Barnegat Bay Sneakbox

Description

The Barnegat Bay Sneakbox is a historic American small craft originating in the 1830s on New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay, designed primarily as a duck hunting boat for the region’s marshy waters. Attributed to Captain Hazelton Seaman, it evolved from earlier sneakboxes and was refined by builders like J. Howard Perrine in the late 19th century. Traditionally built from white cedar planks on oak frames in a lapstrake (clinker) style, it’s a low-profile, flat-bottomed vessel with a rounded bow and stern, optimized for stealth, stability, and load-carrying in shallow waters. While primarily a rowing or oar-powered boat for hunting, many sneakboxes were adapted for sailing with a sprit or gaff rig, making them versatile for recreational daysailing, light racing, or utility use in bays, lakes, or estuaries. Production was never centralized; instead, countless individual and small-yard builds were made from the 1850s onward, with modern versions like the Glen-L Sneak Box (1970s) using plywood for DIY construction.