THE SHERPA IS COMING

Just over a year ago, we began to seriously ponder the question "what's next from Towee" after spending the last 15 years perfecting the Calusa Pro, America's first true crossover skiff. The answer was to take everything great about what we do and put it to work serving a wider audience of anglers - and hunters. This has lead us to 2 projects. The first was the redesign and relaunch of the Towee Scout Skiff as a stripped down, budget friendly option that retained the quality, stability and performance that Towee is known for. The second was a bit more involved....

The original Calusa Pro design had to hit several design parameters to become the "swiss army knife of boats". One was the ability to get 1-3 anglers into some very shallow waters and very tight places while still being able to be easily launched and loaded by one person. And oh yeah, it had to cross big water to get there when needed. These and other considerations, such as maximum performance with a small outboard or outboard jet and others really shaped the final dimensions of the Calusa Pro. And while the Calusa Pro has been a giant hit and met the needs of a huge percentage of anglers, there has always been the customer who needed all of the characteristics of a Towee in a larger skiff. These customers have always had to settle for something else to try and meet that need that just wasn't as good - modified flats skiffs, aluminum hulls, plastic hulls, heavy sleds - it was just never exactly what they needed. The Towee Sherpa is our answer to this need.

With a overall length of 17' and a beam of 61", the Sherpa provides the owner with more than ample real estate in a lightweight, durable and high performance package that Towee has long been known for. A true crossover skiff, the Sherpa will move from shallow rocky rivers to poling the flats to the deep marsh with ease. It performs well under prop, jet or surface drive power from 40hp down to 25 hp ( for you ultra lightweight folks) and like every Towee, it tracks true under push pole or oars. This skiff offers an incredible amount of Towee flexibility in a larger platform.

And while longtime Towee fans will find the looks and interior layout of the Sherpa familiar, she isn't just a "stretched out" Calusa. We started with a clean sheet of paper (well, actually a CAD file). The Sherpa carries more beam all the way to the transom than the Calusa resulting in massive fore and aft decks while still providing a wider, full 8' open cockpit and the deep rod storage trays that make her distinctively a Towee.

The lightweight and durable hull is the first of this size constructed of a modified version of our proprietary lamination. We have built the first skiff of this size that does not rely on plascore or rotomolding and therefore has avoided the long term water intrusion issues that plague these hulls and results in a super light, tough hull that Towee is known for.

As I write these words, I am looking over the top of my screen at Sherpa 1, our test mule and first out of the mold production hull sitting on her trailer. The Sherpa is very real and we look forward to sharing a first look at her in the coming weeks. Who is ready for America's next great crossover skiff?