Steve asked me if I’d gone out to pick up the traps. HA! Yeah, in the middle of thunderstorms and a howling north wind. No Steve, I did not go pick up the traps. Maybe some evening this week if we get calm weather…
But it got me to thinking again. Steve’s boat, a locally built 19′ Stoner skiff, is not ideally suited to the piggy perch fishery. The Stoner is a modern fiberglass version of the old wooden Vannoy skiffs that commercial fishermen used, and still do use, in the shallow back bays.
The Stoner. Completely flat bottomed. This is perfect for the oyster reef ridden Nueces Bay, the extremely shallow Laguna Madre, the rock strewn Baffin Bay, and Alazan Bay that branches off of Baffin. But for the deeper water of Corpus Christi Bay, which is often “choppy” at best, it ain’t the greatest…
An example, the only example I could find online, of the Vannoy skiff. Fortunately, this one is being restored.
I’ve always had a love for Maine lobster boats, and have often wondered why these wonderfully well suited boats never took off down here. They are perfectly suited to our often steep, confused, really snotty seas out in the Gulf.
These boats work in similar conditions daily, and they do it safely and as comfortably as possible. To top it off, they’re very efficient hulls, though not as fast as the flashy sport fishermen types so prevalent down here. Those sport fishermen still cruise slowly though, most of the time, to save fuel and keep from beating their pretty interiors into match sticks. So why not have a boat more suited to the local conditions? Flash and show, mostly.
A smaller version of a lobster boat, say 20′, would make a perfect piggy perch boat.
Like this here. She would shoulder the snotty bay chop aside like it wasn’t even there. She would be no speed demon, but her fuel consumption would be measured in pints per hour with a little 30 horse diesel. Run on waste veggie oil, the fuel cost would be virtually nil. Fuel is the biggest daily expense in piggy perching, and $5 worth of diesel would do what it takes $17 worth of gas in the Stoner to do. Or better yet, a dollar’s worth of diesel and waste veggie oil.
Boats like this are virtually non-existent. Down here they are completely non-existent. I would have to build one.
This is about the closest thing I could find online that plans are sold for. The wheel house would have to go, or be done lobster boat style with the starboard wheel house wall and window omitted (so the helmsman can grab the trap buoys and haul them up). No cabin is needed, and I’d move the wheel house further forward to free up deck space aft. But this is all basically mental masturbation because none of it is going to happen. Costs too much money that I don’t have, nor will I ever have by the looks of things. In any event, fishing may soon revert back to these things:
This is a reproduction of a Texas scow. A sailing vessel, 35-40 feet in length, obviously of very shallow draft, that was used for fishing and ferrying cargo across the shallow Texas bays. This one is at the Rockport Maritime Museum. I’ve seen it, and I’d like to to see it again with some paper, a pencil, and a tape measure…
It’s funny, as soon as you described the local conditions, I thought “lobster boat.” I didn’t have to read much further to see you thought the same thing. They are amazingly tough little boats that appeal to “Yankee Frugality.” Any boat that can make money in the New England Atlantic, with its nasty conditions and massive tides, should work in your part of the Gulf.
The Texas scow looks interesting. Appears to be a bigger, squarer version of fishing boats that used to work off the coast up here in the days of sail.
I just bought plans for a scow shaped boat called the Oozegooze. It was designed by a Finn and an Aussie. It’s only about 12 feet long, but the scow shape gives it good capacity. Even has a small cabin. What will I use it for? Who knows, but it looks cool and won’t be too expensive to build. I bet it will be fun to sail too.
I really don’t know why lobster boats never took hold down here. The old Farley tarpon boats of Port Aransas were lobster like, but the Atlantic coast sport fishermen type now dominate the offshore fleet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farley_Boats
Wide beam and flat bottom was the name of the game for Texas bay sailing craft. Many parts of the Laguna are a foot deep or less, the average being three feet, with lots of sandbars in unexpected places. All the “back bays” are similar, though north of here it’s oyster reefs versus sand bars where the water gets really skinny. The big bays run 6-12 feet deep, though again, the bays north of Corpus have oyster reefs.
I’m gonna have to look up the Oozegooze, haven’t seen that one yet : )
a desieled, steam, or woodgas powered boat might just be the item many of your fellow hard working fisherfolk might like to buy from a local builder like you…
and for more trifty operations, options for a mast and sail could be added to the design..
opportunity awaits you…
If I can fill my “piggy” bank next year, I will build something.
The only flaw I saw with your logic is the biodiesel part. Folks are getting real territorial and mean around here protecting their waste oil sources. I wouldn’t plan on that part too very much.
Also, if you are not worried about going fast you might want to try something like this
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200310743_200310743
When I was spending a lot of time in Thailand, I watched the locals for just about everything with the little 10 HP diesels that are everywhere over there. I’ll put up one of my favorite pictures soon showing how things are tun over there
I got an inside line the “greasel”. Wow, that’s a pricey little bugger…