19′ 6″ Ocean Pointer

19'6" Ocean Pointer

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Inspired by Alton Wallace’s highly regarded West Pointer workboats of the Maine coast, designer David Stimson has drawn the striking 19’6″ Ocean Pointer outboard skiff. The traits that make Ocean Pointer well suited for its ancestral job of inshore fishing allow it to perform all manner of waterfront tasks for pleasure or profit.

A sizable flat to the bottom provides good initial stability—have you ever try hauling something heavy over the side of a typically tender deep-V hull? The flat bottom also permits this boat to plane with modest power. Substantial freeboard forward, combined with a relatively fine entry, allows Pointer to blast through a harbor chop smoothly and at speed.

This skiff runs dry. Relatively low deadrise angle (V-shape to the bottom) around Stations 2, 3, and 4 reduces or redirects spray. The bow wave tends to roll down and out, rather than to climb the sides of the hull.

A sweeping sheerline puts the rail down to a comfortable height back where you’ll be working, or playing, and it looks fine. As for that pronounced tumblehome back aft—well, that just looks fine.

Hull construction consists of cedar strips over plywood semi-bulkheads. The designer specifies silicon-bronze fastenings. Dynel set in epoxy covers the deck. Building this strip-planked hull will prove fairly straightforward, but it will require some time. Designer Stimson, also a professional boatbuilder, tells us it takes him about 600 man-hours to build an Ocean Pointer. He estimates that if an amateur builder works carefully “the project should give close to a thousand hours of enjoyment.”

In addition, because this building process involves small pieces, it’s well suited to part-time work. You can come home from the office and install a strip-plank or two before turning in. This would seem far preferable to spending time in the vast wasteland of network television. In any case, Stimson’s well-illustrated book How to Build the Ocean Pointer (WoodenBoat Books, 2002) can provide a helping hand and a good read.

Ocean Pointer will carry a considerable load at reasonable speeds while driven by modest amounts of power. And it makes a striking appearance in any company.