End of Aug, 00
Hi Glen-L gang,
My name is Mark Newman from Wilmington, Deleware. Just completed a Console Skiff. This is my second boat, the first being a Duck Boat Too (in your Archives). This skiff took 9 months to give birth to, working on it after work and weekends. It goes together pretty fast compared to conventional, but it's still boat building, which is a slow process with many, many, many, many, steps. What's nice about stitch and glue is the same thing that's bad, that there's no real skill required. Big gap, doesn't quite fit... no problem mon, just mix up some putty. And putty I did mix! I am the putty king. I used 16 gallons of epoxy. One gallon just to set the keel.
The plans were very good, the instruction booklet was excellent. The only problem, the sole cut-out was way off.
I love this little skiff.
- Stable? Unbelievably stable.. rock solid!
- Fast? Yes it is, just like in the video.
- Handles good waves and big wakes (on the Chessapeake Bay) like butter.
- With the skeg, high speed turns... awesom!
- At rest in rough seas, the skiff just bobs up and down rather than side to side roll. That's a beautiful thing.
- Also has lots of storage, and lots of play room too.
- Plus it's cute and pretty to boot.
And that presents a problem, just as with my Duck Boat Too... I can never leave the dock or go home from the dock. The boats draw mobs, hordes of people. People asking questions, people looky-look. I plead, please stop this, please! This is seriously cutting into my fishing and crabbing time... or I'm hungrey and tired and just want to go home. Oh well, that's what a wooden boat owner/builder has to contend with. Thinking about building your Pirogue, out of sapele ply maybe.
Put my pictures on your web site, I have web TV and can't put them up myself. I have emailed a lot of skiff builders on your site when I was building. Now want to email them back, tell them to look at the pictures.
Mark Newman, newmco@webtv.net
P.S. I put the fuel tank and battery up under the front seat. Without that, it would not handle rough seas anywhere as good.