For Sale:

WHISP

Glued Clinker rowing skiff: 15' 6" x 3' 6". Designer: S. Redmond

"Whisp" is an elegant, stable and light rowing skiff, a type of craft popular in the U.S.A. in the nineteenth century, and one wbich has found favour again in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, due in no small part to the resurgence of interest in traditional designs.  Redmond, like Herreshoff, Culler and Gardner, appreciates the many virtues - and few vices - of long, lean and light flat-bottomed skiffs, and has drawn a particularly attractive and able example of this type of craft.  The "Whisp" is relatively narrow, but thanks to the strongly flared clinker sides and flat floor is quite stable; and whilst not being as fast as the rather extreme racing craft, she can still show a surprising turn of speed for very little effort, particularly for a fixed seat craft: according to her designer, the "Whisp" will do an "honest 12 minute mile under oars". This skiff is considerably more stable than a conventional single skull, much lighter than a conventional clinker built boat, and the interior - let alone the exterior - has far more appeal than any other comparable rowing skiff of simple construction.  The "Whisp" is, quite simply, an exceptional craft with a distinguished heritage.

Indeed, 'Woodenboat' has hailed her, along with Bolger's "Gloucester Light Dory", as one of the few craft truly deserving of the name 'modern classic'.

Finished in two pot poly, with bronze offset locks, sitka spruce leathered oars and recent fitted cover.

Asking price: £690.