C-Ski 444 evolved from the C-Ski 440 through adventure and amazing stories…
Marc White from Cape St Francis, a client back in early 2000, became a good friend, had an incredible experience with his C-Ski 440.
I am the lucky owner of a C-Ski 440.
I just thought I would share a story or two about these phenomenal big little boats. Dave Joyce and myself decided to go out fishing off Cape St Francis on day as the water was too dirty to dive. We were anchored amongst a few other boats trying our hand at catching some squid to use for bait. Dave noticed a big deck approaching us and said he thought it was going to pass fairly close to us.
Me, being familiar with most of the squid fleet assured him that it was common practice for the boats to come close as sometimes the patch of squid is quite small and the boats anchor close together to try get a slice of the action.
The huge vessel was approaching quite slowly from out starboard side when suddenly the captain decide to turn and all of a sudden we had a 90 ton deck boat bow on top of us! It left us with absolutely no time to pull start the motor or pull anchor and the only choice left to us was to abandon ship and swim before we got mowed over.
The squid boat smashed square into the transom and pulled my C-Ski 440 underwater submerging it for several seconds. I looked on in dismay as my boat disappeared underneath the surface.
Once the deck boats momentum had carried it past, I looked back expecting my boat to be smashed to match box sized pieces and imagine my surprise to see my wallowing on the surface still up right with water pouring off the deck! Dave and I swam back over to the boat and started bailing out all the water from the hatched and tried to assess the damage.
The C-Ski 440 seemed to have survived the ordeal relativity unscathed! My outboard motor however didn’t fair do well. It took the brunt of the impact and as a result was smashed off its mounting bracket and hanging sadly by a few pieces of twisted metal. Fortunately my cell phone was in a waterproof pouch and I was able to call a friend to give us a tow bock to shore.
Once on the trailer I could have a good look at the boat for damage and was super surprised to find only a scratch out the gel coat on the transom and most of the foam on the hatch covers ripped up from the barnacles on the underside of the deck boat!! I don’t think I can give enough praise to the workmanship and construction of this C-Ski 440 and its phenomenal to think of the abuse my boat took and still survived.
Since the ordeal I have repaired the superficial damage and continued as if nothing had ever happened! I have a tiller-operated setup and recently had the opportunity to test drive a C-Ski 440 with the new console set up.
To say that I was blown away would be an understatement! The performance and maneuverability of the craft has been improved 10 fold. Using a tiller has its advantages due to simplicity however standing up and steering is the way forward! The console is compact and simple yet practical and well thought out. I have had my boat in every conceivable sea condition and am proud to say that I haven’t encountered a sea that this boat doesn’t handle effortlessly. To anyone looking for performance, durability and simplicity, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not putting to sea on a C-Ski 440!!