On a still morning decades ago, mist drifted over Lake Miccosukee, near Tallahassee, Florida, as a pair of ring-necked ducks cut through the air, their wings whistling in the quiet. Two hunters moved silently across the lake in a small boat, its black-and-brown camo blending seamlessly into the swampy stillness. A retriever sat alert in the bow, nose twitching with anticipation. The scene was timeless, but the vessel beneath them was not. It was something new, something born from the mind of a waterfowler determined to build the perfect duck boat. That man was Roger Crawford.
Like many hunters, Roger’s greatest ideas come from hard-earned experience. After a few too many close calls in unstable, narrow-beamed boats, and after more than one hunt ended with a capsized hull and a lost shotgun, he decided there had to be a better way. “I wanted something that wouldn’t roll every time my dog moved,” he recalls. “A boat you could actually hunt out of, not just ride in.”
In the early 1980s, Roger set out to design a duck boat that matched his exacting vision. He teamed up with close friend Dean Minardi, a sailboat manufacturer based in Tallahassee, and Ashley Ahl, a talented set designer for opera and theater at Florida State University. Combining their unique talents and experiences, the trio brought Roger’s concept to life. Their mission was clear: to build the most functional, stable, and hunter-friendly waterfowl craft on the water. From sculpting a clay model to crafting custom molds and refining the final product, they meticulously perfected every detail…