16.5′ Melonseed

 With its beautiful lines and smooth sliding-seat rowing, the Melonseed is a great boat for inland lakes and harbors.

Rowing enthusiasts will appreciate the available dual sliding seat rowing stations. The sailing model is the best of both worlds for a combination rowing and sailing boat.

Back in our early years, we received requests for a boat that rowed as well as our 14′ Whitehall and was just as attractive and blazingly fast, but that had more capacity and ability to row on tandem sliding seats. We designed our Melonseed to meet all of those needs, and the response was overwhelming. (In fact, the popularity of the Melonseed ultimately led us to discontinue our 16′ Swampscott Dory, as the Melonseed proved to be a more suitable boat for most modern recreational rowers and sailors.)

The Melonseed is a historical design from the Chesapeake Bay, derived from the famous Jersey Beach Skiff, but suited for rowing on more sheltered waters. The Jersey version, being a heritage workboat from the more exposed Jersey Shore, has a higher freeboard for dryness under sail and greater load carrying capacity. However, a pure rowing boat is hindered by that high freeboard due to increased windage, weight, and steeper oar angle. With this in mind, the Melonseed was developed with an almost identical underbody as the Jersey Skiff, but she is built with one less plank at the sheer to improve ease of rowing.

Our Melonseed is available as an open rowboat, a decked sailboat, and an “Expedition Rowboat” that adds the deck without the sail rig. All three versions have a fine bow and stern, elevated ends to drive over chop, and a stunningly graceful sheerline. It has a flat bottom (called a box keel) which furnishes tremendous tracking ability. On the box keel, she sits flat and secure on a dock or beach instead of leaning on to one side like a fin keel boat such as a Whitehall. The length of 16’5″ and the substantial beam of 64″ allows the use of long sweeps without the need for custom outriggers. The rowboat version is undecked. The sailing Melonseed includes a sealed deck, which effectively increases freeboard so it can heel comfortably without swamping. Both come with a standard a single sliding seat, and have a tandem slider available as an upgrade. There is very little difference in the rowing performance of the rowing and sailing versions.

The sailboat has a balanced lug rig, a daggerboard, and allows for tandem sliding seat rowing with the mast up. The balanced lug rig gives the sailboat good performance in light wind, yet requires no stays to support the mast making it very easy to rig. The mast itself is 12′ long and weighs only 15 pounds, making it very easy to handle. The mast has two pieces that sleeve together, so the entire rig can fit inside the boat for storage or transport. The daggerboard is just below the front seat so you can glide over it without impediment. The console for the mainsheet is removable to quickly convert the boat from sailing to rowing configuration. With the long box keel and the balanced lug rig, the helm is remarkably natural with just enough weather helm to make sailing easy even for a beginner.

P.S. If you like the Melonseed but want self-bailing functionality and more storage for longer journeys, check out our new 17′ Salish Voyager.