The skipjack Rebecca T. Ruark, right, competes in the 59th annual Skipjack Races in Deal Island, Md., on Sept. 3, 2018. It is the winningest skipjack in the race’s history, having won its 11th race in 2016. (Photo by Joan Smedinghoff/Chesapeake Bay Program)
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Skipjacks
Clawing oysters from the bottom,
they sail the Chesapeake bay.
They're hard sided with simple rigging,
but yare in their own unique way.
An office for hard-working watermen
for well over one hundred years,
they've sailed these fickle tidal runs
mindless of weather and fears.
Their hulls are V-shaped and wooden
with a hard chine and square stern.
They’re fat as a walrus across the beam,
and handlin’s a craft to be learned.
The mast is a log without spreaders;
it’s stepped towards the bow of the boat;
a retractable centerboard fixed in her keel
will keep her off bars and afloat.
A curved longhead under the bowsprit
sports bright-painted, carved trailboards.
She’s fifty feet long from her bow to her stern
with a figurehead mounted up for’ard.
She’s made to work these shallow waters,
but should she fetch up on a shoal,
there’s a smart little dingy abaft the helm
to push her off or take you home.
JB 1993
thanks
Thank you!
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