The word technical flats skiff did not exist when we launched our first skiff. At that time the game plan and goal for Hal and Flip was to build a very simple, no extras, fishing machine that could get across the bay relatively dry and comfortable using small simple power. Something that would be able to float in very shallow water and possible for the average guy to pole along in these new untouched waters (kayaks, John boats, and other small craft already doing so) all day long and in varied wind conditions. What they wanted was a really cool, neat, trim and detailed skiff in the opposite direction of where the flats boat world had been heading and was still going. They wanted this skiff for themselves and figured their friends would want one too. They also saw an opening in a market, if done properly, that could redefine the flats boatbuilding market and if our product did well enough then maybe one of the bigger companies would notice and buy us out. They would get their skiffs, I would get my sailboat, if I worked quickly enough, and maybe we could make some cash too.
Some observations from my point of view of the skiffs at this time. Remember, I am not a guide, just a guy that likes to build, design boats and be out on the water.
In 1997 Hewes, Maverick, Pathfinder, Action Craft, Egret Boats, Silverking, and a least 20 other companies were building huge, massively heavy, deep draft, hard to pole craft that they were advertising as shallow draft, light weight, fly fishing machines.
Dolphin Skiffs, the Maverick Mirage, Geenoe, Pathfinder, Mitzi skiff, Back Country Boats, and others were on the edge of what was to become our market during the next couple of years.
The typical ad would claim an 850 lb. hull weight with an 8" draft. Now you take a Hewes, Maverick, Egret at that time and weigh them and then draw a line from the transom waterline to the bottom of their Vee. These skiffs really weighed 1,500 lbs and drew 15" if lucky. I have weighed them all. All of these boats were big comfortable skiffs that did not know there was a whole other world in shallower water out there waiting. There was nothing wrong with these skiffs, it was just that what they were claiming and actually doing/performing were 2 different worlds.
Our goal was to compete with Egrets reputation on details, but in our own style; by not having Carbon Kevlar glossy inside hatch liners that meant nothing and to compete with the Maverick Mirage, Dolphin Skiff, Mitzi Skiff, Geenoe And Pathfinder. All other skiffs were considered outdated, obsolete. Any design claiming to be a true fly fishing flats boat that had a chine coming out of the water and had to be looked at as a classic old school boat. The Pathfinder hard chine Garvey tunnel skiff was very old school but we would have to compete against them in sales too.
To do this the boat had to be very light, well engineered and have a very practical layout. I have always favored Yahmaha engines in my small boat dinghy world that I live in but the Mercury 25 hp that Flip was representing with Bass Pro at the time really put us on the map. Our first finished skiff had a Yahmaha 30 on it. The Mercury 25 is rated at the prop and was so much more powerful than the Yahmaha and other engines that we could get up to 32 mph out of our skiffs. This was fast enough to impress long time skiff owners that were used to 90 hp engines.
We wanted to show the fishing world a new way of thinking for the fly fisherman and sight caster that really wanted to pole around and stalk his prey in a skiff that was designed and built specifically for this need and market. Hal and Flip felt the Whipray was the boat.
In 1997 few existed in production; the Maverick Mirage, Mitzi skiff, Dolphin Skiff, my 5 old Dolphin skiff one-offs , Geenoes and other one-offs like Steve Huff and Harry Spears boats.
The Maverick Mirage was a remake of the Dolphin skiff. It had a reputation for structural problems, and it performed about the same as the Dolphin skiffs being so similar with my nod to the Dolphin Skiffs. They poled very well, but drew more than 10" of water, were tippy at the bow, used 90 hp engines and could use a little more space inside. Otherwise these were good skiffs. The Geenoe is a great skiff for what it represents and does.
A John boat is too but they have their limits. The Mitzi skiff is a good skiff, but has a little flatter bottom concept like the Dolphin and it is a nock-off the Mirage.
