By james art 
North Carolina fiberglass boat builders have made huge inroads into the Chesapeake Bay commercial fishing boat markets.
In the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s, wooden boats, large and small, dominated commercial inshore fishing in the bay. This year, during Virginia’s oyster season, snow and ice kept many boats at docks. All it takes is a quick survey of these boats to reveal that fiberglass boats are now the most processed style of vessel in the Virginia oyster fishery.
North Carolina wooden boat builders began transitioning from wood to fiberglass construction in the 1970s, and their vision, diversity, and innovative manufacturing concepts created several styles of work platforms that helped change the work boat culture of the Bay. – from wood to fiberglass.
President of Virginia Water Works AssociationJC Hudgins, says about 50 percent of the Virginia oyster fleet now operates from North Carolina-built production small vessels with some adding custom features to suit the owner’s needs. “Boats are affordable and work well as long as the weather is good,” he says. “I owned and retired a 24′ C-Hawk until I was able to buy an Evans 34′ that was custom built in fiberglass.” Eugene Evans of Crisfield, Maryland builds traditional fiberglass deadboats.
“You figure if a guy is just getting into the oyster business, it’s going to cost him between $10,000 and $15,000 to buy an oyster license in Virginia, and if he has to buy a boat, he can buy a 24-foot C- hawk and assembly it’s about oysters for a quarter of what it costs to build a custom fiberglass workboat.
“There are also a lot of 18′ to 22′ skiffs built in North Carolina working in (Virginia) for the oyster fishery,” Hudgins says. “They are able to rig the (required) 22-inch-wide dredge and carry the limit of 8 to 16 bushels per day in a skiff,” he said. “They don’t need a 42-foot pad for that. They can also work oyster fishing in the winter, and skiffs do well in crab and fish fishing in the spring, summer and fall.
“I will say this: With the (cold and windy) weather we’ve had so far this winter, you’d have to be a hell of a tough son of a bitch to stay out there on an 18′ to 22′ open skiff, but they do,” Hudgins says.
“I suspect Virginia will reach 700,000 bushels of oyster harvest this season, and many bushels are being caught by small fiberglass boats,” Hudgins says.
Some of the more popular North Carolina companies that build small craft used by Chesapeake Bay water officials are Privateer built by Privateer Boat Co. at Radcliffe Marine in Belhaven, North Carolina; KenCraft created by Bay Rider from KenCraft in Wilson NC, Parker built by Parker boats in Beaufort, NC; and the C-Hawk built by C-Hawk Boats Inc. in Bailey, North Carolina