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If you do a Google search for "Skiff" and then click on "images", the results are truly astounding. Of all the 10+ pages of thumbnail images, only a handful are truly skiffs...which is to say, rockered flat bottomed boats with a stem forward and a transom aft. And needless to say, and even smaller proportion of the actual skiffs are wooden ones.

Our Maine Skiff is a classic small craft, its usefulness attested to by the hundreds and hundreds of them tied up to town floats from Kittery to Eastport. They are good little boats, and are both inexpensive and easy to build, even without prior experience.

Building the 9'-7" Maine Skiff was written to guide you through the layout and construction of this good little boat.In it you will find step-by-step coverage of skiff building from lofting and reading plans through completion. You will learn how to make the moulds and set them up, get out the bottom panel and chines, make the stem and transom, get out and install her planks, and install the frames and rails.

Sound like a lot of work? It's not bad broken down into its individual components. It is arranged in 40 individual lessons requiring about an hour apiece, though individual working times will vary from one builder to another. There are no illustrations within the book, because the scale building plans for the Maine Skiff are included for ready reference.

This is basic boatbuilding, and an excellent way for anyone interested in building flat bottom boats to begin. Building the 9'-7" Maine Skiff is particularly popular among those with little or no prior boatbuilding experience.

For those visual learners, you will want to check out the Littlest Boats CD. The Skiff Youth Bed goes together just like this working version, so you'll see all of the operations right through the planking in full color photos.

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The Maine Skiff is traditionally built in an inverted position. If you happen to be working on a wooden floor, that makes fastening everything down a snap (especially these days with the widespread use of coarse threaded drywall screws and cordless screwdrivers). The boat in this photo was built by the two 14-year-olds you see working on the planking. They spent 47 hours on the project and sold their boat to a local fisherman the day after they finished painting her.
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The photo at the left is a Dory Skiff. She's a bit out of the ordinary because she is round rather than flat sided. That makes planking her a bit more of a chore, but greatly enhances her appearance. Fancier than a work-a-day skiff, dory skiffs are usually finished off like the one in the photo with bright mahogany trim.

Virtually all skiffs are built in the same manner, so this book can also be used to guide the construction of the 9'-6" Lobsterman's Skiff, and even our 9'-0" Dory Skiff. Those new to this work find that having a copy of Pigeons and Gudgeons close by is a big help because it explains the terms used in the boatbuilding books they consult.