WoodenBoat 228 SepOct 2012

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228

Build a folding CaBin TaBle • rejuvenaTing a worn-ouT hull

tHE mAGAZINE FOR WOODEN BOAt OWNERS, BUILDERS, AND DESIGNERS

Botters
HALCYON

$400 yacht
GYRE

Devlin Powerboats
CARIB II

SEPtEmBER/OCtOBER 2012

Botters: Working Sail in the Netherlands
Save a Classic: A Roundup of Projects
Stitch-and-Glue Powerboats

www.woodenboat.com

WB228_Oct12_C1A.indd 1

SEPtEmBER/OCtOBER 2012
NUmBER 228
$6.95
$7.95 in Canada
£3.95 in U.K.

7/27/12 1:18 PM

A 110-Year Love Affair With Wood.
Now with a new, more powerful UV filter.

Yacht Coatings
AALSMEER, HOLLAND



THOMASTON, MAINE

1-800-269-0961





SHEUNG WAN, HONG KONG

www.epifanes.com

FOLLOW US

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7/24/12 2:58 PM

18th Annual

CLASSIC CONVEYANCE. TIMELESS ELEGANCE.
AND YOUR INVITATION TO VISIT
A LEGENDARY PRIVATE CLUB.
OCEAN REEF CLUB

THE VINTAGE WEEKEND
Thursday, November 29 – Sunday, December 2, 2012
An extraordinary gathering of those who share a passion for vintage vehicles, yachts and planes
in a community as exceptional and rare as the conveyances it honors.
EXPERIENCE THREE UNFORGETTABLE DAYS IN ONE UNIQUE PLACE.

• ANTIQUE AND CLASSIC YACHT RENDEZVOUS • CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE OF AUTOMOBILES •
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For information and reservations:
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Email: [email protected]

35 Ocean Reef Drive • Suite 200 • Key Largo, Florida

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50 The Adaptable Sam Devlin
Economy and good looks
in plywood powerboats Lawrence W. Cheek
56 Holland’s Botters
Distinctive and able shoal-draft
Jack Van Ommen
boats for an inland sea

Page 50

Features
26 Parson’s Escape
Remembering the Concordia yawl
HALCYON

Ann Parson

33 Revisiting the Classics
The San Juan Islands
Sharpie Schooners

Reuel Parker

38 Reinventing GYRE
From offshore cruiser to
family daysailer

Maria Simpson

Page 46

64 A Structural Exoskeleton
How Vaitses-method fiberglass
David Soule
sheathing saved CARIB II
76 The Construction Model as a Tool
Artist’s mannequins help get
Danny Greene
the ergonomics right

46 A Folding Saloon Table
An elegant dining solution
Kevin D. Porter
for a small cabin

Page 76

84 Where Are They Now?
A rundown on 100 classics

Maynard Bray,
Robin Jettinghoff, and Patricia Lown

96 Contact Cruising
Page 38

Along the New England and Fundy
David Buckman
coasts in a $400 yacht

2 • WoodenBoat 228

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Number 228
September/October 2012

ReadeR SeRviceS
114 How to Reach Us
116 Vintage Boats and Services
119 Boatbrokers
122 Boatbuilders
Page 84

130 Kits and Plans
134 Classified

depaRTmenTS
5 Editor’s Page
Salvation or Sacrilege?

143 Index to Advertisers

6 Letters

TeaR-ouT SupplemenT

11 Fo’c’s’le
A Change for the Worse
13 Currents

David Kasanof

94 Wood Technology
Void Space in Wood—
A Magnet for Water

102 Launchings…
and Relaunchings

Robert Stephens

Richard Jagels


Robin Jettinghoff

109 The WoodenBoat Review
• AIDA
John C. Harris
• The New York Yacht Club
Stan Grayson
• Books Received
144 Save a Classic
JEANNE:
A Concordia Sloop

Getting Started in Boats:
Workbenches for Boatbuilding Jan Adkins

edited by Tom Jackson

72 In Focus
The Working Sailboats of
Bruce Halabisky
Madagascar
80 Designs
The Controversy 36:
True Confessions

pages 16/17

Maynard Bray

Cover: A fleet of
botters sails in
Holland’s inland
sea. About a year
ago, AM-1, seen
here sheathed in
steel, had her
oak hull restored
and given a
bright finish.
See page 56.
Photograph by E.J.
Bruinekool Fotographie

WoodenBoat (ISSN 0095–067X) is published bimonthly in January, March, May, July, September,
and November in Brooklin, Maine, by WoodenBoat Publications, Inc., Jonathan A. Wilson,
Chairman. Subscription offices are at P.O. Box 16958, North Hollywood, CA 91615–6958;
1–800–877–5284 for U.S. and Canada. Overseas: 1–818–487–2084.
Subscription rate is $32.00 for one year (6 issues) in the U.S. and its possessions. Canadian
subscription rate is $37.00, U.S. funds. Surface rate overseas is $45.00, U.S. funds per year.
Periodical postage paid at Brooklin, ME 04616 and additional mailing offices. In Canada,
periodical postage paid at Toronto, Ontario (Canadian periodical Agreement No. 40612608,
GST Registration No. R127081008).
U.S. Postmaster: Please send Change of Address (form 3579) to P.O. Box 16958, North
Hollywood, CA 91615–6958
Canada Postmaster: Pitney Bowes, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON, N6C 6B2, Canada.

September/October 2012 • 3

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Salvation or Sacrilege?
41 WoodenBoat Lane • P.O. Box 78
Brooklin, ME 04616–0078
tel. 207–359–4651 • fax 207–359–8920
e-mail: [email protected]
web site: www.woodenboat.com
PUBLISHER Carl Cramer
EdItORIAL
Editor Matthew P. Murphy
Senior Editor Tom Jackson
Assistant Editor Robin Jettinghoff
technical Editor Maynard Bray
Boat design Editor Mike O’Brien
Contributing Editors Harry Bryan, Greg Rössel
Copy Editor Jane Crosen
ARt & PROdUCtION
Art director Olga Lange
Advertising Art director Blythe Heepe
Associate Art director Phil Schirmer
CIRCULAtION
director Richard Wasowicz
Associates Lorna Grant, Pat Hutchinson
MARkEtINg & SALES
Associate Publisher Anne Dunbar
AdvERtISINg
director Todd Richardson
Manager Laura Sherman
Classified Wendy E. Sewall
Sales Associates

E ast Coast & M idwEst:






Ray Clark, 401–247–4922; [email protected]
Frank Fitz, 401–245–7424; [email protected]
NEw ENglaNd: John K. Hanson, Jr.,
207–594–8622; [email protected]

wEst Coast aNd wEstErN CaNada:



iNtErNatioNal: 207–359–4651;



Ted Pike, 360–385–2309; [email protected]
[email protected]

woodENBoat M arkEtplaCE:

Tina Dunne, [email protected]
RESEARCH
director Anne Bray
Associates Patricia J. Lown, Rosemary Poole
BUSINESS
Office Manager Tina Stephens
Staff Accountant Jackie Fuller
Associate Roxanne Sherman
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tHE WOOdENBOAt StORE
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Chet Staples
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www.woodenboatbooks.com
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WOOdENBOAt SCHOOL
director Rich Hilsinger
Business Manager Kim Patten
WEBSItE
Manager Greg Summers
Chairman & Editor-in-Chief Jonathan A. Wilson
President and general Manager James E. Miller
Copyright 2012 by WoodenBoat Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reprinted without written permission from the publisher.
CONTRIBuTIONS: Address all editorial communications to Editor, WoodenBoat, P.O. Box 78, Brooklin,
ME 04616–0078. WoodenBoat is a largely reader- written
magazine. Care is taken with unsolicited contributions,
but we are not responsible for damage or loss.
PRINTED
IN u.S.A.
Printed on 10% Recycled Paper

When researching the details of this issue’s cover image, we were
startled and amused to learn that the Dutch botter you see booming
along to windward of its peers is an oak hull sheathed in steel. Steel
sheathing, we learned, was a method employed decades ago for
extending the working lives of these iconic fishing craft.
We found this interesting because this issue of WoodenBoat includes
an article on sheathing hulls in fiberglass. This is a controversial topic
among aficionados of plank-on-frame hulls, and it’s one that I had
no interest in covering until recently. Fiberglass sheathing is often
considered a death sentence for a wooden boat. Water is bound to
penetrate under the sheathing, the logic goes, and become trapped
against the wood. The wood then summarily rots. There are myriad
stories to prove this true. In fact, I recall years ago poking a knife blade
through the thin sheathing of an abandoned ’glass-sheathed cruiser
and watching putrid, splinter-laden water pour from the small hole.
That image stuck.
Later, I’d learn of a builder named Allan Vaitses who’d developed
a method of sheathing wooden workboat hulls, and I’d learn that his
eponymous Vaitses Method had been applied successfully to yachts.
Still, for years I’d find myself not giving ’glass-sheathed hulls a second
look.
David Soule’s reasoned approach to the rejuvenation of his
Ralph Munroe-designed CARIB II (page 64) gave me pause recently.
Here was an iron-sick boat that likely would have been lost had David
not chosen to give it an exoskeleton of fiberglass—a new shell so
thick that it provides structural reinforcement. Over several decades,
numerous other boats have had their lives extended with this treatment.
I encountered one, GOLDEN EYE (see page 68), at the Antigua Classic
Yacht Regatta in April; her sheathing was 40 years old, and the boat
sailed 6,000 ocean miles last winter without complaint.
So, we asked David to proceed with his article, on the condition that
it be balanced by a sidebar on the wooden boat market’s perception, and
valuation, of Vaitses-sheathed hulls. We also asked David to speculate
on the reversibility of the process: If a new owner came along who
wanted CARIB II as originally built, could that owner strip the sheathing
and rebuild the hull as original? The answer, as you’ll read, was an
unequivocal yes. CARIB II’s hull shape will be there to guide an eventual
as-original restoration, though we can only speculate at the labor and
mess of such a job. That said, there’s an interesting footnote to the story
of the steel-sheathed botter on this issue’s cover: The sheathing on that
hull has since been removed, and the refurbished hull is now brightfinished oak.
I still feel a twinge of loss when I encounter a sheathed hull that
could have been repaired more simply by sticking to the original
construction. But I also now find myself studying, with admiration,
images of the newly reinforced hull of CARIB II.
—◆—
As we were putting this issue to bed, boatbuilder Eric Blake was leading
a WoodenBoat School class applying a new cold-molded skin to the
tired hull of a Boothbay Harbor One-Design. That project, like our
article, drew a fair amount of discussion of the propriety of it all, and it
also provided a good illustration of the differences between sheathing
in fiberglass and sheathing with cold-molded veneers. So, Eric offered to
develop a photoessay of that project, addressing these topics. That piece
is on our web site, under the magazine’s Bonus Content section.
As always, we welcome your comments.

September/October 2012 • 5

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Anchoring Under Sail
Dear Editor,
A number of years ago, before they
put all the moorings in Cuttyhunk, I
watched a perfect anchoring under
sail. The wind was from the west, so it
was easy to sail down the channel and
into the pond. A couple of sloops came
in and anchored under sail with the
normal thrashing around. Then a Rozinante came down the channel singlehanded, towing a dinghy. Once into
the pond, the skipper sailed around
looking for a good spot to windward
of the other boats. The boat turned up
into the wind, the mizzen was in tight,
and the skipper strolled up to the bow
to drop the anchor. Then he dropped
and furled the jib followed by the main,
and, finally, the mizzen. There was no
current to deal with, and the mizzen
held the boat into the wind. The main
was loose but never filled because of the
mizzen. After all was secure, the skipper rowed ashore—a real contrast to
the quickness and timing necessary on
a sloop.
I certainly agree that a heavy anchor
and lots of chain make anchoring and
staying put much easier.
Bill Hill
Nobleboro, Maine
Dear Matt:
I loved seeing Bruce Halabisky’s article with wonderful illustrations by Jan
Adkins.
However, I was horrified to see the
sidebar “Anchoring Downwind.” What a
glaring example of poor, dangerous seamanship! Is it so bad to be off a little bit
with the “traditional” approach, or is it
worse to risk life and limb trying to stop
tons of boat with rode running out with
all that kinetic energy behind it? What
about properly working the anchor in?
Hoping the anchor will grab at speed is
the worst way to set an anchor and often
leads to the observation “We’re dragging” after a short while. No surprise
there.
In my humble opinion, including
that sidebar was irresponsible without a
serious warning as to the dangers physically, as well as the poor anchor-setting
technique.
Otherwise, I applaud the concept of
anchoring under sail; I often do so, but
I do it in a safe and seamanlike manner.
Capt. Len Lipton
via e-mail

Home-made Oilskins
My first thought, when I saw Pete Gorski’s illustration of homemade oilskins,

was, “That reminds me of Clarkie’s
story.” And then I realized it was Clarkie’s story.
In the spring of 1982 I was working
as a carpenter at Clearwater Bay Marine
Ways in Florida. Clark Mills had just
retired and lived on the bluff overlooking Clearwater Bay and the boatyard,
and for the next four years I had the
privilege of hearing his stories firsthand. Don Heiser and Delmore Hait,
longtime friends and coworkers, were
still working there with their own stories
of a lifetime in boatbuilding.
Fast-forward 25 years, and I’m now
involved in helping to preserve some
of that history. The Pinellas County
Historical Society is working to raise
funds to build the McKay Creek Boat
Shop at the county’s living history
museum, Heritage Village, to house
vintage boats and other materials
related to the county’s rich coastal
history. The structure will provide a
place to tell the story of the county’s
early boatbuilders and to store, preserve, and exhibit other materials that
are presently in the museum collection as well as to provide for growth
in this collection in the future. The
boats we have to start our collection
are two built by Clark Mills: the Millsdesigned and -built Sun Cat (WB No.
36, page 73), donated by Joe Hill, and
Francis Seavy’s championship Snipe
“ HONEY ” (WB No. 89, page 36). The
Optimist Pram and Windmill (WB
No. 26, page 88) will, of course, be
featured.
Michael Jones
via e-mail

Epoxy Compatibility
Hi, Mr. Hylan,
I refer to the review of your “D’Anna”
design (WB. No. 225).  
The author, Mike O’Brien, quotes
you, “Coatings designed to prevent
entry of moisture are beneficial, but
cannot be counted on to guarantee that
all pieces of a structure will remain dry
forever.” Most common coatings are
applied via a non-hygroscopic (oily) carrier. As (moist) timbers are hygroscopic,
these coatings tend not to penetrate the
timber’s surface, drying to a “skin.” Ideally, the agent should penetrate into the
interior and then “set” on drying. Such
a chemistry could be shellac (see Harry
Bryan’s article in WB No. 200).  
Mr. Bryan’s second paragraph states
that shellac has a “remarkable ability to
slow down the movement of moisture”:
87% effective, compared with varnish
(73%) and linseed oil (21%). As it is

carried by (hygroscopic) ethanol, shellac’s deep penetration is an important
factor. Its use by the Herreshoffs might
be one of the clues to their long-lived
yachts.
I have no personal experience of
shellac. My only fear is that the pretreatment might compromise a subsequent
(epoxy or resorcinol) adhesive bonding.
Ron Durham
Auckland, New Zealand
Doug Hylan replies:
We are talking about two different, and
fundamentally incompatible, types of
construction here. This is something
that is not well explained in the amateur
boatbuilding press.
In traditional construction, all wood
below the waterline is intended to be
wet, in its fully “swelled-up” condition,
and must be designed to accommodate
that state. During construction, it is
desirable to keep that wood as wet as
possible until the boat is launched
and nature takes over the job. That is
the purpose of coatings like shellac and
red lead primer. Once the boat is
launched, these coatings can help prevent
drying when the boat is next hauled,
but otherwise have no function.
In cold-molded construction, every
piece is intended to stay dry and in its
“unswelled” condition during the life
of the boat. If a piece of such a boat
is made of a strong, hard wood, and it
gets wet during the life of the boat, it
will swell up, cracking whatever coating
is over it (even light-to-medium-weight
fiberglass) and break the glue joint.
This explains why oak is such a good
wood for traditional construction and a
very poor one for cold-molded construction: It is very strong, doesn’t glue well,
and swells a lot when it gets wet.
When it comes to preventing moisture from getting into wood, it is coating thickness, not penetration, that makes
the difference. Thicker is better, and
provided that the coating continues to
adhere and remain intact, penetration
is not necessary (although it certainly
doesn’t hurt).
Your fears are correct: Coating with
shellac or something similar will interfere
with epoxy adhesion. Most epoxies are not
designed to stick to wet wood (Gougeon
has an expensive and difficult-to-use
exception, called G-Flex). Good glued
construction demands reasonably dry,
low-density woods in very small pieces.
That way, if the wood does get wet, in
the ensuing battle between expanding
wood and its adjacent glue joint, the
glue can win.

6 • WoodenBoat 228

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7/25/12 3:06 PM

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Thanks for another

great Show!

The 21stAnnual

Summer did indeed begin at the 21st Annual WoodenBoat Show at Mystic Seaport. Nearly
12,500 people came to Mystic to admire a variety of wooden boats, learn from our expert skills
demonstrations, race in cocktail class skuas, admire reader-built boats on the village green, and
interact with a vast array of vendors showcasing tools, hardware, coatings, kits, plans, books, boat
gear, and so much more!
The family boatbuilding tent was the home to 30 families who built boats with the help of two
kit producers. Nearly 35 WoodenBoat readers brought their trailerable wooden boat projects and
enjoyed speaking with attendees all weekend.
The docks were full, and the weather was gorgeous! We thank everyone who came, and invite you
to join us next year, June 28-30, 2013, at Mystic Seaport for the 22nd Annual WoodenBoat Show!
For all the latest news and to view a photo gallery from the 2012 Show:

www.TheWoodenBoatShow.com
2012 WoodenBoat Show Sponsors

TM

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7/26/12 10:32 AM

WoodenBoat magazine and

proudly announce the Winners of the 2012

• Concours d’Élegance •
Judges’ Choice MASCONOMO II Skip Crocker / Crocker’s Boat Yard, Inc.
People’s Choice GENTLY DOWN John Hamelink

Awards for Powerboats
Owner Built First Place: RASCAL Frank J. Buonanno
Owner Built Honorable Mention: ADDY GIRL Chuck & Ellen Breath
Professionally Built First Place: ANEMONE Ron Zarella / Pease Boatworks & Marine Railway
Professionally Built Honorable Mention: YIPPIEIO Boats by Thurston
Professionally Maintained First Place: DESTINO 20 Destino Yachts
Professionally Maintained Honorable Mention: STARRY NIGHTS Ken Bassett / Onion River Boatworks
Professionally Restored First Place: SARAH CAROL East Passage Boatwrights / Grand Banks
Professionally Restored Honorable Mention: BIG GREEN Leonard W. Robbins
Awards for Sailboats
Owner Built First Place: ROBERTA P. Robert H. Pulsch
Owner Built Honorable Mention: LEARNING CURVE Kevin J. MacRitchie
Owner Maintained First Place: SEA BRIGHT Mike Deckert Certified Marine / Charlie Hankins
Professionally Built First Place: TIME Tim McElroy / Apprentice Shop
Professionally Maintained First Place: SAY WHEN Bernard Gustin / Brooklin Boat Yard
Professionally Restored First Place: CAPRICE John E. Kelly, III / Tumblehome Boatshop
Awards for Manually Powered Boats
Owner Built 1st Place: GENTLY DOWN John Hamelink
Owner Built Honorable Mention: COYOTE David Wohl
Professionally Built 1st Place: WILLOW WAVE Berkshire Boat Building School / Hilary Russell
Most Significant Rebuild
MALESH Arthur T. Lyman / Huckins Yachts
Outstanding Innovation
RAMBLER Harry Bryan / Bryan Boatbuilding

WoodenBoat and
proudly announce the winner of

I Built It Myself “Best In Show”

GENTLY DOWN John Hamelink

Join us again next year, June 28–30, 2013 at Mystic Seaport

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A Change for the Worse
by David Kasanof

G

ot the urge to modify
your boat? Change
the rig? Enlarge the
cabin? Add inside ballast?
My initial impulse when I
hear that someone wants to
tinker with the original design
of his boat is to suggest that
the would-be tinkerer ask
his physician for an increase
in medication. Nevertheless,
there are legitimate reasons for
modifying the original design. I
would caution that the more ambitious your plan, the greater should
be your skepticism. I have seen cabintops raised so high that the boom
had to be raised in order to allow
the boat to come about. Of course
the mainsail had to be recut as a
consequence. Certainly, this modification achieved more headroom,
but if headroom was that important
to the owner, would it not have been
simpler, and a whole lot cheaper,
to invest in a pair of knee pads?
Of course, that would also entail
sawing a few inches off the main
cabin table but hey, that’s a lot
cheaper and easier than recutting
the mainsail.
The urge to modify is probably
deeply embedded in the human
past. Even aboard old CONTENT,
we were not immune. Theoretically,
she had standing headroom, but I
soon found out that this was true
only if one took pains to stand only
on the exact centerline of the boat
and between deckbeams. I confess
to having a fleeting notion of raising the cabin top an inch or two.
This plan was rejected when I realized that it would spoil the old hooker’s sleek profile. Instead, I made a
more conservative modification. I
taped old socks to the parts of the
deckbeams where I often bumped
my head. The skylight jack handles
were the worst offenders, so I wrapped
them with my thickest pair of boot
socks. My modification complete, I
rejoiced in the expectation that I
had at least taken the physical pain

PETE GOrSKI

component out of the problem of
low headroom. The socks warned of
oncoming danger and cushioned
the blow should the warning go
unheeded. Of course, the socks had
been freshly laundered and didn’t
mar CONTENT’s profile.
Thus ended my brief flirtation
with the notion of modifying her,
but I have seen many modifications
of traditional wooden boats, including the relocation of masts, adding
more masts, and changing Bermuda
rig to gaff rig and vice versa. I don’t
know why people do this, because
changing the designed sail plan
changes the center of effort in ways
that are difficult to predict. That’s
because no one knows where the
center of effort really is in the threedimensional world. Sail plans are
drawn on two-dimensional paper,
and therefore the centers of effort
are always shown directly over the
centerline of the boat, whereas if
the boat were sailing, the real center
of effort would be well off to leeward, perhaps several feet. On a
boat with a long boom such as a catboat, the center of effort may be in
another state. Before changing the
sail plan, I would suggest playing
with the rake of the mast or masts.
That might tell you if a proposed rig
change were likely to help performance. Of course, if your rig modification is not intended to enhance
performance, you can feel free to do

anything you want. No matter what
the results, you can always tell people you planned it that way.
Cockpits are another
target of modification.
Some folks are forever
making them larger
while other folks are
making theirs smaller.
I think that they are
changed so often because
mistakes can be rectified
and are not likely to be
dangerous. But they can sure
as hell cause acute embarrassment,
as in the following case.
A somewhat portly friend of
mine had enlarged his cockpit in
order to better accommodate his
above- average volume and girth.
He accomplished his task with great
skill, but he forgot one simple fact
about the three-dimensional world:
If you make the cockpit larger, you
make the space surrounding the
cockpit below decks smaller. If that
constricted space must be traversed
in order to get to fuel and water
tanks, shaft bearings, bilge pumps,
and other niceties of the sailing life,
and you are a portly gentleman, you
may be in deep trouble if you overlook yet another fact of life: Crawling forward through a tight space is
a lot easier than crawling backward
through the same space in order to
extricate oneself.
Of course, in this case my friend
found it impossible to turn around.
To relieve the suspense, which I’m
sure you are finding unbearable
at this juncture, I am pleased to
report that we got Fred out of his
trap. But we couldn’t do so without wrecking half his new cockpit.
Need I add that when you wreck
half of a cockpit, the other half isn’t
much good. Lest a reader find himself in a similar predicament, note
well that rescue operations in such
a case require a steady hand with
cutting tools even while laughing
one’s ass off.
September/October 2012 • 11

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WoodenBoat School
Fall 2012

There’s still room in the following courses being offered in September & October.
Why wait? Give us a call today and reserve a spot!

In Brooklin, Maine
Boatbuilding/Related Crafts

Seamanship

Building a 121⁄2’ Semi-Dory Skiff

Small Boat Voyaging
September 2 - 8
with Jane Ahlfeld and
Bill Thomas

September 2 - 8 with John Karbott

The Art of Woodcuts
September 9 - 15 with Gene Shaw

Coastal Maine in
Watercolor

Sea Sense Under Sail
September 2 - 8
on board VELA
with Havilah Hawkins

September 2 - 8
with Amy Hosa

Elements of
Coastal Kayaking
(over 40)

Fundamentals of
Boatbuilding

September 2 - 8
with Mike O’Brien

September 16 - 29
with Wade Smith

Building Your Own
Willow/Quickbeam
Sea Kayak

Windjamming on the Schooner LEWIS R. French
September 2 - 8 with Capt. Garth Wells

September 23 - 29
with Bill Thomas

Inspecting Fiberglass Boats
September 23 - 29 with David Wyman

At the Chesapeake Light Craft Shops,
Annapolis, Maryland…
Build Your Own
Stand-Up
Paddleboard

Marine
Photography
September 9 - 15
with Jon Strout and
Jane Peterson

October 22 - 27
with Geoff Kerr

2

WoodenBoat School

WBSchool228FINAL.indd 12

P.o. Box 78 * Brooklin, Maine 04616
Phone: 207-359-4651 * Fax: 207-359-8920
www.woodenboat.com

7/26/12 2:07 PM

CURRENTS

Edited by
by Tom
Tom Jackson
Jackson
Edited

xxxxxxxxxx

ERWAN CROUAN (BOTH)

Below—HERMIONE, her flag inscribed with the
names of thousands of donors, was launched
July 6, 2012, into the same waters of Rochefort, France, where the original was launched
in 1778, soon to take the Marquis de Lafayette
to aid the American Revolution. The ship is
expected to sail to the U.S. eastern seaboard
on a schedule yet to be decided. Right—A
Dutch-built steel “boat gate” modernizes an
ingenious concept, dating to the 1600s, for
using the 17’ tide of the Charente River almost
exclusively to drain a drydock. The gate is ballasted with water to sink into place, and when
a ship is ready to launch, it is drained at low
tide so that it floats out of the way at high tide.

A ship worthy of a
royal dockyard
by Tom Jackson

B

y the time the frigate HERMIONE
was towed stern-first out of her
flooded drydock into the Charente
River in Rochefort, France, on July 6,
2012—her official launching—she had
already won most of her battles.
The culmination of an audacious
idea, complex planning, the transformation of a historic dockyard, fundraising upon fundraising upon fundraising
(which continues), and 15 years of work,
she vanquished many a heart over the
years without even having gone to sea.
One of them, I freely admit, was mine.
In 2000, three years into her construction, I saw her in frame (see WB No.

158), all in oak of a wonderful quality,
beautifully crafted. A few of my indelible impressions: the solid wall of wood
in her framing, especially forward and
in the transom assembly; massive structure, all accurate to her era, resembling
for all the world the timber framing of
cathedrals; a clever use of wedge-shaped
mortise-and-tenon joinery locking floor
timbers to first futtocks; a dockyard
model authentically preceding the
actual construction. She was like a great
marine painting or one of the brilliant
perspective drawings by Frederik Henrik af Chapman (more on him below)
come to life.
But the Rochefort naval shipyard
was nearly as impressive to me as the
ship herself. The shipyard, founded
in 1666, proved her worth yet again
during the ship’s launching. Heavily damaged during World War II, its
buildings were restored over decades,

ultimately to become one of four outlying branches of the Musée National
de la Marine, headquartered in Paris.
The first drydocks there date to 1668,
built during the administration of Jean
Baptiste Colbert, the famously vigorous political figure and Secretary of
the State of the Navy. The double, endto-end drydock where HERMIONE was
built dates to 1728. The stone Corderie
Royale, a quarter-mile long ropewalk, is
an outstanding example of elegance in
industrial architecture, even though it
is not open for its full original length
and therefore, in my view, misses an
opportunity to give a sense of ropemaking’s scale and strategic importance.
During the HERMIONE launching,
the closing mechanism for the double
drydock proved the sophistication of its
design and conception. The drydock is
closed by a “boat gate,” an ingenious
floating gate (steel in the modern version
September/October 2012 • 13

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7/30/12 9:59 AM

Right—
Traditional
lateen doubleenders of the
south coast
of France are
a specialty in
the Paulilles
Boat Center,
housed in
former dynamite
warehouses.
Far right—A
25’ barque was
undergoing
complete
reconstruction
as of mid-2012.

Louis XIV. It is an absolutely awesome
historic site.
None of this is to overlook the ship
herself. She is a replica—an astonishingly faithful replica (despite her two
pod engines)—of one of four 26-gun
frigates built in 1778 at Rochefort.
In 1780, the Marquis de Lafayette was
aboard HERMIONE bound for America
after winning Louis XVI’s blessing to
take French naval and military aid to
the American Revolution at a critical
juncture. The replica will sail to the
American eastern seaboard, too, in the
coming years. After that, it is expected
to return to Rochefort to serve as a constant reminder of the historic importance of the dockyards where she was
built. The French have posed and
answered an ingeniously simple question: what is a shipyard without a ship?
HERMIONE Project, Arsenal Maritime, Place

Amiral Dupont, BP 70177, 17308 Rochefort
Cedex, France; www.hermione.com (English
available).
Tom Jackson is WoodenBoat’s senior editor.

