Poole week Skiff class racing

If I brew a particually black ale, with a particually white head, where the bubbles appear to fall rather than rise. Is it ok to call it Guiness? I think if I did the Irish would get very upset (and I would have a rather large law-suit over my head). But maybe I could call it "Guiness-like".

For the same reasons, the Australians get upset when we call boats, which may be "skiff-like", skiffs.

look i have found a skiff!!  much cheaper than the kind with sails

Not really the same. Guinness is just a stout with a registered name. Now if you called a Cherub an RS200 you would be correct.

The problem is that the word skiff is very old and can mean practically any open boat in everyday language and it's only in dinghy racing terms that it has a specific meaning (I seem to remember they go on about skiffs in 'Tom Sawyer' but the are just flat bottomed open boats for fishing). We shouldn't routinely refer to 'skiff-like' boats as Skiffs and in fact the continental Contender sailors almost managed to get our website url to be www.contenderskiff.org until we pointed out how bloody daft it was.

Someone here must like popcorn like at sailing anackay.

If your boat can show a direct linage from the rowing boat above then YES it is a skiff. For those who came in late then "Aussie skiffs" are related to this style of boat and in fact are a DEVELOPMENT of this boat. An RS200 Boss or whatever other SMOD type boat is an IMITATION SKIFF, a bit like the Foiling moth and the Bladerider, foiling moth Original, Bladerider Imitation Foiling Moth.

There are other boats that are traditionally called skiffs, St Laurence(sp?) and these are acceptable due to TRADITION something that any SMOD designer would love to have.

For the older types here You might remember that ever car maker had for a while a GT or GTi. This label is not used as much now but was the sign of a performance car even if it was fitted to a Cortina with a 1600cc engine that i could beat with a startled snail.

To summarize Skiffs have Tradition

SMOD "SKIFFS" are a marketing term.

I totally agree, skiff is a very old term for a small boat, so the term skiff should really apply to boats which have some heritage, eg 18's