2025: A LOOK BACK WITH HAL CHITTUM
On New Years I was speaking with my wife Jaymie and we realized that we have now been building skiffs for our friends and clients for 30 years. It seems like yesterday when Chris Morejohn, Flip Pallot and I were launching the first Whipray 16 at Hells Bay Boatworks, the skiff that started the higher technology building process that is now standard procedure for the industry. We are now building skiffs for some of our first clients grandchildren!
This year has been exciting with new designs and refining existing skiffs. We are heading toward 200 skiffs in the hands of the best guides to ever pick up a push pole. They keep winning tournaments and setting new records all over the world. Their feedback lets us keep on the cutting edge of boat design and that will never stop. Every time we think there is no way to improve a design a new idea surfaces and it off to the races again. The new Challenger 2.0 is one of those ideas. This is definitely a specialty skiff but it's the finest ultra light/ultra shallow/easy to pole skiff ever built. It will also run in some bigger water conditions than you would imagine! The 21' skiff in a 12 degree deadrise has proven to be outstanding for lots of applications from tarpon tournaments, permit tournaments and all round shallow water fishing. It allows our clients to cover more ground in one day and do it in much greater comfort. The new 2 degree 21 will run in some nasty conditions and still pole easily in 6" of water. Our 18' skiffs in 12 degrees and 2 degrees are now all over the world from the Seychelles, to Australia, Hawaii, Bahamas, the Pacific and on many motherships that travel every ocean. Many of the nicest Sport Fisherman have the 18's on their bows.
This year we have finally jumped into the ring with a boat that's not a skiff. We will have our 24' bay boat on the water in March. We have spent an amazing amount of time working on this design and we believe it will be as ground breaking as the flats skiffs. We have been incredibly fortunate in the last 2 years to bring on some of the best people in the boat business!
Our staff from top to bottom are the most amazing people in our industry. I have known many of them for for a long time and we all hoped there would be time when we could all work together and that has now happened. The next few years are going to be fun with lots more new boats of all types hitting the water.
Please stop in and see us at the boat company anytime you are in the area. It’ss going to be an exciting year.
Hal Chittum