Around the yards
■ “They say Alfred Nobel created the
prizes that bear his name partly out of
guilt at the deaths caused by his invention of dynamite,” Nic Compton writes
from France. “What, then, would he
have made of his former dynamite factory in the foothills of the Pyrénées
being turned into the Paulilles Boat
Center boatyard? It’s certainly a dramatic change of fortunes for the remote
site at Paulilles, founded in 1895 near
the French border with Spain, which in
its heyday employed 200 people and

had its own school and church. As recently
as 1975, the factory produced 4,000 tons
of explosive for France and its colonies—
not all of it for peaceful purposes—and
over the years numerous people were
killed during its production.
“The factory was eventually closed in
1984, and the site was very nearly turned
into a multimillion-euro development,
with hundreds of luxury flats and a
500-berth marina. Thanks to local
opposition, this plan was shelved and
the land was put into the care of the
Conservatoire du Littoral (Coastal Conservancy Agency), which spent some €12
million ($15 million) turning the site
into a nature reserve. The Anse de
Paulilles (Paulille Cove) opened in 2008,
as a family-oriented park, with a
museum, a café, a watchtower, and,
since 2010, a living boat museum.
“As part of the factory’s transformation, a couple of former dynamite warehouses close to the beach were restored
to create a boat preservation center (the
Centre de Conservation-Restauration) and
restoration yard (the Atelier des Barques),
to house and restore local craft. When
we visited the center in June 2012, there
were several full-sized barques, as the
local fishing boats are called, some
flat-bottomed bettes, which are mostly
used on the lagoons which pepper the
coast between the Pyrénées and Marseille, and a variety of other local working boats on display—all wood and all
under 30' long. The 15' bette NOA sat
on the beach, apparently ready to give
visitors a taste of sailing traditional
craft, although she never touched water
during the few days we were there.
“Two shipwrights and an apprentice
were hard at work in the airy, modern
restoration workshop, where a 25' barque
was being completely rebuilt. A public

NIC COMPTON (BOTH)

instead of wood) invented for the Rochefort docks. The gate is like a boat wedgeshaped in profile, meant to be deliberately
sunk into mating channels formed in the
side walls and bottom of the drydock.
Relying on the power of the rise and fall
of tides, it is floated into position at the
peak of the flood, then pumped full of
water so that it sinks straight down and
settles into the drydock’s channels, cutting off the river water. As the tide falls on
the river side, ports low in the boat gate
(and separate from her water ballast
tanks) are opened, allowing most of the
drydock water to flow out by gravity. At
the lowest ebb, the ports are closed, and
the rest of the water is mechanically
pumped out of the drydock. When
HERMIONE was ready for launching, the
water ballast inside the boat gate was
drained off into the drydock by opening
one of the lower ports. Then, at the ebb,
both ports were opened to allow river
water to flow in to the drydock as the tide
rose. Without its water ballast, the boat
gate floated off its channels as the tide
reached its height, after which the gate
could be towed away with a minimum of
effort. (For a video of the process, search
YouTube for “Fonctionnement d’un
bateau-porte à Rochefort.”)
Many of the museum’s period dockyard models, beautifully built, were
used in proposing and testing designs
for mechanical devices and in training dockyard engineers of ages past.
They show a host of similarly ingenious
devices (the successful ones, anyway)
for simply and elegantly dealing with
massive structures and weights involved
in building and servicing a fleet at an
important naval port. The Rochefort
graving docks were the first built in
France, and the sophistication of their
design is as impressive today as it was to

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cannons in bow and stern.
“No examples of these subtly
improved rowing/sailing galleys
have survived, so when the leadership of the island’s historical
Ehrensvärd Society along with
the Viapori Dockyard Foundation
were looking for a project through
which to celebrate the fortress’s
building traditions, the 40-ton
gunboat was an attractive option.
Critical also was the size of the
historical 1920s aircraft hangar
located next to the original Swedish drydock, where construction
started in the winter of 2011. Master builder Mika Holmstöm has
had also to plan to turn the vessel
on its side to pass through the hangar’s preserved gates before fitting
out in May 2013.
“The craft is constructed of
Finnish pine, milled locally and
dried for at least four years. In
addition to traditional pegging,
for fittings, the Society had to
commission 500 kilos (1,100 lbs)
of hand-forged nails from Norway.
Chapman’s line drawings have
been adapted by Holmström in
order to improve the functionality and durability of the craft. He
has had the assistance of trainees from
various boatbuilding course centers, as
well as modeling and marketing support from Helsinki’s Haaga-Helia and
Metropolia polytechnics. In all, 14 trainees are expected to have been involved
in the project, for which purpose the
project has received government support. All other monies have been raised
privately.
“With the completed craft intended
for ceremonial and recreational use,
with two electric engines powering tourists on trips around Helsinki’s picturesque but rock-strewn harbor, no 24-lb
cannons will be included in the manifest. For more prestigious occasions, the
Finnish Navy will provide the crew to
power the craft in sheltered waterways.
Whether a competing Russian ‘shebeck’
(a term they coined for their version
of the Mediterranean xebecs, and very
similar to the gunboats) will be constructed to challenge this addition to
contemporary Baltic maritime rivalry,
remains open.” For more information, see
www.tykkisluuppi.fi (Finnish only).

ANTHONY SHAW

gallery in the workshop allows visitors to observe the work in progress as well as housing-related
exhibitions and events—including
children’s workshops. For the center
is very much about recording and
promoting the ‘patrimoine maritime’
(maritime culture) of the local
area, explains restoration manager
Martin Luc Bonnardot, not just
restoring boats.
“‘We use the boats to bring to
life our maritime culture,’ says
Martin. ‘Each boat is documented,
with a record of its individual history and its lines. Most of the boats
are restored to sailing condition or,
if they are too far gone, they are
preserved so that a replica can be
built. But the restoration is often
the starting point for a general history of the type. For instance, we
recently restored a barque from
Banyuls-sur-Mer and conducted a
detailed study of the town’s maritime history, which we have now
recorded for posterity.’
“Indeed, although boats are
A replica of an 18th-century-style Baltic
the most visible part of the cengunboat is being built at the historic
ter’s work, it also takes in related
Suomenlinna shipyard in Finland.
maritime artifacts, such as nets,
engines, sails, tools, and even navigation buoys. Its most recent research ■ “If one man’s hard work and applicawork focuses on fishermen’s habitat: tion can turn the fortunes of his counthe huts and houses they built along try, then 18th-century Swedish designer
the coast to house themselves and their Frederik Henrik af Chapman is a strong
candidate for the honor,” Anthony Shaw
equipment.
“There is a strong local identity in writes from Finland. “However, despite
this area of France—officially known as the success of his designs at the battle
the Pyrénées-Orientales but often of Svensksund in 1790 (off the curreferred to simply as Pays Catalan— rent city of Kotka off the southeastern
which maintains close ties with the coast of Finland), in the end his ingeSpanish region of Catalonia. The nuity couldn’t save the Eastern Baltic
museum reflects this tradition in the from Russian naval dominance. On the
boats it chooses to restore, which have a island fortress lying at the entrance to
distinctly Catalonian emphasis. And, Helsinki harbor, a World Heritage site
although the center is funded by now known as Suomenlinna, one of his
various French government agencies, it designs is now being re-created.
“After 20 years of travel and study in
is formally linked with the Maritime
Museum of Barcelona (the largest mari- Britain and Europe, Chapman stayed
time museum in the Mediterranean) from 1762 to 1764 on the naval fortress,
and the University of Gerona, which then under its Swedish name Sveaborg,
are both located in Spain. It’s as if helping improve the defense capabilities
the separation treaty of 1659 never there, the easternmost fortification of
the Swedish empire. When the
happened.
“Paulilles is a must-see for any strengthening of the Baltic ‘archipelago
wooden boat aficionados visiting the fleet’ was decided by the new king
area—and what’s more, it’s all free. Gustav III in the 1770s, his designs were
It might not meet with the approval chosen for a fleet of highly maneuverable
of the supremely entrepreneurial light gunships to operate in the coastal
Alfred Nobel, but for most of us it waters. In addition to the larger
sure beats the hell out of a dynamite ‘archipelago frigates,’ Chapman drew
factory—or a 500-berth marina.” plans for a selection of different
Centre de Conservation-Restauration, Site gunboats, all approximately 20 meters
de Paulilles, RD 914 66660, Port Vendres, (66') long, typically with twin sprit rig,
France; +33–4–68–95–23–47; www.cg66. powered by 50 to 60 sailors at the oars
and armed with one or two heavy
fr/54-le-patrimoine-maritime.htm.

■ “Building and restoration of wooden
ships in a 100-years-old fashion is quite
well-known in the Baltic Sea,” Toomas
Kokovkin writes from Estonia, a neighbor of Finland. “Significant increase of
wooden shipbuilding has taken place
during the last decade at the eastern

16 • WoodenBoat 226

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7/24/12 8:54 AM

GETTING STARTED IN BOATS
from the Editors of

Volume 36

GS_Vol36_Workbench_FINAL.indd 1

Magazine

Workbenches for
Boatbuilding

7/26/12 2:14 PM

— Workbenches for

boatbuilding —

Text and Illustrations by Jan Adkins

Newton’s Third Law of Motion
Actioni contr ariam semper et æqualem esse reactionem:
sive corporum duorum actiones in se mutuo semper esse
æquales et in partes contr arias dirigi.

“To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction: or the forces of
two bodies on each other are always equal and are directed in opposite directions.”

T

his series is our way of beguiling you.
We’re saying, start small, learn as you
work, and we can pretty much guarantee
fascination. Boats are fun.
In a nutshell, we want you to discover
the fun. And we want you to pass it on. We
want some of the old ways and wisdoms to
carry on through you and your kids.
We’ve been talking about tools. When
we’re working in the boatshop, we’re all
concerned about three things: the satis­
faction of doing good work; learning;
and certainly safety. Safety is an all­day,
every­day concern. And it’s not just
power tools that can bite you. You can do
serious damage with hand tools as well.
What causes mistakes? When do we
injure ourselves? One answer is fatigue.
Not fall­down weariness, but the subtle
lack of focus that happens when your eye­
sight, concentration, and muscles have
been strained over time. This is why we

are devoting an entire segment of “Get­
ting Started” to the workbench, which
provides the strong, stable foundation
for holding workpieces rigidly in place.
We quote Newton because it’s easy to
miss how what he says relates to using
tools. When we saw or drill or chisel,
we’re exerting major forces on a piece
of wood. We work on this end. The op­
posite and equal reaction is on the other
end: something counters that force, keeps
the wood steady and at the best angle for
working it. If your workpiece isn’t rock­
steady, you’re straining. You’re trying to
hold the workpiece and hold the tool in
relation to it. That strain is cumulative.
Effort you spend in keeping the piece
steady is draining your concentration.
Your safety ebbs with it.
So a good workbench represents
the other end of Newton’s caution. It
absorbs and cancels the reaction. It is

WOODENBOAT PUBLICATIONS, INC.
P.O. Box 78 (41 WoodenBoat Ln.), Brooklin, ME 04616 • Tel. 207–359–4651
www.GettingStartedinBoats.com • www.WoodenBoat.com
1–800–274–4936 (U.S. and Canada)

Subscribe to WoodenBoat Magazine: 1–800–274–4936
2 • Workbenches for Boatbuilding

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7/26/12 2:15 PM

If you were a robot, you might not need a good bench; you could stroke perfectly in one plane of motion.
But since you’re human, you have your own unique pattern of muscular and skeletal misdirections. Most
of your strokes have sideways components that could make the workpiece wobble. The bench’s mass and
gripping tools keep your work steady.

a primary tool that allows you to work
with all other tools.
What makes a good workbench?
There are a lot of answers to this question. Some of them were addressed in
Joseph’s downtown Nazareth woodshop. English and French and German
woodworkers had thoughtful and comprehensive answers ages ago. There are
clever contemporary twists. But to begin, it might be easiest to pin down what
a proper workbench isn’t.
It isn’t a pair of sawhorses and a sheet
of plywood. It probably isn’t a fancy folding sawhorse with a built-in vise. Can
you do good work on pickup work surfaces? Some. If you’re very skillful and
very careful.
It isn’t a repurposed kitchen counter

attached to your workshop wall. You’ll often be working on both sides of a piece,
and you can’t work on the other side of
a wall-hung counter—not even through
the window.
It isn’t a pressed-metal base with a
particle-board surface, a metal vise on
one end, and a cunning little shelf for
tools. No, not even with pegboard over it.
On the other hand, a good workbench
for your boatshop needn’t be a pricey
European beechwood “woodworker’s
bench” finished like a coffee table.
To find your answer, you’ll need to know
what good benches can do, what features
other woodworkers have devised, and
what you’ll be doing with it. We’ll look
at several traditional bench patterns with
their special features and what they do.
Workbenches for Boatbuilding • 3

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7/26/12 2:24 PM

—The German Pattern —

The twin screws of this
vise are linked for a broad,
even grip. Shaft cogs are
connected by bicycle chain
so when one turns, the
other follows. Even so, a
watchful boatwright would
not overload one side
without a vise block (p 5)
to even the strain.

I

f you’re a tool catalog reader, you’re probably most familiar with the German Pattern
bench. Essentially, it’s a flat surface of very hard
wood, often edge-grained beech or maple set
at your best working height. This is individual
preference. If you buy a bench, work with it as it
is for a while at whatever height it presents, then
raise it a little, then lower it. You’ll discover that
an inch or two makes a difference in how much
controlled force you can exert. Even if you buy
a Cadillac humdinger Swedish glory of a bench,
personalize it.
The German Pattern bench has two vises: a
tail vise at one end, and a face vise along the
bench front (A). The purpose of the vises is to
hold pieces of almost any size or shape. The face
vise has a broad bearing plate meant to hold a
flat workpiece (B) immobile against the front
of the bench. Don’t depend on the vise alone
to hold a long piece: a critical virtue of a good
workbench is that the face of the top is flush
with the front faces of the legs. Your workpiece
will have good bearing surface on the top’s
face and right down the leg. The legs should
be square in section to provide bearing surface

and to fetch a good purchase for the clamp (C)
you’ll use to hold down the lower part of your
face-vise workpiece.
The front leg farthest away from the face vise
may have holes bored in it. If it doesn’t, plan on
boring them. These holes are for a dowel that
will support the far lower edge of a workpiece,
and the various holes accommodate workpieces
of varying widths. With the face vise, the far-leg
support, and probably a couple of clamps, you
can work on-edge on anything from a locker
door to a dining table top.
The tail vise at the end of the bench (D) may
be a shoulder vise like the one shown or a fullwidth two-screw vise (inset, E). Between the inner
face of the vise’s “shoulder” and the thickness of
the bench top, a tail vise can hold a piece vertically (F). But it’s also mortised for a vise dog, a wood
or metal device you can raise or lower. The vise
dog opposes a bench dog, which can be set in one
of several bench-top mortises. Since the tail vise
moves, you can put a workpiece (G) on the bench
top and immobilize it between the dogs (H).
Vises are driven by wood or metal screws that
exert surprising force. Consider your workpiece

4 • Workbenches for Boatbuilding

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7/26/12 2:20 PM

— The French Pattern —

and its finish; don’t mar it, don’t break it. Keep
a bucket of flat shims to go between the dogs
and the workpiece. A shim will not only give
you more bearing surface but also protect the
workpiece.
Dog mortises may be rectangular or round.
You may have one row or two. With the dog
mortises you can use holdfasts of many kinds
(I, page 4) to immobilize a workpiece on the
bench top. Most contemporary holdfasts rely on
a hand-screw to secure the workpiece, but the
old single-piece bench dogs that are tapped into
place with a mallet are just as sturdy.
Some benches have a heavy, square planing
stop of hardwood that can be tapped into the
benchtop surface (J), or secured across one end
of it (K and L), which in combination with the
pressure of the plane itself can be enough to
keep the workpiece (M) steady.

T

he French Pattern workbench shown on this
page often features a leg face vise (A, above)
and a crochet or crook (B). The leg vise has a long
tightening screw (inset, C) and an adjustable
pin at the base of the long, vertical lever (inset,

D). By adjusting the pin, and therefore the width
of the gap at the vise’s base, it’s possible to clamp
very thick workpieces. French vises often have
sliding deadmen (E). A deadman has a series of
dowel holes to support the far lower edge of a
workpiece that is shorter than the length of the
bench. The crook catches the near-side edge,
the deadman holds the far lower edge, and the
leg face vise clamps it firmly. Very handy.
The leg vise’s jaw may be quite wide. To keep
an off-center workpiece (like F) from twisting it,
some woodworkers drop in a vise block (G) of
the proper thickness. The blocks shown have a
dowel through them to keep them from dropping into the vise jaws when loose, and they’re
marked with their various thicknesses. Here’s
another bucketful of useful pieces: The workpiece (H) is held by the shoulder vise (I) and a
bench dog. A seldom-seen tail vise is the wheelwright’s vise (inset, J), set into the face of the
bench.
The workpiece is being held down by four
clamps, but it’s being held side-to-side by a
simple wedge, tapped between workpiece and a
benchdog (K). Low-tech physics.

Workbenches for Boatbuilding • 5

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7/26/12 2:15 PM

Algebra

— The—
English
Pattern


T

he English Pattern Bench is distinguished
by its deep apron bored with dowel holes as
a broad deadman (A). It has a shoulder tail vise
(B), but its big leg face vise (C) is set at about 30
degrees from the vertical. Why? Because this
offset is for especially for wide boards like paneling and other broad workpieces (D). For boatbuilders, it poses a few advantages: flush legs,
both front and back, are useful for clamping
oddly shaped pieces—and boatbuilding seems
to generate a lot of them. One disadvantage is
that this apron deadman would block a lot of
clamping opportunities. Also, traditional holdfasts that rely on a thick benchtop for leverage
wouldn’t work in the relatively shallow depth of
the deadman/apron, though other types of
holdfasts will.
The English Bench might not be your cup
of British tea, but it should demonstrate that
simple principles and clever applications
within this essential tool can solve whole categories of practical problems. The bench is a
basic tool, not merely for shaping wood with
edge tools, but also for stable gluing (a roll
of waxed paper will prevent most inadvertent
adhesions to the benchtop) and for laying out,
marking, and measuring.

A basic question for a basic tool: How big
should a bench be? The rule of thumb applies
only to width: a bench shouldn’t be much
wider than 30", since you’ll want to address
your workpiece from both sides of the bench.
Wider would be a fatiguing reach. The length
is limited only by your lifting strength, because
part of using the bench well means being able
to move it often to get the best angle on a
workpiece. Your bench should migrate from
the wall to the shop’s center at many positions,
then back again. There’s no feng shui for an
active workbench.
A good workbench is heavy. To dispel a
hint of tottering or play, all its pieces must
be robust. It’s essential to have clean mortise
joints holding structural pieces designed to
resist movement in any direction. One way
to ensure stability is to use diagonal bracing
and plywood gussets on all the corners, but
these preclude f lush-leg clamping from many
angles. Some woodworkers add stability by
building a lower shelf and piling on beach
cobble or sandbags. Fastening a bench to a
wall or f loor will invariably limit its use. A
good bench, though not exactly portable,
should be shiftable.

6 • Workbenches for Boatbuilding

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— William
HandBench

— Customizing
a Plain


T

his big tool is personal. Modify it, accessorize, use it variously. You could lay out bags
of money for a traditional commercial bench,
and why not, if you have the funds. But building a practical workbench over several days isn’t
beyond simple carpentry. The compromise
workbench shown here is only one design. You
can come up with a dozen more. Just remember
what benches do, how versatile they are, what
they need to be, and build accordingly.
This bench is put together with dimensional
stock, picked over at the lumberyard—4×4s,
2×10s, or 2×12s for the framing—and good
exterior plywood for the benchtop. Consider
stabilizing the plywood edges (A) with resin or
varnish, and build the bench so that the top
layer of double-sheet construction (B) can be
turned over to give you a new surface, then re-

placed later after both sides are dinged. The
dogs are round, sitting in round bored holes
placed intelligently (C). You can order a big
hand-screw with a threaded collar to make traditional leg-face vises or shoulder tail vises. Or
you can order a couple of dandy cast-iron woodworking vises (D) with built-in retractable dogs
and quick-adjusting cams to roughly position
the vise jaw before you tighten it. The leg-tobenchtop connections will be a challenge, but
they should be rock-solid. You can ship-lap the
stretchers to make them flush with the benchtop and the leg faces (E). The middle stretcher
can be drawn into a front-to-back stretcher rabbet with furniture barrel-bolts (F). Add a lower
shelf and some weight. This bench will get you
started; build or buy the holy beechwood Swedish model when you’re further along.

Workbenches for Boatbuilding • 7

GS_Vol36_Workbench_FINAL.indd 7

7/26/12 2:15 PM

— Helpful Additions —

Y

our workbench can’t do everything. It needs
helpers.
Boatbuilder Sam Manning developed a bench
(A) that’s simple and helpful in boatshops. It’s usually built of scrap dimensional stock to the same
height as your table or bandsaw to support overhangs. Singly or several, the Manning bench is also a
sturdy clamping platform for large pieces that span
big tracts of your shop. The top box and its “anvil”
are bolted to the robust sawhorse bottom (B); unbolting makes the sawhorse a more portable helpmate for working in the boatyard.
A traditional cutting bench (C) is worth a rainy
day’s labor in the shop. This is a personalized item
constructed to match your knee’s height, with a cutout handle to horse it about. One end is given the traditional bird’s-mouth shape (D), which will support
both sides of a workpiece while you’re making a cut
(E). The face of the lower stretchers goes beyond the
bench’s legs for some variations on this design; they
become horizontal supports to hold a thin board on

edge (F) for comfortable sawing on your knees.
One of the handiest helpers for your workbench
is the simple bench hook (G). Its lower lip hooks over
the edge of your bench. When you grasp the small
workpiece along with the back upper lip and push
forward, you have an immobile base for a clean cut
across the shortened back lip. You can screw one
together, but glue and dowels are more appropriate:
no metal to mar your saw’s teeth.
A wood vise is big and powerful, but it’s not a
metal vise, and boatbuilding always requires some
metal mongering. This machine vise mounting base
(H) has a forward lower lip that catches your bench
edge, a big squared timber to be grasped by your
tail vise, and a thick plywood base bolted to the
metal vise.
Jan Adkins (www.janadkins.com) is an author and illustrator
who sails San Francisco Bay but misses his East Coast home
waters. Many of his books, including The Craft of Sail and
A Storm Without Rain, are available at The WoodenBoat
Store, www.woodenboatstore.com.

Getting Started in Boats is dedicated to those who are new to boats and boatbuilding.
Please tear out and pass along your copy to someone you know who will be interested.
Earlier volumes of Getting Started are available in past issues of WoodenBoat, and as PDF (electronic) files, from
The WoodenBoat Store. Please refer to the web pages, at: www.woodenboat.com/wbmag/getting-started

8 • Workbenches for Boatbuilding

GS_Vol36_Workbench_FINAL.indd 8

7/26/12 2:15 PM

Brought to you by
WoodenBoat

June 2013

We’ll embark on June 17, 2013, for ten
incredible days of exploration of the maritime
heritage of the Netherlands. Peter Neill,
president emeritus of New York’s South
Street Seaport Museum, will host this
adventure, a portion of which will be spent
traveling and living aboard the Dutch
passenger schooner WAPEN FRA FRYSLAN.
Join us as we explore the canals and inland
maritime heritage sites, along with:
n Amsterdam, and its famous National
Maritime Museum
n A working shipyard for the country’s
famed botters (see page 56 of this issue)
n Enkhuizen, and its Zuiderzee Museum
n Den Helder, home of the National Life­
boat Museum and The Dutch Navy
Museum

WBTravelHolland228.indd 17

For information
please visit www.woodenboat.com
For full details, price, and itinerary, and to
reserve your space, contact Linda at Borton
Overseas, 1–800–843–0602, ext 112.

We look forward
to joining you in
the Netherlands!

7/24/12 4:59 PM

WoodenBoat magazine’s

design challenge iV

Rethinking the Wooden Runabout

the runabout, without a doubt,
is one of the world’s favorite recreational
boats. For fishing, picnicking, water skiing,
or just zipping around on a sunny summer
day, it’s hard to beat the pure fun of this
versatile family boat.
The popularity of the type dates back to the years
between the two World Wars, when builders such as
Gar Wood and Chris Smith popularized these boats
through mass production. The efficiencies they
achieved helped make boat ownership an attainable
dream for the person
of average means.
The booming postWorld War II economy
brought about great
evolution in the
design of these boats,
but these changes
came with the
fiberglass revolution, and there was little fresh thinking
in wood—at least compared with the great variety of
fiberglass runabouts that emerged during that era.
For this new Design Challenge, we ask you to rethink
the wooden runabout, applying design principles,
powering options, layouts, and construction techniques
not available or conceived of during Chris-Craft’s heyday.

Wooden Runabout design challenge
WoodenBoat magazine
P.o. box 78 • brooklin, me 04616 usa

PaRameteRs:
n Conceive a fun, multipurpose day boat, in wood, that could
be built by a dedicated amateur.
n The length of the new boat must fall between 18’ and 25’.
n There is no stated horsepower restriction, but common
sense should prevail.
n There must be a minimum seating capacity for four people.

submissions must be the designer’s original, previously
unpublished, work and must include:

n A narrative description of the design concept (Word
document or PDF).
n Lines, profile, sections, and construction plans, an accurate
weight study, and performance and cost calculations (JPG
or PDF).
The judging of this Challenge will include a “reader favorite”
category, requiring that the materials described above be posted
on the WoodenBoat magazine website, www.woodenboat.com,
for judging.
We will award $1,000 to the first-place design, $500 to the
second-place winner, and $500 to the reader-favorite winner.

Entries must be received by November 1, 2012.
WoodenBoat’s sister publication, Professional BoatBuilder, is currently
sponsoring a similar contest, but for a production-built boat. These two
contests will be judged separately, and so must be entered separately.

Photos courtesy of The Wooden Runabout Company, Holland, Michigan

DesignChallengeIV_226.indd 18

7/24/12 3:50 PM

TOOMAS KOKOVKIN

coast of the sea, especially in Estonia.
There is a clear reason for such increase
of interest. Starting with the Second
World War, Estonia was a part of the
Soviet empire for about 50 years. Due to
the strict borderline regime, the coastal
shipbuilding was destroyed, privately
owned ships and boats banned, and the
tradition virtually killed. Nowadays the
maritime societies and clubs are trying
to revive the skills, ship types, materials—for example, tar burning—and
even the vocabulary of formerly widespread coastal wooden shipbuilding.
This restoration is often made in cooperation with Finnish and Swedish
partners, where the tradition was not
violently cut off in the middle of the last
century.
“A good example is a 20-meter (66')
galleass, HOPPET. She was built in
North Estonia in 1926–27 by Mattias
Schönberg, but soon sold to Finland.
HOPPET sailed as a cargo ship until the
mid-1960s, when she became a leisure
sailing ship in Sweden. Restoration
of the ship started in 1982, but more
actively in 2003 by the society, which
was founded on behalf of the ship. The
ship was not yet ready for sailing, and it
seems that the HOPPET society ran out
of momentum. The decision was made
to return HOPPET to Estonia. In 2011,
the Estonian wooden ship society Vikan
became the owner of HOPPET. Finally,
in May–June 2012, enormous work was
done by professionals and volunteers,
and HOPPET was rigged on the Åland
Islands (Finland) and is now sailing as a
training and leisure ship.
“A galleass is a type of Baltic twomasted, gaff-rigged schooner, used for
trade from the 17th century into the
20th century. These square-sterned
ships had length about 20–30 meters
(66' to 98' ), and draft 2 to 2.5 meters

The 66’ early-20th-century galleass HOPPET has been fully restored in Estonia,
which is undergoing a concerted effort to restore regional boatbuilding
traditions.

(about 7' to 8' ). In Estonia and Finland,
they are called kaljas or kaljaasi.”
■ “During the Second World War,”
Alice Alech writes from Vidauban,
France, “338,000 soldiers were rescued
from the French beaches by little ships
that came to be known as the Little
Ships of Dunkirk. Large warships drew
too much water to work in close to the
shallows near the beaches, so for nine
days, 700 vessels recruited by the British
Navy ferried the wounded men. Some
of the boats acted as shuttles between
the 220 destroyers and the beach while
others transported the men, packed
like sardines, back to England. Winston
Churchill described the evacuation
as ‘a miracle of deliverance’ Although

was one of
hundreds of
boats that
rescued
stranded
soldiers from
Dunkirk during
World War II,
and the boat
is now being
restored with
help from
the Dunkirk
Little Ships
Restoration
Trust.

ALICE ALECH

DORIAN, 42’,

some of the boats are still active, many
were destroyed. Today, most are on the
verge of disappearing, as their owners
cannot manage their upkeep. Recognizing the need for rescue, restoration,
and preservation, The Dunkirk Little
Ships Restoration Trust has been set
up to purchase boats in danger of being
destroyed, and to encourage boatbuilding and conservation by restoring the
Little Ships to a high standard for a continued useful life. The Trust has saved
and found new owners for 11 of these
national heirlooms since it was set up in
1993; 11 wooden boats lovingly restored
by a team of dedicated enthusiasts.
“One vessel undergoing renovations
in the dedicated Trust workshop is
DORIAN, a 42' ex–Royal Navy pinnace
built in 1915 in Portsmouth. In 2011, the
Trust found the boat, planked with teak
over oak frames, in a terrible state in a
London boatyard. DORIAN arrived in a
fragile state at the Heritage workshop.
‘Getting DORIAN into the shed was very
difficult,’ said Derek Abra of Little Ships
Projects. ‘We had to use two cranes. We
then had to stabilize her before getting
the correct shape back.’ The first phase
carried out after clearing out the debris
inside the boat, was to sand and scrape
the hull inside and out, back to bare
timber and at the same time replacing
the oak frames.
“A team of young sailors under
training from HMS COLLINGWOOD
supervised by officers and working with
professionals and volunteers have now
installed a new bulkhead, stripped away
the old deck, and are putting in new
timber to the damaged sides. The tarSeptember/October 2012 • 19

Currents228_FINAL_Ed.indd 19

7/24/12 8:54 AM

Check out the

new, improved

WoodenBoat.com
Sign up for free to share photos,
videos, and connect with other
wooden boat enthusiasts.

