VINEYARD HAVEN HALF-SKIPJACK, about 1885 

 Builder's Half-Model, usnm 160122 



This half-model represents several boats built at 

 Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, about 1885, for 

 shore fishing. They appear to have been experi- 

 mental and combined a round-bottom sloop hull 

 forebody with the V-bottom and chine of a skipjack, 

 or "corner boat" as the type was called at Province- 

 town. The V-bottom hull form seems to have ap- 

 peared on Narragansett Bay and spread eastward 



form was very economical to l)uild. These vessels 

 used a jib and mainsail rig. Some boats built on the 

 model were lapstrake planked, or "clinker built," 

 also called "clench built." 



The half-model represents a shoal ccnterboard 

 sloop having forward a round bottom of the normal 

 form, with nearly straight and upright stem, straight 

 keel with some drag, and skeg aft; and a V-bottom 

 beginning slightly forward of midlcngth and ending 

 in a V-shaped transom flat across and set at a sharp 



Fishing C.atbo.at of the type used 

 on the Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island coast, 1875-80. Rigged 

 model USNM 25026. {Smithsonian 

 photo 4^6oj-h.) 



soon after the Civil War, but it also appeared in 

 southern waters in the 1870"s along the Gulf and, 

 Florida coasts. The origin of the V-bottom modr' is 

 obscure. Apparently the half-model was an attempt 

 to secure the seaworthiness of a round bottom for- 

 ward with the sail carrying power of a wide V- 

 bottom aft, for it is doubtful that this combination of 



rake, tlie rudder stock being inboard and entering 

 hull just forward of the heel of the transom. The 

 sheer is strong; the sternpost rakes; and the midsection 

 is V-bottom with a straight, rising floor right out to 

 the angular bilge, and above this chine the topsides 

 arc slightly convex and flaring, the flare being carried 

 aft to the transom. The forebody is somewhat U- 



265 



