North Carolina fiberglass production boatbuilders have made giant inroads into commercial fishing boat markets on Chesapeake Bay.
During the 1970s, '80s, and into the '90s, wooden boats, large and small, dominated the commercial inshore fisheries on the bay. This year, during Virginia’s oyster season, snow and ice have kept many boats at the dock. All it takes is a quick survey of those boats to reveal that fiberglass boats are now the most worked style of vessel in Virginia’s oyster fishery.
North Carolina wooden boatbuilders began to shift from wood to fiberglass construction in the 1970s, and their vision, diversity, and innovative production concepts have produced several styles of work platforms that have contributed to the change in the workboat culture on the bay - from wood to fiberglass.
President of the Virginia Watermen’s Association, J. C. Hudgins, says about 50 percent of the Virginia oyster fleet now works out of North Carolina-built production small craft with some adding custom features to fit the needs of the owner. “The boats are affordable, and they work well as long as the weather is good,” he says. “I owned and oystered out of a 24’ C-Hawk until I was able to buy a Evans 34’ which is a custom build fiberglass deadrise.” Eugene Evans of Crisfield, Md., builds traditional deadrise workboats boats out of fiberglass.
“You figure if a man is just getting into the oyster business it will cost him between $10,000 and $15,000 to buy a Virginia oyster license, and if he has to buy a boat too, he can buy a 24-foot C-Hawk and rig it up to go oystering for a quarter of what it cost to have a custom fiberglass workboat built.
“Also, there are a lot of 18’ to 22’ North Carolina built skiffs working in (Virginia’s) oyster fishery,” says Hudgins. “They are able to rig up the (required) 22”-wide dredge and carry the 8 to 16 daily bushel limit in a skiff,” he said. “They do not need a 42-foot deadrise for that. They are also able to work in the oyster fishery in the winter, and the skiffs transition well into the crab and finfish fisheries in spring, summer, and fall.
“I will say this: with the weather (cold and windy) that we have had so far this winter, you’ve got to be one hell of a tough son-of-bitch to stay out there in an 18’ to 22’ open skiff, but they are doing it,” says Hudgins.
“I suspect Virginia is going to hit a 700,000 bushel oyster harvest this season, and a lot of bushels are being caught out of small fiberglass skiffs,” says Hudgins.
Some of the more popular North Carolina companies that build small craft used by Chesapeake Bay watermen are Privateer built by Privateer Boat Co./Radcliffe Marine of Belhaven, N. C; KenCraft built by Bay Rider by KenCraft in Wilson N.C., Parker built by Parker Boats in Beaufort, N.C.; and C-Hawk built by C-Hawk Boats Inc. in Bailey, N. C.
In 2023 Radcliffe sold the Privateer molds to Stroudcraft Marine in Rocky Point, N.C., where production continues today.
