I wrote the story of how I got started in the flats boat world 5 years ago. I did this for two reasons. The first was that my daughters wanted me to tell, explain my side of the story as so much miss information and tales were being told that were not near the truth. Of course I want all of you to know that this is my version of what I incountered. I have kept records of most all the boats that I have built and most all information. In regards to my time at HBBWs I have every fax and piece of correspondence from my time working with Hal and Jamie Chittum along with Flip Pallot. In essence I have documentation of my intire time at HBBWs from before it started through the buyout of my shares of HB. This was before emails.
I have a very extensive photo and paper trail to corroborate my side of the story. Iam publishing this in detail as so many skiff owners would really like to know the true history of their skiff.
The second reason I have put my tale to print is to show the public that a great vison can start and come to fruition with a very simple idea. I want to show you here that that in my career I have done well in my way by working very hard and having good common sense to look at projects with eyes wide open holding no prejudices towards the vision. By this I mean that I love all types of boats and have used this observational and real practical use to help me in thinking and creating outside the box.
This is the story of a high school dropouts journey in the flats boat world up to designing and building the Whipray flats skiff.
I have added photos to this post now as when I first published it I had not been able to get these pictures online.
This story starts in 1982 on the island of Islamorada in the Florida Keys. It was at Bayside Inn Marine where I met Hal Chittum who led me into this interesting niche of the boating market. First, in order to properly understand how this story came to be I must start at the beginning of my life on the sea.
Here I am building the tiki hut at what was Bayside Inn Marina in 1982.
I dont know if World Wide Sportman tore this down when they built Bass World there.
Go back to 1973 and you will find me at age 14. My parents have sold all of their possessions, have purchased a 36’ wooden Gaff Rigged Ketch and have the idea of sailing to Florida from San Diego, California.
Our familys ketch sailing in the San Blas islands in Panama enroute to Florida in 1976
A few years later we arrived in Tarpon Springs. Go to 1976, Stamas Boats hired me to work in Research and Development. I was to be the helper of two old Florida boat builders in building all the plugs, molds and patterns for the line of Stamas Boats. I was 18 at the time and fell into an apprenticeship that would guide me throughout my boatbuilding career.
Kenny Karnu and Richard Stauffer took me under their wings and taught me how to channel my perfectionist nature into honing my skills at being a plug and mold builder. The most important lesson that they taught me was that with a clear vision of the finished product the process of building a mold could become very efficient. In the process of creating a concept it is crucial to keep things simple for if you add in too many designers and idea guys the process can easily become disjointed and go off in too many directions. Thanks to good fortune I have had the opportunity to put this into practice as I worked on many projects for many interesting people.
After a year in service to Stamas Boats, I left on my 18 foot, 10 year old plywood sloop passing through the Keys and then on to the Bahamas. It was 8:00 at night on December 3, 1977 when returning to the Bahamas my little sloop, Bilbo Baggins struck something as I neared the halfway mark in the Gulf Stream. Within minutes my sloop had sunk leaving me swimming, alone, without a dinghy only one fin, and a spear to defend myself. I swam for 20 hours and ended up 45 miles up the coast in Biscayne Bay as the sun set. The only person I knew in Florida to call at the time was living Key Largo which is how I ended up, within a week of losing everything I owned, working at Glander Boats, located in Key Largo. This job led to many others.
By 1982 I was married to Lawanda Lillis and living aboard our own built sloop in “Little Basin” in Islamorada. This area is now owned by the World Wide Sportsman Company. We both worked at Bayside Inn Marina for Ray Dye, lawanda in the office and the yard,with me fixing,painting and repairing all that came through the place. Try to picture Islamorada in the early eighties. The Lorralie Restaurant had two sailboats anchored off it, Little Basin had a small dock and the number of fishing guides could be counted on your fingers.
In Islamorada.
Some statistics;
From 1977 to 1982 I had built for myself and others a total of 17 boats from 16 feet to 60 feet and I had logged 10,400 ocean sea miles under sail on my own boats.
I love to sail, cruise, explore and fish. My passion was and is all kinds of boats from sail to power. At that time I knew of Flats Fishing but had no desire to own or build a skiff when I could have a great time sailing off to anchor and go fishing in my dinghy.
The only fishing guide I knew at that time was Tony Lay who kept his side console Hewse Bonefisher without a tower at Bayside Inn.
This all changed when Ray Dye introduced me to Hal Chittum. Hal had a project for me to do. He and Eddie Whiteman had purchased two Mako 18 foot flats boat hulls with bait boxes on the transoms and had tried to get a custom builder in Miami to build the interiors and finish them out. The boats had the 17 Mako sheer cut down to Flats boat height with flush decks and simple drain channels but had ¼ inch copper tubing for the drains. The boat amenities consisted of a forward hatch, main hatch bait well and a sump hatch. Cockpits were self bailing.