WoodenBoat

PO Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616

www.woodenboat.com

WBdotComFP_228.indd 20

7/26/12 5:29 PM

good wind and excellent speed, but
friction and the lack of ball bearings
made the old greased wagon wheels
start to smoke. If that was not unnerving enough, the mechanical shocks
from every bump and stone started
to compromise the wagon’s integrity.
Soon the steering mechanism malfuncOffcuts
tioned, and Thomas’s investors began
to literally make an exit from their
investment—breaking arms and legs
STRAKAN, a ‘wind wagon’ the likes
in the process. Like any good captain,
of which has not seen the light
Thomas went down with his ship, capof day since 1853, has completed test
sizing somewhere on the vast prairie,
runs at Angelholm Airfield in Sweden,”
and limped back to Westport
writes Jens Langert, a profesto face the shame of fiasco.
sional rigger who worked,
Thomas disappears from the
among other projects, on the
pages of history at this point—
HERMIONE replica. “After six
a man with a brilliant idea
months of preparation, appremaybe a little too far ahead of
hensive about whether this
his time.
would actually work, I and the
“Thomas’s
story
went
other crew members (Henrik
straight to our hearts, and
Wallgren, artist; Jim Prescott,
we felt some kind of brothercoordinator; Tim Ohldin,
hood with him. We decided
shipwright; Johannes Kabell,
to build a 40' × 13' replica of
sawmill owner; Lars Lincoln,
his wind wagon, compensatmechanic; Emil Bladh, sailor)
ing for some of the shortcomfinally felt the majestic vehicle
ings that caused the original’s
accelerate on the airstrip.
demise. We were all looking
“As of this writing in July,
for a boyhood adventure, so it
ASTRAKAN was on its way to
was natural that we decided to
Black Rock Desert, Nevada, in a
sail this across the Black Rock
40' shipping container. There,
Desert in Nevada and display
she will sail in what would have
been the wake of the Prairie
ASTRAKAN at the Burning
Clippers of 1853, which Zeb
Man festival. We brought our
“Wind Wagon” Thomas conidea to three friends, Ohldin
ceived to sail across the Great
and Kabell, who were both
Plains of America. That is, if
woodsmen and carpenters,
he had ever reached Nevada.
and Lincoln, who is a gifted
Unfortunately, Thomas made
mechanic and inventor. The
an early exit from the history
Wind Wagon Project was born.
books after capsizing his enor(For more information, see
mous wind wagon, loaded with
www.windwagonproject.se.)
passengers and cargo, on the
“During the next few
rolling grasslands of Kansas.
months, ASTRAKAN took form.
“For us, it all began last
We cut beautifully straight and
November. Prescott, Wallgren,
slow-grown spruce for pieces
and I went to ‘Burning Boy,’ a
such as the masts, support
ragged little festival held on a
beams, and railings. We had
vast dock in the port of Copensail-sewing parties in our livA team of Swedish adventurers is sailing a squarehagen, Denmark. It was meant
ing rooms. We searched the
rigged “wind wagon” across the Black Rock Desert
as a celebration for those who
Internet for old tractor wheels.
of Arizona—destination, the Burning Man festival.
had experienced the famous
“Little is known about
Burning Man festival (see www.
Thomas’s original wind wagon.
burningman.com) the previSome say it was 25' × 7', some
ous summer. Some 50 persons gathered, plains. Soon he found investors, started say that the wheels were ‘two men high.’
dancing on a rusty barge and burning a the ‘Prairie Clipper Company,’ built We decided that the wagon must be able
small replica of the enormous human the first commercial wind wagon, and to be stowed in a 40' shipping container
figure burned every August at the Black was ready for the maiden voyage with and be powered by the square rig that
Rock Desert festival. Jim started talking all his proud investors aboard.
was known in the 1850s. Wheels and
“If steel wheels, rubber tires, ball axles should be in steel, with ball bearabout an article he had read in Boy’s Life
magazine when he was a boy back in bearings, and shock absorbers had been ings and a braking system to avoid
Texas. The story took place in 1853 in available at the time, Capt. Thomas Thomas’s fiasco. We found 175-cm-high
Westport, Missouri, the starting place might have been a very successful man. (30" ) ‘row’ tractor wheels and axles
for the pioneer trails to Oregon and But the story of Prairie Clipper Com- from a junkyard. Otherwise, everything
California. It was said that one day a sail pany ends in prairie wreckage. On the else on ASTRAKAN was made in the hiswas spotted on the horizon over the sea maiden voyage, Thomas set sail with torical way—no plastics or screws. All
get is to bring her back to full seaworthiness in 2015, in time for her 100th
birthday and the 75th anniversary of
the Dunkirk evacuation.” (For further
information about the Trust, see www.dlsrt.
org.uk.)

JIM PRESCOTT

“A

of prairie grass. No one had ever seen
such a sight. It was Thomas, who pulled
into Westport on a wagon powered not
by horses but by sails.
“At this time, hundreds of thousands
emigrants were heading for California
and Oregon in an arduous—and sometimes fatal—trip on foot and in covered
wagons. Thomas convinced the good
people of Westport that he had a better idea. He planned to launch a fleet
of sailing wagons, much bigger than the
one he sailed into town with, that could
haul passengers and goods across the

September/October 2012 • 21

Currents228_FINAL_Ed.indd 21

7/24/12 8:59 AM

Unnaryd, Sweden, and has been tested
to achieve up to 30 km per hour (18.5
mph) on a beam reach in a wind of 5 to
6 meters per second (about 10 to 12
knots).
“The wind wagon will arrive in Gerlach, Nevada, in August, where it will
be reassembled and sailed along the
historical emigrant trail in Black Rock
Desert. Who knows? Maybe ASTRAKAN
is first of a kind in a new racing class,
square-riggers on wheels. The rules are

joints in the wagon were to be tied
using ‘Spanish windlass’ lashings. This
enables us to disassemble it in two
hours and reassemble it in only four
hours without the need of any tools. It
also allows the entire structure to be
very strong against torsion and
dynamic forces, and at the same time
flexible enough to take up the mechanical shock that shook apart Thomas’s
wind wagon. The final building took
place on Tim and Johannes’s farm in

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challenge?”

N

ot to be outdone by desert-seeking
Swedes, Dutch carpenter Johan
Huibers this year is completing a threeyear project, estimated at more than $2
million, to build a full-scale replica of
Noah’s Ark in Dordrecht, Holland. At
450' LOA , she carries a cargo of lifesized plastic animals.

W

ord has come that more whaleboats are in the construction phase
for the restoration of the CHARLES W.
MORGAN at Mystic Seaport. Lowell’s
Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts,
will start construction in October. Beetle
Inc., in Wareham, Massachusetts, will
build a whaleboat, too, and this is especially fitting, since the Beetle Company’s
original owners—well known for their
Beetle Cats—started off as whaleboat
builders. A Beetle design is the one
favored by Mystic Seaport for the whaleboats (see WB No. 171).

S
These beautifully crafted,
lightweight but strong oars
are made from knot-free
Eastern Canadian spruce. It
looks expensive, but it isn’t.
By far our best selling oar.

Length
5'
5.5'
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Order#
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Length
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These oarlocks lift up in the
socket then swing down to hang
out of the way inside the boat.
Size #0, 2" ID, fastener size #8.
Satin bronze.

7" x 6-1/2". Buttons are 1/2" x 13".
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paint made utilizing recipes
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No polyurethanes or
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Typographical errors are unintentional and subject to correction.

peaking of Mystic Seaport, word now
also comes that our own Jon Wilson,
who in 1974 founded the magazine you
hold in your hands, will be honored
October 27, 2012, at the Seaport, where
he will be presented the America and
the Sea Award. “By recognizing and
unifying a passion for the allure of
the design and beauty of wooden boats,
Wilson helped transform a nascent renaissance in the early 1970s into a 21st century industry, in the process ushering in
a new golden age for wooden boats in
America,” said Steve White, president of
Mystic Seaport. A tip of the hat and
raise of the pint to him, if you will—
and throw one in for yourselves, as well,
for sharing in that passion for 38 years
so far.

A

nd speaking of awards, Harold
Burnham, whose most recent
schooner, ARDELLE , appeared on the
cover of WB No. 226, this summer was
named one of nine recipients of the
2012 National Heritage Fellowship
awarded by National Endowment for
the Arts. If you’re not tipsy with all this
pint-raising, heft another one for Harold, with a tip of the hat too.

N

ews of the DORIAN Dunkirk “Little
Ship” restoration above put us in
mind that some of the Dunkirk boats
were part of a flotilla honoring the
Queen of England earlier this year.
“The British know how to put on a
royal show,” Kathy Mansfield writes,
“but the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
River Pageant was exceptional—1,000
boats rowed, paddled, steamed, and

22 • WoodenBoat 228

Currents228_FINAL_Ad.indd 22

7/24/12 10:23 AM

the most enjoyable boat trips are

WELL-COORDINATED:
º

º

41 21.57’N x 71 57.92’W

PULL UP TO OUR DOCKS FOR A ONE-OF-A-KIND TRIP.

Chart a course for a must-see maritime destination: Mystic Seaport, featuring America’s
premier nautical exhibits, historic vessels, an 1870s seafaring village and more. You
can dock for the day, or overnight — overnight docking rates even include Museum
admission for everyone aboard your boat! To make your reservation contact our
Dock Office at [email protected] or call 860.572.5391. For more information
visit us on the web at www.mysticseaport.org/visitbyboat

come earn
y o u r s e a l e g s.
75 Greenmanville Avenue
Mystic, CT 06355 l 888.973.2767

Mystic227.indd 23

7/24/12 10:37 AM

K ATHY MANSFIELD

For the Diamond Jubilee
marking the 60th year of
her reign, Queen Elizabeth II
became—quite literally—the
face that launched a thousand
ships, among them the
purpose-built rowing barge
GLORIANA .

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motored down the River Thames, in
order to celebrate the 60 years’ reign
of Queen Elizabeth II. From the 1400s,
the Thames was the highway of London,
its boats both a means of transport and
a badge of honor, but nothing this big
had been seen for centuries. Fine summer weather the week before had deteriorated to forecasted cold and rain, yet
1.2 million onlookers cheered the boats
with unforgettable enthusiasm and stoicism. Some said the rain made it more
suitably British. The crowds waited for
hours, not just along the 7 miles of the
pageant but the full 16 miles that the
boats traveled, shoulder to shoulder
on both banks of the Thames, often
10 deep, on every balcony and bridge,
just to see and be part of it. The Queen,
with just an awning for some protection,
didn’t miss a minute, as cold as the rest
of us. Rain is a great leveler. And when
the BBC commentary for those watching on TV failed to properly describe
and explain the types of boats, there
were 4,500 complaints.
“Quite right too, because these
were a magnificent collection. GLORIANA had been built specially, 78' long
and based on Prince Frederick’s barge
of 1732, using up all the gold leaf in
the country to gild it magnificently.
Her 18 rowers included Olympic gold
medalists—and the chief wooden
boatbuilder, Mark Edwards, who had
also designed the Thames Watermen’s
cutters. The 18th-century-style ceremonial shallops JUBILANT and ROYAL
THAMESIS followed just behind, the
latter based on Queen Mary’s shallop of 1690. The 18-oared DISDETONA from Venice, the Maori waca
canoe from New Zealand, the Atlantic Challenge gigs based in Scotland
and Wales, an American whaleboat
replica, Cornish gigs, Thames skiffs,
two St. Ayles skiffs, a River Wye Trow,
longboats, and narrowboats took part.
There were also steamboats, elegant
river launches, and some of the famous
Dunkirk Little Ships. And an Avenue
of Sail near Tower Bridge included
oyster smacks and fishing skiffs, classic yachts, square-riggers, and naval
vessels. The enormous Thames Barrier was closed to reduce the tidal current and height. Each boat section was
preceded by a music barge, one with a
carillon of specially cast bells, another
with the Academy of Ancient Music,
the last with the entire London Philharmonia Orchestra under cover with
opera singers above, singing their
hearts out even though completely
drenched and cold. Who could resist
such an outburst of fervor, undiminished by the weather?


24 • WoodenBoat 228

Currents228_FINAL_Ad.indd 24

7/24/12 10:24 AM

NEW!

A DECADE OF WOODEN POWER CRAFT
A newsstand-only special issue
publication from the editors of
WoodenBoat.
MotorBoats is compiled from
the best wooden motor boats
covered in WoodenBoat
magazine since 2001!

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7/24/12 5:08 PM

Parson’s Escape
PARSON FAMILY COLLECTION (ALL PHOTOS)

Remembering the Concordia yawl

HALCYON

W

aldo Howland, in his A Life in Boats: The Concordia Years (1988), was able to write of the Con­
cordia yawls, “all 103 survive today.” Sadly, that
may be no longer the case, as HALCYON, hull No. 3 of
this series of legendary cruising boats, is presumed to
have sunk off the south shore of Cuba in May 2011.
Ronald Perry of Vermont, who had lovingly refur­
bished HALCYON and owned her since 2009, was sailing
north from Jamaica, up toward the Windward Passage
between Cuba and Haiti, on his way to South Carolina,
when stormy seas apparently overcame the two. A Coast
Guard helicopter deployed from the U.S. Naval Station
at Guantanamo Bay to search for a different boat in
distress instead came upon the dismal sight of HALCYON,
her masts splintered, her rig and sails dragging in the
water, but no sign of her skipper. When the Coast

by Ann Parson
Guard returned to the general vicinity, HALCYON was
gone. The Perry family announced last summer that
Ron had perished at sea.
If HALCYON did indeed sink, rather than wash up
on the Cuban shore, it would make my father, George
Parson, who had her built in 1946, roll over in his watery
grave near “George’s Bell.” The channel marker named
after him sounds at the east end of Maine’s Eggemog­
gin Reach, whose waters HALCYON parted countless
times during my father’s ownership. On land, he could
be a mite gruff. Under sail, my father was the opposite:
mellow, content, his eyes on the horizon, a smile on his
lips—though God help anyone who dropped a greasy
potato chip on HALCYON’s teak.
With him and HALCYON it truly was “until death
do us part,” which occurred in the fall of 1983, shortly

Above—The Concordia yawl HALCYON circa 1970, with then-owner George Parson and crew in the vicinity of Eggemoggin
Reach. HALCYON and her last skipper, Ronald Perry, were lost off Cuba in heavy weather last year. Both Parson and Perry were
at their happiest when aboard the boat.

26 • WoodenBoat 228

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7/24/12 10:10 AM

“HALCYON, once bedded down in Center Harbor, never had a serious complaint.”
after sailing season. A new owner took over HALCYON
in the summer of ’85.
Asking the forbearance of sailors who know a Concordia’s idiosyncrasies far better than I do, allow me a
stream of memories and bits of history. This remembrance is for the Perry family, too, whose members,
despite Ron’s tragic ending, are grateful for the joy
HALCYON brought Ron. As his son, Sam Perry, has told
me, “The happiest I ever saw my father was his time
spent with HALCYON.”

M

y father’s first boat, BLESSED EVENT, was a
33' Herreshoff sloop whose name signified my
sister’s birth in August 1938. Evidently my
father wanted more in a boat, for on December 20,
1945 designer Ray Hunt, whose offices were located at
53 State Street in Boston, wrote to his boatbuilding
partner, Waldo Howland, in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, “We have an order for a yawl of similar dimensions to ‘ESCAPE .’” It would have been like my father,
then living nearby at 53 Chestnut Street, to place his
order in person.
ESCAPE , which had been built in 1939 at the Casey
boatyard in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, the first in a
long line of Concordia yawls, was the product of three
boating enthusiasts: Llewellyn Howland, who wanted
a replacement for his cutter ESCAPE that had been
wrecked by the hurricane of ’38; his son Waldo; and
Ray Hunt. Soon afterwards, JOBISKA , hull No. 2 in the
new series, was completed by the George Lawley yard in
Neponset. (ESCAPE’s name would later change to JAVA ,
while JOBISKA would become MALAY.)
“As I have previously stated,” continued Ray Hunt in
his December ’45 letter to Waldo, “we have considered
this size as a future stock boat. We felt that by working
together with you we are both stronger. I, of course,
am pushing the name of this outfit, C. Raymond Hunt,

and you naturally are Concordia Company–minded.
If we did this together, how would we do it? A Merry
Christmas—Ray.” In a postscript, Ray added, “We favor
a canoe stern. What say?”
Less than a week later, Waldo put a quick end to the
idea of a canoe stern: “Dear Ray, Re: the ‘Escape Class’
I strongly recommend the transom stern for a stock
boat. 1) It is a wonderful stern as it is. 2) More people
like the conventional.”
John Wilbor, who worked in the Hunt office, apparently convinced my father, who was a friend of his, that
this was the boat for him. “George Parson was very
much impressed with the boat, and I believe he will
go right ahead and have Graves build one,” John wrote
Waldo, referring to Graves Yacht Yard in Marblehead.
From then on, notes scrawled between Waldo and Ray
refer to the new sailboat as “Parsons Escape.”
In 1946, boatbuilders were catching up with orders
that had been interrupted by the war, and they were
tending a flood of new ones, too. The Graves yard, Ray
Hunt soon informed Waldo, was not taking new orders.
“We are looking for other builders, and you mentioned
your influence with Casey”—Major J. Casey, proprietor
of the Casey yard on Union Wharf in Fairhaven, who
had built ESCAPE . Casey accepted and flew forward
with the job, as documented by this July 30, 1946, communiqué that the Hunt office sent to Major Casey and
my father:
“Dear Mr. Casey: Confirming our telephone conversation of today, we understand that the seams will be
puttied and payed and that the first coat of paint will
be applied to the exterior of the hull by the end of this
week. We are counting on having this work done at this
time as specified by you, because we believe that any
delay will hold up the launching date.”
My mother likely urged my father to make sure the
launching would be held on time, since she probably
September/October 2012 • 27

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had invited dozens of their friends and was working up
to a festive occasion. Bollinger champagne would have
flowed freely, a habit in the Parson family. In the years
ahead, Bollinger was not all that flowed. “Sun’s over the
yardarm,” Dad would bark, and noon cocktails would
begin, followed by my mother’s unrivaled picnics. So
it was in those days, when boats rafted together seven
deep and every day seemed like Sunday. No wonder the
decks were often littered with napping grown-ups.

A

fter her launching in September ’46, HALCYON
likely made a beeline for Center Harbor, the
small port at the east end of Eggemoggin Reach
she would occupy for the next 39 years. Quite conceivably, for as long as Dad was at her helm, she never ventured back to Buzzards Bay, or even south of Boothbay.
On Cruising Club of America jaunts and men’s cruises,
HALCYON nearly always headed deeper downeast, to
Roque Island, Grand Manan, and Passamaquoddy Bay.
Llewellyn “Louie” Howland III recently reminisced
about how the three Casey-built Concordias, while
sound, “were in some respects less well-built than their
99 sisterships,” those constructed at the Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard on the Weser River in Germany. As he
relates about his grandfather’s JAVA , “One spring before
Grandpa died, the boat went into the water and began
to leak badly, which, of course, infuriated Grandpa, who
immediately blamed his peerless professional skipper,

Capt. Harold E. Hardy of Deer Isle, Maine. The boat
was hauled out, and the Captain quickly located the
leak. It was coming from the garboard on the port side.
That was the good news. The bad news—and the cause
of the leak—was that more than half the garboard had
never been fastened by Casey when the boat was originally built. You may be sure that Capt. Hardy had the
last word with Grandpa on this vexing matter.”
HALCYON, once bedded down in Center Harbor,
never had a serious complaint, other than the mishap
I’ll get to. But even if she had, she was in an enviable
harbor. On the back shore, on the site of a former sardine cannery, stood a modest boatbuilding establishment then run by Arno Day. In the late ’50s, Joel White
began working at the yard and soon became Arno’s
partner. Joel had a quiet efficiency about him that won
the confidence of countless boat owners, George Parson included. After Arno sold the yard to Joel in 1960,
Joel saw the wisdom of combining boatbuilding with
storage, maintenance, and service. Brooklin Boat Yard
expanded, with Joel welcoming yachtsmen and their
boats from farther and farther away.

F

rom June until Labor Day, HALCYON answered to
both my parents—my mother’s liking of people
and picnics, my father’s desire to quiet the engine
and hoist the sail—and in HALCYON’s space, despite
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28 • WoodenBoat 228

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7/24/12 10:53 AM

“From June until Labor Day, HALCYON answered
to both my parents—my mother’s liking of people
and picnics, my father’s desire to quiet the engine
and hoist sail.”
beauty of such an exquisite part of the world.
One of my favorite destinations was Campbell
Island, which my godmother, Peggy Herrick, had sold
to her nephew, Forbes Perkins, for a dollar, having forgotten to give him and his wife a wedding present. The
Perkinses, who also had a Concordia, the far-roaming
GOLDENEYE , had put a mailbox on the island for the
use of any cruising brethren, and how clearly I remember rowing ashore, following a mossy, shell-strewn path
up through the woods, finding a box hanging from a
spruce, and leaving notes from HALCYON.
Sometimes, late on Friday afternoons, men from
the city would arrive, meet HALCYON at the Yacht Club
float, and, still in their business suits, clamber aboard.
HALCYON would speed off—this was the only time I
remember her not pausing outside the red nun to hoist
her sail—and hole up in some cove for the weekend
while the sharks aboard played bridge for a penny a
point. Dad would return from these cruises grizzled
and tired, but with a gleam in his eye.
While relatives and friends routinely struck ledges,
got caught in squalls, or lost track of time and crawled

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September/October 2012 • 29

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7/24/12 10:53 AM

into port after dark, my father never pushed HALCYON
beyond his or her comfort zone—not that he didn’t
welcome a good hard blow. How frequently, with a gaggle
of guests aboard, we’d have lunch in the lee of an
island, then set out for an afternoon sail as the breeze
stiffened. The windier it became, the more the seawater
ater
boiled over the rail, the merrier both HALCYON (hurtling along at a thunderous clip) and my father
became—while our guests turned green.
Every
very day, even when the weather was bad, my father
went aboard. Rehanking the jib, updating the log,
mending a batten pocket, polishing the binnacle, he
puttered endlessly. At home he wasn’t exactly neat, but
onboard HALCYON he was meticulous. He even kept
two mops: one for fresh water, and one for salt.
One Sunday morning, HALCYON nearly landed in
big trouble. A sister Concordia named THISTLEDOWN
had spent the night in the harbor. Her owner, Alida
Camp, walked on water, as far as I was concerned. When
whitecaps danced, you’d see THISTLEDOWN charging
this way and that in Blue Hill Bay or on Eggemoggin
Reach, Mrs. Camp alone onboard and relishing every
minute of THISTLEDOWN’s romp. When she poked her
head out of the cabin on this particular morning and
looked around, she was startled to see that HALCYON
was sinking. A stopper valve in the head had malfunctioned, and, by the time Joel, his son Steve, and other
boatyard staff got out to her, she was almost down to

her cove stripe. They bailed frantically with buckets,
until a battery-powered pump could be hooked up. It
was an all-day effort, but she was saved.

S

ince moving to South Dartmouth some years
ago, I’ve come to hear a lot about the genius of
Ray Hunt, how he wasn’t only a spectacularly
good designer, capably fulfilling Llewellyn Howland’s
wishes for a hull that provided smooth sailing, even
in choppy waters, but how he was also one of the best
seat-of-the-pants racers ever. “We’re going to get a
wind shift in about eight minutes,” he’d say, and he
was always right, when others onboard would look

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30 • WoodenBoat 228

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7/24/12 10:53 AM

“So it was in those days, when boats rafted
together...and every day seemed like Sunday.”

THISTLEDOWN. A poem written for the occasion by
John Parson can today seem alarmingly prophetic of
things to come, but I’d rather let his words stand as they
were meant, praise for a one-of-a-kind boat:

We shall not often see her like again—
So buoyant, trim, yet deep with memories!
Beloved by all, and loving ever Maine,
Its islands dark, its jubilant blue seas.

around and see nothing.
Not for many years would I fully appreciate a Concordia’s steadfast way of cutting through wave after
wave, as opposed to bouncily rolling over the crest
and down into the trough. “The lines are sweet and
water flows around them the way God intended,” Dan
Strohmeier observed of his Concordia, MALAY, hull
No. 2.  How often, in the world’s vast fleet, do you
find sailability, comfort, and beauty in one floating
package?
My father gave HALCYON a 25th birthday party
on September 11, 1971, to which a throng of people
and boats came, including GOLDENEY E and

On far Thessalian waves, dim age ago,
The gods decreed a winter solstice peace
That Ceyx and glorious Halcyon might know
All love is deathless; that all stormings cease.
Yet this brave ship has savored mists and clouds
And all that nature gave: the sunlit seas,
The symphony of sails and strumming shrouds,
The audient shores, the wild waves’ melodies.
Ann Parson, a science writer, has written for numerous publications.
Her books include The Proteus Effect; Stem Cells and Their
Promise for Medicine (a finalist for a L.A.Times Book Prize in
the science/technology category), and, most recently, a biography of
the father of supersonic flight, Antonio Ferri, Partisan Scientist.

September/October 2012 • 31

Halcyon_FINAL_Ad.indd 31

7/24/12 10:56 AM

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COuRTeSy
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eP
PACIFIC
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CIFIC COuNT
COuNTy
T y HISTORICAl SOCIeTy
Ty
ANd CHARleS NelSON

Revisiting
the Classics
The San Juan Islands
Sharpie Schooners
by Reuel B. Parker

S

harpies originated in the New Haven area of
Connecticut in the mid-19th century. They were
used to gather oysters and were narrow and low
with round sterns to facilitate swinging laden tongs
on board. Being simple and cheap to build, fast sailers, and easily handled by small crews, sharpies rapidly
became popular with inshore fisheries all over young
America, and as they did so, distinct models evolved to
suit local demands.
The sharpies that emerged on the Chesapeake were
smaller than those of New Haven, and were used primarily for crabbing and fishing—local brogans, bugeyes,
and skipjacks already dominated the oyster fisheries. In
Ohio, where they were used in pound-net fisheries, they
had transom sterns, greater beam, and unique rigs that
looked like gaff sails complete with topsails sewn onto
them. In Florida sharpies were introduced by Commodore Ralph Munroe, an early settler of Coconut Grove
on Biscayne Bay. There they were used for such diverse
employment as delivering the mail, fetching the doctor,

Above—The 45’ San Juan Islands sharpie IBIS at anchor in Joe’s
Sound, Long Island, Bahamas, in 2012. The author based this
boat on a historical workboat type of the Pacific Northwest.
Inset—The San Juan Islands schooner OLYMPIC circa 1890,
loaded with oysters.
TOP PHOTO: AuTHOR’S COlleCTION

gathering turtles, and coastal fishing. In the Carolinas
the model became quite large (some were over 60' on
deck) and carried a gaff-schooner rig, often including
topmasts; these powerful sharpies towed dredges for
collecting oysters.
In Washington State a double-ended sharpie of
greater-than-usual beam was employed in the halibut fisheries. This model carried a bald-headed gaffschooner rig with a self-tending jumbo jib set from a
bowsprit. It had low freeboard, minimal standing rigging, substantial ballast, a cuddy cabin forward, and a
fishhold amidships. According to maritime historian
September/October 2012 • 33

RevisitingClassics228_FINAL_Ad_rev1.indd 33

7/30/12 9:29 AM

W. W. NORTON

A Juan de Fuca Strait sharpie recorded by Howard Chapelle and published in the author’s The Sharpie Book; originally from
American Small Sailing Craft.

W

hen I wrote The Sharpie Book in 1993, I included
my own design of a San Juan Islands sharpie
for cold-molded plywood construction. My
version is similar in size and shape to Chapelle’s model,
but included twin cabins, making it suitable for use as
a coastal cruiser. I was both surprised and pleased that
a number of these were built, including a slightly larger
40' model I drew for a client in Texas, and a slightly
smaller 33' center-cockpit model for a client in Oregon.
These little schooners got around—one even turned
up in Rockland, Maine, about 10 years ago. The plans
were all drawn in one summer (while I also wrote the
text), and are very simple, plain, and consequently
inexpensive. Because I included tables of offsets in the
appendix, many of the smaller sharpies have been built
directly from the book.
In 2007 I started thinking about an affordable way
for people to own a modest-sized boat (sail or power) in
these times of vanishing marinas and expensive boatyards. In Florida, for example, developers have been
buying up marina properties and building condominiums on them. Once the development is complete, anyone wanting a slip must also purchase a condo. Thus,
people who have had a boat in a local marina for some
time find themselves ousted—they neither want nor
can afford to buy a condo. This trend has become so
pervasive that the state of Florida recently stepped in
and passed a law requiring developers to make a certain number of rental slips available to people who do

not wish to purchase a condo.
I set about researching state and federal laws governing the towing of boats on trailers, and concluded that
boats of up to 45' in length, weighing less than 15,000
lbs, and no more than 10' in beam, could be carried
on a standard 40' three-axle trailer. Most states require
escort vehicles to accompany the tow if it’s wider than
10'; even at 10' some require “wide load” permits. I
decided to call my conceptual designs “Maxi-Trailerable Boats” and started working on a series, adapting
several sailing sharpie models and one of my Commuter powerboats. Sharpies were perfect for the project because they are narrow, light, and shallow-bodied,
making them easy to carry on stock trailers built to
carry sportfishing boats.
These adapted designs appealed to me personally
,and when I sold my then-current cruising sailboat
T’IEN HOU (see WB No. 224), I decided I would build
myself a prototype Maxi-Trailerable Boat to promote
the concept, test the design, and hopefully make a sale.
A 36’ San Juan Islands sharpie being planked by builder John
Di Dio in Alabama.

JOHN DI DIO

Howard I. Chapelle, the Washington sharpie was about
36' LOD, 9' beam, and 2' draft. A noteworthy feature
was that the stem base was below the waterline—very
unusual for a sharpie. The type was proportionately
heavier and beamier than the models typically used in
the oyster fisheries, and evidently worked the Strait of
Juan de Fuca in the San Juan Islands in all seasons.
Chapelle believed it might have been the most seaworthy
of all the sharpie models.

34 • WoodenBoat 228

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7/23/12 5:28 PM

Plan, inboard profile, and sailplan (left) for the 45’ San Juan Islands maxitrailerable cruising sharpie designed by the author and launched as IBIS in
2010 (see page 33).

I chose the San Juan Islands sharpie as my model, and
redesigned it to be 45' LOD, 10' beam, 2' 6" draft, and
14,500 lbs laden displacement. Trailer weight “dry”
would be 12,000 lbs, allowing one of the smaller threeaxle trailers to be used (there are two standard axle
ratings: 4,000 lbs each and 5,000 lbs each).
Construction would be cold-molded plywood/epoxy,
using a lamination of double-diagonal 5∕8" plywood for
the bottom, a single layer of ¾" plywood for the topsides,
½" plywood for decks (laid over sawn-ash deckbeams),
and foam-core laminated coach roofs. An additional
lamination of ¼" mahogany and ash was laid as cabin
sole. For safety I incorporated numerous watertight
bulkheads into the design. Nearly all my boats employ
this feature, allowing them to be sailed or motored to
safety with any hull compartment completely flooded.
The idea is nothing new—watertight bulkheads were
first employed by the Chinese several thousand years
ago and were incorporated in all their seagoing junks.
For my enlarged version of the San Juan Islands
sharpie, I made the sailplan proportionately taller, with
shorter, more peaked gaffs to improve windward performance. I raised the cabin height to achieve 5'10"

standing headroom below, with the “night” cabin forward, sleeping four, and the “day” cabin aft, with galley
and dinette. To ensure self-righting ability (a very rare
feature in sharpies), I designed a lead-filled hollow box
keel, large integral water tanks (125 gallons each) in
the lowest and most central part of the hull, and a leadfilled steel centerboard, which becomes a foil-shaped
fin keel when lowered; draft with board down is 7' 8".
I built the sharpie, which I named IBIS, during twoand-a-half winter seasons in my Florida shop. Her total
materials cost, including diesel engine, sails, upholstery,
fixtures, ground tackle, electronics, and fittings, was
less than $60,000. She was launched in early 2010, and I
sailed her to the Bahamas with two women friends, one
of whom had been building boats and sailing with me
for 12 years.
Although I always try to choose gentle conditions for
the 50-mile Gulf Stream crossing, I was nervous about
taking IBIS through the strong current and 6'-plus short,
steep waves. What I learned right away was that she was
excellent on any point of sail from a reach to a run, but
would pound when driven to windward in winds over
15 knots. This trait is endemic in flat-bottomed hulls.
Howard Chapelle wrote that sharpies overcame this disability when heeled sharply under sail, presenting the
chine’s “V” to the waves. However, practical experience
would have shown him that the waves would be coming
onto the windward bow, and that their leading faces
would still slam against the hull bottom!
September/October 2012 • 35

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7/23/12 5:28 PM

We sailed IBIS from Miami to
Bimini, down to the westernmost
corner of Andros (the largest island
in the Bahamas), and through
North Bight and Middle Bight to
the Tongue of the Ocean, thence
across to Staniel Cay in the middle
of the Exuma chain of islands. Some
of these passages were over 80 miles
long and had to be made during
daylight—navigating in the Bahamas requires enough light to see
the bottom at all times. IBIS proved
to be reasonably fast under both
motor and sail (around 8 knots).
Once in the Bahamas, a big, wellballasted sharpie is the ultimate
island cruising boat. With a draft of 2' 6", IBIS can go
places no other monohull sailboat of comparable size
can even dream about going. We spent weeks cruising
in the Exumas before picking our way back through the
Berry Islands to West End, Grand Bahama Island, and

AuThOr COllECTION

The view forward in IBIS’s aft cabin,
which houses the galley to port and
dinette to starboard.

across the Gulf Stream to Jupiter Inlet, Florida. Jupiter
Inlet is tricky and requires local knowledge to be navigated safely, but IBIS took it in her stride, running like
a duck through some very nasty standing waves (caused
by wind versus tide).

