The North Carolina Spritsail Skiff is one of the classic wooden boat designs of the North Carolina coast. The Spritsail is an efficient hard-chine design with a V-bottom that dates back to the days of working boats with sails. It is an open boat and is often fitted with a distinctive topsail and yoke on the rudder as shown in the painting. Quite narrow, the Spritsails are capable of good speed, leaving many modern designs in their wake. They were built in the Beaufort-Harker's Island area and thanks to renewed interest in the design, newly built Spritsails can be seen sailing with the older boats during the annual wooden boat show at the North Carolina Maritime Museum. There is an example of a 1911 Spritsail Skiff in the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, North Carolina.

Robert B. Dance has enjoyed the sight of the Spritsail Skiffs since learning to sail in the Morehead-Beaufort area during the early 1950s. His drawing of a Spritsail Skiff is used as the logo for the North Carolina Maritime Museum.