By Coast Guard standards the Whiprays transom was rated at 60 hp but we had to start out with the Mercury 25 to show and explain what could be done. It would be an up wind battle. With the 25 hp the boat would get up on plane with the trim tabs down with the bow barely rising. The Whipray would slide in a turn if the throttle was not eased off for a second to allow for the hull to lean a bit then turned back to full throttle in the turn. The design had to have trim tabs to be used to its full potential. The sliding is one of those compromises that you have in design. On the Whiprays we tried little keel tabs on the trim tabs. We ended up with the tabs having their sides turn down for little keels. Some people complained about this reducing their draft. Draft really was becoming apparent to the adventurer that was now poling a reasonable sized skiff in very shallow water in pursuit of fish. In later designs Hal and I tested many ideas on how to cure the sliding. More on this later.
The first year selling the Whipray concept was the most fun Ive had in my career. Everybody was very skeptical of an all up 550 lb skiff and motor that would not beat your brains out and fall apart at the same time. Once Hal and Flip were happy about the hulls performance I commenced to build all the plugs and molds for the first skiff. What Hal and Flip asked for was a forward locker, a large aft locker, a small bait well to port. Flip asked if I could draw a blue crab with the wording "Crustacean Crevasse"on the lid. This I did, got a plastic sign engraver to copy and put it in the mold. The stern well is Flips idea on how to make the boat self bailing and simple. I like it. Flip wanted a leather non skid look which I did using Formica in the plugs. I made the cockpit floor sit on top of a simple hat stringer with it being glassed to two bulkheads and then faired. The bow had a small hatch that folded back with the running lights. This I did years earlier. You had the option of not having the floor to save weight but losing the self bailing part. Fishermen like Ted Jurasicsick opted for the no floor version to save weight, and get a bit less draft. The side console option was to be very simple with the Gear shift coming out of the deck. The gear shift was neat but a pain in fitting and trying to keep the water out of the stern locker. I did this with a simple tray around the hull sides. To satisfy the Coast Guard rules for flotation I have used the cubic feet of the foam in the core as enough to keep the boat from sinking. A cubic foot equals 62 lbs of water or 62 lbs of weight. In reality there is plenty in the boats but the Coast Guard wants enough in the side deck area fore and aft to keep a boat floating upright in the event of sinking. What I dont agree with is that when a boat sinks with flotation like this it normally flips over and now you are clinging to a smooth upside down boat. The Coast Guard rules are up to the builder to comply with. If any thing happens to your design then they step in and determine if the boat would comply to their standards. To me the best thing to do in a sinking boat is get rid of the engine as it is the weight that wants to flip the boat over. Sitting in a half sunk boat is better than hanging onto an upside down one with your body outside of the boat. I have been in a sinking boat of anothers design so can say this.
The Console was supported by a simple knee that was bonded and glassed to the hull and deck. What made it all work and not break, like on the Pathfinders, is that in my building designs the entire boat is completely bonded, glued and glassed together as one: a monocoque structure. At that time nobody was doing this. I loved standing on top of the console at the boat shows making the boat bounce up and down saying to try that on the "other" skiffs. Of course our skiff was on a nice trailer which absorbed a lot of this showmanship BS. I built all these parts in St. Augustine Florida as "Chris Morejohn Boat Repair" under a plastic shed.
The first rough skiff that I made we took to our first boats show with me cringing at the rough finish to the deck. Hal wanted to get the ball rolling and to show the public what was going to be happening soon.
I drove the skiff to the Mark Castlow Shallow Water show in Huston Texas meeting my partners there as they where to fly in. Hal had his stores to deal with and Flip had his careers which being at this show was one of them. Hal along with Flip were old friends of Mark Castlow. Hal had an idea which Mark gladly said to go for it. I built a very simple pond out of 2 x 12 wood and lined it with plastic filling it up with water to about 6". This we slid our fully rigged skiff into with little rubber protectors over the trim tab edges so as to not rupture our pond. I had measuring rulers to hand out so people could measure our draft and compare to the others at the show. During the show I stood in and on our skiff and answered questions, nonstop for two days for 10 hours each. We had the busiest booth. I had a blast showing how all the big companys were not good at measuring their drafts. Of course every one could not believe this little skiff would not fall apart and kill them. We had to get the public to go for a ride. At this show we had a believer in Claude Berwick from Texas as he wrote us a check. We had some orders already from Hal and Flips friends, but to survive we had to get more people in the boats, get the boats built and keep growing. The pond did not burst.
