# Mangrove 17---late 80' s hull --- info needed



## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

does the HIN # start with MVL ?
-what is the HIN # ?
:-?


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

Most likely a copy/clone of so many other builds of those years. Glass and resin and a couple bench seats...what else you need?


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

MIC: MVL Status: Inactive
Company: MANGROVE BOATS & DIST LLC Company Official: ROBERT ERRA
Parent Company: Parent MIC: 
Address: 1006 NE 97TH STEET City: MIAMI SHORES
State: FL Zip: 33138
Country: Phone: 3053241234
Fax: In Business: Wednesday, January 29, 1986
Out of Business: Thursday, August 11, 2005 Date Modified: Thursday, August 25, 2005
Type: Outboards, Open Motorboats, Jon Boats


Additional Address: PH ACTUALLY 3057587904; CELL 305778444


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## Net 30 (Mar 24, 2012)

Your best bet is to ask Capt. John Kipp of Islamorada...he fished a Mangrove for a lot of years before going to the dark side.  He now drinks from the Chittum Chalice.   

If it's the skiff I'm thinking about it was the predesser to Hells Bay and all other tech skiffs.  Built using Airex foam core, the Mangrove was a cult skiff.  Quite a lot of intrigue and mystery about it's roots.   

Back in the 1990s, Kipps skiff was the cats azz and well known at Buchanan, 9-mile, Flamingo and all other bone and poon spots from Isla to Largo.


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## rkmurphy (Nov 2, 2008)

http://floridakeysflatsguide.com/Page13TheFlatsBoats1Mangrove17.html

Found this. Looks like a nice boat!


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## Net 30 (Mar 24, 2012)

> http://floridakeysflatsguide.com/Page13TheFlatsBoats1Mangrove17.html
> 
> Found this. Looks like a nice boat!


BINGO!  That's Kipps skiff........spent a lot of time in it and she was high tech in her day.


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## acraft1720 (Jul 31, 2012)

I remember an old article I think was in Fl Sportsman years ago about a guy's Mangrove skiff that was all tricked out. May have been Fly Fishing in Saltwaters mag but if you can find their archives it was a good article with lots of photos of that boat.


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## 1w0lfe (Sep 21, 2013)

Thanks gents, you are right on the mark. Much apreciated


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Back in the day those skiffs were the creme de la creme.... I think even Chittum owned one. There were very few made and each one was built to order. I'd love to see a pic or two..... This was back in an era when many on the water had several jobs (one of which was waay too exciting for this country boy...). I had a lot of friends who had to learn more about lawyers and such than they every wanted to know back then....

Among the folks who can provide additional info are John Donnell, Flip Pallot, and folks in that age bracket... Some of the stories are probably better told with an adult beverage or two...


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

i wonder if Totch Brown had one?


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## kensfl45 (Jan 15, 2013)

Pretty good memory.

The June 1995 Florida Sportsman Magazine had a Dreamboat article about a Mangrove built by Ken Robertson for a Miami angler named Carlos Solis.  

The article stated that only about a dozen and a half boats had been built and they were no longer being built at the time the article appeared.  It also mentioned that construction involved tons of man hours, use of carbon fiber, divinycell, and vacuum bagging, and that they were not cheap.



> I remember an old article I think was in Fl Sportsman years ago about a guy's Mangrove skiff that was all tricked out. May have been Fly Fishing in Saltwaters mag but if you can find their archives it was a good article with lots of photos of that boat.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Not Totch's style.... For poaching gators & crocs you'd need something smaller.... For square grouper those boys used shrimp boats... I never met Totch --a pretty good thing since I was a cop 1973 to 1995....


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

square grouper........hahahaha
[smiley=laughing-out-loud1.gif]


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

For those that missed that era.. or were too young to remember it... It was an exciting time -and when something bad happened to one guy or other the usual expression to explain things was "he went fishing" . Up north you'd say "he went for a ride...".

Lots of personal stuff here.... in fact the guy who taught me to rig boats and work on fiberglass went down (and when he was caught, my accountant was with him...). The guy that was my first teacher on the water, one of the absolutely best fishermen around, got caught and as a result was never able to get a captain's license...

All of this was before things got ugly.... and the guys with the machine guns showed up... Glad those days are gone (and if they're not I don't want to hear about it....).


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## Colton bechtol (Jan 28, 2018)

1w0lfe said:


> I am looking at a mangrove 17, it was put out in the late eighties is what i have been told but i have little to nothing to go on about this boat. Any input or specs would be greatly apreciated, Thanks all.


Great boat. I have a 2000 that I love


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## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

lemaymiami said:


> Not Totch's style.... For poaching gators & crocs you'd need something smaller.... For square grouper those boys used shrimp boats... I never met Totch --a pretty good thing since I was a cop 1973 to 1995....


Do not forget the big crab boats and twin engine T-crafts running out of everglades city......


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## FMH (Aug 24, 2015)

The Mangrove Skiff if my memory serves was a project that Bobby Erra and another avid tarpon angler Stephen Stepner was involved with. I fished a lot out of the one owned by guide Jerry Goering. His skiff was a little underpowered with a 50hp Evinrude. It was extremely stable and quiet and we did well in several bonefish tournaments in it. I felt it had somewhat of a hard ride but that was probably due to its rather flat bottom. In its time it was " the skiff" to have.