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36 • WoodenBoat 228

RevisitingClassics228_FINAL_Ad.indd 36

7/24/12 11:12 AM

In 2011 I took IBIS single-handed across to the
Abaco Islands, where I was joined by the LokoczAdams family (my neighbors in Maine) for an all-tooshort week of cruising. I motorsailed through “Abaco
Rage” on a day when no other boats dared to. With the
addition of an autopilot, I found her comfortable and
safe to sail single-handed, although dealing with her
big gaff mainsail alone, at age 65, did give me pause to
consider my own mortality. I made a third trip to the
Bahamas in IBIS in early 2012, driving her into larger
seas and stronger winds than ever before, and learned
that she is capable of motorsailing close-hauled at over
7 knots into 25-knot winds and 6' to 8' seas, under foresail and diesel. She pounded very hard at times doing
this, but I also learned that she can take more abuse
than I can! Her three-cylinder Isuzu diesel burns a
little over one-half gallon per hour, making her more
fuel-efficient than many big pickup trucks. Running
downwind in these same conditions, also under foresail but without the diesel, IBIS sailed very comfortably
at 8 knots.

R

elatively little seems to be known about the
unique sharpie schooners that sailed the Strait
of Juan de Fuca in the late 19th century. Judging
by the old photograph at the beginning of this article,
it seems that at least some were used in the oyster fisheries— OLYMPIC was built by the Patterson Brothers at

Paradise Point, Washington, for the Clark Brothers of
Bay Center, a well-known oystering center. It could even
be that Chapelle was misinformed about the halibutfishing function of these schooners, and that they were
actually oyster boats. Perhaps some of the little schooners did seasonal work in both fisheries? Nevertheless, I have learned that the model makes an excellent
shoal-draft liveaboard cruising sailboat, ideally suited
to the vast shoal waters of South Florida, the Bahamas,
Georgia, the Carolinas, New Jersey, to name but a few.
Furthermore, by adding a ballasted hollow box keel
with a ballasted centerboard, and large integral water
tanks, the sharpie type becomes more seaworthy and
safe than it has ever been before.
Including IBIS I have designed four different San
Juan Islands sharpie models: 33', 36', 40', and 45', as
well as six different versions of the unmistakably similar
EGRET, Commodore Ralph Munroe’s 28' “sharpie lifeboat”, which he designed for his own use in 1886.
Reuel Parker—profiled in WB No. 224—is a writer, designer, and
builder of boats. He divides his time between Florida, Maine, and the
Bahamas. A full range of his work can be seen at www.parker-marine.
com. His series “Revisiting the Classics” began in WB No. 225.
Plans for Reuel Parker’s Sharpie Series of designs are available
from Parker Marine Enterprises, P.O. Box 651429, Vero Beach, FL
32965; www.parker-marine.com. They may also be found in Parker’s
Sharpie Catalogue.

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September/October 2012 • 37

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Reinventing GYRE

From offshore cruiser to family daysailer
by Maria Simpson

W

hen Chris Kennedy brought GYRE to Rockport Marine (RM), he wanted to transform
this 41' Ohlson sloop from a racing-cruising
yacht to a daysailer. To do this, he asked the boatyard
to shorten the trunk cabin and increase the size of the
cockpit. The challenge would be to make the change
look harmonious and intentional.
Prevailing attitudes about wooden boat restoration
tend to emphasize preserving the designer’s original intentions. For Chris Kennedy, the point was less
about preserving the history of GYRE, and more about
repurposing the boat. No one appreciates this practical viewpoint more than Eric Sewell, who would lead
this project. He’s worked at the yard for 30 years, and
brings a wide breadth of knowledge and a no-nonsense
approach to his work.
The Ohlson 41s, designed by Einar Ohlson for
cruising and racing, were production boats built in
the 1960s. Fin keels, skeg-hung rudders, and plywoodstiffened hulls were modern attributes in their day.
The boats built to this design are known for their good
sailing characteristics. They are light but strong, suitable for offshore sailing, coastal cruising, and long
or short races. Paul Molich of Denmark, a respected
builder as well as a fine designer in his own right, built
GYRE with edge-glued, single planking stiffened with
an inner layer of plywood glued to the inner face of
the planking, between the frames. This double-layer

construction strengthens the hull, allowing it to resist
the stresses of racing better than many other wooden
boats of her age.
Although GYRE was originally designed for offshore
sailing, Kennedy decided that a daysailer would work
best for his family. The Kennedys enjoy sailing with large
groups on short jaunts on Nantucket Sound. “We bring
a lot of people who are new to sailing,” said Kennedy.
“I wanted a boat that would introduce people to it in a
positive way, in a way that would be straightforward and
comfortable.” The boat's original layout has a galley
and bunks for six; Kennedy envisioned her with no
galley, but with room for coolers for sandwiches, a way
to make coffee, and stowage for snacks. He wanted a
large expanse of cockpit and deck, free of toe-stubbing
hardware and clear for lounging and sunbathing. He
wanted lazy summer afternoons with a platoon of kids
and teenagers, and maybe some light-hearted racing.
His tastes and preferences drove most of the restoration
decisions.

The Work
The first significant change was reducing the size of the
cabin. Sewell and his crew cut it back with a Sawzall and
a steady hand. The entire deck was worn out and due
for replacement, so they stripped off the teak veneer
and the plywood subdeck to start fresh. The carpenters
expanded the cockpit area and added camber to the

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rockport marine (BotH)

alison langley

The 41’ Ohlson sloop GYRE, built by the Danish boatbuilder Paul Molich, was designed as a racing-cruising sloop. A recent
new owner purchased the boat with the intent of daysailing, and to that end he had the cabin shortened and the cockpit
enlarged. The result is a sweet and simple day boat with plenty of space for guests—and the heart of a thoroughbred.
september/october 2012 • 39

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7/24/12 11:48 AM

bridge deck to facilitate water drainage, and they
reframed the deck as necessary. They also replaced the
raised hatches on the fore and aft decks with flush ones
to increase the lounging area, and provide comfortable
spaces to sleep under the stars. Rather than install a
new teak-veneer deck, the owner chose single-thickness
plywood with a canvas-like Dynel surface (see WB No.
225), finished with Awlgrip paint. This makes an attractive, nonskid surface that is easy to clean and maintain,
and is cool on the feet on hot summer days.
The carpenters then faced the issue of how to make
the new coaming and cabintop look original and attractive. Sewell and carpenter Glenn Pease used a batten to
determine the new line of the cockpit coaming, creating a gentle sweep forward to the cabin. They did this
primarily by eye, adjusting the batten and then viewing the resulting line, and repeating the process until
it looked right. Pease worked out the dimensions for
comfort, by feel and instinct. He built the coamings of
sipo, joining them to the cut-back existing cabin sides
with filler blocks capped by fairing pieces.
The interior of GYRE was also modified. The crew
removed the refrigerator, stove, and sink, and moved
the structural bulkhead forward to become the cabin's
new aft end. The two aft bunks were preserved, and

RockPoRT mARINE (2)

Above—GYRE’s transformation included a new plywood
deck sheathed in Dynel fabric set in epoxy. Here we see that
portion of the project in progress, along with the work on
the companionway bulkhead and bridge deck.
Right—Carpenter Phil Finck tends to the new
companionway joinerwork.

access openings to them were cut into the bulkhead.
The rest of the cabin remains unchanged; there are settees, a table for eating, a head, a hanging locker, and a
V-berth forward. Instead of a holding tank and waste
system, the boat carries a portable toilet.
The crew simplified other systems as well, now that
the boat would no longer need to carry the water and

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AIson lAngley (2)

GYRE’s interior has been vastly
simplified from its original cruising
configuration. While there’s room to
lounge, there is no freshwater system,
no cooler or refrigeration, and no
permanent stove. Instead, the crew will
carry jugs of fresh water and coolers
for lunch and drinks, and occasional
cooking will be done on a camp stove.

gear necessary for long trips. Kennedy chose to eliminate the freshwater system completely, and instead will
bring along jugs of fresh water. The carpenters installed
a box to hold one of the water jugs over the sink in the
head for hand washing. Food and drinks will be stored
in two Coleman coolers resting on special shelves below
deck. A new electrical system now handles the interior
lighting, outlets for charging cellphones and iPads, and
a coffee maker. A camp stove heats water or soup, and
there is a small propane heater to warm the living space
if the weather becomes chilly.
Kennedy also modified the running rigging to suit
relaxed family sails rather than competitive racing. The
boat originally had a mainsheet traveler that spanned
the width of the cockpit, but Kennedy insisted that the

system be simplified so the helmsman and passengers
could move around more easily. We originally discussed
leading the sheet forward to the cabintop, but its structure would have required too much strengthening for
this, and the angle of the sheet would have made controlling the boom impossible. Instead, the crew beefed
up the framing under the steering wheel and fabricated
a stainless-steel mounting plate for the mainsheet,
which will now be controlled from a single point rather
than from a traveler. In practice, the new cockpit layout
has worked well, eliminating the awkward gymnastics
required to maneuver around a traveler.
The jibsheet tracks were also removed from the side
decks, leaving tracks only on the toerails. With this configuration, the boat may not sail quite as close to the
september/october 2012 • 41

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7/24/12 11:49 AM

AISON lANGlEY

wind, but the gain in unobstructed seating for passengers is a worthwhile compromise for Kennedy.
Other improvements and changes to GYRE included
repairing the transom; new woven Dacron sails from
Downs Sails of Danvers, Massachusetts; new belts and
hoses on the engine; eliminating eight unneeded
through-hulls; and repairing a couple of frames. Finally,
the painters stripped GYRE's cabin sides to reveal the
rich red mahogany (which matches the sipo used for the
cockpit coamings). They also gave the topsides a fresh
coat of paint, and touched up the remaining varnish.

The New GYRE on the Water: The First Sail
This is an era of increasingly large “daysailers,” boats
up to 50' or 60' long meant for short trips rather than
extended voyages. It is a reflection of the times, perhaps.
With all the obligations of a typical family, particularly
in the summer, who can block out a week or more just
to cruise? Not enough of us, it seems. And while there
are many lovely, large daysailers out there, GYRE, in her
new incarnation, has a wholesome, no-fuss practicality
that many of the more modern ones lack.
On her first outing to test the new sails, I followed
the boat with our work skiff. It was a blustery earlyspring day, with strong gusts from the north, and the
trees were just starting to turn leafy green. GYRE sped
across the harbor, luffing up some in the heavier puffs,
then heeling and taking off. The crew put her through

a series of quick tacks, and she appeared to have lost
very little of her performance. When I expressed surprise at her nimbleness, Rockport Marine’s service
manager, Tom Kiley, laughed and said: “These boats
were the greyhounds of their day.”

What’s your motivation?

WHERE TRADITION MEETS PERFORMANCE

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Learning from the Best
Preserving History
New Techniques
Pushing Limits
Community

One of the challenges in transforming GYRE was to fair the
new cockpit coamings into the modified cabin. Eric Sewell
and crew accomplished this in the shop, using battens and
experienced eyes. GYRE’s new cockpit, seen at right, is
capacious compared with the original. A crew of 15 made a
shakedown trip upon the boat’s completion, and there was
plenty of room for all to enjoy the sail in comfort.

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42 • WoodenBoat 228

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aison langley

september/october 2012 • 43

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When Chris Kennedy arrived with a large group of
adults and teenagers to sail GYRE for the first time,
there were some raised eyebrows amongst the yard crew
as the pile of gear on the dock grew and grew. Kiley
murmured, “Where the heck will they all sit?” But if there
were any doubts about his intentions for the boat,
they were soon dispelled. All 15 people appeared content after they piled on and got underway, and there
was room for everyone to spread out and enjoy the ride.
Most important, they all looked to be having a great
time. Eric Sewell said, “It was satisfying to make something that would actually be used, not just sit there and
look pretty.”
Reflecting on the project, Kennedy said that the
larger cockpit is great for “multi-generational sailing,”
and just being together as a family. He explained, “It
allows a family to converse and learn about each other's
histories. You learn about sailing, but you also learn
about life.”
Maria Simpson is Rockport Marine’s yard manager. A former sailor
of Tall Ships, she now lives and sails in Maine’s Penobscot Bay region.

AISon lAnGlEY

In rethinking GYRE’s rig, the new owner eliminated much of
the toe-stubbing racing hardware of her competitive days. The
result is a boat that’s slightly slower, but vastly easier to sail.

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When Is It Right to Alter a Classic Design?

I

s it right to alter a boat from its original design? And
does the question matter even more if it is a clas­
sic wooden boat? While these questions may seem
pretentious, there can, in fact, be some inflexibility
around the alteration of boats—and of older wooden
boats, particularly. Perhaps this is because in some ways
they represent to us a previous era, and as if by captur­
ing their original spirit we, in turn, are allowed to visit
an earlier, and perhaps simpler, time.
At one end of the restoration spectrum is the Herres­
hoff New York 50 sloop SPARTAN, restored by McClave,
Philbrick, and Giblin (MP&G) to be as close to the origi­
nal as possible (see WB No. 219). She is more than a
mode of transportation; she is a piece of yachting his­
tory, and owning her comes with a certain responsibil­
ity of stewardship. Consider, too, the Concordia yawls:
They were designed to a purpose similar to that of the
Ohlson 41, but alterations of these designs can be con­
troversial. Tom Kiley loves to tell the story of his father
racing his family’s Concordia, BELLE ONE, as a sloop,
and trouncing the competition, a double whammy to
the Concordia yawl community, in which originality
matters. Details of Concordia restorations are pored

over in the Concordian (the journal dedicated solely to
the design, much consulted by Concordia owners); a
Concordia seen recently with rod rigging was roundly
snubbed as “not authentic.”
When Kennedy purchased GYRE, she was tired and
in dire need of an upgrade; without an overhaul, it
was possible that there would be no boat at all in the
near future. So GYRE’s alteration has breathed new life
into the boat, ensuring many more years of use. While
it might be argued that GYRE does not have the pedi­
gree of SPARTAN or a Concordia yawl, I feel that her
modifications respect the original design while meeting
the owner's needs. In my view, people come first, rather
than boats, because the boat has no existence unless
people care for her, use her, and dream about her. —MS
Under what circumstances do you think it’s appropriate to
alter a vintage boat? We’ll ask that question on the Wooden­
Boat Forum, in the WoodenBoat magazine subforum, and
publish a selection of your comments in the next issue. Please
visit us at www.woodenboat.com to share your thoughts, and
to read those of others.
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AdaptingGYRE_FINAL_Ad.indd 45

7/24/12 2:29 PM

A Folding Saloon Table

1" squares

IN
PO
LA
B
BO

D

ifferent cruising scenarios present different
demands. While an offshore yacht on a long
passage might require a gimbaled table, coastal
cruising and general messing about usually do not.
A stationary table, in fact, is preferred for dining at
anchor, which is typical for the coastal cruiser; for short
passages, a lap functions quite well as a place to secure
a bowl of noodles.
Sailboat cabins often become laboratories for studies in ergonomics and storage, and the table whose
construction we present on the following pages has
proven to be an ideal compromise between both of
these imperatives. K. Aage Nielsen designed this
table, and I’ve had the pleasure of sitting at it aboard
a 34', 1957 yawl of his design. It is an exceptionally
sensible piece of design work. The folded, stowed
table lives in a bulkhead-mounted case. To set it up,
you simply lift the table, drop its leg, unfold the leaf,
and sit down. Fold and stow it again, and there’s more
room to move about.
The table can be built of any stable hardwood to
match a given boat’s interior. The example on the

TE

by Kevin D. Porter

Above— This folding saloon table provides good ergonomic
seating in the cabin of a modest-sized cruiser, and folds
away inconspicuously when not in use. The case sides are
from 5 ∕ 8” stock, and the leg from 7∕ 8” stock. All other panels
are from 3/4” stock. The leg is trimmed to length when the
table is installed.

following pages is built of mahogany. The dimensions
I’ve given in the drawing are from Aage Nielsen’s plans
for his 34' yawl; the table’s size can—and should—be
adapted to fit your particular needs.

Making and Drilling the Table Top

The tabletop consists of a pair of ¾"-thick, 12 3 ⁄8"-wide
folding leaves. One of these leaves is 4 3 ⁄8" longer than
the other and has a long hole bored through its width

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An elegant dining solution for a small cabin

to accommodate a length of 5 ⁄16" threaded bronze rod
on which the table pivots as it swings from its stowed
to its in-use position. The shorter leaf neatly fills the
opening in the storage case when the table is folded.
Making the leaves is fairly straightforward, though
unless you have a stash of wide stock of your preferred
hardwood, you’ll have to glue them up from narrower
stock. The finished pieces should have square edges,
and be dead-flat.
The pivot-rod hole requires careful boring, but with
the jig I’ll now describe, it’s not a terribly difficult operation. The jig is a shop-made plywood square that centers the bit, holds it perpendicular to the table leaf’s
edge, and allows you to bore into the leaf with accuracy
(Photo 1). To make the jig, attach the narrow edge of a
straight 1" × 2" ×18" hardwood stiffener along the center of a 3/4" × 6" ×18" piece of hardwood plywood. On the
opposite (top) side of the plywood, fasten a 3/4" × 5" × 6"
plywood piece to one corner, oriented so it’s flush along
two edges, leaving a 1" “step” along a 6" edge. You now
have a shop-made square that you can clamp to the
table leaf and use to guide the drill. The step along the
long edge is the drill-guide surface; the drill bit nestles
in that corner, and the height of the center of the drill
bit can be adjusted by adding shims of appropriate
thickness.
To use this drilling guide, first clamp the tabletop
on the flat to your workbench, with the pivot-hole section overhanging. Then locate the center of the hole,
which is 2 1/4" down from the top edge of the longer
leaf. To avoid tearout and to assure the bit remains centered, we’ll begin by drilling a 3⁄16" pilot hole. Here’s
how we arrive at the proper shim thickness for that bit:
The tabletop is 3/4". Subtract the 3⁄16" bit diameter from
this, and we’re left with 9 ⁄16" of remaining space. Halve
this, and you get a 9 ⁄32" shim thickness. To locate the bit
lengthwise, add half the bit’s thickness— 3 ⁄32"—to the
2 1/4" edgewise measurement, and mark the stock. Align
the corner of the jig’s step with this mark for a centered
hole (see Photo 2).
The final jig component is a handheld hardwood
bit guide. It should be thicker than the bit, 2" wide,
and about 6" long. This is pressed against the bit while
drilling to keep the bit seated in the corner of the step
(Photo 3). A little paraffin wax applied to all guide
surfaces will quiet the squeal and smooth the ride.

1.

2.

3.

BASHA OlSOn (THIS PAge)

Photo 1—This shop-made jig allows for accurate boring
through the table’s edge; the resulting hole accommodates a
length of 5 ∕16” threaded bronze rod, on which the leaves pivot.
Photo 2—The jig is carefully aligned with a mark on the
table’s edge and clamped in place. Photo 3—a hand-held
block of wood keeps the drill bit nestled in the corner of
the jig during the boring operation.



Drilling Guide Video
Drilling


For a demonstration video of the drilling

guide, visit www.woodenboat.com, and
click the “Bonus Content” section under “WoodenBoat magazine.” Or, if you’re reading our tablet edition, click the “play” icon above.

September/October 2012 • 47

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MATTHeW P. MURPHY

BASHA OLSON

Case Sides—Pivot Rod Slots

4.

5.

Photo 4—A hardwood plywood routing template describes
the hook-shaped slot in the case side. Photo 5—when all case
components are cut to size, the case is dry-fit together.

Use your hip to assist with drilling and clear your bit
often while operating the drill at medium speed. When
drilling through wide material like this, the possibility
of a bit meandering from its intended path increases as
you progress. So, it’s good practice to drill only partway
from one side and then drill from the opposite side.
You’ll have to flip the leaf over in order to align the jig
with your mark—and to allow the jig to bear fully on
the table’s edge.
Once the pilot hole is drilled, finish the operation with
a 5 ⁄16" bit. You’ll need a 7 ⁄32" shim to center this bit, and
you’ll have to align the corner of the jig with a new mark—
5 ⁄32" (half of 5 ⁄16") down from the original 2 1/4" mark.
To complete the assembly, position and attach a
piano hinge to join the leaf edges. Place a 1 ⁄32" shim
between the leaves when aligning them, as this alleviates any binding issues that could result from a slightly
warped tabletop.

The table’s bulkhead-mounted case is a simple box,
with sides joined together by three transverse pieces: a
let-in top rail, a base, and a horizontal top that doubles
as a handy shelf. Dimensions, details, and fastening
schedule for these items appear on the drawing.
Let’s turn our attention to the slots for the pivot rods
that are routed into the case sides. You’ll be making
these 3⁄8" slots with a router that’s guided by a pattern.
Lay out the slot as shown on the drawing, and then drill
a 3⁄8" hole through the slot’s centerline, an inch or so up
from its bottom end. Again, to avoid tearout, it’s prudent to begin this hole with a smaller bit, and then to
bore the finished-size hole from each side. This hole
will be the point at which you begin the routing operation. But first you need a template.
The template should be a 4" ×18" piece of 1/4" plywood with a 5 ⁄16"-wide bullnosed nib jutting 3⁄8" outward
from one corner (see Photo 4 inset). Align the long
edge of this template with the straight portion of the
slot, and fill the inside of the hook portion of the slot
with the template’s nib. Now load a 3⁄8" bit with a top
bearing into your router, place it in the starting hole,
and carefully cut the slot. The result shows in Photo 4.
Repeat for the other side.
Now, notch both case sides for the top rail. A dovetail saw is an ideal tool for this operation, but a tablesaw equipped with a crosscut sled would give a nice,
machined finish to this joint. However you approach
this cut, do it carefully: Tight joinery here will be a
highly visible indication of quality.
Generously chamfer the bottom inside corner of the
top rail between the case sides to allow clearance for
the leaves when stowing.
Now clamp, drill, countersink, and fasten all case
components together temporarily (Photo 5). Clamp the
case upright to your bench and install the pivot rod and
leaves along with its washers and nuts, and test for
proper fits and function. At this stage, fasten a 5 ⁄8"-thick
stop block at the bottom corner of the case for the folded
leaves to rest against when stowed. Make a little toggle
to capture it all when stowed (see the drawing for these
details).

The Leg
The table has a single leg that folds away when the leaves
are stowed. The leg has tapered, profiled edges, which
can be cut on the bandsaw and then trimmed to their
final dimension with a spokeshave. Alternatively, the
leg’s edges can be routed to their finished shape using a
pattern made from 3/4" hardwood plywood, similar to the
cutting of the hooked slot in the case sides. While the
latter might take a bit more time, it’s perfectly accurate,
and it diminishes the possibility of error introduced by
stubborn grain. But if super-smooth edges and a deadfair profile are desired, careful use of hand tools can
often supersede the router-and-template method. It’s
kind of a toss up if only one piece is being made—and

48 • WoodenBoat 228

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Photo 6—Shaping the leg with a bottom-bearing router
bit guided by a pattern. The leg can also be cut on a
bandsaw and trimmed to shape with a spokeshave.
Photo 7—The table’s leg articulates on a length of
5 ∕16” bronze rod held by a pair of pivot blocks.
Photo 8—The folding table provides ample seating
aboard this 34’ Nielsen yawl. It also makes
a handy navigation station, but can be easily
folded away if space is desired.

6.

if wood grain is predictable and consistent. If multiple
items are to be shaped or the grain is difficult to work,
the router wins the race (Photo 6).
With the leg cut to its proper shape and left 1" overlength to accommodate final fitting, drill a hole across
its top for the pivot-rod, following the same procedure
you used for the pivot-rod hole in the leaf. Finally,
round-over both top-edge corners so the leg won’t bind
when being pivoted.

Leg Pivot Assembly and Leaf Supports

Final Fit and Finishing
Now it’s time to reinstall the leaves in the case. You
may need to make a tweak here and there if something
binds. Once everything is working satisfactorily, take it
all apart, sand the components, relieve sharp corners,
and prepare for your finish of choice. I applied glue
to all permanent joints and screwed them together.
This makes for a stronger piece, but it does limit its

7.

MATTheW P. MURPhY (ThIS PAge)

The leg’s pivot rod is secured by a pair of blocks attached
to the underside of one of the leaves. Shape these
blocks as shown on the drawing, and drill 5 ⁄16" holes,
centered 11 ⁄8" down from the tables edge, through them
as indicated on the drawing. Remove the top from the
case, lay it upside-down on your bench, and position
the assembly as shown in Photo 7; then clamp and fasten the blocks. The pivot blocks are inset 3/4" from the
leaf’s bottom edge, and the hinge-side block is inset 3/4"
from the leaf’s hinge end; its mate is positioned accordingly when the assembly is fitted to the table. Insert the
leg’s pivot rod through the pivot blocks and leg, with a
pair of washers between the leg and the blocks and a
little wiggle room to accommodate swelling. When the
table is in use, a 1/4"-diameter bronze pin poking about
1/2" from the leg’s end will land in a socket in the cabin
sole, securing the leg on station.
The dimensions of the swinging leaf supports are
shown on the drawing. Once these are cut out, drill
pivot holes through them, 5" from the untapered end,
that are a hair larger than the 21/4" No. 12 round-head
wood screws that fasten them to the underside of the
table leaf. The pivot center locations are: 13 ⁄16" from
the hinged edge, and 9 3/8" and 29 1/4" from the bottom,
respectively. Use washers under screw heads and don’t
overtighten, since the supports must pivot easily.

8.
repairability in the case of damage. The choice is yours.
Apply the finish, mount the table in its home on the
boat with the case bottom resting on the sole, trim the
leg for a level tabletop, and fix a pin in the bottom of
the leg and a corresponding socket in the sole.
Bon Appétit!
Kevin Porter, a woodworker and sailor in Penobscot, Maine, recently
worked with Buzzards Bay Yacht Services to complete a new set of
spars for the yawl DORADE , and a new interior for the Sparkman &
Stephens-designed New York 32 GENTIAN.
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The Adaptable Sam Devlin
Economy and good looks in by Lawrence W. Cheek
Photographs by Neil Rabinowitz
plywood powerboats

S

am Devlin can never quit tinkering with his small
powerboat designs, even the proven, perennially
popular ones. Take the Surf Scoter, the 22' 8"
pilothouse cruiser he first released in the 1980s. It’s
now morphed four times, the most recent iteration
delivering a fresh goosing of speed, a broadened beam
and stretched pilothouse, and, glory be, an enclosed
head. “I hate heads,” Devlin grumbles. “I just hate
them! The whole damn things! But I’ve been trying to
listen to the women a tiny bit. I’m trying to deal with
the marketplace.”
When you hear this micro-tirade, one of several he’ll
let fly in an average day, you might assume several things
about Sam Devlin: That he’s cranky, and maybe even
misanthropic. That he’s being dragged into the 21st
century kicking and kvetching. You’d be dead wrong
on each count. He’s good-humored, accommodating,

entirely open to innovation, loves people, boats, and
dogs. But he’s an eternal geyser of opinions, and he’s
lousy at censoring himself. And he can’t quit tinkering.
The primary reason is his intrinsically restless
nature. But another is that the market for boats is
also roiling, churning, waiting to suck a small operator like Devlin into the depths, never to be heard from
again, if he’s not nimble enough. And Devlin Designing Boat Builders lately became a lot more vulnerable
after moving in 2011 from a funky shed in the woods
near Olympia, Washington (with outhouse, no indoor
head), to a 15,000-sq-ft industrial park building in town
with a dozen employees and four to five times the overhead he’d had before. There’s an expanding universe
of potential revenue streams in the operation—stock
plans, kits, repairs and renovations, brokerage sales,
and new commissions for design and construction—

Above—Over the past 35 years, Sam Devlin has designed a range of boats for both power and sail. In recent years, he’s
focused his efforts on powerboats ranging from 13’ to 22’—a large and underserved niche, according to Devlin. Above we see
his Chinook design (see photo, next page) in the foreground, keeping pace with two Pelicanos—a Bassboat model (middle)
and a Shrimper.

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The 20’9” Chinook is powered by a 20-hp Yanmar and cruises
at 6 knots while burning a half gallon of fuel per hour. A
small steadying sail dampens the roll in a beam sea.

but designing boats that keep responding to the shifting demands of the marketplace, and finding ever-sosmall niches, remains the heart of it. He has to be agile
and adroit, relentlessly generating new boat concepts
and variants on older ones—for power, sail, and oar.
Fortunately, this is exactly what Devlin most enjoys
doing.
Despite the upsized shop and 48' power cruiser now
taking shape inside it, Devlin is thinking that most people today have downsized their boat dreams because of
the economy. So for the past several years, he’s focused
his creative efforts on powerboats from 13' to 22'—
which, coincidentally, is the market segment that interests production builders the least. Devlin thinks it’s a
very large niche.
“I don’t think people quit dreaming about boats
when the economic downturn hit,” he says. “I think
they just revised their dreams inward. I think they got
more realistic. Instead of planning to sail around the
world, they plan to go daysailing on weekends. I’m part
of this demographic myself. I love to go to Alaska. I
used to go every year. Now I haven’t gone for the last
five years. But I still need to go boating to feed my soul.”
He’s the first to admit he doesn’t take a researchdriven, scientific approach to the market. He’s an intuitive thinker, a romantic, an everlasting optimist—all of
which he’ll wrap together in a typically colorful metaphor. “Largely, I’ll just continue this stupid methodology of shooting a shotgun blast into the air and seeing
if any birds fly into it.”

