Walter Baron, of Old Wharf Dory Co., designed the Lumber Yard Skiff (LYS) with commercial watermen in mind. It had to be simple, easy, and quick to build, and rugged enough to live at least 10 years in constant hard employ. He would build it of readily available materials—underlayment plywood for the topsides and bottom, clear spruce 44s for the stem and sternposts, and any suitable hardwood for the rails and shoes. Baron has since discovered that skiffs built with these materials have lived longer than he anticipated—and have done so without the benefit of coating the wood with epoxy. Paint on the outside, oil on the inside has been the rule, though some owners have had the outside fiberglassed.He offers a 16' standard LYS, a 16' LYS Sport, and a 20' LYS—plans or completed boats—and now prefers meranti marine plywood for the topsides and bottom and clear fir for the frames. He fastens the boats with stainless-steel screws and Sikaflex marine adhesive.Baron, who’s been building boats for about 30 years, can knock together a LYS in about 40 hours, if he needs to hurry. A rank amateur with basic woodworking skills might double that time. When he’s finished, he’ll think that every minute was well spent, because the boat probably will exceed his expectations. Like most simple designs, especially ones that are easy to build, the LYS required more thought than we imagine. Baron took his inspiration from the Brockway skiffs, which were built by Earle Brockway in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and well regarded along the coast from Connecticut eastward through Cape Cod.
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Another lumber yard boat is the easily constructed, extremely stable, and inexpensive to build Brockway skiff designed and built by Earl Brockway of Rhode Island. My marine-tech classes built several of these with great success.
I have one of Walters skiffs, 20′. I love it. I am now down in Virginia on the eastern shore.
Built one of these last year, easy cheap build, used good-one-side and epoxy/fiberglass. Love it, it’s great.
I just recently purchased a 10’ skiff from a gentleman from NC. I’m wondering if it is a lumber yard boat, see the pictures below.
Joe sent three pictures of his skiff:
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