We used this pond idea for several more shows along with a motor lift with a scale showing how much the Whipray Really weighed. My favorite ad picture of that time is the one of the three of us standing behind the Whipray in shallow water. It is still on the Hells Bay web site home page. We drove out to a dirt boat ramp at sunrise in Mims FL to do this shot. Flip set the shutter speed on his Camera and handed it to my wife Rachel to take. We stood together holding the boat still with our finger tips, probably making it look like the stern is just in the water. I am that short and not standing in a hole. This shot shows the character of who we were, are. Hal standing proud looking, saying "try this", I feeling and looking like "wow! I get to be part of this and a paycheck too." Flip has his trade mark look of "how long is this going to take?" Its a shame what goes on in this industry with my name being removed from Hells Bays letterhead after I sold out to my partners to reemerge with the present owners and now Hals name is gone. Look for that picture to disappear and reemerge with Flip, Stu and Chico in it with Chris Peterson sitting In the cockpit.
During my time a HBBWs I never did not sell a boat after a test ride. The best part for me was the look on the customers face when they first pushed the boat with the push pole. It was a happy ending look.
95% of non guide customers could not pole a skiff and 75% of guides. I believe this was a fact that most boats up to this time were not pole able for long distances. I know I will take some shit for this observation. But its true.
During the first year at HBBWs I oversaw the raising of the upper chine to my original design height after 18 skiffs built. Noise reduction was paramount. These 18 skiffs are very dry boats and fish the same, its just that if you are a big guy and stand out on the outer edge it can slap. We changed the original leather non skid as it could be slippery and made it the standard Awl Grip one. There are still lots of people out there that love this Leather deck.
Here I will try and explain how these skiffs were built at this time and in the process give my opinions on building techniques of that time and what being bantered about today.
First off I would like to say that fiberglass resin, epoxies, Linear paints, cloths - all this great stuff - is only as good as the engineering thought process behind it. This stuff will last and perform for a life time but not a badly designed structure. But you can rebuild one so this stuff is just great.
The first thing in Building a Whipray was to spray in the Gel coat in the molds. After this hardens then I would come in and glass over this with a skin coat of 3/4 oz. matt. This I would let harden. When it was hard to the touch you would then cut out and fit all of the core for the hull, deck, cockpit and hatches. Patterns for these parts made it a bit easier for the flat parts. The hull always needs to be fitted in place. All the hull pieces can be marked with a felt pen so as to remember how it all goes together. The core I used in the early 50 skiffs of HB was Dyvinecell core that was made up of little squares held together with a light scrim backing. With this stuff you could move it around till it layed nice and smooth within the insides of the hull. These foams come in many brands, types and density. The density is in how big the air holes are in the foam. Big air holes = low , small holes = High which means very hard to compress. In designing a skiff with all these products at your disposal it gives you lots of options.
The standard procedure for me at this time like many other shops was to glue the foam core in by hand. This is done by laying the pre-cut core upside down and rolling resin in it trying to get some in between the little square cuts or kerfs. With this wetted out you would then flip over and install into your mold part by hand. In the mold would be waiting the next skin layer that would have just been rolled in and wetted out. These two would then cure and bond together at the same time.
After the first skin over the gelcoat you have the option of many types of cloth weights, types and strengths to add in. This is one part of the puzzle of how to make it strong but keep it light enough to work to the design goals. In the early HB skiffs the outer skin would then be another 3/4 oz. Matt with a 10 oz. layer of Kevlar with a 1 1/2 oz. layer of Matt on top layed simultaneously. This is what your freshly resined core would be then hand layed into by gently pressing down into this wet skin. If the core was cut properly then it will just lay down like a wet towel. This was all done by hand using buckets of catalyzed resin, rollers and brushes. When wetting out the Matt you use hard rollers that roll out all the air in this cloth and the air in the following layers. This to me. if done by well trained skilled workers, is a great way to build a boat. The skins if done right have a great resin ratio.
Now the way to save weight, if wanted, is you can mix and match your cloths in the different parts of the boat that do not need the strength such as the upper bow area and other places. This process can also save resin weight by doing the whole skin and coring at one time after the gelcoat has cured using the wet resin the whole way through. You can eliminate the first skin this way. All the decks and parts were layed up at one time using 3/4 oz Matt , 7 oz. cloth, 11/2 oz Matt, then core.
