Boat Review: Salish Voyager

Gig Harbor Boat Works releases a new design aimed toward adventure

While most fields advance and improve—whether at Moore’s Law speed or at a more plodding pace—one could argue architecture reached its peak hundreds or even thousands of years ago. How many contemporary structures rival St. Mark’s Cathedral, the Acropolis of Athens, or the Taj Mahal, for example? Or just compare the older, ornate, useful buildings in any downtown to the featureless, unpleasant, inhospitable more modern ones. As a critic once put it, “It’s as if some unseen person or force seems committed to replacing literally every attractive and appealing thing with an ugly and unpleasant thing.”

While small boat design and development has undoubtedly advanced a great deal—from the science of foils and sail shape to better modern materials and building techniques—one could argue that, as with architecture, designers have mostly failed to improve the form. Which contemporary lines represent an improvement on the Sea Bright skiff or L. Francis’s canoe yawl Rozinante? Which modern designs better serve the intended purposes of the peapod, canoe, or scow schooner? And just like with architecture—especially during the peak “Clorox-bottle boat” years—it has often seemed as if some force was committed to replacing every attractive vessel with an unpleasant thing.

Gig Harbor Boat Works founder and chief designer, Dave Robertson, has never been especially interested in designing something entirely new. Instead he’s looked to match or blend classic designs and concepts to modern uses, construction, and materials.