Carolina Skiff Boats for Sale

Carolina Skiff Boats: what to know

Carolina Skiff build simple, tough fibreglass boats in Georgia and have been doing it since 1978. They are not fancy and are not trying to be: the appeal is a lot of usable boat for the money and very little to go wrong.

What to check before you buy

• The flat bottomed hulls run very shallow and pound in chop. Match the hull to the water you are actually on.
• There is not much to inspect, which is the point. Concentrate on the transom, the outboard and the trailer.
• Check the deck and the transom for softness, which is the usual fault on any older skiff.
• They are cheap to buy and hold a sensible price, so a tidy older one is often the better value than a new small boat.

Common questions

Are Carolina Skiffs good boats?

For what they are, yes. They are plain, strong and stable, with enormous deck space for the length. They are not comfortable in rough water and are not meant to be.

Can you take one offshore?

Close inshore on a calm day, within sight of the beach, on the bigger deep-v models. The flat bottomed ones are for bays, rivers and marshes.

Why are they so stable?

A wide flat hull with the buoyancy carried right out to the sides. You can stand on the gunwale of a small one without it wanting to tip, which is why people who fish standing up like them.