In designing skiffs I have always relied on a thin skin on the flat surfaces that was well rolled out and when finishing off the underside or inside layer all the high abuse areas I would build up with Matt. This would be the sheer, cockpit side edges, hatch edges, hatch channel flange edges etc. Everywhere else was very thin. The two fore and aft bulk heads would only be a layer of 7 oz. cloth. All parts glassed together with 2 layers of a 1 1/2 oz Matt tabbing at most.
Once the resin which the core is now bonded, glued to has cured you now have to check for voids. This is very easily done by scrapping a quarter across all of the cores surface. If there is a void it will make a very distinct hollow sound. Once satisfied you then make up a resin and filler mixture to fill in any gaps in the core. Inside a hull like the Whiprays and others this filler is used in places like the little reverse spray chine to fill it out for the core to lay over. There is a lot of fairing of the edges of the core at this time. You do this with a small grinder and need to be careful not to hit the outer skin. All core needs a tapered edge for the glass skins to transition from. This is a messy job.
After this is all done and vacuumed out you are now ready for the inner skin. Again lots of things to think about for your particular design. In side the hulls of most all HBBWs designs I would lay in a 3/4 oz Matt with a 7 oz cloth on top finishing out the edges as explained . You would then glass in the bulkheads on the early boats, then the floor stringer with the floor going on top and being glassed all around. The fuel tank would go in, rod racks, stern parts, console knee, and then the inside being all finished out. Next you would bond the deck to the hull.
At this time every body still screwed their decks on. In my early years with Back Bay Boats I bonded all my decks on with 5200 sealant glassing a lot of certain parts to the hull. I have heard from Sandy Moret that his skiff deck had problems but his son fixed it. So on these new skiffs I wanted nothing to be able to move or come apart so every thing is bonded together which is a painstaking way to go but is very strong in reality and in feel.
This is the way I built the first 30 skiffs going from a 5 gallon paint pressure pot for spraying gelcoat, to a Pressurized resin gun and gelcoat gun. I still feel you can build a fantastic boat using these simple methods with these skiffs outperforming in the long run both in price and long term durability the so called "state of the art resin infused epoxy super boats." I will discuss this later when I talk about the present market.
At hull # 55 we would change cores and start vacuum bagging the cores in place. We also started using a bonding putty with the core. This is the next step up, it costs more and if not done well could add a bit more weight. I used this in my early foam core boats using a product called Divilett. I will get to vacuum bagging in a bit.
About mid way into 1998 I was training 12 people on how to build these boats to my way of thinking, talking to customers as I was building their boats, new customers as they wanted to see the shop, doing all the gelcoat work and helping in all the phases of construction, running around from one thing to the next. Hal and I talked by phone as he and Jamie had their Clothing stores going and were in the process of opening a new one. I kept track of all the hours, bills I had and faxed back and forth to the Chittums.
They had this great sounding assistant that would be my link to them. She had the sexiest deep smoky bar voice and I could only picture her as a blond that had been around the block. She was great to talk to. Hal said she laughed her head off when I told him of my thoughts and about what she looked like on the phone. Hal said she had lots of guys coming in the shop to get a look. I loved it when I found out she was a very pretty black girl.
At this time we felt that I could use a secretary to field the calls now coming in to help me. My ad in the Orlando times was basically this, "need girl to answer phones, take messages in growing boat building company, needs sense of humor." I got lots of calls for the next Monday for interviews. I had never had to do this. The Friday before was going badly with a bunch of little disasters and just dealing with a new crew that did not know boats and mainly was there for a paycheck. After noon that day I sent everyone home early. I had one thing I had to get out of the way before I could escape to my family. A friend of ours said she knew of the perfect girl for this job and could she just come by early and maybe see the place before everyone else. She was to show up at 1:00. Flip was out front doing something to his new skiff and one of my 19 year old workers Mica would just not leave the shop. Man, was I worn out. The girl shows up and getting out of her car the first thing I saw to my mystery is what was Nancy thinking? Rachel is not going have this girl in the office. She was a ginger blond red head wearing a little velour suit top and short skirt. She was a knockout. My plan was to be polite, show her the office, the shop and get her on her way, then call Nance. She was very polite and was really interested in what we were up to. I had a hard time not staring at her. She asked to see where the boats were built. The shop was all closed up so was very hot. We walked out into the shop and she says "O this is very interesting, but it is so hot in here I must take my jacket off." After she said and did this it all clicked!
