The term skiff is used for a number of essentially unrelated styles of small boat. The word is related to ship and has a complicated etymology: "skiff" comes from the Middle English skif, which derives from the Old French esquif, which in turn derives from the Old Italian schifo, which is itself of Germanic origin (German Schiff). "Ship" comes from the Old English "scip", which has the same Germanic predecessor.
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The term has been used for a number of styles of craft round the United Kingdom: often small sea going craft. They varied from double ended rowing boats to small sailing boats. The Thames skiff is a round-bottom clinker-built rowing boat that is still very common on the River Thames and other rivers in England. It features in Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome,[1] the book about a journey up the Thames. During the year, skiffing regattas are held in various river-side towns in England—the major event being the Skiff Championships Regatta at Henley.
In American usage, the term is used to apply to small sea-going fishing boats. It is referred to historically in literature in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville[2] and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.[3] The skiff could be powered by sails as well as oars. One usage of skiff is to refer to a typically small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and a flat stern originally developed as an inexpensive and easy to build boat for use by inshore fishermen. Originally designed to be powered by rowing, their form has evolved so that they are efficiently powered by outboard motors. The design is still in common use today for both work and pleasure craft. They can be made of wood or other materials. There is a similar style of craft in Central American/Mexican, generally called a panga.
In the International Moth (dinghy) class the term skiff is used to distinguish designs that have an essentially vertical bow from scow designs, which have a broadly horizontal bow.
In Sydney, Australia the term Skiff was used for a number of racing classes (sizes from 6ft to 23ft have existed). These were originally heavily crewed and canvassed boats that were relatively short for the canvas and crew carried and were developed from working boats of the time. This style of boat is still active in the form of Historical 10 foot and 18 foot classes. The Skiff classes developed to become much lighter and faster with relatively smaller (but still very large by any other standards) rigs and smaller crews. 12ft Skiff, 16ft Skiff and 18ft Skiff classes are raced in that form. With two crew on the 12 footer and three on the 16 and 18 these are still heavily crewed boats for their size.
Because the modern 18s have such a high profile the term skiff is widely used internationally to refer to other high performance sailing dinghy classes, mostly featuring asymmetrical spinnaker and trapeze which have been strongly influenced by modern skiffs. Examples include: Cherub Skiff, International 14 , 29er and 49er. These boats tend to be less heavily crewed in relation to their length than the traditional Australian Skiff Classes. The term is even used for some single handed boats like the Musto Performance Skiff which are far removed from the heavily crewed original boats. The SKUD 18 is a 2-person keelboat which claims strong influence from skiff development.[4] This made its debut in the 2008 Paralympic Games.
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