The History of the Nowack Skiff hull thru February 2006

 By Paul Nowack

1978   I lived in NJ and wanted a River Skiff.  Ended up buying a Skiff, that as it turned out previously belonged to Connie Cottrell who had been JS1 a few years in a row in the early 70's.  The Hull had came out of a Bender Mold and the Deck was now the newer style.

1979  Thought there might be a market for River Skiffs, Contracted with Melges Boats in Zenda Wisconsin and a mold was commissioned. The mold maker spent allot of time on the Laps and made a few changes to the Deck, made the molds and the first Nowack Skiff was built.

1980  The first was sold and  # 2 was built, this time by Switzer Boats in Crystal Lake, IL. This was the first Skiff with Hydraulically controlled cavatation plate.

1981  Mike Dowd of Stuart FL bought # 3. Mike campaigned "Southern Comfort"  (which was also built by Switzer Boats) until about 1994 when he won the Nationals.

1983   # 4 was "Heartbeat"  (my current Skiff) and was also built by Melges Boats.

1990  Bottoms Up Fiberglass in Fox Lake IL built two Skiffs. # 5 - A yellow and White and # 6 - a all White. The first was build for Fred Rosch, Fox River IL and the Second for Bob Kosick, the owner of Bottoms Up fiberglass.

1995   Bottoms Up Built a Red on Red # 7 - which is now owned by John Gast "PaPa's Bundle" of Grand Island, NY.

2000   Bottoms Up built # 8. Another Yellow and White one for Fred Rosch.

2003   The molds went south to Dave Yeager's South East Boat Works in Savannah GA.

2004  #  9 " Slap Happy" was built By Dave Yeager for Bob Chatterton of Mukwonago WI. and # 10 Dave built for himself. "Swamp Rat"

2005  Dave Yeager built # 11 for Geri Prusko.  This is the first Skiff out of the molds with a Wood Deck. The boats name is "My Precious". Dave also built # 12 for Mark Breese.

2006  Dave just laid up # 13 which will also be sporting a Wood Deck. The skiffs name will be Tinker and built for Bob Mueller

It took awhile, but River Skiffs are really catching on, as they should. They are fun, there are presently 43 Skiffs registered for MT Dora in 2006.

From Nowack Molds

1978 - 2003    8 Skiffs were built   ( 15 years = 8 Skiffs ) 1 Skiff every 2 years

2003 -2/2006  5 Skiffs have been built  ( 2 years = 5 Skiffs )  3 Skiffs per year.