To learn more about the Oysterman 23, I visited Menger at his shop in Babylon, Long Island. I found him and his son Andrew putting the finishing touches on a bright yellow Oysterman. It seems the boat was ordered by a gentleman in Hawaii, where the traditions of the Chesapeake carry a little less weight. Menger didn't seem to mind, as most of his boats are pretty much customized for each owner. He'll give you whatever you want (if he feels it's reasonable) and in any color except blue, which is traditionally bad luck for skipjacks.

Overall, hull construction is almost as heavy and strong as the average 30-foot boat. The hull is hand laid in a singlepiece mold starting with a skin coat of ¾ -ounce mat followed by three layers of I1 ½ -ounce mat alternating with three layers of 24-ounce woven roving. In addition, two extra layers of roving are placed at high stress points, such as the chainplate area.

Like the hull, the deck is laid up as a single piece, with one layer of ¾ -ounce mat followed by two layers of 1 ½ -ounce mat alternating with two layers of 24-ounce woven roving. The deck is stiffened with a core of either plywood or high-density foam, depending on the expected weight or stress on that particular deck area.

The Oysterman 23 is not dressed up to look strong - it is strong. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the builder's attention to details. For example, the hull deck joint is not just bonded and bolted but the bolt holes are threaded. This takes more time and effort but gives a stronger, drier boat. As Menger likes to say, "On a small boat, it's the small things that matter most."

The hardware is impressive, too. Much of it is custom made, in bronze, and all properly located and secured. The centerboard trunk is an integral part of the hull and has sides that taper towards the top. This gives a leakproof case that will not get jammed with debris. And the stout tabernacle on the main mast makes trailering or passing beneath bridges easier.

After looking over the Oysterman 23 in Menger's shop, I went with him down to the dock for a test sail. The boat we were to use belonged to a local owner for the past three years and was being sailed regularly through long March-November seasons. Older boats speak volumes about their original design and construction. This boat showed two things: It had very few modifications, meaning the design worked in the real world; and it looked good, attesting to quality materials and construction.

Stepping aboard, I was surprised at how stable such a light, shallow boat could be. With three of us aboard, not once did she feel tippy or produce any unexpected motions. Menger did a series of stability tests before selling his first boat. With the 600 pounds of glassed-in ballast, the board up, and no one on board, there still remained a safe and strong righting moment when the boat was pulled onto its beam ends.

With the unballasted board down and crew on the weather rail, the righting moment would be further increased. And if you are the belt-and-suspenders type, Menger offers a ballasted 500 -pound board (in addition to 100 pounds of internal ballast) that requires a winch to raise With a hull as well conceived as the Oysterman's, all Menger had to do was match it with a reasonable rig to come up with an all-around smart sailer.

The self-tacking jib hanks to the forestay and is controlled by a boom. Its tack is at the end of the bowsprit, but you never need go out on it. To raise sail, you let go the downhaul, which is made fast to a cleat on the bowsprit's port side, and haul on the halyard. Once the jib is up, you give the luff tension by looping the fall around the bottom of the halyard cleat, bringing it up to a plastic J-shaped fitting permanently reeved onto the halyard, and pull down. It's a poor man's two-part tackle that works beautifully.

The jib is reefed by first easing the halyard, then pulling on the reef tack downhaul. Tie in the clew to the boom, re-tension the luff, and she's ready to keep moving in heavier air. The jib is lowered by the downhaul into a neat bundle on the jib boom. The lazy jacks keep the sail under control and keep the boom from bouncing on the deck.

The main, like the jib, is cut with vertical panels in the traditional style. It's a large sail and, when being lowered or jiffy reefed, takes full advantage of its own pair of lazy jacks.

When all the sails are up, you realize that there's plenty of sail area to move this little boat. Working watermen wanted it this way. They needed to keep moving, even in the lightest airs. If they had to reef every once in a while, that was fine. Reefing was cheaper and more convenient than changing sails. The Oysterman 23's 355-square-foot sail plan gives her a sail area to displacement ratio of about 28. It promised to be an exciting boat to sail.

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