D

evlin never formally studied engineering or
naval architecture; he’s been teaching himself
for the 35 years he’s been in the business. He
didn’t invent the stitch-and-glue process (see sidebar),
which he uses exclusively, although he says he was
completely unaware of the pioneering Mirror sailing
dinghy built by that method that bobbed up in England the decade before he started. “I just blundered
in,” he says. That might have been fortuitous, because
if he’d researched it at the time, he would have been
informed that stitch-and-glue works only for very small
boats. Like the bumblebee remaining ignorant of its
own impossible aerodynamics, Devlin assumed that if
you could do a good job of scarfing, and learn to laminate two or more layers, sheet plywood could become
a hull of any size. And the resulting boat didn’t have to
resemble a floating crate.
From the beginning, he was interested in efficiency
and simplicity. While some of his designs seem to defy
our assumptions about the limitations of plywood,
they’re never fancy or tarted-up. The art is all in line
and proportion, not decoration. Devlin is skeptical of
any complication that’s likely to break down or demand
that an owner spend Saturdays fussing and varnishing
instead of using the boat. Among his latest innovations

What Is Stitch-and-Glue?

S

titch-and-glue construction is stunningly simple
in concept: If building a V-bottomed boat, you
cut five plywood hull panels—two mirrorimage bottoms, two sides, and a transom—stitch
them into a boat-shaped object using sutures of
metal wire laced through small holes drilled near
the edges of all the panels, and glue them together
with epoxy. Weld the interior joints with fillets,
which are rounded coves of epoxy thickened with
wood flour and reinforced with fiberglass tape.
When the epoxy cures, remove the stitches by
heating them with a soldering gun, then sheathe
the entire structure in fiberglass and epoxy.
In practice, there are always issues. The plywood panels have to be fiercely persuaded to
bend enough to meet at the bow. A fair hull
demands a lot of patient sanding. It can be difficult to precisely fit the transom, bulkheads, and
stem. But thickened epoxy conceals and forgives
many amateur sins, and it’s as strong as the Rock
of Ages. The result is an extremely rigid, lightweight structure whose strength is in its stressed
skin, like an aircraft fuselage, and there are no
problems with water intrusion or rot as long as
the fiberglass skin is not ruptured and all the
hardware is bedded.
—LWC

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Devlin’s fantail motoryacht Czarinna packs a lot of cabin space into a 30’ hull. She cruises at 7 knots, sipping 3/4 gallon of
diesel fuel per hour.

is spray-on polyurea truck-bed liner, which in some
cases he’s lathering onto every exposed scrap of cockpit, deck, and even cabin interior. It’s easy to apply and
tough as alligator hide. It’s not elegant. But hidden in
Devlin’s agenda for every boat is a desperate personal ache
for its owner to cherish it and keep it as a family heirloom,
and he figures there’s less chance of that happening if
the boat is a nag of trouble and expense.
Although the shop is currently building a 48' motor
cruiser, the largest noncommercial commission in the
company’s history, small boats remain the bread and
butter. His current design catalog features 24 powerboats and 21 sailboats of 25' or less, nearly all available
either as plans or custom boats from the shop. There’s
amazing variety among them—skiffs, scows, motorsailers, sloops, catboats, power cruisers based on tugs or
trawlers, and classic speedboats. Generally, Devlin’s
designs arise from one of two inspirations: Either he’ll
do an interpretation of a generic type—the new Pelicano is a riff on the Mexican panga fishing boats—or
he’ll daydream himself into a scenario and then invent
a boat to suit it.
Consider the Litl Coot, a new 17' 10" motorsailer design.
This daydream materialized in winter, the season that
tends to inspire most of Devlin’s cabin-boat ideas. He
imagined himself in Willapa Bay in southwest Washington, one of his favorite Northwest haunts, and came up
with the ideal boat for the conditions there. The bay
is shallow, mostly protected from the open Pacific, but
subject to plenty of spillover breeze. So the boat would
be a minimum-draft, cat-yawl-rigged motorsailer with a

9.9-hp outboard and twin bilge keels so it could harmlessly take the ground and stay level. In college Devlin majored in biology and geology and both subjects
still fascinate him, so he imagined hopping out of this
dreamboat on a receding tide to explore the estuary’s
biota and geologic clues to the Northwest’s last great
tsunami. Coot, as the design is called, could be trundled behind a midsize pickup and stored in an average
garage, and would sleep one, or occasionally two, in
spartan comfort. Again, no head. In this daydream the
estuary expeditioner is a single guy, or someone with a
spouse who isn’t all that enamored of boating.
Last year Devlin translated this detailed daydream
into conceptual drawings, then turned the project
over to his draftsman to develop a full set of plans. His
rationale: “If I’m thinking about something, I’m not so
peculiar that someone else isn’t thinking that way, too.”
Another new design currently taking shape on his
computer is a stretched edition of the Dipper 19, a motor
cruiser whose upright pilothouse and springy forward
sheer carry the whiff of a tiny trawler. Its evolution
perfectly illustrates Devlin’s design process.
Dipper began life a couple of decades ago at 16' 4"
with only minimal accommodation. Its lone complication was a well to hide the 10–15-hp outboard. A few
years ago, a client came along who wanted a slightly
bigger boat that could be stored or transported inside
a standard 20' shipping container. A new and larger
(18' 8") Dipper was born, and for increased versatility (and an uncluttered cockpit) this one wore twin
10-hp outboards “mounted proudly on the stern.” Now,

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another client has incited yet another version stretched
to 21', with most of the additional length grafted onto
the cockpit. The reason is purely practical: The client
has lots of grandchildren to take on day excursions. But
Devlin is also excited about the transformation in the
boat’s aesthetic character. “Now it looks even more like
a little salmon troller,” he says.

T

he boat that feeds Sam Devlin’s soul most often
these days is the Candlefish 13 prototype that he
built himself and kept for his own use. It’s a dogsimple open skiff, deep and narrow, with Dacron gunwale guard around the perimeter so he wouldn’t need to
mess with fenders. He calls it the marine equivalent of a
small Toyota pickup, unpretentious and versatile and
trustworthy. In one daydream he conjured a moose
hunting expedition in Alaska and calculated that this
little boat could load up 1,323 lbs of man and moose carcass and still enjoy over 13" of remaining freeboard. He
then designed a 16' version, which he figures an amateur
could build in the garage for about $1,500 in materials
and 200 hours of labor. (This claim wants a tag noting
that practically all designers wildly understate the necessary hours of labor.) He’ll likely tinker further with the
design. With only a 4' 11" beam, the smaller version is
probably too skinny—so tender that the operator would
always have to position himself on the centerline. But
Devlin just likes skinny, dartlike powerboats.

That may be a good thing, because the Candlefish
dovetails in a way with those downsized dreams. Devlin says he’s always been devoted to fuel efficiency, and
indeed, his design catalog makes a point of touting
the modest drinking habits of a number of his powerboat designs. With its specified twin 10-hp four-cycle
outboards, he claims, the Dipper 19 will sip less than
a gallon per hour at a 6-knot cruising speed. The
20' 9" Chinook, outfitted with a 20-hp diesel, will burn
only about half a gallon per hour at the same speed.
Another of the reasons Devlin keeps tinkering is that
he’s continually playing with the tricky dynamics of hull
shape and horsepower, trying to find the sweetest spot
of compromise between efficiency and speed.
Most of his powerboat designs are semi-displacement
types that, with the right kick of horsepower, can achieve
either twice or three times the speed of a true displacement hull (multiply the square root of the waterline
length in feet by 1.34 to get true displacement hull
speed). “We keep playing with hull shape so we get
more and more experience with these two different
styles of semi-displacement,” he says. “It’s an art–science
thing. Even the best naval architects will tell you there
are some aspects, particularly in the semi-displacement
zone, where they don’t honestly know what the dynamics are. It’s not an exact science. The cool thing about
what I do for a living is I get to play with things like this
and learn from them.”

Here we see the interior of the Czarinna 35—big sister to the boat on the previous page. The dinette and settee both convert
to berths. The boat’s range is about 680 miles with the recommended pair of 27-hp Yanmars as power.

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In the latest remake of the venerable Surf Scoter,
the broadened beam and bigger motor—he suggests
a 90-hp outboard—has kicked it from the 2x to the 3x
semi-displacement zone. “I think it fits perfectly into
this new market,” Devlin says. “It’s cute, trailerable,
it sleeps a couple of people, you can go cruising a
little bit. It might make it to Alaska if you got really
ambitious.”
At the same time that he’s improving—and almost
inevitably enlarging—these boats, he keeps worrying
about their cost, and how people in this uncertain economy can afford them. No way can a custom builder compete with a production manufacturer of fiberglass boats.
To this end, he keeps trying new efficiencies. The shop
is now using CNC to cut out most hull panels. He’s about
to invest in metering machines to streamline epoxy handling. And he keeps trying to convince his guys to quit
sanding so much. It’s not so much a matter of perfectionism, he thinks, as it is an excursion into mindless work.
“You can drone out on the harmonics of the machine
and go off to some different land. I know we’re putting
too much time into sanding. We’re finishing parts of the
boat that are never going to get looked at.”

I

n his more introspective moments, Devlin will admit
that his approach to design has always been tinted
by the phase of life in which he found himself at
the moment. “They’re snapshots of my mental state,” he
says with a small laugh. “For instance, I can plainly see
now that when I did the Sockeye designs [42' and 45'
fantail motoryachts], my first marriage was eroding and
I needed romance in my life. It was unbelievable—I had
half the boat dedicated to the stateroom! The rest of it
was, well, okay, I guess we really need to think about a

pilothouse. Now, being married to Soitza [he’s remarried], I find I’m getting more gregarious, less shy, paying more attention to the social aspects of the boats.”
There’s always been a psychological aspect, too.
Devlin understands boat love and lust about as well as
anyone can, and he’s aware that there are intangibles
that can cause someone to fall so thoroughly for a certain design that it forever colors their view of all other
comparable boats. He sometimes describes that quality
as “whimsy,” which is true in the sense that the classic
Volkswagen Beetle and Mini Cooper exude that quality. These little cars and Devlin’s little boats enclose
space, and function efficiently and unpretentiously—
but with a bold, saucy, and extroverted attitude. Devlin’s designs also fail spectacularly at honoring their
plywood origins; they never look slab-sided or clunky
or constrained by limitations of the material. It is not
true that Devlin has figured out how to defy physics and
convulse plywood into compound curves, but his boats
fool the eye into believing this.
Like a lot of people around his age, 58, he seems to
have clarified and simplified his values. Or at least he’s
trying to get there. His business is growing, becoming
more complex and demanding, at the same time that
he’d most like to pull back and carve out more time for
dreaming up and drawing new boats. He has a vision of
somehow being able to restructure his professional life
so he can work in the industrial park from 6 a.m. to 1
p.m. or so, then retreat to the tiny studio in the woods
he’s renovating near his home to write and draw. An
observer hanging out with him through a typical day,
observing as the calls from customers and suppliers
pepper him like a stream of BBs, doesn’t see how that’s
ever going to happen. Devlin is nothing if not driven,

The 34’ Storm Petrel is Devlin’s interpretation of the classic Maine lobsterboat. The boat cruises at 18 knots, tops out at
about 24, and has a stern drive hiding beneath the swim platform.

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The full-displacement Sockeye 45 is one of Devlin’s largest offerings. The rugged-looking hull is inspired by West Coast
tugboats. The boat cruises at about 8 knots, burning 3–4 gallons of fuel per hour. Recommended power is 145-hp John Deere.

he doesn’t appear to delegate easily, and never brushes
off a customer who calls with a question. All this probably springs from the way he takes each boat personally,
like the creation of a life. And this is not only the finished boats streaming out of his shop, but also the boats
amateurs build from his plans. He learned recently that
an amateur who’d labored for six years on a Devlindesigned cruising boat, executing it almost flawlessly,
was now planning to sell it—after one short season on
the water. He looked stricken, as if he’d just been told
that a close friend had a terminal illness.
As busy as he is, Devlin monitors the blogs of assorted
amateurs around the world who are building from his
plans. Very early one morning three years ago, just a
day after I’d posted an entry showing progress on the
Winter Wren II I was building, Devlin e-mailed: “I’ve
been reading your blog and there’s an issue we need to
talk about,” he wrote. “Call me.”
I’d blogged about making a significant alteration,
building foam-filled flotation compartments into the
18' 8" sailboat to counter its 685 lbs of lead ballast. (Not
only am I a chicken sailor; I could not countenance the
thought of 3,500 hours of labor snoozing at the bottom of Puget Sound.) Sam’s note hit me like a summons
to the principal’s office. I didn’t know whether he was
angry over my unauthorized editing or was about to
point out some moron-quality flaw in my thinking, but
I passed several seriously uncomfortable hours before
calling.

“I just wanted to advise you not to permanently
seal those chambers,” he said, perfectly gracious and
not at all upset. “You can install watertight hatches
to inspect them. I’ve seen water get into what people
thought were sealed compartments and rot the boat
from the inside out.”
The reason Devlin takes each boat so personally,
even these very distant godchildren built by amateurs
with muddling modifications, is what he explains
as their “spirit.” If you ask him to riff on what that
word means, it pretty much covers his whole intuitive
approach to design, his scattershot business plan, and
why he’s never been tempted to settle down and build
production boats.
“If you spend thousands of hours working on a boat,
it’s pretty damn lovable, even if it has its glitches. You
can’t go through that process without it having a spirit
that’s perceptible. Anything that has people sweat on
it, bleed on it, curse at it, experience joy on it, all in
the building process, reflects some sort of spirit. I know
that’s way, way out in the ozone, and it’s the closest I
ever come to religion, but I think there is a spirituality
in all things that are labored over. And that spirit stays
alive forever.”
Lawrence W. Cheek has built two Devlin sailboats, a Zephyr and a
Winter Wren II, and wrote about the former in his book The Year of
the Boat. He writes frequently for The New York Times and other
publications on architecture, civilization, nature, and boats.
September/October 2012 • 55

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Holland’s Botters

E.J. BRUINEKOOL FOTOGRAFIE

Distinctive and able shoal-draft boats
for an inland sea
by Jack van Ommen

W

ith low freeboard aft, upswept sheerlines and
full sections forward, curved and short mainsail gaffs, and large leeboards, botters are
among Holland’s most distinctive historic watercraft.
They were well suited to fishing the shoal waters of the
Zuiderzee, and at the beginning of the 20th century
more than a thousand of them fished out of Dutch
seaports. On the weekends, when the fishermen came
home to get scrubbed clean by their wives or mothers
for church on Sunday, every harbor was transformed
into a forest of masts, with sails and nets hung to dry.
An ambitious plan to build a dike permanently
closing off the Zuiderzee’s connection to the open
ocean, which had been contemplated for decades,
was finally completed in 1932. This began the shallow
bay’s slow conversion into the freshwater lake, called
IJsselmeer, that we know today. The dike opened up

land for reclamation, but its construction was a death
sentence for the botter fleet. As soon as the dike plan
was announced, new botter construction went into an
abrupt decline. In 1933, the last new fishing botter was
built by the Janus Kok boatyard in Huizen. In 1900, 171
botters sailed out of the conjoined ports of Spakenburg
and Bunschoten, and by 1953 the number declined to
100. The disruptions of World War II, together with its
aftermath of slow economic recovery, gave commercial
sail only a brief reprieve. By 1968, there were only four
botters left in Spakenburg/Bunschoten.
But just as the type appeared to be nearing extinction, a few nostalgic souls began to restore old botters
for pleasure sailing. The trend developed slowly at first.
In the beginning, boats that were considered derelict
dinosaurs could be had for a song. When the boom
years came to Western Europe in the last half of the

Above—Originally used for fishing, botters have a distinctive stem profile, and their broad and commodious hulls are fitted
with leeboards for the shoal waters of Holland’s inland sea.

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JACK VAN OMMEN
MARTIN STEVENS/WOLVERLIE IMAGE ARCHIVE
JACK VAN OMMEN

Above—Botter gatherings, like the Jan Haring Race in
Monnickendam each July, celebrate the heritage of the fleet.
Left—At Spakenburg, races held each May bring a fleet of
leeboarders to the harbor where the Nieuwboer Shipyard
has been operating since 1829. Below left—The Nieuwboer
Shipyard makes all of its own blocks.

20th century, new and more prosperous owners were
eager to restore classic wooden boats, including botters. Before long, properly restored botters were turning out to be good investments, and likely candidates
for restoration were in limited supply.

T

hese new owners needed boatyards where the
boats could be restored and maintained, and
one of the yards they looked to was the Nieuwboer Botter Yard in Spakenburg. The yard, which is the
oldest continuously operated shipyard surviving from
the days of the old Zuiderzee, is dedicated to building
and maintaining wooden botters. The earliest record
of boatbuilding in Spakenburg dates back to 1583, and
the site of the Nieuwboer yard itself is known to have
had a marine ways since 1696.
The first member of the Nieuwboer family to own
and operate the yard was Willem Nieuwboer, starting in 1829. However, it was his son, Hendrik Willem
Nieuwboer (1820–1908), who perfected the botter
design. Like all botter builders, he never worked from
lines plans as we know them today. Instead, individual
builders relied on patterns and skills passed down from
one generation to the next. Nevertheless, the younger
Nieuwboer’s improvements became the standard
throughout the Zuiderzee. Other yards were known to
have offered free haulouts to lure any fishermen with
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A part of Dutch life for 250 years

B

otters are 43' 6" to 44' 3" LOA , usually with a
beam of 13' 9" and a draft of 3'. The kwak is
52' 6" × 16' 3" × 3' 4". Variations called Wieringeraak and Lemsteraak types were around 52' long.
The standard botter’s 41'-tall mast is stepped on the
keel, and although it has a solid iron forestay, it has no
shrouds. The sail area of the main and jib totaled 750
sq ft for a botter and just over 1,000 sq ft for a kwak.

Right—“Prinsenwerk” colors
of red, white, and blue are
typically painted on a
botter’s companionway.
This text reads, “And
thou shalt keep an eye on
my sails.” Below—At the
Nieuwboer Shipyard in
Spakenburg in about
1935, a woman cleans
a boat’s bottom.

JACK VAN OMMEN

M

y earliest memories of botters go back to my
childhood in Holland, in the mid-1940s. My
grandfather had a mast- and block-making
business, and botter fishermen were his mainstay until
he moved the business from de Lemmer on the Zuiderzee to Amsterdam in 1928, just before the Zuiderzee
was closed off. He met his wife on the island of Urk,
where he traveled frequently to collect payment for the
masts he made for botters. As children, we played in
piles of wood shavings and filled gunny sacks with pitch
pine shavings that bakers used to start their ovens. The
first wooden boat my twin brother and I ever owned
was a botter model built by one of my grandfather’s
workmen. My uncle, Siebold de Vries, also followed
the trade, and he made the mast, blocks, and rigging for the famous botter yacht GROOTE BEER .
The name botter was first used in 1760. Like the
earlier waterschip type, botters had live-wells built
into their hulls to keep the catch fresh. Among
fishermen, botters became especially popular
because the high sheer forward made them seaworthy in rough seas, yet the low stern facilitated nethauling, and ample sail area gave them the power
they needed to drag nets. Shoal draft allowed them
to work in the Zuiderzee, which was 10' at the deepest, and in the Waddenzee, the shallow coastline
extending from Den Helder along the Frisian and
German coastlines as far as Denmark.
Built to be equal in size and speed so they could
fish in tandem, botters dragged a net between two
boats, usually working upwind. For this purpose, they
were built left- and right-handed, the principal difference being that the companionway entrances were on
opposite sides to clear the way for working the nets.
The innovator Hendrik Willem Nieuwboer built boats
for specific ports such as Spakenburg/Bunschoten,
Huizen, and Nijkerk of the Zuidwal, or “south shore.”
Lacking harbors in their fishing grounds, these boats
needed full entries and high bows so they could ride
comfortably at anchor. The Westwal, or “west shore,”
botters found havens in Monnickendam, Marken, and
Hoorn.
Oostwal botters from the eastern harbors of Elburg,
Harderwijk, Kampen, and Vollenhove were nearly identical to the Zuidwal design but with less draft because
they worked in even shallower waters. Volendammers
fished from kwaks, which were longer than standard
botters. Fishermen of the island of Urk ventured farther into the North Sea and had sturdier botters.

PERMISSION ARIE TER BEEK

Construction was almost entirely of white oak, with
pine sometimes substituted for the house and decks.
The spars were of pine or larch, and blocks were of ash.
The cabin layout is the same on all botters. You stoop
to enter through a narrow Dutch door, which is usually decorated with a short message painted in old-style
longhand script, often with a religious meaning. A low,
flat-topped iron stove was used for heat and cooking.
There are no portholes, so it is dark. Both sides are
lined with bunks. Every botter is decorated with Prinsenwerk, a painted red, white, and blue checkerboard
on the rudderhead, in the stern, and over the companionway, a custom dating back to the times when fishermen pledged their allegiance to the Prince of Orange,
who helped drive the Spanish conquistadores out of
the Lowlands in the 16th century.
With no antifouling paint, hulls needed to be scraped
each spring. The boats would line up by the hundreds
for the work, which was always done by women. Skippers would try to bribe yard bosses to advance in line
so they wouldn’t be the last to the fishing grounds. Herring and anchovy were the primary catch before the
Zuiderzee closed, after which the fishermen turned to
eels.
For a time, the mid-June to mid-July anchovy run
was a lucrative fishery. Although the trade had its fat
and lean years since the dawn of the 20th century, after
an exceptionally good season in the early times, many
a fisherman could afford to trade in his botter for a

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The Nieuwboer Shipyard today is remarkably
unchanged, though now a public-private
partnership set up to preserve the historic yard
and its service to the equally historic botter fleet.

JACK VAN OMMEN

new one and purchase a new home as well.
A good season also brought money into the
fishing ports, supporting processors, trad­
ers, and smokehouses—including work for
girls and young women, whose nimble fin­
gers made them desirable for gutting the
small anchovies on a piecework basis. Most
of the catch was traded to Germany, and by
1930, 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) of salted anchovies brought
30 cents. However, the next year the price plummeted
to 5 cents when the new Nazi government banned fish
imports.

B

esides the usual rivalry among fishermen, botter­
men were always ready for an informal white­
knuckles race to the fishing grounds and back.
Communities, which were isolated until deep into the
20th century, had their own distinctive dialects and
traditional dress. Volendam, with the largest fishing
fleet, remained Catholic while the rest of the ports
embraced Calvinism during the Reformation of the

16th century. Often, full­scale battles broke out on the
fishing grounds, with net­cutting, kerosene bombs, and
even hand­to­hand combat.
A botter crew usually consisted of a skipper, one or
two deckhands, and a “sea mouse,” a boy apprentice usu­
ally between 10 and 14 years old. Zeeger Nieuwboer told
me that the boy was usually the skipper’s son or nephew.
In the final days of the last year of grade school, boys
would be taken out of school to join the crews, instantly
becoming the envy of their classmates. A memorial at
the Urk lighthouse listing the names and ages of lost fish­
ermen includes a number of these boys, one of them an
eight­year­old who perished in 1830.
—JVO

JACK VAN OMMEN

Nieuwboer­built botters to their ways so they could
take measurements and use them to alter their own
construction patterns.
Hendrik Willem’s son, Willem Nieuwboer (1850–
1913), ran the yard during the heyday of botter con­
struction, launching 85 of them during his career. At
that time, three men could build a botter, on average,
in 12 weeks. In the best years, the yard employed up
to 17 boatbuilders. With plans in the wind to close
off the Zuiderzee, fishermen were reluctant to order
new boats, and the yard’s last new fishing botter was
launched in 1905. One botter from Willem Nieuwboer’s
times—BU­5, the letters of which refer to her port of
Bunschoten—has been converted to pleasure use and
still sails today out of Spakenburg harbor.
Maintenance and repair kept the yard working.
During lean years, it managed to hang on to its key
boatbuilders by having them make woodstoves in the
blacksmith shop and by putting them to work on the
family farm on the outskirts of town. By mid­century,
the professional fishing fleet was practically gone, and
the number of surviving botters dwindled. Zeeger
Nieuwboer, who was born in 1932 and took the yard
into its fifth generation of family ownership, ran the
yard all by himself for a number of years. By the 1980s,
he was facing hard decisions.
Botters are built using patterns handed down through
generations, like this Nieuwboer rudder pattern, held by
Nieuwboer manager Henk van Halteren. This pattern has
been in use since 1842.

W

ith the prospect of a resurgence of interest
in botter restorations, however, Zeeger’s son­
in­law, Henk van Halteren, began to take an
interest in managing the yard—but what did the future
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have to offer a young couple? The buildings desperately
needed repairs. From a business standpoint, he would
have been better off moving the yard away from the
town center to someplace with less expensive real estate
and lower taxes.
Temporary help came in 1986, when city of Spakenburg/Bunschoten hired the Nieuwboer yard to build
a brand-new traditional fishing botter as a community
flagship, part of a larger project to pay homage to the
area’s maritime history. As part of the project, which
was supported by private donations and city and provincial government grants, Nieuwboer brought in unemployed local youths to learn new skills through wooden
boat building.
Van Halteren literally brushed the thick layers of
dust off Hendrik Willem Nieuwboer’s historic patterns,
which dated back to 1840 and were still stored at the
yard. With these patterns, he could apply the boatbuilding skills he had acquired during the yard’s restoration and maintenance projects to a new construction,
the yard’s first since 1905. The new botter, launched
as BU-219, is operated today by the municipal government, and part of its maintenance expenses are covered
by income from sailing charters.
More change came to the Nieuwboer yard in 1992,
when Zeeger Nieuwboer sold the yard to the municipality of Spakenburg/Bunschoten under a trust agreement
in which the city gave the yard tax breaks and subsidies
in recognition of its importance as a historical monument. The yard’s work, meanwhile, would continue as
it did before, only now under van Halteren’s management. This arrangement not only ensures the integrity
of the historic Spakenburg fishing port but also allows
the yard to continue in operation, at its original location, doing the restoration and maintenance work that
have made the yard vital to the surviving botters of the
historic fleet.
“It works very well,” van Halteren said. “I pay rent
to them, and I have complete freedom to run the
yard business as I wish. The only restrictions are that
A horse-powered capstan, out of use since 1912, was
brought back into service at Nieuwboer Shipyard to
demonstrate how boats were hauled out in earlier times.

we continue to work as we always have, repairing and
building traditional wooden boats.”
Van Halteren’s wife, Marrie, is the daughter of
Zeeger Nieuwboer, making their family the sixth
generation of Nieuwboers to run the yard. Their three
daughters, however, haven’t shown any inclination
toward boatbuilding or yard management. “There are
no other Nieuwboer descendants to take over,” said van
Halteren, who is now 55. “We are now in the process of
preparing the succession of the Nieuwboer wooden
boatbuilding tradition by one of our longtime yard
workers. This means that the skills passed down to me
from Zeeger Nieuwboer will be preserved under the
next owner. We are fortunate that our workforce ages
run from early 20s to the late 50s and assure a
continuous succession of the skills.”
The physical layout of the yard and its boatbuilding methods have changed little in the past hundred
years. The yard is on a pie-shaped lot on the cramped
harbor with ways for five boats, a boat shed that just
barely accommodates the standard 44' LOA botter,
a workshop, a blacksmith shop, and the yard owner’s
home and office. Willem Nieuwboer added the blacksmith shop in about 1900, giving the yard its own facility for fabricating not only hardware but also metal hull
sheathing, which could be used to add perhaps 30 years
to the working life of an aging oak workboat hull.
Nieuwboer has always had a greater reputation for
self-reliance than other botter yards. For instance, they
make their own traditional ash blocks, finish masts
from rough or partially sawn spar stock, and fabricate
their own hardware.

JACK VAN OMMEN

MARTIN STEVENS/WOLVERLIE PHOTO ARCHIVE

Botters have spartan accommodations, but each one is fitted
with a particular kind of woodstove.

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E.J. BUINEKOOL FOTOGRAFIE

During the 1960s, a revival of interest in historic botters developed, and today they are treasured by their owners, with
annual regattas and gatherings making them an essential sight on the inland sea known as the IJsselmeer.

A few modern conveniences have been adopted
alongside the traditional working methods. For example, instead of bending heavy oak planks by heating
them over burning bunches of reeds, the boatbuilders now use propane torches. Epoxy is used instead of
older types of adhesives, and stainless-steel fastenings
are used in place of iron spikes and bolts. The horsedrawn capstan that was used for generations to haul
botters up the ways was abandoned in 1912 in favor of
one powered by a gasoline engine, but to accentuate
the site’s historical interpretation, a draft horse has
made a return.
The yard crew now consists of van Halteren with
three or four boat carpenters and an occasional helper.
Zeeger Nieuwboer, who lives with his wife in the home
on the yard’s premises, still spends about four hours
each day helping out in the yard. He will turn 80 this
year.

F

or more than a century, botters intended for use
as yachts have been built to the same design as
commercial fishing boats, with the same powerful
sail plan. The qualities that made botters successful in
the fisheries—flat bottoms and the use of leeboards for
sailing in shoal waters—also made sense for pleasure
sailing on the IJsselmeer. One of the most notable botter yachts was GROOTE BEER , which translates to “Great
Bear,” a reference to the constellation Ursa Major, also
known as the Big Dipper. Janus Kok started building
the boat at his yard in Huizen during World War II,
supposedly for Nazi officer Hermann Goering but actually for a German pharmaceutical manufacturer. Her

keel was laid in 1941, but Kok, after learning she was
destined for the enemy, deliberately slowed down her
construction. She was not finished until well after the
war’s end, in 1948, and the original client never got the
boat (see Currents, WB No. 175).
GROOTE BEER has the exact proportions of a traditional fishing botter, but at 52' she is nearly 10' longer.
She cut an impressive wake in the United States from
her arrival in Connecticut in 1953 until her return to
Holland in 2001. The first American owner sold her to
a buyer on the U.S. West Coast, where he and seven subsequent owners sailed her from California to Alaska.
The step-grandson of the first Dutch owner tracked her
down in Warrenton, Oregon, bought her, and had her
shipped as deck cargo on a bulk carrier back to Antwerp. For restoration to her former glory, she was taken
to the Nieuwboer yard.
All of her oak planking, many of her frames, and part
of her keel needed replacement. After a half-century
in salt water, the iron fastenings had deteriorated, in
turn causing “nail sickness” in her oak. Fortunately,
the exquisite teak carvings and her above-the-waterline
woodwork were brought back to their original luster.
The vintage botter was not only restored, but also given
the latest in mechanical winches and updated navigation and propulsion systems, together with a new galley, to bring her into the 21st century. The boat was
relaunched in July 2003, and her homeport is now
Volendam. In May 2011 she suffered severe damage,
including a broken keel, when she was dropped by
a boatyard crane. The owner hopes to return her to
Nieuwboer for yet another restoration.
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If you go...
MuseuMs

Zuiderzee Museum, enkhuizen. This particular

Fries scheepvaartmuseum, sneek, Friesland.