It was my birthday!
She was now wearing a short Daisy Duke top, with this impossibly short mini skirt. I put my arm around her waist and said there could be lots of over time in this job. She said meet me in the office. She was my 40th birthday present from my wife and proceeded to strip down with her boom box playing and give me a show. In the middle of my present with her sitting naked on my fully dressed lap Flip, oblivious to what was going on, opens the door to the office and pops his head in to say hes going. The girl and I say come on in and enjoy the show! Flip disappears.
After my show present ended my wife showed up. Flip had called Hal and said Chris was going to be in such big trouble if Rachel finds out what he is up to. Mica the kid was there to make sure I would not leave early and miss my present. Flip later said Rachel was his hero. She was a great girl and Rachel and I had a good laugh together with her. On my Monday secretary appointments I kept looking for another one but Rachel said that was going to be the only one. I love her so.
During these early times at HB the workers I had were through ads in the papers. I had no experienced people except for Stan Nash who had followed me from Lures Mainship and some kids I knew but all just people that wanted a paycheck and were not at all interested in the job at hand. The fiberglass industry is a hard one to work in the work itself and the sameness it can be. Lots of people went through our doors during this time. One lady really was interested and showed lots of promise but started showing up with lots of bruises on her visibly. She just never showed up one day. It can be a hard crowd.
During this time Hal took a million dollar key man insurance policy out on me to protect their investment. Ha, a waste of money!
I needed help and it came in the way of Tom Gordon. Tom had been selling and servicing our gelcoat and resin guns and equipment. In dealing with him I could see that he was a straight up guy and wanted more than his job of being a traveling salesman/repairman. He knew gelcoat and I felt that he could oversee the glass department under my supervision. We were a small new company which is hard to lure people to. Stan Nash had come with me, he was my boss at Mainship and knew Tom well. I asked Tom what it would take to come and take over the glass end of HB. He came back the next day with his needs. He started two weeks later. Tom changed my life at HBBWs during this time.
I was being paid all along with my other partners waiting for the company to get going before drawing a salary. Tom at this point in the game was the highest paid person at HB.
First off Tom made it so no more me spraying gelcoat! The next thing he brought to HBBWS was because of his reputation for work ethics he was well respected by all the other fiberglass production employees at Boston Whaler and Sea Ray. Our shop lay between the two giants. Now lots of good experienced people started to come through our doors looking to work for us. When Tom started working for us he had an idea of flats boats and fishing but no experience in the way of building to my design ideas. He was a great employee in that he was always ready to make it happen for what ever I came up with in building needs. He understood the concept of what we were striving for immediately. Tom was great with the crew and understood my fanatical attention to detail. This passed down to the crew. Tom was my go to guy for research into the next glues, adhesives, etc. As we grew Tom came with us to the boat shows to help in sales and did great.
My goal was to operate HBBWS as the best place to work in production fiberglass boat building for the employees. In all the shops that I had worked in before you were always running on overtime from lack of a clear vision and too many chiefs. HBBWs was run by myself and once I had Hal and Flips OK on the idea design it was up to me from then on.
I ran the shop on the principal of better pay, a clean shop environment and no over-time, a 40 hour work week - 7:30 to 3:30 and the crew had to do a good days work. This set up worked with Stan Nash and myself in plug building, Tom Gordon in the glass shop and eventually Scott Empson in rigging.
Thanks to all the great people that came to work for us we were able to build a good high tech - low tech skiff in the market going from the Whipray through 6 more designs with all the plugs and molds built in house in 4 years time. 128 plugs, molds and all the corresponding thought process to go with it. Other than the hull drawings, calculations and the deck layout drawings, most everything else was in my head and conveyed to Stan, Tom and Scott in sketch form.
I have all this information, drawings, faxes, Lines plans and copies of all the sales brochures, newsletters and ads from my time there. In 1998 we built 42 skiffs being Whiprays, the plug and mold for the ultimate dinghy and a few Skates, Mosquito Lagoons and introduced the Waterman series.