Eddie Whitman finished his skiff himself. The hull was solid glass and everything else was glassed over plywood with decks and hatches plywood cored. The finish was raw, the boat was a wreck and it weighed a “ton”. Hal was a busy guide so he gave me the project to finish. My quote to him was within an hour’s time of completion. Ray Dye rigged the boat.
Hals mako ready to paint the insides
This project got me talking with Hal about the guiding industry. Being a sailor, getting about on engineless sail boats and having designed and built some small rowing and sailing boats I told Hal in one of which has turned into one long discussion of what if, what about. I told Hal that in the sailing world where races are won by seconds that the state of the art is in building in foam core in construction with better quality materials. I said I could build the same skiff weighing ? less than his present skiff. He then could use a smaller engine, save on fuel, and would be easier to pole. It would float higher of course in shallow water but at that time it did not seem to be such a big deal. Hal asked if I would be interested in doing this.
“yes of course” what a challenge!
Two days later he came back with 3 clients for me to talk to; Charles Causey, Bert Sherb and Dick Negly.
Within the month Lawanda and I had quit our jobs, rented a commercial house next to Campbell’s Marina in Tavernier in Key Largo from Stu Marr and opened shop as BACK BAY BOATS. This was 1982, I was 25 and Hal was 31 years old.
My observations at the time of the skiffs that were about;
Shy Poke:
A grey coloured, deep vee skiff, heavy, no dry lockers but had a good ride. Billy Knowles had one.
Hewes Bonefisher:
Obviously it was a knock off of a lapstrake ski boat. The bottom had a built-in trim tab hook. The boats were built with solid glass hulls and the decks were cored with plywood.They had wooden carpet covered floors and wood glassed over stringers. No dry lockers and were heavy. Tony Lay had one.
Cuda Craft:
A very shallow soft vee at the stern with conventional chines. A simple glass interior. I was told they slid in a turn. A basic, plain skiff with classic looks.
Dolphin Skiff - Dave Exley:
This boat hull developed by Exley was at the time a crude open skiff built in Homestead. It was very heavy with a rough finish, had no dry storage and a deep draft. It was a good camp rough and ready skiff at that time. They ran great but were tippy.They made no noise,but nobody was thinking of that then.Except Steve Huff and Harry Spear.
Fiber Craft:
A long, lean but massively layed-up hull. This very heavy skiff had a rounded bow and a very narrow spray rail at mid point of topsides but not big enough to really work. I kept in mind some of these points to my future designs. Davie Wilson built his own Fiber Craft skiff.
Sidewinder Skiff - Bass Boat Type:
I made a custom deck for Carl Naverrae with a side console. Deep vee.Similar to a Shypoke
Willy Roberts
Willy and I became friends while I had my shop in Tavernier. It was my dream to have a shop equal to his. He was building fiberglass boats at this time molded from his plywood designs.I do not remember if he used foam core at this time or balsa core. At the time they were a classic.
Maverick - Lenny Berg:
The 18 ft was a big deep vee boat with a good conventional flats boat deck and interior. I was told it had a great ride, was wet, poled like a tank and made lots of noise. Hank Brown used to hang a piece of carpet over the bow to stop the noise.
Challenger:
These little skiffs were custom made from existing hulls that were originally little play boats. They had a very flat run that flowed into a rounded bow shape. It was originally designed to sit in and sport around in with a wheel forward.To make the boats work for fishing. The owner’s fitted spray rails low aft, near the water and high in the bow. The boats were heavy and tippy. I think of them like bass lures with metal cheeks wobbling along. They have a loyal following. I learned from this design and incorporated much of what I learned into my future designs. They had an offshoot of this called the WIND RIVER SKIFF.
Action Craft:
It had sloping outboard side decks and a very sharp angular look with a moderate vee bottom. To me it was very ugly.Action Craft started their company in 1983 with this boat using a foam in its deck core.
Mako 18 Experimental:
As explained earlier the 18 was a cut down 17 Mako on the sheer, with bait boxes added. The Mako construction had wood stringers, plywood or balsa cored, foam filled with chop and roving construction. This was a very heavy way to build yet standard practice at the time. The boat slid in a turn.
John Boats:
Well, there is nothing more classic and simple than this flat bottom skiff in wood or aluminum or glass. The boats would still rule if everybody was not in a such a great big fucking rush.
This is my opinion from my perspective at that time. There were a sprinkling of other one off boats as well. Billy Pate had a monster built from the Shypoke hull style. There were little cold mold
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