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## schwaggen01 (Dec 22, 2014)

First skiff I ever fished out of, belonged to a friend here in Miami that I very vaguely recollect that he bought it from Flip? Late '80s, early '90s. Wide and wet, as I recall.


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## 321nole (Jan 11, 2016)

talk about reviving an old thread lol...happy owner of one of these rare specimens, a 1988 to be exact. in my bragging spot thread I posted a handful of pictures of the boat and the FS article that is mentioned above as well.


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## Chris Morejohn (May 12, 2014)

I had the privilege of meeting Bob Era before he started his project in the mid 80’s.
I started building one off flats skiffs in Islamorada in 1983 and moved to Tavernier in Key largo soon after buying a piece of commercial property, 4789 sq.ft, building my shop and starting my company BACK BAY BOATS.lots are small in the keys.
Flip Pallot came by now and then with a small Skiff always in tow. I was building at the time cored modified Mako 17 Skiffs for guys like Carl Navarre, Charlie Causey and such. Flip came buy and asked if I would be willing to talk my design builds with a friend of his. His friend wanted to design and build his own high tech Skiff. I said sure. I love talking Skiffs and passing on info.
This is how I met Bob Era. Very nice guy. Short story here is he wrote me a check for $150.00 to be able to ask my advice on his upcoming design and build. Remember this was in 1985-86. That was lots of $ back then to a 24 year old. Bob wanted to build something similar to what I was building but different.
During this time the only boats that I knew of that used a bit of core in them were a very angular and ugly Action Craft, Willy Roberts Skiffs, and Ray Bonds Cuda Craft were putting core in their decks and bulkheads.
The first all cored Skiff was the one I built for Carl Navarre in 1984. Bob wanted to do the same or similar thing. We talked many times over the phone at night as I was so busy building skiffs during the day. I gave him copies of my drawings. It was nice having a like minded guy to talk Skiffs with.
The end result is what you see today. What I saw was that he did not use my big hatch gutter drain details. He had a crowned deck made which always looks great if you get the tooling perfect. I believe that Bob Era’s MANGROVE SKIFFS were the first ever stab at production all core high tech skiffs in this market. I was building all one offs so I feel I played a part in the movement but Bob Era put the effort into having a complete set of molds made.
His design was drawn up and engineered I believe by Debra Brennan a navel engineer. So maybe this is a 
first too having a women designed flats Skiff.
The last time I talked to Bob Era was about 5 years ago when I was writing up my flats boat building history for my blog. I wanted to get dates right and so on. Bob Still owned all the molds which he has stored in a wharehouse at that time. Was great catching up with him.
So if you own one of these skiffs you have a piece of flats Skiff history to muck about in.


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## Chris Morejohn (May 12, 2014)

Just to add something else, I have this past summer been working for the new owner of all the CUDA CRAFT molds and info. One of my jobs was to take the lines off of a 1986 Built Cuda Craft Flats Skiff and to compare the lines of it to the original Ray Bond lines plan. Very close but of course the sheer was different in the drawing. I post this here to show you what was like the Makos at the time a very typical hull shape.
Compare it to the Mangrove Skiff.
Now times have changed and you can see how my ideas have too.


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## Chris Morejohn (May 12, 2014)

Ok, here’s the pictures


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## mike vestal (Mar 8, 2018)

Chris Morejohn said:


> Just to add something else, I have this past summer been working for the new owner of all the CUDA CRAFT molds and info. One of my jobs was to take the lines off of a 1986 Built Cuda Craft Flats Skiff and to compare the lines of it to the original Ray Bond lines plan. Very close but of course the sheer was different in the drawing. I post this here to show you what was like the Makos at the time a very typical hull shape.
> Compare it to the Mangrove Skiff.
> Now times have changed and you can see how my ideas have too.


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## mike vestal (Mar 8, 2018)

I have a 1985 or 1986 Mangrove 17 with a 150 ETec. I was told was it was designed by Bobby and Flip Pallet. We've modified the boat somewhat to accommodate me and my geezer pals in our advancing age...tons of room for fly fishing.... super performer hull and motor.


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## makin moves (Mar 20, 2010)

mike vestal said:


> I have a 1985 or 1986 Mangrove 17 with a 150 ETec. I was told was it was designed by Bobby and Flip Pallet. We've modified the boat somewhat to accommodate me and my geezer pals in our advancing age...tons of room for fly fishing.... super performer hull and motor.


Post pictures


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## 321nole (Jan 11, 2016)

makin moves said:


> Post pictures


x2


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## Finn Maccumhail (Apr 9, 2010)

So just read Monte Burke's "Lords of the Fly" and wanted to search for Mangrove Boats and this thread was the first one on the ol' Google machine. Extremely crazy to hear about Bobby Erra being a legit, South Florida mafioso and obsessed tarpon fisherman who owned Mangrove Boats. Evidently he passed away several years ago and lots of people did not mourn his passing whether they were fishermen or guides or law enforcement.


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