This museum, in the most northern provinces of Holland,
specializes in maritime history of an area with a long
tradition of shipbuilding, merchant shipping, and fishing. With its large lakes, connected by rivers and canals
to the Zuiderzee and the North Sea, Friesland has a
history of both offshore and inland maritime history.
Sneek is about 80 miles northest of Amsterdam. See
www.friesscheepvaartmuseum.nl.

More recently, Nieuwboer restored the 58' BRONTOLIET, a 1901 botter yacht built in Belgium. This

two-and-a-half-year project had a price tag of over $2
million. And as of this writing in April 2010, the Nieuwboer crew was building ROSALIE, a replica of a 56'
working fishing botter, in an old Belgian boatyard at
Baesrode on the River Scheldt (see www.botter-rosalie.
be). The Baesrode yard built botters until the early 20th
century, but is relying now on the skills that have been
preserved in the Spakenburg yard to re-create the boat.
In modern times, nostalgia and Holland’s booming
economy created a new set of owners who treasure the botter fleet and have created a steady demand for boatbuilding skills and facilities. Trades that are vital to traditional
wooden boat builders in Holland were given a lifeline
as restorations brought many of the old hulls, including
original sailing barges, back into the “brown fleet,” as the
historic wooden boats are called here. This meant new
business not only for the yards but also for traditional
trades like sparbuilders, blockmakers, and sailmakers.
GROOTE BEER , a luxurious botter-yacht launched in 1948
that spent many years in the United States, was extensively
restored in 2003 at Nieuwboer Shipyard.

Houtzaagmolen De Rat, IJlst. The wind-powered

sawmill (see photo above) where some of the Nieuwboer
Shipyard’s timbers are milled is itself a museum in IJlst,
Friesland, not far from the maritime museum in Sneek.
Originally constructed in 1683, the mill was dismantled
and rebuilt in IJlst in 1829 to supply the town’s eight shipyards. Threatened with demolition by the 1950s, the historic mill was saved by the city government in 1967 and
restored to wind power. Open Wednesdays through Saturdays May through September and Saturdays in the offseason. See www.houtzaagmolenderat.nl (Dutch only).

Botter Yard Museum, elburg. At this museum

yard on the eastern shore of the former Zuiderzee, you
can observe demonstrations of botter construction and
view exhibits of the history of this town’s maritime past.
The museum also offers the opportunity to go for a short
ride on their restored botter. Elburg is about 60 miles east
of Amsterdam. See www.botterselburg.nl.

Het scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam. Located
in a 1658 building at the former Dutch naval storehouses,

When van Halteren needed to purchase oak crooks
and a mast timber for GROOTE BEER, for example, I
joined him for the drive up to Harlingen in Friesland,
and found myself amazed by the stock this lumberyard
keeps just for this purpose. There were plenty of long
oak logs with ample sweep, from which one-piece sheerstrakes 55' long could be sawn for the GROOTE BEER

JACK VAN OMMEN

museum is a must for anyone wanting to learn the maritime history of the former Zuiderzee. Besides the museum,
located in one of the oldest buildings in the Enkhuizen
harbor, complete with full-sized restored fishing boats
and yachts of the 18th and 19th century, it also has an outdoor park where you are warped back into the 19th century. After the dike transformed the Zuiderzee into a
freshwater lake, fishing ports became ghost towns. Abandoned homes and shops were dismantled and reconstructed at the museum stone by stone, complete with
interiors, bedsteads, outhouses, and gardens. Old crafts
like blacksmithing, boatbuilding, and net-mending are
demonstrated. Enkhuizen’s quaint harbor also has one of
the biggest charter fleets of traditional “brown fleet” sailboats (see below). Enkhuizen is about 40 miles north of
Amsterdam. The museum is a short ferry ride from the
harbor. Indoor exhibits are open year-round; outdoor
exhibits are open April 1 to November 1.

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this maritime museum was reopened in 2011 after a fouryear facelift and modernization. The museum is about a
15-minute walk from Amsterdam’s central railroad station. The Scheepvaartmuseum, Kattenburgerplein 1, 1001
MK Amsterdam; www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl.

a botter gathering in Elburg in September. For a current
schedule, see www.fonv.nl/vbb, the website of the organization dedicated to preserving traditional Zuiderzee
boats. It’s in Dutch, but click on “Evenementen” to find a
list you will probably be able to decipher.
—JVO

Charters
Several restored botters owned and sponsored by the former
Zuiderzee fishing ports are available for day charters. The
following website lists some of them, with prices ranging
from €50 to €100 per person per day: www.enjoy.nl/botter
/?gclid=CNO6wsP3lq8CFY8PfAodpi7IkA.
You might do as well or better by inquiring at town
tourist information kiosks in ports such as Spakenburg/
Bunschoten, Huizen, Elburg, Harderwijk, Urk, de Lemmer, Enkhuizen, Hoorn, Volendam, and Monnickendam.
There are also many choices for daysails or longer charters
on privately owned traditional boats. Most of the websites are
in Dutch and German, but this one, listing many boats, is in
English: www.bootnodig.nl/sailing_area_ijsselmeer.html.
Traditional botters are a lot of fun to sail on a day with a
fair breeze, if you don’t mind roughing it because of the limited shelter. Otherwise, a sail on a two-masted clipper or tjalk,
particularly for overnight trips, would be a better choice.

traditional sailing events
You can watch botters and their cousins in the picturesque harbors on Friday evenings before regattas or from
shore on the day of the race. Among the largest events are
the Pieper Race in Volendam in April, the Zuidwal botter races in Spakenburg in May, races in Den Helder in
June, the Jan Haring Race in Monnickendam in July, and

restoration. The yard custom-saws logs on a large bandsaw to the required thickness. For the mast, van Halteren picked out a nice Russian larch. The lumberyard
also had a pile of oak crooks of various sizes for use as
knees. Most of these oddly shaped oak logs come from
a plantation in Denmark that was started in the 17th
century as a renewable resource for that country’s shipbuilding needs. Incidentally, the maintenance and restoration of historic Dutch windmills requires oak and
pine timbers very similar to those used by traditional
shipbuilders.
Other former Zuiderzee fishing ports have also
adopted variations of the Bunschoten/Spakenburg
model for preserving maritime traditions and reviving local shipyards. Among these are Huizen, Harderwijk, Elburg, Kampen, and Urk. “But most of these
yards had been closed at one time, and then, with the
help of the city or provincial government, were resurrected,” van Halteren said. “Nieuwboer here is the
only yard that has been in continuous operation. The
first Nieuwboer took it over in 1829. The other yards
have had to reinvent the skills that were passed down
to us. Once in a while, we observe the results from
the compromises that are made when these skills and
tricks have been lost. Most of these skills have never

been written down but just passed down from father
to son.”

I

n all, about 65 botters and 35 of their close relatives currently sail in Holland. They are organized in an association called Vereniging voor Botterbehoud (Association
for the Preservation of Botters; see www.fonv.nl/vbb). Botters and traditional leeboard sailing freight barges congregate at annual regattas and informal meets around the
old Zuiderzee ports for class and handicap races. They
are joined by similar steel-hulled yachts, 52-footers called
Lemsteraaks, one of which, GROENE DRAECK (GREEN
DRAGON), was given by the Dutch people to then-Princess
Beatrix in 1957 for her 18th birthday. Today, Queen Beatrix is an avid traditional sailing enthusiast and can often
be seen at the helm of her Lemsteraak on the IJsselmeer.
On these occasions, once again the old sleepy seaports of the Zuiderzee come to life, and sailors sing
their sea chanteys as the harbors are filled with a forest
of masts.
A native of Holland, Jack van Ommen now lives in Gig Harbor,
Washington. He is currently in the middle of a singlehanded circumnavigation in his home-built plywood kit sloop FLEETWOOD, a Naja
30 launched in 1980. So far, the voyage has logged 34,000 miles and
43 countries. See his blog at www.cometosea.us.
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A StructurAl ExoSkElEton
How Vaitses-method fiberglass
sheathing saved CARIB II

W

hen I first saw the 52' gaff-rigged ketch CARIB
II, it was love at first sight. She had just been
through a cosmetic restoration, and I was
totally stunned by her beautiful lines, thoughtful layout, and original condition. I was already a longtime
admirer of her designer, Commodore Ralph Munroe,
and I knew CARIB II’s history (see “Commodore Munroe’s Last Boat,” page 65).
She was for sale, but I initially thought her purchase
price was out of my reach financially. But after my bank
agreed to increase my line of credit, I was transformed
from an admirer into a possible purchaser. I quickly
arranged to see her. My boatbuilder friend Bill Smith,
who years before built a 27' sharpie to a Munroe design,

BenjAMIn MenDLoWITz

by David Soule

joined me during that first visit to have a look at CARIB
II. As we walked the decks, he kept repeating to no one

in particular, “This is a real boat!” Two days later, I had
a test sail and signed the purchase contract.
Unfortunately, the cosmetic work that made the boat
look so impressive hid the rust stains that would have
pointed to her wasted iron hull fastenings and her rotsoftened yellow pine planking and white oak frames. A
month after buying the most historic boat in my world,
the joy of ownership was sorely interrupted. When
CARIB II was hauled to freshen up her bottom paint,
numerous wet spots on her hull proved suspiciously
slow to dry. Ferrous fastenings were common in the era
of CARIB II’s construction in 1924, and it turned out

Above—After a cosmetic refit, CARIB II, seen here in 2007 in Maine waters before she was fiberglass-sheathed, looked
appealing. Beneath the surface, however, her ferrous fastenings—which were not uncommon in 1924, the year of her
launching—were causing mayhem with her planking and structure.

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Commodore Munroe’s
last boat

C

dAVId SoULE

BENjAmIN mENdLoWITz

ARIB II is the last original boat still afloat

Above top—Commodore Ralph Munroe planned this elegant
and comfortable interior, still in original condition, which the
author did not want to disrupt. Above—Taken at the time of
the author’s first introduction to the boat, this photo shows
her to be, on first sight, in fine-looking condition

that her original “Never Rust” galvanized iron spikes
actually had rusted. Each one was now surrounded by
a plug of iron-sick, rotted wood. Like a sheet of postage stamps, her hull planking was perforated by rows
of rotten holes spaced 16" on centers, lining up with the
frames.
CARIB II’s frames are double-sawn white oak, and
the tannins in the oak deteriorated the zinc galvanizing of her plank fastenings and the bolts holding the
frame futtocks to each other. These deteriorated fastenings in turn released iron compounds that deteriorated the oak. The day after I bought the boat, I left
on business, intending to take delivery in five weeks.
I got a call three weeks later telling me that CARIB II
was settling by the stern, having taken on water due to
a failed bilge pump switch. A diver mashed a plug of

designed by Commodore Ralph munroe of
Coconut Grove, Florida. She and a sistership, ALICE, were built on Staten Island in 1924 at
Tottenville, New York. The lines came from munroe’s original CARIB, which had been constructed
in 1901 at The Barnacle, his home on Biscayne
Bay, which is now a Florida State Historical Park.
during a 1920 visit to Coconut Grove, Henry
Howard, who eventually commissioned ALICE’s
construction, was convinced by munroe that “it
was not only possible but, in fact, easy to build
a boat of about 50 ft. overall with a draft of only
3½ to 4 ft. that was not only suitable for following
the inside route but would also be the superior of
most of our deep-draft yachts for seaworthiness in
off shore work.” munroe told Howard that CARIB
was his best design. She was known for excellent
seakeeping abilities, having been fished late in
her career off Cape Hatteras, one of the roughest
pieces of water on the U.S. east coast.
As a result of that conversation, the Commodore
gathered up his drawings for CARIB and gave
them to Howard, with permission to take them to
john G. Alden Company in Boston, massachusetts,
to work up detailed construction plans. The two
boats were built side-by-side, ALICE for Howard
and CARIB II for max mauran. Howard later
documented his experiences with ALICE in his
book, The Yacht Alice, Twenty Years After, published
in 1946.
By the time I heard that ALICE’s surviving
sistership, CARIB II, was for sale, I had already
been a longtime admirer of Commodore munroe’s
designs. one of my previous boats was LAHomA ,
built to the lines of munroe’s 27' LoA sharpie
EGRET (see WB No. 56) by my friend Bill Smith of
Fort Pierce, Florida. In the 1880s, munroe sailed
his famous sharpie—“blow high or blow low,” as
he said—between miami and jupiter, Florida,
delivering mail and light freight. LAHomA had
saved my skin two years before, when we were
caught out in a gale and high seas on the edge
of the Great Bahama Bank. I knew then that any
design of Ralph munroe’s would be a reliable
one.
—DS

epoxy putty into some worm holes in the stern planking, which slowed the leak. We hauled her for initial
repairs, but when we relaunched her, water ran out of
the middle of the face of the lowest plank on the starboard side of the centerboard trunk. The pumps were
barely able to keep up, but after a half hour the flow was
reduced and got better over more time. Still, there were
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DAVID SOulE (BOTh)

Above left—Not visible at the time the author bought the boat, corroded ferrous fastenings had seriously damaged CARIB
II ’s planking and frames. A thorough survey, which the author did not have, would have found the problem. Above right—
“Dutchman” graving pieces over the worst of the rot proved a temporary solution at best.

two or three planks at the turn of the bilge on each side
that had twisted out their lower edges. It became clear
that the hull had serious problems.
In hindsight, I realize now that it was a mistake to
buy the boat without first having her thoroughly
inspected by a marine surveyor, one well versed in
wooden boat construction. Anyone considering buying
an old boat should commission a survey before committing to the purchase. But the boat was mine now, and so
were her problems. After hauling her out and fitting 14
graving pieces to repair the worst spots, I struggled to
develop a plan of action to save CARIB II.
Earlier in life, I worked for years as an auto restorer
on award-winning fine cars, including those built by
Bugatti, Duesenberg, Maserati, and Ferrari. One of my
jobs was to make old museum cars roadworthy so that
my client could decide whether they were “keepers” for
his private collection. I fell in love with the smell, feel,
and look of these unrestored machines and knew all
too well how much originality, patina, and soul were
lost when a full “restoration” was performed. I really
wanted to keep the boat, and I was casting around for
a way to do so. The strong emotional attachment I felt
for the boat seemed to be lodged in her original wood.
I wanted to preserve as much as possible of CARIB II’s
hull, and I was absolutely determined not to disrupt her
remarkably untouched interior. At the same time, I had
to come up with a strategy that would work and would
not break me financially.

A

fter much research, I decided to take the boat
to Maine. Although boatbuilders familiar with
wooden boat repair are not unknown here in
Florida, they are much more common in New England.
I motored the boat carefully from Florida via the Intracoastal Waterway to East Boothbay. From there, I had
a boat transporter take her to Newcastle, a slow and
cautious trailer journey of about 19 miles. The driver
later told me that he had difficulty in securing CARIB
II because her sides simply bowed in when he raised
the hydraulic support pads. I was very lucky he didn’t
simply refuse to move her.

I arranged to have CARIB II stored for the winter at
Coastal Boatworks in Newcastle. In the meantime, I
had concluded that a full, traditional reconstruction of
the hull would be completely out of the question for me
economically. Not only that, but such a project would
disrupt, and perhaps destroy, the originality that I loved
about CARIB II. Instead, I became convinced that the
fiberglass sheathing method developed by Allan Vaitses
in the 1970s (see “Allan Vaitses Remembered,” page 68)
was the best way to save the boat.
What came to be known as the “Vaitses Method” (see
“The Essentials of the Vaitses Method,” below) involves
much more than simply applying sheathing to the exterior of a boat’s hull. It adds a new structure, an exoskeleton, that Vaitses clearly states must be thick enough and
strong enough to support the hull it encases. A critical

The Essentials of the
Vaitses Method

T

he fiberglass sheathing method developed
by Allan Vaitses has a long history and
has proved to be trouble-free over many
years when carefully applied according to Vaitses’
instructions.
In short, the principles of the technique are:
■ Apply a structural thickness of reinforcement.
■ Mechanically fasten the sheathing to the existing hull.
■ Alternate layers of mat and roving, avoiding
woven cloth.
■ Install liners for the centerboard trunk and
rudder tube for complete hull watertightness.
■ Prevent any further water intrusion.
■ Ventilate and dry the hull to a moisture level
below that required to support rot.
—DS

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Far left—The first
task in sheathing
was to strip the hull
finish, remove the
existing centerboard,
and install a
centerboard trunk
liner, seen here ready
for installation.

DAVID SOulE (BOTH)

Left—The trunk liner,
built by the author
himself, had integral
bottom flanges that
mated to the bottom
of the keel.

element is that it has to keep the wood dry, and it also
must be mechanically fastened to the hull, using nails
in this case.

C

omposite sheathing has a poor reputation
among some wooden-boat aficionados. I’m convinced that the reason can be traced to early failures during the development phase of the technique,
before Vaitses’ analysis. Early failures and delaminations—caused by coverings that were too thin or were
not mechanically fastened to the hull—may have
soured many on the method and tainted the reputation
of better techniques that came later, largely as a result
of Vaitses’ work. From my experience, objections have
evolved into myths, many of which can be dispelled if
Vaitses’ method is executed properly.
If care is taken to seal all possible leaks above and
below the waterline, the hull can be dried to a moisture
content low enough to retard any further rot. Vinylester
resin used in this type of sheathing prevents the wood
from taking on moisture. As with any wooden boat,
proper ventilation and the careful prevention of hull
leaks are essential to long-term survival. Done properly,
the mechanically fastened sheathing cannot delaminate
or peel off.
If the boat is properly maintained, fiberglass sheathing will extend its useful life indefinitely. To my way
of thinking, although a sheathed boat might not be as
highly valued in the marketplace as a fully restored one
(see “The Question of Value,” page 70), a sheathed hull
maintains reasonable value at reasonable cost. At some
future time, a buyer with true dedication and deep
pockets could remove the sheathing and rebuild the
hull to original specifications.

H

aving decided that sheathing represented
the most practical approach for me, I began
another round of research to locate a crew
that had actually used Vaitses’ method. An old article in National Fisherman mentioned Frank Chandler
and Harry Ankers, of Washington, Maine, who had

sheathed a lobsterboat years before. When I met Chandler and Ankers for the first time, I was impressed with
their knowledge and enthusiasm for the process. Chandler was thoroughly versed in the latest materials and
techniques, and in him I found my project leader.
With a workspace in Coastal Boatworks’ large, dirtfloored, boat-storage shed secured for the summer, we
were off and running. We ground off many layers of
bottom paint, revealing darkened, soft planking. Over
the next weeks, I proceeded to gently jack 3" of “hog”
out of CARIB II’s keel, due to a sagging bow and stern.
For me, that was the beginning of a project that became
a seven-day-a-week job, with many 14-hour days. But it
was the only way I could afford such a big boat on a
working man’s income and budget.

F

or a centerboard boat like CARIB II, sheathing
starts with lining the centerboard trunk, a process
Vaitses addressed in his book. While the boat was
still outside, I dug a hole under the hull and withdrew
the 2 1/2"-thick centerboard, cutting off strips as it came
out of the hull. I then built a male plug mold and laminated a fiberglass centerboard trunk liner over it. I
made the bottom of the mold to conform to the keel’s
underside, so the lamination would fit well once
installed, with 4"-wide bottom flanges. The trunk liner
had an outside dimension of 2 1/2", with sides finished
out at 1/4" thick. This left a 2"-wide centerboard slot, and
I later laminated a new centerboard to a finished thickness of 1 3/4" to fit into the new slot. To install the trunk
liner, we lifted CARIB II by crane, slid the liner into
position underneath the existing centerboard slot, and
then lowered the boat over the liner. CARIB II was then
moved indoors so we could begin the hull lamination
project.

V

aitses’ book shows that for a hull of CARIB II’s
size, a 1/2"-thick hull lamination would provide
the strength needed. Chandler made a sample
that confirmed this. The sheathing down low would be
twice as thick, by virtue of wrapping the layers of cloth
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around the keel from each side to give a full 1"
of thickness extending 16" up each side from the
bottom of the keel. The total laminations were
to consist of one layer of 1 1/2 -oz chopped-strand
mat, which is made of randomly oriented 2"-long
fiberglass strands held together by sizing that dissolves when the styrene in the resin contacts it.
Vaitses said this was the best material for adhesion. This
first layer of matting was set in vinylester resin, followed
by one layer of 17-oz biaxial fiberglass cloth, which is
composed of nonparallel layers of unwoven continuous
fibers stitched to a base of chopped-strand mat. Then

DAVID SOULE

For a total 1/2”-thick layup, 1.5-oz chopped-strand
mat went on first, set in vinylester resin. This layer
was nailed to the hull, and the quilted pattern of
nailing is visible at the right. Next came layers of
biaxial fiberglass cloth (one of which this crew is
shown installing) set in polyester resin. The final two
layers of 1.5-oz mat set in vinylester resin served to
sandwich the polyester core.

came six layers of 24-oz biaxial fiberglass cloth, all set
in polyester resin. After this, the hull would be faired
with polyester fairing compound and the final two layers of 1 1/2 -oz mat laid up in vinylester resin. This would
sandwich polyester resin, which is less expensive and

Allan Vaitses
Remembered
by Paul Lazarus
CORY SILKEN

T

he peak period of Allan Vaitses’ lengthy boatbuilding career straddled the market’s transition from wood to ’glass. By his account, during
the two decades he operated his own business in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, from the mid-1950s to the
mid-1970s, the Vaitses shop “built over 200 custom
boats in wood up to 48', in fiberglass to 52', and one
in ferrocement at 65'. These were sailboats, auxiliaries,
and powerboats to designs of L.F. Herreshoff, Alden,
Colvin, Hunt, Alberg, Steward, Frers, Ford, Dunbar,
Crocker, etc., and a few of my own designs.” Except for a
couple of commercial craft, that list consisted of yachts.
In the same period, Vaitses also built prototypes,
plugs, and molds for 22 different fiberglass models
produced by several large manufacturers; made ballast
keels and patterns for fittings; and did job-shop repairs
on anything afloat. This varied background served him
well for a second career as a marine surveyor, and then
a third as author of a series of well-regarded books
on boat construction, repair, surveying, and lofting.
(The latter volume has been reissued by WoodenBoat
Books.)
Vaitses wrote Covering Wooden Boats with Fiberglass
(International Marine, 1981) after devoting two years
in the late 1970s to refining a fiberglass sheathing system he’d developed years before, which came to be
known, colloquially, as the Vaitses Method. It was a specialized aspect of his business that he was quite proud
of; indeed, it appeared in advertising copy for Allan H.
Vaitses Associates: “Builders of sail and power boats in
wood, fibreglass covered wood, and all fibreglass.”
Simply stated, this sheathing system calls for

GOLDEN EYE, a 42’ Rhodes yawl, was first substantially

rebuilt and then completely encapsulated using the Vaitses
Method, with Monel staples as fastenings, by her owner,
Rich Emmert. The sheathing, which included the deck
and deck structures, was completed in 1981. No problem
has been noted since then, and the boat, still in the same
family, had an active sailing and racing program in 2012
that included the Heineken Regatta in St. Maarten and the
Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta.

manually laying up a structural skin of fiberglass
directly on the prepped surfaces of a wooden boat, and
mechanically fastening it to the wood beneath. Typically, ’glass is applied to the hull only—always to the
area below the waterline (including rudder and centerboard trunk if so equipped), and often to the topsides.
’Glass can be laid up and fastened to deck and superstructure as well, including features such as mooring
bitts and hatch bases, sheathed in situ.
By the time Covering Wooden Boats was published,
Vaitses had accrued 15 years’ experience sheathing a
wide range of boats of all sizes and types: rowing skiffs,
fast powerboats, cabin cruisers, lobsterboats, commercial fishing vessels, and the full spectrum of sailboats
“from small open centerboarders to deep-keel auxiliaries.” None of those projects suffered structural failure.

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DAVID SOULE

more water-absorbent than vinylester, between inside
and outside layers of vinylester that would make the
hull resistant to water intrusion. This layup provided
almost 16 lbs of reinforcement per square yard of hull
in fiber alone, not including the resin that bonded it all
together.

F

or full access to the hull exterior during sheathing, Bucky Holloway, the owner of Coastal Boatworks, suggested bolting supports for CARIB II
to his shed framing. Following his advice, we installed
6×6s that were fitted into the maststeps, wedged at the
mast partners, and rose well above the decks. The tops
of these timbers were sandwiched between and bolted
to horizontal 2×12s that, in turn, extended to the shed
structure. This worked beautifully, allowing us to work
on the hull with no jackstands in the way.
As soon as the first chopped-strand-mat layer was
applied and the resin had cured, a helper and I nailed
through that layer into the hull, using 1 1/4" hot-dipped
galvanized roofing nails on 3" centers—some 19,000 of
them. All the layers of chopped-strand mat were lapped
up onto the deck to form a continuous edge covering
that would be covered later with new deck sheathing.
All the layers of biaxial fabric ended at the deck edge
Sheathed, but not yet faired, CARIB II shows her new
“exoskeleton.”

By June 2001, when Vaitses was 84 and my profile
of his career ran in Professional BoatBuilder magazine
(WoodenBoat’s trade-only sister publication), hundreds
of boats had been covered this way, both by other professional builders and by do-it-yourself boat owners,
thanks to the book. According to Vaitses, there were
“no reported failures of the system after 25 years or
more”—provided that the practitioner, whether professional or amateur, strictly adhered to the principles of
his system. The Vaitses Method attained the approval of
the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Canadian government
endorsed loans on wooden fishing vessels “rebuilt” with
Vaitses’ covering technique.
Though he originally conceived this sheathing system as a comparatively low-cost means of extending the
service life of an aged and otherwise doomed boat, the
Vaitses shop also applied it successfully as a second skin
on a few boats still in excellent condition.
Note that the Vaitses Method should not be confused with the thin layer of fiberglass cloth set in epoxy
sometimes used on new cold-molded hulls. Note, too,
that Vaitses did not write the book in order to promote
the method. Rather, Covering came about because as
more people heard about his sheathing system, Vaitses
decided to save himself the time and trouble of trying
to verbally describe his method to boatyards asking for
details as well as to desperate boat owners appealing
for help. For these constituencies, especially the latter,
Covering delivers the information needed to do a creditable job. The book is out of print but readily available.
At only 153 pages including its index, Covering is
remarkably complete. It opens with the fundamental
reasons for undertaking such a project in the first place
(“for watertight integrity, for less maintenance, for
physical strength”), then proceeds with a half-dozen
chapters detailing how to sheathe the hull. Chapter 8
takes up deck and superstructure; Chapter 9 discusses
finishing techniques (“the art of fairing…smoothing

the surface”); Chapter 10 deals with centerboards and
their trunks, and with lapstrake construction; Chapter 11 presents a dozen “case histories,” the oldest of
which is a 54' Clinton Crane–designed sloop built in
1914 by Hodgdon Brothers. The book closes with an
appendix specifying precisely what tools and materials to buy. Be advised that Vaitses’ text predates current precautions (and regulations) regarding volatile
organic compounds like acetone and styrenated resin,
and protective gear such as respirators, safety glasses,
and latex gloves.
Having become a friend of Allan Vaitses late in his
life, I can literally hear him in his sentences on the
page. He speaks clearly, with authority. The reader can
readily sense that Vaitses personally performed every
task he describes and is willing to disclose the mistakes
he made in the course of perfecting his process.
What surprised and puzzled Vaitses was the virulent
response his innovative sheathing process engendered
among purists in the wooden boat community. His own
credentials were unassailable, not least an apprenticeship as a young man at the famed Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., in Rhode Island. Once on his own, he
was free to be fearless about experimenting with
boatbuilding methods and materials, which is how he
gained expertise, early on, in technical subjects no longer considered exotic today, among them cold-molded
construction, vacuum-bagging, and the use of cored
composites. For Vaitses, fiberglass and even the shortlived phenomenon of ferrocement were meant to be not
merely tried but mastered, in order to determine their
advantages, if any—no matter how hands-on messy the
particular building or repair process might be. It was in
that spirit that he developed the Vaitses Method.
And in his hands, it worked.
Paul Lazarus has written and edited for Professional BoatBuilder
since the magazine’s launch in October 1989.
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The Question
of Value
by Robert W. Stephens

A

s anyone who’s spent time perusing the brokerage pages in the back of this magazine has discovered, assigning a value to an object as unique
as an old wooden boat is not a science. The marketplace
is small—the number of potential buyers is tiny, and
the boats on offer are widely diverse in their
characteristics, pedigrees, and conditions. This means
that the basic economic law of supply and demand
doesn’t apply; demand for any particular type of yacht
at any particular time is too small to affect the price in
a rational manner, and emotional response becomes a
large factor in setting value.
The market for antique wooden boats bears some similarities to the world of fine art: a yacht is an artifact carrying the stamp of her creators. Designer, builder, even the
provenance of her owners over the years—all have played
a part in giving her a unique character, and the market
value will rest in large part on how that provenance is perceived at a particular time in the marketplace. But a yacht
differs from an Old Master’s painting in one crucial
way—a boat must be a functional artifact. No one wants
to buy an antique boat just to set her in a slip or shed and
admire her, as he might hang a painting. A boat that’s in
too poor a condition to be used has very little value, unless
her pedigree is so fine as to guarantee a restoration—and
there are precious few boats of that caliber.
Here lies the crux of the challenge of establishing
the value of a boat repaired with the Vaitses Method:
it’s the conflict between the emotional desire that a
boat be original, and the practical requirement that

she be serviceable. A great part of the joy that we take
in a classic wooden boat is our appreciation of how
her structure has been conceived and crafted by the
minds and hands of humans, in materials from Nature,
to survive and revel in the conditions that Nature throws
at her. It’s hard to set that emotional response aside
when confronted with a vessel whose structure has been
compromised by age and neglect, then overpowered
by a synthetic solution.
On the other hand, if the only economical way to
bring the boat into a usable condition is to resort to
such methods, then the restored functionality of the
boat will offset the loss of value from the emotional distress we suffer in considering the loss of the original,
historic aesthetic.
How these two opposing value judgments play off
against each other will be a complex balancing act,
different for each boat as we consider her pedigree
and provenance. And the most important element in
this balance will be the individual perspective of each
potential purchaser—how the boat’s pedigree meshes
with the individual’s goals, emotions, and desires; how
much ability he has to fund a more “pure” rebuild; and
above all, how much he just wants to get on with it and
go sailing. Those with a more practical bent will admire
the newfound sturdiness of CARIB II’s rejuvenated hull
and the charm of her antique ambience below deck;
those of a different emotional nature will mourn the
abandonment of her handcrafted structure. Whether
she is more “marketable” as a result of David Soule’s
labors is as individual a question as the question of who
will be looking at her listing.
Bob Stephens is a yacht designer with a long history in woodcomposite construction. He is a partner in Stephens Waring Yacht
Design, Belfast, Maine, and a regular contributor to WoodenBoat’s Designs section.

and did not wrap onto the decks, which had been fiberglass sheathed by a previous owner in an earlier round
of work.
With the hull exterior now sealed from the outside atmosphere by the waterproof layer of vinylester
resin, I set up a portable dehumidifier inside the cabin,
together with a fan to circulate air throughout the hull
interior, and thoroughly closed up the boat. The condensate at first totaled over 5 gallons a day and eventually tapered off to just under 3 gallons a day. Over the
course of the summer, I carried more than 300 gallons
of water out of the cabin, a startling total.
Drying out the wood of the hull helped to offset the
weight added by the fiberglass overlay. In addition, the
sheathing below the waterline increased the boat’s displacement volume by an amount equal to two-thirds of
the sheathing’s weight in seawater, further offsetting

DAVID SOULE

The author worked alongside his hired crew to complete
the sheathing project. As part of the project, chainplates,
structural fittings, and portholes had to be reconfigured to
transfer their working loads to the new exoskeleton.

the gain. CARIB II’s sheathing added 5,000 lbs to her
53,000 lbs, but with these offsets I estimate that the net
weight gain was only 834 lbs.

