The Carolina Spritsail Skiff is a traditional skiff. These skiffs were historically built on on Harker’s Island, North Carolina, on the Outer Banks. The lines were taken for the boat by M.B. Alford in July of 1976 from a boat built in 1911 then owned by Dr R. Borden and now in the Traditional Small Craft collection at the Hampton Mariners Museum in Beaufort NC. The Museum’s file number for the plans is #135.
In the mid-1960’s, Julian Guthrie, a well-known traditional boatbuilder on Harker’s Island built a skiff for the new boat’s owner, which the owner used and enjoyed for nearly ten years before selling. The boat never left his mind, however, and he finally decided to have us build him a new one to plans obtained from the Hampton Mariners Museum.
www.downeasttour.com/harkers_is/julian-guthrie.htm
coresound.com/exhibits/nc-heritage-awards
We were fortunate to be able to work with the owner, who not only gave us the commission but the plans and a series of photographs of the original boat built for him in the mid-1960’s.
This Carolina Spritsail Skiff is being built by students in the 2014 Traditional Small Craft class under the direction of Master Instructor Jeff Hammond. The plans will be followed exactly, with several slight modifications determined through the owner’s previous experience (no sheet holes in the blocking aft, for example) will be incorporated. Provisions will also be made for a small outboard engine to provide enough "iron wind" to push the boat along when windless conditions are encountered in the summer on the Puget Sound.
The sails and rigging will be made by master sailmaker Sean Rankins of Northwest Sails, which is co-located with the School.
The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is located in Port Hadlock WA and is an accredited, non-profit vocational school. You can find us on the web at www.nwboatschool.org, on Facebook, SmugMug, and of course, on Flickr.
Our mission is to teach and preserve the fine art of both traditional and contemporary wooden boatbuilding and maritime crafts.
We build both commissioned and speculative boats while teaching students boatbuilding the skills they need to work in the marine trades. We sell our boats to help support the School. Give us a call should you like to discuss our building a boat for you.
You can reach us via e-mail at info@nwboatschool.org or by calling us at 360-385-4948.
