Restoring an Old Skiff

I bought the boat in 2012 from the original builder in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was already more than twenty years old, and I had just moved into a small apartment with water access to New Haven Harbor. This was my first proper rowboat, and I was on the water constantly. Most mornings before work I rowed alone into the Long Island Sound, learning the boat through repetition rather than instruction.

Work eventually took me to Washington, DC, and the rowing stopped. The boat was left “stored” outdoors behind the boat shed at our lake house in northeast Pennsylvania. What I expected to be temporary stretched into nearly eight years. Under a tarp, seasons passed, finishes failed, and rot slowly took hold.

During the pandemic we moved back near the water, this time to Manasquan, New Jersey, and the boat came back into focus. I trailered it south, rolled it into the garage, and started what I optimistically called a quick restoration in July 2024. The work ran through June 2025 and included stripping it to bare plywood, repairing and replacing structural rot, and glassing the hull with help from my surfing buddy Charles.

Today the boat is back on the water in the tidal creeks and inlets along the Jersey Shore. The rows are no longer solitary. My children now come along, learning to row and to read the rhythms of tide and wind.