Maid Service

Maid Service is a flat bottom skiff built by David Beaton and Sons two winters ago. She is an older design of flattie, traditionally built with a cross planked bottom and lapstrake sides.Even when building simpler forms Beaton's pays close attention to fit and finish. She is my favorite mode of transportation around the various harbors we have visited. In Maid Service one is free of engines and the human decision making processes that come with boats capable of carrying more than two people. I generally get ashore faster under oars simply because I could move about when it suited me.  Of course rowing is great exercise and it is the perfect way to view the boats of interest in any harbor offering a pace suited to the admiring or critical eye. Outside the harbor the skiff is small enough to hoist onto Barnegat's cabin top and tows well enough to pull behind Silent Maid even with a bit of sea running. In the pictures to the left she is surfing along in 5 to 7 foot seas as Maid reaches along at 6.5 knots.