In the spring of 1970, the Marine Historical Society, now the Mystic Seaport Museum, sent out a flyer inviting recreational rowing enthusiasts to a “Small Craft Conference–Rowing Workshop” sponsored by the Small Craft Laboratory, which had been started by then Associate Curator John Gardner. Topics would be pulling boat design, reviving recreational rowing, and comparing participating boats. The flyer also suggested that participants submit a design for the “perfect boat.”Capt. Pete Culler took an interest in the design challenge. A yacht captain, boatbuilder and designer, he had designed and supervised building the schooner INTEGRITY for his friend and sometimes employer, Waldo Howland, owner of Concordia Company. Pete and Waldo discussed the idea and Pete sketched a simple 13-1/2′ flat-bottomed skiff, similar to a 15-1/2-footer he had built in 1968. Waldo liked the result, and mimeographed a pamphlet about it which was distributed at the workshop. In it he wrote that the new skiff was “a learner’s boat for rowing and sailing, and for fun and satisfaction. Suitable for instruction and general use in summer camps, in youth training programs and at home. Rowing is fun if the boat is the right model. Big enough to be useful, long and fine lined enough to row easily. With sufficient length, she will be stable. There are many uses for a good skiff besides rowing alone. Pulling up on a beach for swimming & picnics. Go fishing or clamming. Carry passengers or cargo. Imagination and a bit of water is all you need.”Designed to be built by amateurs, the skiff received an enthusiastic reception and, after the workshop, Culler drew up plans for what has become a classic, the Good Little Skiff.
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Fine looking boat, sailed by an artist. Thanks for the notes on a good mess-about boat.
Hi,
In 2013, I had the good fortune to be in a wooden-boatbuilding class at the Lowell Boat Shop with 3 others; Graham MacKay was our very knowledgeable instructor. At the end of the 6-week build, there was a chance to row this relatively light and swift rowboat. A raffle was held for a chance to own this boat, but my name wasn’t selected. The lapstrake hull of the Good Little Skiff had enough rocker built into it to reduce drag. This class initiated my interests in traditional wooden small-boat building.
Finished up the fall doing skiff stuff with mine. First were some trips along the St. George on a real high tide. Poking along an oar’s length or so out, switching to the sculling oar as needed. These were trash trips and I came home with a filled skiff, getting at places that were impossible to get from land, and hard to reach by water. Mistake I made was that I wasn’t planning to do this so I didn’t have a contractor bag or boat hook. I did have boots. I reckon I pulled in a couple bag loads.
Then it was to head to a launching on a mirror-calm day of a new Australian-style Moth. Just enough air to sort the rig, but it flattened out again. Instead of carrying the 90-lb Moth back up a hillside, I volunteered to row it the mile or so around to the boat launch. It was so light that I barely felt it.
Now deciding if the skiff is my winter boat instead of the dory. Sure would be easier to clear the snow and ice out, but maybe not so good if the breeze kicked up a sea.
Why is the rear seat called sternsheets? I know what stern means, but how does “sheets” refer to a seat? Where did “sheets” derive from?
From Origins of Sea Terms, John G. Rogers, Mystic Seaport, 1985:
Stern sheets: A platform or seat in the stern of a small boat. The term sheet in this sense comes from the Old English skeat, a floorboard or platform in a boat.
Thanks for the education. I always assumed it was a reference to sheeting down to cleats on the boat’s quarters, just over top of the stern sheets. So you know… where you sheet, in the stern. Stern sheets.
Wonderful review, Ben. Such an adaptable boat. Would you share with us your rigging of the main sheet? You make it look effortless. And your lacing of the sail to the mast. How will that work when reefing? Reefing a spritsail has always been a challenge for me.
Hope you can bring your skiff to Mystic this June. Will be fun to compare with the one in the Boat Livery. Always enjoy your dockside talks.
Thanks,
Bill
Mystic was and is the objective of the rehab. Question right now is whether I’ll use the skiff as a winter boat.
Main sheet: Pete just swapped a single sheet from side quarter to quarter to get a nice lead. Indeed in some of his boats he put in kind of a thumb-cleat ladder which would work like a job sheet track.
I’m kind of lazy so I dead-end the sheet on one quarter, run it through the big grommet on the clew and then to a small turning block on a strop on the other quarter. There is friction in this system but it is good. Kind of like a ratchet block, helps you hold the sheet. If I need to fine trim just luff a little. I also have a half pin at the edge of the port stern bench which allows me to take a turn or use a slippery hitch. When I’m sailing in the center of the boat, I can also take a turn around the thwart and lead to a little wooden jam cleat at the aft end of the centerboard trunk.
