Once a working oyster freighter out of Tilghman Island, this 65-foot Virginia-built workboat now waits for an owner to finish her final chapter.
Some boats have a résumé. M/Y Choptank has a biography. In this short walkthrough, Curtis Stokes steps aboard a 65-foot Chesapeake Bay buyboat that many readers will already recognize from her years around the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum — and traces a working life that began in 1938.
From Julian to Choptank
She was built in Palmer, Virginia, for an owner named Gilbert Julian, and carried his name when new. Like all buyboats, she earned her keep freighting seafood around the Chesapeake. Later she became Callis Brothers, and finally Crow Brothers II — the name some will remember from Tilghman Island, when she was hauling seed oysters and planting them on the bay’s oyster grounds.
A workboat layout that still makes sense
Stokes explains the classic buyboat format clearly: pilothouse aft, a long open deck forward, with hatches covering the hold. That arrangement gave the captain a nearly panoramic view forward over the working deck as the catch came aboard — and it translates beautifully to cruising. The hold itself has been converted into passenger space.
Behind the pilothouse, in traditional buyboat fashion, sits the engine space below, with crew accommodation, a bunk and a galley — and, in Choptank’s case, a head with a full shower. As Stokes notes with a smile, the Chesapeake watermen never had it this good heading out on the bay.
Rebuilt, with room for your fingerprints
The important message for a buyer: Choptank has been completely rebuilt and converted to a cruising yacht, and all major systems have been replaced and rebuilt. What remains is the enjoyable part — fitting out the cabins for crew and passenger comfort to suit the next owner’s taste. That’s an unusual position for a nearly 90-year-old vessel: the hard, expensive, unglamorous work is behind her.
Where she sits in the market
Custom vessels trade in a famously wide band, and Choptank is her own category entirely — but the broader picture is useful context.
| Custom solds (24 mo.) | 33 |
|---|---|
| Median sold price | $80,000 |
| Median days to sell | ~121 |
| Active listings | 24 |
| Asking range | $30,000–$1,400,000 (median $282,500) |