During this time I had the pleasure of meeting Scott Flanders who owned Egret boats at the boat shows. Scott called the shop one day and ordered a bare bones Waterman skiff . He explained he planned on towing it behind his Egret skiff to fish the flats around the Everglades as he wanted to fish shallower water and his Egret could not get into the places he wanted to go. I think this was our first sale of a mother ship setup. In later years Scott and his wife Mary cruised in company with my family in the Bahamas. Scott had sold out at about the same time as I and purchased a used 46 Nordhaven trawler power boat type. We ended up sharing anchorages in Bermuda and Horta in the Azores on our first Atlantic crossings. Scott and Mary went on to circumnavigate the world via the 5 great capes starting with Cape Horn. It takes a lot of attention to detail to do this.This same attention to detail was very evident in the Egret boats.
We also built during this time a cooler that Flip had envisioned as a dual purpose cooler and bow casting platform. I loved it but our version was a bit heavy and it took time to build. The other ones made today are fantastic.
Flip also designed the boat trailers for our skiffs. They are great in that they never have to get wet. We had a lot of people that would unhook the boats before they would back the boat in and then it would just launch itself off the trailer in the parking lot.
Flip also with the help of Gil at Blue Point Welders designed a fantastic Mercury tiller extension in aluminum. We stopped selling these after someone broke off the tiller arm on his outboard.
One of the outside people that helped HBBWs grow was Gil at Blue Point Welders. Whatever idea or tower design we came up with he would build on the spot and with way more detail. Gil should get the credit for ALL the new stylish towers out there today that have been derived from our skiffs. At the time of starting HB towers were all very straight looking with big heavy hatch like tower lids on them. My idea to just add a couple of tabs to the structure and then install a very thin skinned core panel using the outer rim as your toe kick saved a lot of weight. This detail also means I can spot one of my skiffs along way away by just looking to see if the skiff has a big lid on it. Gil could always come up with a bend instead of straight. Thanks Gil.
In design, the "Skate" which became the "Mosquito Lagoon" which then became the "Waterman" were my ideas as far as boat concepts. The Wateman design name was Hals idea. These boats were my ideas to have a very simple boat in our line to cater to the people that could not afford the Whipray.
My reasoning was this, in a growing shop you need to keep the crew going, the cash flow going. Building high end luxury skiffs caters to a small market in the boating world. Lots of people loved our skiffs but could not afford its price. The way to get the price down is to eliminate labor costs, which in turn means taking away some of the the boat. This is done today by making the the hatch channels drain into the cockpit which is a very clean and simple way to go. Also making the locker inside a big tub incorporated to the deck mold. The problem for me is the boat has to be level at all times for for this to work, hence the extra work in draining the water overboard. I did this in the simple hatch layouts of these skiffs progressions.
I see the East Cape doing this, Back Country Boats did this which Chico was promoting at that time. The Back Country Boats skiff had part of its hull side from the Dave Exley Dolphin Skiff in it. Another redo/remake. If the hatches are done right this is the most cost effective way to build a skiff.
I first drew a sketch of this proposed boat and sent it out to 350 people that had asked for a brochure to be mailed. From this I sold 2 boats. Now I had to make the molds and build the boats.
People went nuts for this concept. But... what they really wanted was the Whipray, but at the Waterman price. This was to be an ongoing problem from my time, Tom Gordons time and still is. Hal did not like the idea of taking away the clout of the Whipray but understood the concept of staying afloat. The Waterman kept the the cash flowing between the sales of the Whipray.
I still feel the open deck Waterman with a 25 is the ultimate shallow water fishing skiff for cost. This is the kind of skiff I would build or promote if catching and cost were the primary goals . This is still a very good market to get into to make a living as a small time builder. Contact me and I will give you a set of plans, ideas for free. These boats do not have the yacht looks of a Whipray but still get the job done.
At my time at HBBWs I helped build and oversaw the building of 143 Whiprays 5 Skates - Mosquitio Lagoons, 59 Watermans and 7 Ultimate Skiffs/dinghies.
I still have one of the ultimate skiffs. One has been across the Atlantic and back and all over. In fact I just got out of the present one a
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