David and Katherine Cockey were kind enough to launch their outboard to serve as a photo boat. Katherine did a nice job putting the boat in the position so that David could shoot. Many thanks.
Noted that I made a mistake with my Moth description: a New Zealand Moth, not Australian.
Looking at the pics, I do need to get a new set of oars made for the skiff: the ones I’ve been using for the skiff have the orange of my dory sheerstrake. They need to get some green on them. I like to do parallelograms as they are easy to do with some masking tape and don’t have paint on the tip or corners of the oars which I find gets distributed to the boat.
I take this article as an early Christmas present, as I’m currently looking into building the Good Little Skiff (or something comparable).
A few questions to the author or other experienced boat builders: The plans are originally intended for traditional solid-wood construction (clinker with cross planked bottom?). This method is probably not suitable for me, as the boat will be stored in the garage and only get wet once or twice a month (hopefully). Also, traditionally build, it will be too heavy (150 lbs?) for me to handle by myself.
So can this boat be done in clinker plywood? After reading a few books on the topic, I would say yes, but then, what do I know about boat building? Would 3/8″ okoume ply for the bottom and 1/4″ for the strakes be enough? I want to build a rowing-only version, so there’s probably less torsion to the hull. Would it be possible to keep the weight below 100 lbs? I need be able to drag the boat in and out of the water on the river bank close to my home.
Or should I forget about the Good Little Skiff and look for something else? I really love the aesthetics of the Good Little Skiff and I think it would fit my intended usage perfectly: relaxed rowing and exploring in protected waters, mostly alone, but sometimes with wife and kid, or maybe a friend. Another boat that I’m interested in would be Joel White’s Shellback Dinghy… any other suggestions?
Thanks for your comments.
Peter
I think that there have been a bunch of ply-bottomed GLSs built for trailering. I suspect that they have done 1/2″ ply, but I don’t know for sure. You might take a look at the scantlings of some of the skiffs that have been designed for ply use, and the same for the sides. Try Ian Oughtred and Chesapeake Light Craft designs. The GLS does have chine logs which make it easier to fasten those flared sides. If you want to do it in ply, do you expect to use mechanical fasteners or glue? If you do decide on glued lap, I’d still be inclined to put in enough framing to be able to support the full-length riser. Said structure stiffens things up nicely and lets you have a removable bow seat, makes installing thwarts and the stern sheets easy.
I reckon mine, soaked up, is under 200 lbs as I can muscle it around pretty easily. I have no problem pulling it up on a beach or onto the trailer.
I have built three Good Little Skiffs, all three in plywood. I use 3/8″ ply for the entire boat, and on two of the skiffs I also fiberglassed the bottom in epoxy. I used them in Puget Sound, where “beach” means smaller rocks to drag over and my original GLS, which was double planked on the bottom with 1/4″, had to have a new bottom after five years. I glassed the new bottom. I put hardwood hooks at the transom, between planking and inwhale, both sides, to take the mainsheet. It works a charm. I made my first sail out of a brown polytarp, but it was pretty ugly, so I made the second out of white polytarp. I eventually built a couple of sails out of canvas duck/boat drill. The cloth sails look better up close, but don’t work any better than the polytarp. Sprits’ls can be cut flat, so that does not matter. Consult Marino’s Sailmaker’s Apprentice. Building in plywood,, you can scarf both the bottom and the sides and have clean straight planks. You can also butt-block the sides at the seat, hiding it between two frames, but you will have to scarf the bottom to avoid a butt block there. With ply sides and the lovely flare, you do not even need frames at all. I put them in anyway, because it looks better. It also allows for the lovely inwale supports. For a handy and lovely craft, the only better one I have built and owned has been my 17′ faering beach cruiser, based mostly on White’s Shearwater. By myself, the GLS needs a trailer. With a rowing or sailing partner, two can easily carry the boat to water, and she will fit on my lumber racks for my little S-10 pickup. Complete plans for the boat are in the book Pete Culler on Wooden Boats. As to comparisons to White’s Shellback, the GLS is much easier to build, cheaper, and three feet longer.
Glad that you chimed in with the specs for a ply version. One of the things about plywood is that it makes these builds much more accessible to those without sawmill-grade lumberyard resources. I agree about the framing; the rise that it allows is real handy, except when its time to do some repainting.
Pete’s skiff was the first boat I built, back in the early ’70s. I still have letters from him that explained some of the details, as I was pretty clueless. Turned out to be a truly great little skiff. Rowed quite well and I can attest it was incredibly seaworthy in chop. Those highly flared sides really kept us upright in conditions we really shouldn’t have taken her out in. I wouldn’t mind building and playing with another one someday!