South Jersey Beach Skiff, Sailboat Design From the 1800s

The South Jersey Beach Skiff of the 1800s

A brief historical perspective

Like so many other home grown designs, the South Jersey Beach Skiff was developed to meet it's local challenges. From Raritan Bay southwards, beach fisheries of the 1800's supplied food for the tables of New York. While other boats worked the inlets and oyster beds, the South Jersey worked off of the exposed Atlantic shore.

fishing boats on the beach at Seabright, 1908

Fishing Skiffs on the beach at Seabright, 1908. This was a period of transition from oars and sails to power. Courtesy of Ensley White and Howard Hayden.

These boats were born to be launched through the surf. Later called the Atlantic City Skiff, usually a crew of two men would clear the beach under oar and then set sail. A simple sloop rig fit with a spritsail and jib was favored. They were reported to be fine seaworthy craft capable of weathering sudden squalls.

The lines for building the South Jersey Beach Skiff were drawn from Howard Chapelle's historical collection of American Small Sailing Craft published in 1951. His book is a remarkable compilation of information gathered at a time when evidence was already scarce. His rendering is therefore believed to be accurate even though there must have been numerous variations.

The details of the Seabright and Jersey Oyster Skiffs are much better documented than their South Jersey cousins. Peter Guthorn's The Seabright Skiff, published in 1971, illuminates several other Jersey Shore Boats and their modern descendants.

Reproductions of Howard Chapelle's full size drawings are available from the Smithsonian Institution. Boat plans developed for glued-lapstrake construction are available from sailing-new-england.com.

Other references to the Jersey Shore Boats:

Building Classic Small Craft

The Seabright Skiff

Ship's Plans from the Smithsonian Institution

Or, you can write directly including the plan no. ASSC fig.77
Ship Plans
Smithsonian Institution
PO Box 37012
NMAH 5004 / MRC 628
Washington, DC 20013-7012 USA

beach boats at the Small Reach Regatta, 2007

Wooden Beach Boats of 2007 at the Small Reach Regatta, Brooklin Maine.

Glue Lapstrake Construction

Many traditional boat designs can effectively adopt the glue-lapstrake method. Using a similar set-up of section molds, plywood planking is substituted for time-honored cedar. Because of it's dimensional stability, the marine plywood delivers a great deal of structural strength when bonded with epoxy. The overlapping planks create familiar classic lines and produce a tough and long-lasting hull.

A South Jersey Beach Skiff Built in 2005

Submit a Post in our New England Wooden Boat Gallery!

Boat Plans for building this boat are available from Sailing-New-England.
Please fill out the form below for further information.

The South Jersey Beach Skiff

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