September Rivah Visitor's Guide - The Rappahannock Record

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“I miss building boats so bad I have to come down
here (in his basement) and build my models,” he said.
“I grew up building boats. My health has made it so
that all I can do now is build my models.”
Skip Bloxom
Skip Bloxom’s great-great uncle was O.A. Bloxom
who owned Battery Park Fish and Oyster Company
near Smithfield, one of the largest oyster packing
houses in the state.
The firm owned the “William B. Tennison,” built in
1899 as a sailing bugeye and converted to an oyster
buyboat in 1906. The vessel is owned today by the
Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland, is
on the National Register of Historic Places and is a
National Historic Landmark.
O.A. Bloxom also owned the bugeye “Nora Phillips”
that was rebuilt in 1949 at Deagle and Son Marine Railway
in Deltaville and renamed the O.A. Bloxom. This
vessel is still alive and hauling freight in the south.
Skip Bloxom lives on Carmine Island near Wicomico
in Gloucester County. He has a full-size Chesapeake
Bay deadrise skiff (19 by 7.5 feet) under construction
behind his garage. Interestingly, Bloxom learned to
“Part of the reason I
do this is out of respect
for my heritage,” he
said. “My family had
one of the largest
oyster companies in the
state. Seafood and the
wooden boats of the
bay are deep rooted in
my heritage.”
––Skip Bloxom
build boats from building
models.
He has a garage full
of model boats and
airplanes that he has
built. Several years ago
he won a Certificate of
Commendation from the
Mariner’s Museum in
what was a worldwide
competition. In honor of
the commendation, his
model of a Chesapeake
Bay workboat was on
display at the museum
for a year.
Like Diggs and Green,
Bloxom likes to build models from full-size boats that
he knows and has studied. One of his models is of the
buyboat “Iva W.” before she had a double-decker house
installed on her.
“I went to see Iva W. when they were making the
conversion and got to see what she looked like with
the original house,” he said. “I thought she was prettier
with the original house so I made the model of her
before she was converted.”
Bloxom specializes in building classic Chesapeake
Bay workboats. One model is of a deadrise with a house
and no pilothouse, which was the norm in the early years
of wooden deadrise development. “I enjoy studying the
boats and building them the way they were,” he said.
“Part of the reason I do this is out of respect for my
heritage,” he said. “My family had one of the largest
oyster companies in the state. Seafood and the wooden
boats of the bay are deep rooted in my heritage.”
Diggs, Green and Bloxom build models because they
love and know the boats of the bay. Their models reflect
a heritage and culture in the Tidewater region that is
fading. When the era of wooden Chesapeake Bay boats
has passed, model boats will continue to offer some
understanding of how significant wooden boats were to
the economic and cultural development of the area.
Skip Bloxom of Wicomico in Gloucester builds classic Chesapeake Bay boat models while also
building a full-size, 19-foot deadrise skiff at his home on Carmine Island.
Boatbuilder and model maker Skip Bloxom built this model of a Chesapeake Bay skipjack.
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