locks, planer, seats, Walnut ...
Jan 14, 2012
Today we braved the cold to work on the oars for the river skiff. The blanks were first trimmed to the ... to TwitterShare to Facebook. Labels: disk sander, handle, Hemel, Mississippi river skiff, Oar, orbital sander, router, router bit ...
Feb 19, 2012
So we flipped the skiff, dropped it on the trailer and headed up river to Stump lake. It is an old slough off the Illinois river ... Share to TwitterShare to Facebook. Labels: Mississippi river skiff, Portage roll over, Stump Lake ...
Jan 21, 2012
... became useful. We lifted the skiff off the trailer and suspended it 2 feet off the ground so we could instal the cutwater. ... to Facebook. Labels: bow, cutwater, hoist, Mississippi river skiff, pneumatic hoist, Shapiro Supply ...
Jan 30, 2012
Someday it will make the Mississippi River Skiff fly. We are getting close to sea trials for the skiff. It will be strictly oars for the near future. Posted by Sea State at 9:34 PM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...
Apr 22, 2012
On Saturday morning we had visitors from Yarmouth, Colorado and a Elsah native take us up on a free boat ride in the skiff. Eifel and I showed them a good time with frequent engine stalling in the shipping channel, two island ...
Aug 22, 2011
River Skiff Bow. The skiff's bow is a portion of a circle with a radius of 33 inches. We scribed it onto a piece of cherry and cut it out. Next we doweled and epoxied a foot in place. Posted by Sea State at 2:00 PM ...
Dec 22, 2011
The Walnut base that was laminated to the sole of the boat is directly under the center of the seats. We set a laser plumb on the base to find the spot to drill the seat. This was marked, the seat was taken to the drill press and a ...
Sep 12, 2011
After the new poplar had thoroughly dried we planed the strips down to 3/8ths of an inch thick and started the hull's sides. Working down on the form is different. It is the opposite of our past projects but for this boat it is working ...
Nov 27, 2011
The exterior of the hull has been glassed, kevlared, and faired. We removed it from the forms and got our first ever look at this hull form. Are there any other Mississippi river skiffs of Howard Chapelle's lines out there? It is on ...
Oct 12, 2011
Mississippi River Skiff: Skeg. We have given the hull it's first course sanding (40 grit). At this stage we are setting the skeg. According to Howard Chapelle's lines, it should be 6.5 inches at the stern and taper to 0 before station ...
Aug 21, 2011
Station molds for the River Skiff. After calculating the height above the base line for each station, we cut hardwood blocks to the exact height for each one. The stations are then set with a string on their centerline and clamped ...
Sep 25, 2011
Howard Chapelle's lines taken from an 1870's vintage river skiff indicate a maximum beam of 58.5 inches. Taking this number and Shaw and Tenney's formula we arrived at 8.9 feet as the proper length for the oars.
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