People’s Choice
Masonboro Skiff
by MARIMAR McNAUGHTON
photography by ALLISON POTTER
beachbights
skiff – a small boat, traditionally coastal or river craft used for
leisure or fishing with a one-person or small crew.
Masonboro Skiff boatbuilder John Olsen says, “We
built it cause it’s just the ideal boat for this area,
sneaking behind the channels.”
One morning last month, Olsen and business
partner, Larry Heckner, poked out the inlet to see what the fishermen
were doing. With plenty
of freeboard — the height
above the waterline from
the sides — the flat-
bottomed skiff handled
the four-foot rollers and
nobody got wet.
The first skiff off the new
line has turned heads in the
water and on dry land.
“People want to touch it,”
Heckner says.
And touch it they have
as the Masonboro Skiff
has made the rounds of
regional wooden boat
shows, it’s also racked up
a few awards.
At the 2012 Southport
Wooden Boat Show, it
picked up the People’s
Choice Award and at the
North Carolina Maritime
Museum’s Wooden
Boat Show held earlier
this year in Beaufort,
Masonboro Skiff picked
up the Best Up-and-Coming
Boatbuilder award. The
Beaufort show organizers had seen the skiff at the Cape Fear Community
College Wooden Boat Show in April and invited Olsen and Heckner to
show their boat because it is considered a fine piece of work and so
reminiscent of the traditions of North Carolina.
The judges’ comments have been consistent, Heckner says.
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WBM july 2013
“The editor of the
WoodenBoat magazine
came to the Georgetown
(South Carolina) show
and said, ‘Great design,
excellent execution.’”
The design execution
was tweaked by Olsen, who
grew up at Olsen’s Boatyard
in Bayshore, Long Island.
The boat was designed
to be a small harbor boat,
a work boat, fishing on
the weekends, clamming,
oystering. For the sports-man,
the boat could be
fitted with a tiller, a more
open area for decoys
and guns, or the size of the
casting platform increased
for fly fishermen. It’s ideal
for taking the family to
the beach — wife, kids
and dog — load them
in with a couple of coolers,
an umbrella and go,
Olsen says.
He’s comfortable taking
the boat to Buzzard Bay
The Masonboro Skiff’s fishing platform is the perfect perch for the family retriever.