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DAVID SOULE

After being sheathed, CARIB II grounded out on a sandbar
on her return journey south via the Intracoastal Waterway.
The author believes her hull may not have survived this notuncommon incident in her previous condition.

A

s we installed the new fiberglass, each completed
layer was abraded using 36-grit sanding discs to
assure a good bond between them. We were still
working hard and fast, since we had to vacate and clean
the shed by early October, in time for its usual winter
storage customers.
Fairing the hull soon became everyone’s focus. During the days, I used a 3'-long flexible straightedge to
spread skim coats of fairing compound into the low
spots. In the evenings, the crew came in to longboard
the hull smooth again. It was an excellent system that
produced very little waste in materials or motion. CARIB
II’s hull was quite true to start with, and after a week
we were ready to add the last two layers of choppedstrand mat, which were applied simultaneously, using
vinylester resin. We used a release fabric over the final
layer to keep the surface as smooth as possible. After
the resin cured and the release fabric was removed, the
hull surface had the feel of a vinyl shower curtain.

T

here were several joyful moments of truth for me
after the sheathing project was completed. One
came as the Travelift at the Boothbay Region
Boatyard lifted CARIB II off the transport trailer and
gently set her over the new centerboard. As I jacked the
centerboard into position, I found that it fit into the
trunk beautifully, with the pivot pin sliding in easily.
Another such moment came during our voyage south,
when the boat grounded hard on a sandbar in Georgia. She sat out a tide change with only a small section
of her hull taking all the weight. If that had happened
before the hull was reinforced, CARIB II may have been
crushed under her own weight, but the incident didn’t
faze her sheathed hull at all.
Now, nearly four years later, I am still perfectly satisfied with the job we accomplished that summer. CARIB
II is now a rugged boat with dry bilges, ready for any
weather and further adventures. New visitors are emotionally moved by her original interior, the way I was

when I first stepped below. Life aboard my “museum
ship” resembles a living history exhibit.
As I write this, we are cruising the southern Bahamas, and CARIB II is once again safely at home in her
intended waters doing what L. Francis Herreshoff said
was the primary purpose of a yacht: “giving pleasure.”
I keep a letter aboard that’s from his father, Nathanael
Greene Herreshoff, dated 1936, stating that, “for cruising, Commodore Munroe’s boats are the best.” Our
daily experience proves that to be true.
I urge others to consider this method of saving moribund boats. In our present economy, with diminishing
returns and disappearing disposable income, there are
surely other aged hulls that need major help that cashstrapped owners are unable to provide using traditional
methods. Fiberglassing may not be the best choice for
boats of high pedigree, which, like fine automobiles,
are likely to find buyers who are willing and able to put
the resources necessary into a full rebuild. And it may
not be the practical choice for a boat that is just too
far gone to save. But the Vaitses method can give boats
that might otherwise be lost forever a new life of strong,
leak-free service, providing their owners with many
more years of pleasure.
CARIB II has now been conserved and preserved for
many more years with her original fabric and historical
authenticity intact. In her 88 years, she has had only
six previous owners, and three of those owned her for
more than 20 years each. My greatest hope is to also
have 20 years with her and to continue to use her as
designed, finding pleasure and beauty afloat.
David Soule grew up in Vero Beach, Florida, and spent time on the
water in the Sea Scouts and the U.S. Coast Guard. He spent many
years as a master auto restorer and as an artist creating large waterfilled prisms. He now divides his time between his metal fabrication
business in Arizona and sailing CARIB II on the East Coast and in
the Family Islands of the Bahamas. He can be reached at daviedoall@
gmail.com.

DAVID SOULE

After sheathing CARIB II’s hull, the author no longer
feared getting a phone call—as he did shortly after his
purchase—from someone informing him that his
yacht was sinking at the dock.
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IN FOCUS

Madagascar has a thriving trade in building traditional schooners of 30’ to 60’ in length. In Belo sur Mer, a small village
halfway down Madagascar’s west coast, dozens of these schooners were in various stages of construction during the
author’s visit. In the mid-19th century Breton shipwrights arrived in Madagascar and started building ships. This French
tradition continues with distinctive African influences. While the dhows of Madagascar are built plank-first, the schooners
are planked up over sawn frames set up on the keel, as they are in France. As with other African boats, the spars are made of
unfaired tree trunks and the planks bent in place using fire for the tight turns.

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The only ferries on most sections of the Madagascar coast are engineless schooners. Here a captain takes a boatload of
passengers across the sandbars of Belo sur Mer.

The Working Sailboats of Madagascar
Photographs and Text by Bruce Halabisky

I

n 2005, Bruce Halabisky left Victoria, Canada,
with his wife, Tiffany, on a round-the-world sailing trip. They have crossed the Pacific, Indian,
and Atlantic Oceans and are now sailing on the U.S.
East Coast. It is a trip still in progress. “I’m often asked
what were our favorite spots on our trip,” says Bruce.
“The first one that comes to my mind is Madagascar.
Photographically it was a feast of unusual wildlife,
interesting people, and diverse watercraft. Having my
own boat there allowed me to be on the water and
photograph the local wooden boats in use.”
The island of Madagascar has long been a crossroads for the trade routes of the Indian Ocean. Continental Africa, Arabia, Indonesia, and colonial Europe
have all left their marks on Malagasy culture, and
the sailing craft that ply the coast are no exception
to this. When Bruce sailed down the west coast of

Madagascar in 2010, he was surprised to see pirogues
with outriggers similar to those of Asia and Polynesia; lateen-rigged Arabian dhows; and, oddly enough,
French-influenced schooners. The other thing that
struck him was the sheer volume of engineless working sailboats. “Some mornings while at anchor I
would count 30 or 40 schooners ghosting past pulled
by a pre-dawn outgoing tide. The main reason for the
prolific number of working sailboats is the extreme
poverty, which makes engines and the necessary fuel
almost nonexistent on Madagascar waterways,” Bruce
says. But financial hardship hasn’t suppressed the
pride of these mariners who would often challenge
him to an impromptu race or deftly enter a crowded
anchorage under full sail carrying a couple thousand
pounds of rice and a milk cow precariously balanced
in the stern.

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IN FOCUS

Left—This pirogue,
transporting villagers
upriver to a party, has
the lateen rig more
commonly found on
a dhow. It is a good
example of the mixing of
traditions from around
the Indian Ocean.

Right—Families of boatbuilders spend many years
collecting wood from the interior before beginning
construction. In this photo, a master builder caulks
a seam of a schooner. A 40’ schooner, finished rough
for hauling goods, will sell for about $5,000.

Above—DORADE, Olin Stephens’s
breakthrough 52' yawl, debuted
her new spars and fresh
refurbishing at this year’s Antigua
Classics. At press time, she’ll
have just finished the Bermuda
Race, and will be preparing for the
Transpac.

Right—In the
shallow estuary
of Belo sur Mer, a
coastal schooner is
poled to her berth
at the head of the
harbor.

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IN FOCUS

Left—Schooners are built
outside on the beach
and can take over a year
to construct; by the
time they are launched,
they already have a
weathered, sun-bleached
appearance.

Right—Here one can see the elegant
construction typical of Madagascar
pirogues. Instead of having a straight
joint, the upper plank has been
scribed to fit the natural edge of the
hollowed log. Also evident is the fine
and delicately scalloped stern.

Above—A unique two-masted arrangement is found on the local pirogues; it looks like a sprit rig in this photo, but it
isn’t. The identical masts are set into a series of carved pockets running fore-and-aft along the centerline of the dugout.
This allows for an almost limitless combination of mast and sail arrangements: Downwind the rig is much like a squarerigger, with the sail set ahead of the V-configured masts; upwind, as seen here, the sail can thread the two masts,
sometimes with a wrap taken around the windward mast. A wide range of sheeting angles is available due to cleats
or blocks, both in the pirogue and on the outer edge of the ama. On smaller pirogues of 10’–15’ in length, the rig can be
rolled up and set on the outriggers to allow for paddling.

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The Construction Model
as a Tool
by Danny Greene
photographs by Lisa Greene

I

n the fall of 1988, as I was preparing to head south
for the winter aboard my ketch BRAZEN, I read an
article in WoodenBoat that I can best describe as “lifechanging.” It was the first of a three-part series by Harold Payson titled “Build a Construction Model, Build
a Boat.” Since graduating from college with a degree
in naval architecture in 1971 and working briefly in a
shipping office in Amsterdam, I had spent more than
15 years cruising, supporting myself by writing a column
for Cruising World while designing and building small
craft. While I had often built models of designs I was
working on, they were of cardboard and duct tape and
were not kept long or given much respect.
Payson, citing Weston Farmer articles from National
Fisherman as his inspiration, pointed out not only the
enjoyment of building models to be kept and displayed
with pride but also their value as aids to working out
designs. He also listed sources for tools and materials
specifically suited to modelmaking. His articles made
me realize that this was a respectable and popular
hobby. From that time, almost 25 years ago, I have given
more regard to my models and have valued them more
highly. When I built a house and moved ashore in Bermuda in 1998, I had not only a real workshop but also
space to store and display them.
Over the years, I experimented with various materials
and building techniques for my designs, as well as scales
for the models. Most of my designs are for plywoodepoxy boats of between 10' and 20' long and intended
to be built using stitch-and-glue or taped-seam methods. The scale that I most often use is 2" = 1' 0", or 1:6.
At this scale, I have found that using inexpensive 1⁄8"
plywood very closely duplicates the flexibility of 1⁄4"
marine plywood in the full-sized boat.
I realize that working in feet and inches places me
in a minority in this mostly metric world, and I have
designed boats in metric measure at 1:5 scale. What
keeps bringing me back to the 1:6 scale, and feet and
inches, is the existence of artist’s mannequins, articulated wooden human models that are widely available
and made in the same 1:6 scale. I feel that especially in
the design of small craft, ergonomics are critical and
often a matter of inches. Using a mannequin to check
details like rowing, sitting, and lying positions, plus

accessibility and other issues, can make a huge difference
in the practicality, usefulness, and comfort of a design.
I most often start a design with sketches at a 1" = 1' 0"
scale. At that scale, I use human form templates to
help assure that this preliminary design will achieve
my ergonomic goals. I acquired these articulated, twodimensional tools at least 25 years ago, and I don’t
believe that they are still available, but they could easily
be constructed. I have, in fact, made my own similar
2" = 1' templates, and I use them when I continue the
design at that scale.
When I am satisfied that I have a basic design that
meets my goals, I complete a lines plan and make basic
hydrostatic calculations. After making adjustments as
necessary to achieve desired displacement and stability
goals, it is time to build the model.
As soon as I start building the model, it becomes a
tool that helps me envision not only the actual boat but
also every step in its construction. How complex are the
shapes of the hull panels? What would be a convenient
working height for the building jig? The most revealing
step at this point in the project is the ease (or difficulty)
in making hull panels that conform to the shape of the
jig. The model helps me to anticipate challenges and to
figure out how to meet them. It is sometimes necessary
to “torture” a section of hull, but I have found ways to
make the plywood do what I wish, first in the model
and then in the boat.
What I find most extraordinary about building a
model is the thrill of holding the hull in my hands after
only a day or two of work. To be able to look at it from
all angles, and in bright, natural light, is simply breathtaking. Heat can be used to accelerate the epoxy’s cure

Opposite page—Articulated mannequins of the type used by artists are in 1:6 scale, so building a model to that same scale
allows the ergonomics of a boat design to be worked out effectively ahead of construction. Here, a mannequin helps prove
the functionality of a purpose-made boarding ladder, designed to stow in a forward cuddy. Inset—A mannequin helps to
establish the right location for tholepins on the 14’ dinghy SLIPPERY.

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Artist’s
mannequins
help get the
ergonomics right

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Left—Mannequins help to make sure that WAHOO’s cockpit works not
only for sailing but also for lounging or camp-cruising for two 6’-tall
adults. Above—By keeping WAHOO’s building jig low and the molds
external, access for filleting the stitch-and-glue seams is unimpeded and
within easy reach, as proven by mannequins.

rate and hasten the moment when you can release the
hull from the jig.
Although I have had no experience with computeraided design, I know that many fine programs are
available and they make strikingly realistic images. No
matter how fine these images or renderings may be,
however, they are still two-dimensional. I may be oldfashioned, or just old, but I find that being able to see
and feel that three-dimensional hull after this preview
of the construction sequence is not only revelatory but
also a little magical. Even failure of the design, or the
discovery of a flaw, is much less traumatic in the model
than it would be in the full-sized boat.
Building a model can be considered a tutorial in
taped-seam construction. It can also be a reminder of
the joy and awe of boatbuilding, or it can become a promotional tool to “sell” the design to a customer or a
spouse. And then it can be placed somewhere for all to
admire—all with a pretty small investment in time and
materials. My wife calls me a “model husband.” My son
thinks I play with dolls.
The design I am using to illustrate the use of a model
in designing a boat, WAHOO, is a 19' open-transom daysailer for two to four people that can accommodate one
or two people for overnight camping. I also wanted it
to be able to accept an existing rig from a Rhodes 19,
a Lightning, or a Hobie 16 catamaran and to carry an
outboard motor. Starting with the preliminary design
and then moving on to the lines plan, instead of threedimensional mannequins I use two-dimensional human
form templates (1" = 1' and 2" = 1' ) to give the drawings
scale. I use them specifically to confirm, for example,
that the after half of the cockpit would be the right size
and shape for two sailors to recline, that seating on the
side decks would be comfortable and contribute to stability, and to check the accessibility of stowage areas.
I decided to assemble the building jig with five evenly
spaced stations starting at No. 1. From previous experience, I knew that the most difficult area for twisting

the hull panels would be at the forefoot. With just a few
extra bits of twisted wire, the panels conformed to the
stations, and I was able to apply all the interior fillets.
Only a few hours later, I am able to release the hull
from the jig to see it clearly for the first time. A unique
pleasure!
In a design like WAHOO, the building sequence is a
critical element. How will the hull, centerboard trunk,
cockpit, and side decks be assembled? I wanted to use
taped seams wherever possible, but not in tight areas.
I decided to bond the trunk to the hull, and to build
the cockpit and side decks as a single unit that could
be rotated to work on interior and exterior joints. Two
laminated beams under the foredeck create the desired
deck camber and provide strength in a critical area.
The hull and deck would be completely finished on the
insides before being joined at the sheer with a conventional timber joint. Doing all this, often quickly using
five-minute epoxy, can be fast-paced and fun, even
exciting. I love that five-minute epoxy, in 4-oz squeeze
bottles.
Fairing the model, which comes next, is another
important stage. Expect to spend some time fairing,
certainly to fill all screw and wire holes but also probably to correct any slight misalignment of panels or
other bumps or hollows. Just as taped-seam construction is tolerant or even forgiving of slight inaccuracies, so it is when modelmaking. I like to try to keep
the chines sharp and visible, yet it is easy to carelessly
remove those sharp corners with an errant swipe with
sandpaper, although damaged chines can be filled
and refaired to achieve the maximum visual definition. Ultimately, what you want to see are curves that
are fair and harmonious when the hull is viewed from
any and all perspectives. Small adjustments can be
made. WAHOO comes pretty close, but perfection is
an unrealistic goal.
Probably the final role of the model as a design
tool is to work out the many finishing details. This can

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include the placement of seats, oarlocks, cleats, fairleads, spars, sails, sheet leads, travelers, and more. It
is certainly possible to work out these details on the
drafting table, but they can be made better and more
enjoyably on a model. Thinking about an unusual
color scheme or hull graphics? This is the place to
experiment. For the purpose of producing a fair
and attractive hull, the simple faired hull model is

sufficient. With as little as a coat of primer, it could be
considered an object of value and beauty.
After graduating in 1971 from the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, Danny Greene worked a year for the Royal Dutch Steamship
Company in Holland. For the subsequent 20 years, he was a cruising
sailor, mostly singlehanded in boats of his own design. Contact him
in Bermuda at [email protected].

Building
the Model

1.
Making a
building jig for
a model also
helps establish
the construction
sequence for the
full-sized boat.

T

o illustrate how I build a model, I have chosen
a simple, 14' open dinghy named SLIPPERY. It is
built in a female jig consisting of six stations held
in position by longitudinals running down each side.
The two bottom panels, two side panels, and transom
are attached to the stations with screws from the inside,
and the joints between the panels are secured with
short lengths of copper wire passed through predrilled
holes from the inside and twisted on the outside.
This arrangement allows unobstructed access to the
inside of the hull for the next step, filleting the joints
with thickened epoxy. For those who have not used
this technique before, practicing on the model can
build confidence before working on the actual boat.
I mix epoxy and fillers to the consistency of peanut
butter, and put it into a plastic sandwich bag that has
one corner reinforced with duct tape and snipped with
scissors to create a small opening, like the bags that
bakers use to apply cake decorations. By squeezing
the bag, I apply a bead of the epoxy mixture to the
hull’s interior joints. Then I use a plastic spreader
with a rounded end to smooth this mixture to a radius
to create a fillet in the joint. I have made a variety of
these tools of various widths and associated radii to
suit various angles of joints. In the real boat, after the
fillets cure the joints would be reinforced with biaxial
fiberglass tape saturated with epoxy.
At this point, the model is strong but still flexible. It
can be removed from the jig so that wires on the exterior can be cut off and the exterior joints faired. The
hull may distort slightly, but its shape will be restored
when it is reattached to the building jig. For the real
hull, a couple of simple temporary spreaders, or cross
spalls, fitted to the inside would hold the hull’s shape
while the exterior is faired and sheathed in fiberglass
cloth and epoxy, after which the hull can be returned
to the jig and its true shape assured by driving just a few
strategically placed screws.
After the model is returned to the jig, the gunwales,
which fit just above the tops of the station molds, can
now be attached, and the interior fitout can be completed, which will help to establish the installation
sequence to be used in the real boat.
—DG
More photos of the models can be viewed at www.woodenboat.com

2.

Panels are cut and fitted to the insides of the molds, held
down by screws, and wired together at the seams.

3.
Filleting
seams with
thickened
epoxy on the
model can
help build
confidence
for the
process.

4.

Fitting out the interior helps to finalize details and anticipate
problems.
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DESIGNS

DESIGNS

The Controversy 36
True confessions
Commentary by
Robert W. Stephens
Design by Cyrus Hamlin
and E. Farnham Butler

O

kay, I’ll just come out and say
it: this is one of my all-time
favorite boats. I can hear you: “What?
That thing with the humped-up
sheerline? The transom sloping the
wrong way? That hooked bow? What?
A center cockpit? I thought I knew
this guy….”
Wait—don’t turn the page. Give
me a few minutes to explain myself.
But please don’t expect something
like “Oh, I know she’s a bit homely,
but she makes up for it in all her
good qualities.” That’s not what I’m
going to say. What I’m going to tell
you is that while she does have a lot

of great qualities, I love her for her
beauty first and foremost.
Come on, stay with me. Maybe I
can convince you by pointing out
some of the Controversy’s features
in the drawings. Maybe you will
need to wait, as I did, until you see
one in the flesh the first time. But
believe me when I tell you that whatever it is that imbues a boat with
that ineffable quality of irresistible
attractiveness, this boat has it. And
against the backdrop of today’s
boats, and today’s cultural idiosyncrasies, she is more relevant than
ever, aesthetically and practically.

Controversy 36
Particulars
LOA
37' 3"
LWL
30' 0"
Beam
10' 1"
Draft
5' 3"
Displacement 11,500 lbs
Sail area
520 sq ft

I remember reading, years and
years ago, an article in this magazine
(WB No. 61) about E. Farnham Butler
of Mt. Desert, Maine, and his line of
innovative light-displacement cruisers that he presciently dubbed “the
Controversy line,” knowing the hornet’s
nest they would kick open among
proper yachtsmen. Most influential
was his 25' Amphibi-con, so named
because with light displacement and
shallow draft, it was easily trailered
for cheaper storage and a wider
cruising range. In the late 1940s
and early ’50s, young and growing
families embraced this concept and

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The Controversy 36’s cabins provide togetherness or solitude as the crew might wish. The deep ’midship cockpit offers
security. In rough going, the quarter berths will be the most comfortable beds.

ultimately over 100 Amphibi-cons
were sold, a major accomplishment
for a Downeast Maine boat yard.
The cornerstones of the Controversy line were light displacement,
simple strip-planked construction,
efficient use of materials, and innovative living arrangements. Butler
engaged a young naval architect
named Cyrus Hamlin to turn his
concepts into a buildable reality,
and the line soon spanned from the
diminutive
24'
camp-cruiser
Amphibi-ette to the flagship Controversy 36, the first of which was
built in 1953 as Butler’s own CONSTELLATION.
As an impressionable young
designer, boatbuilder, and dreamer,
I was impressed by the elegant simplicity of the strip-planked construction, which relied on modern
concepts like the strength and stability of a monocoque skin to provide strength and stiffness without
weight, and stable rigid plywood
for bulkheads and decks. As a student of traditional shapes, with my
sensibilities informed by the writings and drawings of such elder
statesmen as Howard Chapelle and

L. Francis Herreshoff, I was a bit
taken aback by the divergence from
classic forms exhibited by the Controversy’s reverse sheer and transom, but I was intrigued enough to
look closely and see that although
unconventional, the lines were
sweet and fair, and carefully crafted
to respect the spirit of beauty if not
the letter of convention.
I was also reminded of other
sailing craft I’d come across in
my studies—non-traditional but
highly influential work of designers from across the Pond. Laurent
Giles, John Illingworth, and Angus
Primrose were all working in a similar idiom, and the most successful
and noteworthy of their boats was
Giles’s MYTH OF MALHAM, a radical departure from earlier boats
her owner had commissioned from
Giles. MYTH was close to the smallest boat in the RORC fleet, extremely
lightweight, with high freeboard
and a reverse sheer. She incorporated lessons in construction
learned during World War II, when
lightweight wooden structures were
developed for everything from airborne lifeboats (dropped to rescue

downed airmen) to fighter-bombers
(the famed de Havilland Mosquito,
one of the fastest aircraft in the
war). She was greeted with rampant
skepticism, her detractors fearing
she would break up in anything
more than a fresh breeze. However,
she proved her mettle in not only
surviving but winning in several
very stormy ocean races, including
the Fastnet Races of 1947 and ’48.
Butler’s Controversy series was
an early adopter of the same thinking on this side of the Atlantic, and
while these boats exhibited similar
high performance to their British
racing cousins, winning was not
their primary goal. More important
to Butler was to put out an affordable boat that would allow a family of moderate means to cruise in
comfort.
With these conflicting influences
swirling in my mind, I thought long
and hard about the choices Butler
and Hamlin had made with the line.
I studied the sheers, the freeboard,
the superstructures. I noticed how
the reverse sheer allowed the freeboard to be highest where it did the
greatest amount of good—where
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DESIGNS

Reverse sheer places the highest freeboard where it contributes to interior volume, and it allows for a lower cabin trunk.

it can shoulder the bow wave back
down rather than letting it wash
across the foredeck, and where it can
contribute the most to usable interior volume. I saw how higher freeboard amidships allowed the cabin
trunk to be proportionally lower. I
appreciated how the curvature of
the reverse sheer needed every bit as
much finesse as a conventional sheer
to get the sweep just right. I noticed
how the universal truth that a longer boat looks better than a shorter

boat still held true—even on paper,
the 36 was clearly the prettiest of this
unusual fleet. But I wasn’t able to
fully appreciate the aesthetic genius
at work until I first saw CONSTELLATION swinging to a mooring in
Eggemoggin Reach. In the flesh, it’s
clear how well every line, curve, and
camber work together in an organic
whole.
My first impressions were painted
against a backdrop of the ’80s and
’90s, a time when most production

boats had adopted these ideas, but
much less successfully and more
heavy-handedly than Hamlin and
Butler. Today, mainstream yacht design
has moved on to a “post-modern” style—
straighter lines, plumber stems and
transoms—with the counterpoint
of “Spirit of Tradition” yachts loudly
calling back to their references from
the early 20th century. Against this
canvas, the Controversy 36 works
even more effectively, playing the
“retro” card that is so popular in
auto design, home furnishings, and
clothing—but she does this so well
not because she’s a modern interpretation of an older style, but
because she got it exactly right to
begin with. She was far enough
ahead of her era originally that she
wasn’t fully appreciated, but now,
looking back, she’s traditional and
fresh at the same time.
Interestingly, the Controversy
36 is actually over 37' long—it’s
not often a yacht builder will give
In 1953, the Controversy 36 prototype
CONSTELLATION hits the water for
the first time. Farnham Butler built the
yawl and sailed it until he was 96
years old.

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DESIGNS

The original Controversy 36 went
together with edge-glued (resorcinol)
strip planks (above). Today we might
employ a wood-epoxy composite.
The views below (right) show a roomy
main cabin and workable galley.

away his chance to show how big a
boat you can get for your money.
Her displacement is 11,500 lbs—
exactly the same as my old International 500 sloop, a contemporary
of the 36 in the conventional CCA
cruiser/racer vein, but only 31'
overall. Within that length and
displacement, she packs cruising
accommodations that work exceptionally well for a family, delivering togetherness and alone time in
equal measures. Her center cockpit
provides a deep, secure spot for sailing and socializing. The diminutive
aft cabin is a perfect clubhouse for
teenagers, with its own tiny private
cockpit. The main cabin features
quarter berths under the cockpit
seats—excellent sea berths. A large
head to port and a roomy straightline galley to starboard occupy
the widest part of the boat, with a
comfortable saloon forward. The
very forepeak is devoted to storage, meaning the boat will honestly
sleep six, even beating to windward offshore—no one’s expected
to shove his feet into the bows and
hold on while the miserable bunk
drops out from under him with
each wave.
On deck, all is laid out for easy,
comfortable cruising. Her yawl rig
was by far the most common rig in
the 1950s and ’60s, driven largely by
its favorable rating under the CCA
Rule, but is well worth keeping
today for its great cruising qualities.

A flat-sheeted mizzen makes a
grand riding sail, keeping the bow
pointed into the wind at anchor.
Maneuverability under sail is
enhanced by the leverage of this
sail at the end of the boat, and the
ability to shorten sail easily by sailing “ jib-and-jigger” after dropping
the main is worth a lot to the shorthanded cruiser. Against this are two
notable disadvantages: the mizzen
shrouds clutter access to the stern,
and the rig costs an enormous
amount in comparison to the modest amount of sail area that the
mizzen brings to the party.
I would love to build one of these
boats. Materials have evolved since
Butler specified strip planking edgeglued with resorcinol glue and fastened with ring nails. Today, epoxy
would replace the resorcinol and a
fiberglass outer sheathing the ring
nails. You might consider using a
cold-molded skin, with thinner strip
planking and several layers of diagonal veneers; or you might realize the
best of modern textiles and adhesives,
and sheathe the inside and outside of

thinner strips with fiberglass cloth for
a skin that’s both lighter and more
robust than the original.
There’s one big change, however, that I’d implement if I were to
undertake the construction of this
boat. It’s complicated, and would
require the input of a naval architect—but the gains in simplicity of
construction and in performance
would be more than worth it. I’d
redraw the construction plan to
eliminate the complex built-down
keel in favor of a simpler canoe
body and a bolt-on fin keel and a
spade rudder. This would complete
the evolution of this fine craft from
an ahead-of-her-time boat of the
early ’50s to a timeless example
of modern thinking in a family
cruiser, with a retro twist.
Bob Stephens is a principal of Stephens
Waring Yacht Design, Belfast, Maine,
where he draws boats that (almost) exclusively feature right-side-up sheerlines.
Plans from The WoodenBoat Store, P.O. Box
78, Brooklin, ME 04616; 800–273–7447;
www.woodenboatstore.com.
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Where

Are They Now?

OCEAN yACHT COMpANy

A Roundup of 100 Classics

by Maynard Bray, Robin Jettinghoff, and patricia Lown

“H

ow many actually get new owners?” “Do any
of these classics really get saved?” “It’s the first
page I turn to.” We hear these questions often,
so it’s time for a response.
As of this issue, the back page of WoodenBoat will
have featured its 100th classic boat in need of saving.
We began 13 years ago in issue No. 148 with the Sparkman & Stephens yawl TOMAHAWK (above), which
we’re pleased to report was sold, nicely restored in
England, is sailing once more, and has recently been
sold again.
Along with TOMAHAWK , about three dozen others
have changed hands. Of these, we’ve confirmed that
at least 10 have been restored and maybe twice that
many more are headed in that direction. Ownership
remains unchanged on only about 25, and these are
still available. Sadly, we know that 14 others have been

destroyed. Despite our considerable research, the fates
of two dozen boats couldn’t be tracked down.
Our purpose in initiating “Save a Classic” has been to
call attention to yachts in peril whose pedigrees, styles,
or backgrounds make them treasures deserving to be
saved. The ground rules have been (1) not to list boats
that are currently being offered by brokers. (Actually, a
broker wouldn’t touch some of the ones we’ve featured,
but in any event, we don’t want to compete with them.)
And (2), for boats not being offered for free, we require
that the price not be unreasonable. Selected boats are
featured at no cost; we list them only to spread the word
and help save boats that otherwise might not make it.
Without “Save a Classic” the number of boats lost might
have been closer to 100 than just 14.
Here are a few examples that range from restored to
destroyed.

