The Boat Shop: Boat Plans - Building the Simmons Sea Skiff

Building the Simmons Sea Skiff

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In the 50's, 60's and early 1970's T. N. Simmons of Myrtle Grove, North Carolina built hundreds of seaworthy boats called Sea Skiffs.

Designed for the inlets, bars, and shoaling rips of the Carolinas, the lightweight V-bottom Sea Skiff used modest power to achieve fast, comfortable cruising speeds. For added safety, and ease of maintenance, the outboard motor was located in a well, inboard of the high, raking transom.

In building the modern version of the Sea Skiff, the bottom section of the boat is fabricated in a female mold out of hand-laid fiberglass. This major modification results in a seamless, leakproof bottom. Polyurethane foam

flotation fills the void under the floor for strength and unsinkability. The glassed-in floor, being above the water line, creates a self-bailing cockpit, allowing the boat to be kept at a dock or on a mooring without a bilge pump.

As to the seaworthiness of the Sea Skiffs, retired Coast Guard Captain Bill Brogdon describes it this way: "The Simmons Sea Skiff is the best small boat I have ever used around inlets and offshore. It is an excellent sea boat, pretty but not dainty and they played a bellwether role in establishing that outboard powered boats could be suitable for offshore use as well as protected waters."

"These boats have become a pure expression of seagoing practicality...a classic North Carolina design."

-David Dean

For custom boats and kits, contact:

Mike Hubbard
c/o Live Oak Boatworks, Inc.
1700 Canady Rd., Wilmington, NC 28405
910-686-1530

For original plans of the Simmons Sea Skiffs and a historical book, contact:

Cape Fear Museum Associates
814 Market St., Wilmington, NC 28401
910-341-4350