Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska quality skiffs, 16 foot or so

The Lund skiffs have been called on on another thread as being of less than top quality. What are some high quality manufacturers of skiffs in the 16 foot class that have hull designs appropriate for SE AK?

Thanks

Fred

I have a 14' Starcraft that's served me well.They also make 16'ers.

Why 16'?

If forced to slum a 16' boat, it'd be this one.

http://workskiff.netpaths.net/workskiff-16.php

What would you suggest for a husband/wife duo? 18ft or 20ft?

I like the 19-21ft boats for do all boats. Small enough to beach, big enough to go pound kings on the outer coast.

What are your plans?

There's lots of things to consider depending on ...

Here is the plan- Plan on spending summers in SE AK starting this summer, and we would like a boat to explore the sheltered islands with, set a few crab pots, fish out of and peerhaps bear hunt from.
The areas we are likely to be are POW Island, Haines, Skagway and maybe Bella Coola, BC.
The reason for the 16' length is that is what was recommended to me a lot when I was on POW 4 years ago. Their reasoning was that a 16 footers was about the biggest one guy could pull up on a beach by himself. I'll turn 65 in June so that is a factor. Not set on the 16' length but it's a place to start looking.
By the way, it's obvious that some thought went into all the answers I have gotten, and that is appreciated.

Fred

Fred

I agree with Calvin's suggestion on this if 16' is the limit. I've run the 19' version myself for most of the past 20 years and it has never been too big; never had any concerns about its sea-worthiness either out here on Norton Sound. Even the 16 footer is going to be running 1000 pounds plus with power however which is not something you can easily move without the help of water. Nothing is free when it comes to boats. Either you have a rugged, seaworthy hull which has some weight to it, or you give some of that up for a hull that requires a lot more attention to how its used in exchange for the ability to move it in and out of the water.

The last thing I'd want to do is being in SE AK and have to wait for flat sunny days to go fishing. Because you can have stretches of weeks where that don't happen, and the fishing is slamming.

The OP would do 10x more with a quality skiff over a Lund, and catch 20x more fish, assuming he has a clue.

Plenty of 16' Lund owners on POW who don't even know what a king salmon looks like..

Fred when and if you make it to Skagway and Haines do you plan on sticking around the northern end of Lynn Canal or do you think you will make longers runs down to Auke Bay or farther? 16' would be good for hanging around the Haines Skagway area. But if you plan on running around and needing to carry a lot of fuel and gear might want to go bigger in my opinion. Like was stated already if you want to hit the outer coast bigger would be much better. There is a lot of water to explore and some very cool sights to see.

Agree again, Calvin. I don't know SE much, but I do know we run the 17 miles of rocky coast to our camp quite frequently, and I'd hate to be limited to 'Lund days' to get there. The only time I've felt a disadvantage with my skiff is in running into the Yukon mouth at low water. A flat-bottom is better for the miles of mud one encounters there. I doubt that is much of a problem in SE however.

I agree with Klik on this. NFW you will pull (using rollers of some sort) at 16 footer up a beach solo. I had a 13' Smokercraft with a 15 horse. I'd have to take the motor off and the gas tank out and all the gear out before I could roll it up a beach. Plus, on a 16 foot Lund you'd be hauling up a 25/35 horse motor. I'm 50 and you won't see me doing this rodeo. Now down a beach is doable.

I got into a lot of deer spots that guys with 16 footer could hit, especially since, on a rising tide, I could get above the high tide line and not have to worry about anchoring out. Shot a lot of deer with that set up. Of course, the perfect tide scenario was about 2 hours into the ebb, then you could just put the skiff right where you hit the beach and have plenty of time to hunt before the tide came back up to it.

MontanaCreek
Haven't been to Haines yet and haven't seen the conditions so I don't know what my limitations would be. My guess is that I would probably stay around the Northern end of the canal.
I suspect that whatever boat I start out with won't be the boat I end up with. I don't know how much ocean fishing I will do. I know that down here I don't care for trolling at all, would rather river fish.
I do want to have a good way of getting to and onto those islands, though.

Fred

Liten to the guys that know that area, they've got the most experience and know that water like the back of their hand. Personally I would not want to go less than 18ft and much preferably 20ft.

One of the dilemmas with regards to literally being able drag a boat up on a beach is there's tides to contend with that makes this a difficult proposition.

You have to be able to beach it past the high water mark and then drag it back down. Even a light fourteen foot aluminum boat with a tiller steer outboard is too heavy for one guy to manhandle on a beach.

Look at Calvin's posts about anchoring off the shore to see how it's done without running into problems with rocks, tides, and getting grounded.

If you eliminate the idea of dragging a boat up onto the beach it opens up the possibilties for a larger and more seaworthy craft. IMO, a sixteen foot boat is way too small for what you want to do. Bigger is better in many many ways.



edited to add: I was writing while MuskegMan was posting on the beaching dilemma.

Okay, I'm with you so far. No riveted hulls (Lunds), you want 3/16ths or 1/4in, all welded, correct?

As to length, more is better, but only to a certain point. To remain sea-worthy, longer has to be wider, and wider takes more HP to push. This means a heavier, more expensive (in initial cost plus fuel) outboard.

So, an 18ft quality hull with a 90hp Honda or Merc four stroke?

Stabicraft.

All I can say is there's compromises galore in choosing the "perfect" boat.

IMO, Calvin has a very good example of a "do most everything" SE AK skiff.

Yeah, shipping for a hull from New Zealand should make it real affordable.