I will probably get boo’d off the forum for this… I have always wondered if anyone has been able to combine fly/flats fishing and sailing. I feel like this is something the great Chris Morejohn could probably figure out.
If such a design were possible it would would need:
A light weight removable mast or at a minimum be free standing with no rigging.
Sails / Boom would need to be easily removed, rolled up, and lashed to the outside of the gunnel.
Small enough to not need a ballast. Ie. you are the ballast.
This is the closest I have found:
There are many people out there who have made 5-10lb carbon fiber masts for these boats and carbon fiber spars. Your pushpole could likely double as one of the spars.
Not building one now, But before I die i want to prove it can be done.
Its my understanding from reading Mr Morejohn’s paste write-ups he did most of his fishing from the dinghy not the sailboat its self,he mentioned rowing down the beach i believe in that one write-up, im sure he did catch a couple off the sailboat as dolphin fish love to school around anything on anchor, i use to get up in afternoon when we was dragging at nights in Texas for pink shrimp,and I’d find a school of 3 or 4 Dolphins swimming around the boat,id catch one or two with squid i saved outa the last drag Durn good eating!
From the man himself Chris Morejohn, he really is a inspiration! from the "Gulf Crossing"He posted on here !
Before my sailing trip at 19 when I was in Panama at 17 I sailed and rowed down the coast of the San Blas islands for 3 weeks in our 9’ plywood pram living off what ever I caught….fish coconuts, crawfish, urchins etc. fresh water I got from digging down to water level near the beach to get surface fresh water on top of salt water. I slept on my oars with sail pulled over me when it rained. Here’s a snapper for dinner on my last day meeting back up with my parents on our Ketch.
For my own personal use and for others I have designed and built over 2 dozen such skiffs I call the ROMOSA series.
Row Motor Sail.
Here’s some photos of some of these builds, many were built using Kevlar, carbon, SGlass all trying to see how light and strong I could make them. Eventually I have come to the conclusion that under 100 lbs is fine for a rowing sailing skiff but forstand up fishing it can be a bit jumpy. I like em now to weigh around 125-130 lbs.
All these skiffs could plane under sail and under power with me alone would plane along with a 4 hp at 9-10 knots and up to 22 knts with a 15 hp 2 stroke. Using sail got me to places quietly and peacefully. I could then lower the mast to fish or to wade fish, and to spearfish.
Some pictures are of fish I caught by blind casting off the mothership sailboat.
Brain Little of Sabine boats caught his first tarpon off of my sailboat the 38’ Hogfish Maximus when he and his wife Kaylor came to stay with us when we were in Antigua BWI.lots of tarpon about at night easy to catch on tiny white flys.
The rig shown with the spar yard is called a lug rig. Many varieties of the lug rig. The ones shown all the spars,mast, boom, Yard and can lay down inside the hull so very neat for stowing and making up the rig.in our world here of flats skiffs and home builders we are a very small group in numbers compared to the rowing sailing fraternity of builders. They consist of tens of thousands of builders. We have only justgot going…. Enjoy your search
