Barker Boatworks, a Sarasota Shop Built Around One Clever Hull

A boyhood fishing ground gives the first boat its name

Kevin Barker spent about ten years working in the boat business before opening his own shop in Sarasota in the summer of 2014. His debut model borrowed its name from Calibogue Sound in South Carolina, where he fished growing up, and he set out to make the definitive bay boat for chasing tarpon, snook and redfish.

The unusual part was the bottom. Instead of a conventional bay-boat hull, Barker used the Michael Peters Stepped-Vee Ventilated Tunnel design, a patented twin-step form more often associated with fast offshore boats. That decision gave a shallow-water boat surprising speed and efficiency and became the foundation of everything the company has built since.

One hull, two personalities

Roughly a year after launch, Barker took the same hull, removed the raised casting platforms and lifted the deck cap to make a deeper-cockpit boat called the 26 Open. Where the Calibogue Bay has you standing on top of the boat to sight fish, the Open puts you inside it, which suits rougher nearshore and offshore water. That crossover is what put Barker on the radar of bluewater anglers.

The current website shows three models, the 26 Calibogue Bay, the 26 Open and a 40 HPC catamaran. Our dedicated 26 Open review covers its construction, engine options, test results and price history.

Custom builds and the Strike Force 7 group

Barker is a build-to-order shop, and that shapes everything about the brand. Buyers choose the outboard, tank size, tower, shallow-water anchors, trolling motor and electronics, so two boats with the same name can be quite different. The fit and finish is closer to a small yacht than a production bay boat, and pricing reflects that.

The company now sits inside Strike Force 7, a group that also owns Canyon Bay BoatWorks and Perry Composite Manufacturing. Annual output remains small, counted in dozens of hulls rather than hundreds.

Buying a used Barker

With so few boats built, used Barkers are hard to find and generally sell through Florida brokers or by word of mouth among owners. Buyers coming from mainstream bay boat brands are often surprised by asking prices, but resale has tracked the build quality. There is no national dealer network; the Sarasota factory supports the hulls and Mercury dealers look after the engines.

Treat the original build sheet as the most important document in the sale, and look closely at the steps and their vents on any boat that has run skinny water.

• Check that the engine, tank and options match the build sheet.
• Look for impact repairs at the step edges and vents.
• Operate the jack plate and inspect its hydraulic lines.
• Download the engine history from the Mercury display.