For several years we have been receiving requests for a boat that rows as well as our 14' Whitehall and is just as attractive, but that has more capacity and is still blazingly fast. People have also requested the ability to row tandem with sliding seats without worrying about clashing oars or keeping a delicate balance. Plus, seaworthiness for long open water adventures is desirable.

We studied historical design and came across the Melonseed Skiff, which is a derivative of the famous Jersey Beach Skiff. The Jersey version, being used for a mixture of rowing and sailing as a workboat, has a higher freeboard for dryness under sail and greater load carrying capacity. However, a pure rowing boat is hindered by that high freeboard due to increased windage, weight, and steeper oar angle. With this in mind, the Melonseed was developed with an almost identical underbody as the Jersey Skiff, but she is built with one less plank at the sheer. The rowing and sailing versions of the Melonseed share an identical hull, but because of the constraints of sailing design, the sailing Melonseed includes a sealed deck, which effectively increases freeboard. There is very little difference in the rowing performance of the rowing and sailing versions, however.

After many requests from our customers for a sailing version of the Melonseed Skiff, we have done it! We have added a sealed deck, a solid wooden mast, a balanced lug rig, and a daggerboard which still allows dual sliding seat rowing with the mast up.

This Melonseed has a fine bow and stern, elevated ends to drive over chop, and a stunningly graceful sheerline. It has a flat bottom (called a box keel) which furnishes tremendous tracking ability. On the box keel, she sits flat and secure on a dock or beach instead of leaning on to one side like a full keel boat such as a Whitehall. The length of 16'5" and the substantial beam of 64" allows the use of long sweeps without the need for custom outriggers.

The optional balanced lug rig gives the sailing version good performance in light wind yet requires no stays to support the mast making it very easy to rig. The daggerboard is just below the front seat so that it can slide right over the top without impediment. The console for the mainsheet is removable to quickly convert the boat from sailing to rowing configuration.

With the long box keel and the balanced lug rig, the helm is remarkably netural with just enough weather helm to make sailing easy even for a beginner.

These photos are of our first off the line boats, one with the custom wood trim and the other with the sealed deck, sailing rig and standard rub rail. The production version, shown under construction in the last photo, shows the longitudinal side seats which form the runners for our famous built-in ball-bearing fixed/sliding seat systems. These side seats also furnish reserve buoyancy in addition to the enclosed bow and stern seats.

If this is what you have been waiting for, don't hesitate to call us! We have just begun to publicize the Melonseed, and we already have orders for several of them and expect more to come. We are sure that this craft will become one of the standards by which open water rowing boats will be measured.