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RESTORED
MasHnee

new owner Jan rozendaal and
builder George darling teamed up
to thoroughly restore MasHnee.
They did this in Vermont at the same
time as French & Webb were restor­
ing three other boats of this 1902
class in Belfast, Maine (see WB nos.
203 and 204). all four were com­
pleted and launched in 2008, with
MasHnee having a doug Hylan–
designed marconi rig and interior
layout. What a grand sight to see
these four beauties on the egge­
moggin reach regatta courses!
MasHnee’s home is on Lake Cham­
plain, but luckily for us seacoasters,
Jan and George brought her east for
some saltwater racing that first year.

Maynard Bray

46' Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 30
WB No. 179

FaMe

This yacht’s restoration had to meet
a deadline—and it did. in only a
few months after being trucked
from Chicago to san diego, FaMe
was strengthened and spiffed up for
relaunching on her July 10 centen­
nial in 2010—quite a feat, consider­
ing her condition, which included
a noticeably sagging stern, a rotted
forefoot, weak floor timbers, etc.,
etc. FaMe’s restoration followed
that of the Q­boat CoTTon BLos­
soM (now Leonore) as the second
such undertaking by dennis Con­
ner, the well­known aMeriCa’s Cup
skipper. For speed in the lighter airs
of southern California, compared
with the winds around Marble­
head that FaMe was designed for,
dennis fitted FaMe with a staysail
schooner rig.

BoB Grieser

40' Crowninshield schooner
WB No. 212

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Jarvis Newman’s nostalgia got the
better of him, and he couldn’t resist
this one. Years ago, OLD BALDY had
served as the plug for Newman’s
fiberglass Pemaquids, and in semiretirement he decided to go back to
wood and refurbish OLD BALDY
himself in his one-man Southwest
Harbor, Maine, shop. It was a great
coming-together both for Jarvis and
for the boat. Unlike MASHNEE and
FAME , which are many years older,
this boat didn’t require a thorough
restoration, just a general upgrade.

INSEt: tIM KEARNS

25' Pemaquid Friendship sloop
WB No. 216

DAVE HARKINS

OLD BALDY

cRUSADER

Persistence paid off, both in acquiring cRUSADER and in restoring
her. Present owner John Hutchison
missed out the first time around,
but kept in touch with the man who
first bought her (based on “Save a
classic”), and ultimately was able
to acquire her before any work had
commenced. John then undertook
a thorough restoration by himself
over several years. Although he is
not a professional boatbuilder, his
skill is evident in the photos he
took while the work was going on.
(See www.woodenboat.com/save-aclassic for a link to these images.)
Before cRUSADER , John had built
a lovely coquina, a Nat Herreshoff
design, for himself. cRUSADER was
launched last fall in Pennsylvania,
but we hear she planned to attend
this year’s Herreshoff Rendezvous
in Bristol, Rhode Island.

JOHN HUtcHISON (BOtH)

34' Fishers Island 23
WB No. 196

86 • WoodenBoat 228

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7/25/12 2:33 PM

BEING RESTORED
FalCon

John anderson

46' Burgess/Herreshoff Q-class sloop
WB No. 152
“save a Classic” can take only partial credit for getting
this boat into the right hands. Word of mouth among
the cognoscenti got FalCon a new and enthusiastic
owner—two of them, in fact. The first of these was the
late konrad ulbrich who had another FalCon of the
same universal rule class (designed by Frank Paine,
which he renamed hayday, see Wb no. 207), and the
second and present owner is gerald rainer who also
owns the lovely herreshoff schooner mary rose. This
FalCon is now about complete, having been restored
by konrad ulbrich’s son-in-law, John anderson, who
has gone to great ends to retain as much of the original
material (fittings as well as wood) as possible. she’ll be
sailing this summer.

maddy sue

douglas brooks

36' Clement lobster yacht
WB No. 222
Jan rozendaal so enjoyed restoring mashnee with
george darling (listed above) that he came back for
more by buying maddy sue. as with mashnee, the
work is being done in darling’s Charlotte, Vermont,
shop. recent photos show her getting a new transom,
some laminated sister frames, and floor timbers. a new
engine to replace the old Chrysler gas one is also being
planned. douglas brooks, a frequent correspondent to
WoodenBoat, is documenting the restoration with photos. maddy sue was built as a working lobsterboat, but
after that career ended she was used for summertime
recreation as one of the very first of the genre now
known as lobster yachts, leading in stages to the wellknown bunker & ellis variety, then to the present-day
hinckley Picnic boat.

loki

maynard bray

34' Rhodes 33-class sloop
WB No. 191
gus konitzky at Pemaquid beach boat Works and a
group of altruistic partners bought loki and trucked
her to gus’s shop in maine for a speculative restoration. she’s nearing completion to the point where an
owner could step in and make choices as to final outfit and color. With new frames, deck and cabin, loki
has had new life breathed into her and is set up to last
many more years. rhodes’s designs are always a joy to
behold, and loki is as lovely as any. you can check out
the class on the internet at www.rhodes33.com. When
loki finds a buyer and leaves the shop, gus says he and
his group are ready for another project boat—and we
hope “save a Classic” can help.
september/october 2012 • 87

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PoLLY
56' Nevins sloop
WB No. 188

jUsTIN KIRCHoFF

For reasons that we find hard to understand, this
classic nearly came to grief after she changed hands
due to her appearance in “save a Classic.” she was
within days of being cut up and salvaged for hardware and ballast keel when, responding to Craigslist
and matt murphy’s editorial in WB No. 218, Peter
gallant took the plunge, acquired PoLLY, and moved
her inside steve Carpenter’s shop in Rye, New Hampshire, where restoration has commenced. (We have a
link to steve’s blog at www.woodenboat.com/save-aclassic.) This was Henry Nevins’s personal yacht, and
the Nevins yard was famous for turning out the finest
yachts of the era, which ran on for more than three
decades, from about 1925 to 1955. A classic among
classics, PoLLY is one we never want to lose to the
chainsaw.

MORE CLASSICS WITH NEW OWNERS

Tempo—This Concordia yawl, No. 4, just under 40'
long, appeared in WB No. 151. she went to murfreesboro, Tennessee, for restoration and is still a work in
progress.

GoldeN BAll—This 46' L. Francis Herreshoff
ketch, WB No. 173, has just been donated to the Apalachicola maritime museum in Apalachicola, Florida.
They are excited to have her, as she was designed for
their kind of shallow water. They plan to make the
replanking she needs an educational project. When
her restoration is finished they will incorporate her
into their sailing program.

ThelmA—This 57' Logan 10-Rater cutter, seen in
WB No. 154, was purchased in California, moved back
home to New Zealand, restored, and is sailing under
ownership of Classic Yacht Charitable Trust.

pAVANA—shown in WB No. 174, this 46' Rhodes yawl
was trucked from Pennsylvania and is now undergoing
restoration in British Columbia. A link to her progress
can be found at www.woodenboat.com/save-a-classic.

scud—After being listed in WB No. 156, this 49' Herreshoff Bar Harbor 31 sloop was shipped via england to
Belgium where she’s being restored,

BlAcK spIrIT—The new owners of this 33' sparkman & stephens spirit class sloop, listed in WB No.
180, had her trucked from maine to Tennessee, then
later moved with the boat to Florida, where restoration
is progressing.

Apropos—A 45' William Hand motorsailer listed in
WB No. 149, she sails from Bristol, Rhode Island, as
PRomIse .

sArA—A ketch-rigged Baltic Trader, from WB No.
158, is being used as a floating home in Portland,
oregon.
BouNdING home—This 53' sweisguth schooner,
listed in WB No. 158, is nearly restored after 10 years, and
was recently sold to the Boothbay Harbor shipyard, in
Boothbay Harbor, maine.
eIleeN—This 58' Fife sloop, shown in WB No. 161, is
now in oostende, Belgium, being restored by Lowyck
shipyard.
TolA—The new owner of this 42' Ben seaborn sloop,
listed in WB No. 163, has replaced the cabintop and
deck, and has more work ahead.
leIlANI—This 50' Lawley yawl, from WB No. 172,
was sold to France, then came back to a boatyard in
Newport, Rhode Island.

hINdu—A 61' William Hand schooner that changed
hands partly due to “save a Classic” (WB No. 184),
HINDU has been made operational twice since, and
spent the summer in Provincetown, massachusetts,
where she first took passengers for hire back in 1945.
she will head to Key West this fall, where the owners
plan to take passengers for hire.
KØrK Her new owner, Bo moller, is restoring this
34' Danish trawler seen in WB No. 185, in Canada and
is documenting the process on the web. Find the link at
www.woodenboat.com/save-a-classic.
eVelyN—While mAsHNee was being restored in
Vermont, this Buzzards Bay 30, appearing in WB No.
187, was restored by French & Webb of Belfast, maine,
in 2008 along with two other sisters, YoUNg mIss

88 • WoodenBoat 228

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7/25/12 2:25 PM

and Quak eReSS ii . See WB No. 203 for the full
story of this spectacular restoration. Now named
LaDy M , this boat is available for purchase through
French & Webb.

SCIMITar—this 40' arthur Robb–designed motorsailer appeared in WB No. 202. She was sold and moved
to indiana where her new owner plans to restore her
and use her on the Great Lakes.

Sara L—a 43' alden schooner, shown in WB No. 193,
she changed hands, was put back into service, and now
sails from Philadelphia as katie D.

grey DawN—a 38' Robb yawl whose sale was finalized
because of “Save a Classic” (WB No. 204), GRey DaWN now
sails again as SoPHia from Center Harbor in Brooklin,
Maine—nicely refurbished and painted black.

SaBrINa—Listed in WB No. 198, this 24' aage Nielsen
pocket cruiser was sold and moved to New Hampshire.
She still needs some work and is currently for sale again.
LegaSea—this 31' Luders Viking sloop, shown in
WB No. 201, changed hands, was restored on speculation by Shipwrights Co., and is now for sale. She’s lying
afloat in Delray Beach, Florida.
MarLIN—the Marlin class is a cruising version of the
Fish-class sloop. the 21' MaRLiN, listed in WB No. 201,
is now under restoration by a recent graduate of the
international yacht Restoration School in Newport,
Rhode island.
PaNDa—this 27', 1919 S-boat, listed in WB No. 201 and
the third S-boat built, is currently under restoration in
Bristol, Rhode island.

wILD Hare—Reuel Parker designed and built this 55'
centerboard schooner, shown in WB No. 208. She was
sold, refurbished, and now sails as iRoNy on Florida’s
St. Johns River.
MOrNINg STar—this 30', 1939 Chaisson motorsailer,
shown in WB No. 213, has been sold and is now being
restored by Pemaquid Marine in New Harbor, Maine.
TaMaSeSe—Structurally sound, but in need of a new
caretaker when we presented her in WB No. 215, the 38'
Lawley power cruiser has been sold.
ruTH aNN II—a 52' converted sardine carrier shown
in WB No. 224, RutH aNN ii has been sold and is
now a floating home for her new owners in Mystic,
Connecticut.

STILL AVAILABLE
LittLe GuLL ii

42' Hand/Herreshoff power cruiser—WB No. 183

CouRteSy tuCkeR ReyNoLDS

No prospective buyer as yet has satisfied owner tucker
Reynolds’s criteria: someone who he feels will do the
boat justice. Luckily, LittLe GuLL is inside tucker’s
shed—on ice, as it were—so there’s no rush. We believe
someone, someday will come along, take the boat under
his or her wing, and give her the restoration she needs.
Having a boat designed by William Hand and built by
Herreshoff makes her unique. What a pedigree! She’s
practical as well, having good accommodations, a handsome appearance, and the performance you’d expect
from her designer and builder.

Vayu, ex-DoRiS

78' Herreshoff cutter/ketch—WB No. 162

MayNaRD BRay; iNSet: Mit MuSeuM

there’s not much of this yacht that’s salvageable, but that’s
not unusual among many restorations. Besides very deep
pockets, one would need vision to imagine what she could
become—or to visualize what she was originally. Brian
amble of California had the vision, but not the wealth.
But he did acquire her and make a start. as the largest allwood sailing yacht ever built by Herreshoff, and as a genuine, topsail-carrying sloop (or cutter, if you will), Vayu (or
more properly, DoRiS, the yacht’s original name), fully
restored, would be a show-stopper. and we think she’d be
a race-winner as well. Maynard remembers going aboard
back in the 1950s when Jim Mercanti owned her as a
liveaboard in Groton, Connecticut. on going below,
the joinery struck him as simply spectacular—and it could
be again, by using the same Herreshoff drawings that
built her, now housed at the Massachusetts institute of
technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
September/october 2012 • 89

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Bonny BriDe

Pauline

Just as we were putting the final touches on this article,
we found out that Bonny BriDe had been donated to
Jon Johanson’s international Maritime library. Jon will
continue searching for a new owner, one who will surely
appreciate that she’s planked with cedar imported from
Maine instead of nova Scotia pine, and is better built
than most. She has room to spare in both the cockpit
and cabin—and is in decent structural condition. Perhaps it won’t be too long until we see Bonny BriDe
afloat again.

Billings Diesel & Marine of Stonington, Maine, after
rebuilding her hull, has had to take over ownership of
Pauline . The cost of completion became too much
for the owner, and he had to abandon his dream. So
here we have a good hull without an installed engine,
and a superstructure that needs considerable work.
But the remaining work could be accomplished afloat,
saving drydocking fees and eliminating the risk of drying out from an extended period ashore. She could be
a moneymaker, just as she has been in the past—first
as a sardine carrier, then as a Coast Guard–certified
cruise vessel.

83' passenger ferry, ex–sardine carrier—WB No. 218

MaynarD Bray

MaynarD Bray

40' Green/Doucette Novi Boat—WB No. 206

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90 • WoodenBoat 228

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MORE CLASSICS AWAITING HELP
You can locate and review these boats from “Save a Classic” at
www.woodenboat.com/save-a-classic.
FORTuNA III
48' Commuter yacht; WB No. 165
HIGHLAND LIGHT
62' Paine & Lawley racing cutter; WB No. 166
SeReNA
83' Alden schooner; WB No. 171
LARuS
35' English cruising sloop; WB No. 181
VIAjeRO
67' Hand motorsailer; WB No. 184
VARuA
70' brigantine, WB No. 192
VeGA
50' Lawley gaff-rigged sloop; WB No. 194
eScApADe
73' Rhodes/Luders yawl; WB No. 195
NARwHAL
50' Eldredge-McInnis power cruiser; WB No. 201
DOLpHIN
21' Herreshoff Fish-class sloop, WB No. 201
pRINcezA
39' Robb sloop; WB No. 202

eRIc
32' Atkin ketch; WB No. 203
FLYING LADY
37' Culler ketch; WB No. 208
MADAMe X
36' Hand V-bottomed power cruiser; WB No. 209
MIRAcLe
35' Eldredge-McInnis sloop; WB No. 209
GRAND LADY
48' Trumpy houseboat; WB No. 214
wINSOMe wOMAN
37' Lowell lobster yacht; WB No. 217
GRAce
62' Sparkman & Stephens motorsailer; WB No. 225
GeORGIe B
40' Bud McIntosh motorsailer; WB No. 226
ONDINe
38' Atkin-designed Ingrid cutter; WB No. 227
pOcAHONTAS
31' Yankee One-Design sloop; WB No. 227
MARION M
62' Chandlery lighter; WB No. 227
Continued on next page

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September/October 2012 • 91

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DESTROYED
The one bright light in this list is IBIS, a 70'
Trumpy houseboat cut up by Trumpy maestro Jim
Moores (see WB No. 207). Jim did save her deckhouse, though, and it now serves as office at the
North Carolina branch of Moores Marine.

FreeDom

89' Alden schooner; WB No. 161
neris

66' Gielow schooner; WB No. 164
Venture

34' Atkin cutter; WB No. 167
hother

46' Rhodes cutter; WB No. 168

ibis

Trumpy houseboat; WB No. 176
CAITLIN uNdeRWood

CommoDore

54' Wicks schooner; WB No. 177
Lion’s WheLp

75' Hand schooner; WB No. 178
Venture

55' Watson ketch; WB No. 197
meLantho

Cythera

58' Burgess 10-Meter; WB No. 150

50' L. Francis Herreshoff power launch;
WB No. 201

Diogenes

orphee iii

50' S&S ketch; WB No. 153

triangle

90' Alden/Bugatti schooner; WB No. 205

28' Alden/Graves Triangle sloop; WB No. 159

Johanna

48' Atkin ketch; WB No. 207

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92 • WoodenBoat 228

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SEEKING MORE INFORMATION

W

e could not confirm the current status of the
remaining 25 or so boats. You can see each boat
that appeared in “Save a Classic” on our website at www.
woodenboat.com/save-a-classic, where you’ll also find a
place for you to share your knowledge about or experiences with these boats. If you know anything about any
of the boats listed below, we would love to hear from you.
GONE WITH THE WIND —47' Mower motorsailer;
WB No. 155
LINNEA —35' Double-ended Alden cruising ketch;
WB No. 157
LADY LISA —29' Sound Interclub; WB No. 159
COASTER—36' Murray Peterson schooner;
WB No. 160
GRACIL —45' Baltic 10-Meter sloop; WB No. 169
PRINCESS MARY—91' Ted Geary motoryacht;
WB No. 170
WHINSILL —31' racer/cruiser by Alan Buchanan;
WB No. 175
SCRUMMAGE —33' International One-Design;
WB No. 180
CONTENT—40' English cruising cutter; WB No. 181
EUGENIA—83' Eldredge-McInnis motoryacht; WB No. 182

DEUTERON —60' Alden 60 motoryacht; WB No. 186
TRÈS JOLIE BRISÉE —45' Abeking & Rasmussen ketch;

WB No. 189
MEMORY—40' Consolidated Playboat; WB No. 190
STARCREST—34' William Atkin Tally-Ho Major cutter;
WB No. 199
ARABELLA —36' Crocker Sea Dawn ketch; WB No. 200
WENDY—26' Crocker cruising sloop; WB No. 210
HOLIDAY—29' Hinckley 21 sloop; WB No. 210
PLOvER—34' Culler liveaboard ketch; WB No. 211
BLUE MOON —36' Alden cutter; WB No. 219
GAvIOTA —40' converted troller; WB No. 220
BANTRY BAY—43' double-ended cutter; WB No. 220
DANDELION —35' Cheoy Lee Lion-class sloop;
WB No. 220
LADY ELLE— 30' Elcoette 30; WB No. 221
PHOENIX—32' Elco Cruisette; WB No. 221
FROLIC —31' Alden Malabar sloop; WB No. 223

All three authors work for WoodenBoat magazine—Maynard Bray
as technical editor, Robin Jettinghoff as assistant editor, and Pat
Lown as research associate.

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7/25/12 4:01 PM

Void Space in Wood—A Magnet for Water
by Richard Jagels

The usual procedure is to dry wood
in an oven at 103ºC (217ºF) until no
further weight loss occurs and then
compare this to the wet wood as:
wood weight – OD weight
wetOD
wood
weight
– OD weight
weight
× 100
MC =
OD weight × 100
Depending on the tree species,
MC in living trees can be under 50
percent or above 300 percent. These
seemingly irrational values are a consequence of the fact that wood is not a
solid mass of cellulose and lignin but
rather contains considerable void space.
If wood were a true solid like steel or
aluminum, it would have a specific gravity of about 1.54—more dense than
water (1.0). The varying density among
wood species is directly related to the
amount of void space, with low-density
woods having greater void volume.
I’m reminded of an old dispute
between Adirondack guideboat builders who argued the merits of planking
a boat with white pine (Pinus strobus)
or northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis). With weight being a critical
factor in boats that had to be portaged
on someone’s back between lakes, this
argument was not a trivial one. Early
in the season, before the planking had
swollen, the cedar-planked boats were
somewhat lighter. But after the boats
had swelled up, the difference often
disappeared, and the pine proponents
claimed that their boats were lighter at
the end of the season.
White pine has a basic specific
gravity (G b) of 0.34, while the G b for
white cedar is 0.29. (See Wood Technology in WB No. 227 for details on
G b.) Since we know the basic specific

240
220

Maximum Moisture Content (MCmax )

W

hen football players are confronted by the press after a losing game, they often boast that they
will give 110 percent or even 120
percent in the next game. We might
suspect that wood scientists were
thinking about athletic boasts when
they devised a formula for calculating the percent moisture content
(MC) of wood, in which the weight
of contained water is expressed as a
percentage of oven-dry (OD) wood
weight:of water
weight of water
MC = OD weight × 100
OD weight × 100

200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

9
0.

1.0

Basic Specific Gravity (Gb) of Wood (OD weight, green volume)

Relationship between specific gravity of wood and maximum quantity of water it can
hold. (Graph modified from: A. Koehler, The Properties and Uses of Wood, McGraw-Hill,
New York, 1924).

gravity for wood substance, consisting
of cellulose and lignin, is 1.54, we can
calculate the maximum moisture content for any wood if we know G b. The
formula is:
100 (1.54 - G b)
100 (1.54 - G b)
MC max =1.54 × G b
1.54 × G b
Using this equation, white pine has
an MCmax of 229 percent, while white
cedar has an MCmax equal to 279 percent.
Thus, cedar has the potential for absorbing about 20 percent more water than
pine. The relationship between wood specific gravity and MCmax is demonstrated
in the accompanying table.
The take-home message is that basic
specific gravity or density of dry wood
is only part of the equation when calculating what a boat will weigh in service. Balsa wood (Ochroma pyramidale)
is exceedingly light, with a Gb of 0.16,
yet it has an MC max of 560 percent! If
a skin leak occurs in a hull that contains balsa core stock, the consequences
of weight gain can be dramatic. Perhaps some of you will remember that
Thor Heyerdahl’s epic 1947 journey in
the balsa-wood raft KON-TIKI almost
ended in disaster when the raft became
severely waterlogged near the end of
the trip.

Freshly Felled Timber
A long-held notion is that winterfelled timber is drier than that harvested in the summer. Research in
Germany and the United States fails
to support this folklore. A German
study found that maximum wood
moisture content in birch, poplar, and
oak occurred in March, April, or May
and the minimum in June and July.
Similar results have been reported
from a U.S. study.
Although seasonal differences in
tree moisture content tend to be quite
small, the variation from one species to
another can be quite large. American
white ash (Fraxinus americana) has an
average MC of 46 percent in heartwood
and 44 percent in sapwood. This is why
ash is so favored by those who heat with
wood, since firewood can be dried so
quickly. The MC max for white ash is 117
percent. In contrast, trees of swamp
or water hickory (Carya aquatica) have
average heartwood MCs of 97 percent,
which is very close to the MC max of 99
percent.
Among conifers, redwood (Sequoia
sempervirens) and western red cedar
(Thuja plicata) both have sapwood moisture contents that are very close to their
respective MC max values of 210 percent
for redwood and 249 percent for cedar.

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Trees with MC values close to MCmax
may prove to be more difficult to dry.
In some cases, this will just mean a longer seasoning period. In other cases,
like redwood and western red cedar,
drying defects like “collapse” can
occur. In this case, cell walls actually
collapse and distort when the wood is
kiln-dried. The heat energizes the
water, which in turn creates a negative
pressure that can’t be relieved by air
expansion, since all void space is occupied by water. Careful air-drying can
usually avoid this defect.

may be saying, why not just weigh the
boat at the beginning and end of the
season? A great solution for a small
boat, but impractical for larger vessels.
And what if you didn’t weigh it at the
beginning of the season and now want
to know the weight gain?
Besides, isn’t this more fun than
hauling a boat to a scale—perhaps on
a trailer—and then subtracting trailer
weight? And of course, then you would

have to haul it all back to the marina
or your house. As the yellow page folks
say: let your fingers (and head) do the
walking (and hauling).
Dr. Richard Jagels is an emeritus professor
of forest biology at the University of Maine,
Orono. Please send correspondence to Dr. Jagels by mail to the care of WoodenBoat, or via
e-mail to Assistant Editor Robin Jettinghoff,
[email protected].

The calculations for metric and U.S.
units are:
D 36 = 0.32 × 1,000 kg/m3 × (1 + 36/100)
= 435 kg/m3
or
D 36 = 0.32 × 62.4 lb/ft3 × (1 + 36/100)
= 27 lbs/ft3
Using this same equation, the initial
density at 12 percent MC would have
been:
D12 = 0.32 × 1,000 kg/m3 × (1 + 12/100)
= 358 kg/m3
or
D12 = 0.32 × 62.4 lb/ft3 × (1 + 12/100)
= 22.4 lbs/ft3
Now, if you know the approximate volume of wood used to plank the boat
below the waterline, you can calculate
the weight gain over the season:
(435 – 358 kg/m3) × wood volume, or
(27 – 22.4 lbs/ft3) × wood volume
About now, I expect some readers

2013

Thirteen for 2013: the 46’-9” cruising sloop NELLIE
is on the cover, and there’s a different shot of her inside.
You’ll see the stunning SPIRIT OF BERMUDA, an 86’
schooner basking in the sunlight and a dark, threatening sky.
There’s a pair of 12-½’s (one Herreshoff, one Haven), plus a
beautiful peapod, a Baybird, and the year ends at the
Crosby yard with a Wianno Senior. Photos by Benjamin
Mendlowitz, captions by Maynard Bray. Opens to 12˝ x 24˝.
The

WoodenBoat

STORE
PO Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616

Order On-line today at www.woodenboatstore.com

Density from Gb
In WB No. 227, I extolled the virtues of
using specific gravity rather than density—especially when using it as a surrogate for strength. But at times, the
density measurement is more useful,
since it will include the weight of wood
substance plus water. For example,
let’s say you build a boat using western
red cedar planking that you bought at
a lumberyard, where it had a moisture
content of about 12 percent. From the
Wood Handbook or some other source,
you know that the average specific
gravity for western red cedar at 12
percent MC (G12) is 0.32. You measure
the current moisture content of the
planking with a moisture meter and
find that after a season in the water,
it now has an MC of 36 percent. What
is the density (D 36) of the wood now?
The simplest solution is to use Table
3-7a in the Wood Handbook, but you
can also calculate the answer with this
equation:

Calendar of Wooden Boats
Item #800-213 $16.95
(plus shipping)

To Order: Call Toll-Free
1.800.273.SHIP (7447)
September/October 2012 • 95

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DAvID BuCkMAn

ContACt Cruising
Along the New England
and Fundy coasts in
a $400 yacht
by David Buckman

D

ouble-reefed to a snotty southerly, the pint-sized
sloop that I’d liberated from a certain fate in
a boatyard burn pile in 1976 staggered into a
snarling fang of sea, torrents of spray arcing aft. The
boat’s bottom was leaky, and wine bottles and canned
goods rearranged themselves in the cabin of this 18'
daysailer, while sullen clouds scudded low. I wrestled
with the reality that this is what I got for $400—a boat
that required pumping on the hour, and repairs of
repairs dating back to Elvis’s early days.
Cleve, the first mate and student navigator, was wet,
cold, and quiet—his liberally duct-taped foulweather
gear proving no more waterproof than the boat. What
would have been lively sailing for a real cruising boat
was dicey going as we held on for a slant of channel in
Maine’s Jericho Bay.
After four wretched hours of beating into the teeth
of it, the 40-year-old Lightning-class sloop, which
I’d outfitted for cruising with the addition of a small

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LEIGH BuCkmAN

With a breeze up and the author singlehanding, Leight reaches along at 6 knots.
For such a small cruiser, the old Lightning-class sloop was fast.

cabin, felt like a bucking bronco. The volume of water
sloshing around in her bilge was unsettling. I’d just
begun to worry she’d sprung a plank when my senses
were inexplicably jolted. It felt as though the brakes
had been slammed on in a panic stop, as I involuntarily slid across the cockpit seat and pinned the navigator against the cabin. Catching sight of the shingle
bar upon which we were impaled, I growled, “Damn it
Cleve, if you’re going to keep piling us on like this, I’m
going to install seatbelts.”
If there’d been a Guinness Record for groundings,
Cleve would have been a contender, so frequently did
he put her on the bricks. We’d come to a grinding
halt three times at Winter Harbor, bounced merrily
across Cow Ledge in Casco Bay, plowed up mud at
Seal Cove, dried out at Isle au Haut, and decisively
charted the shoals east of Dix Island, to name but a
few incidents.
Backing the mainsail, we were soon off the bar
and sailing again. The only damage, other than a few
chips of paint off the bow and centerboard, was to our
psyches, for we took ourselves rather seriously, had read
the magazines, bought the T-shirts, and knew that sailors worth their salt weren’t supposed to be bouncing
around ledges like pinballs.
I’d hoped to acquire a more substantial yacht, a
Hinckley Pilot or something of the sort, but having studiously avoided a real job to become a ski-resort marketing director, all I could scrape together to launch
my dream of cruising the New England coast and Canada’s Bay of Fundy was $400. Less than the cost of a

television set that offered little in the way of redeeming value, this wreck of a sailboat promised adventure,
drama, and romance.
I first laid eyes on the old sloop that was to become
LEIGHT while scouring boatyard back lots in the dead
of a bitter-cold January. Her mast had been run over
and fractured by the yard snowplow, and four toads
were frozen into 6" of green ice in her bilge. The yard
manager insisted she was a $1,000 boat but, desperate for airfare to sunny Florida, he finally accepted my
$400 offer.
Agonizing over how to address the rot in the transom, which had spread to the topsides, I sawed 2" off the
stern, landed a new transom in sound wood, and had the
world’s only 18' 10" Lightning sloop. I wasn’t sure what
the performance implications of this surgery were, but
I knew I’d be ashore if I didn’t do it. The cabin was the
next project, and then came a few shakedown cruises.
Having but a fragile grasp of navigation, on the first
few outings with my wife, Leigh, we stayed within swimming distance of shore whenever possible, and inadvertently invented what we came to call “contact cruising.”
We destroyed two rudders in the process, and soon
learned to carry a spare.

T

here were those who told us that our sloop was
not a proper yacht. We were painfully aware
of that fact, yet there was a compelling drama
to the wild coast stretching between Rhode Island and
the Canadian province of New Brunswick. When you
accounted for all of its bays, islands, headlands, and
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dAvId BuCkmAn

Washing socks was an easy task aboard the bare-bones cruiser, which was low to the water.

rivers, there were more than 6,000 miles of seaboard to
explore. In 1977, I was ready to expand my horizons and
so, with Cleve as first mate, we began a voyage to Canada
that we’d accomplish in installments over the next six
summers, trailering the boat home between trips.
      On the first passage of our voyage to the Bay of
Fundy, LEIGHT leaked alarmingly. Worse yet, in our
rush to get underway, we’d neglected to slip plastic
bags over the cloth sacks that contained our clothing.
A few hours into this minor epic, our entire wardrobe
was soaked and the clothes we had on were decidedly
damp. Thirty-five grueling miles later, every inch of it
into a Force 3–5 southwester, we sniffed our way into
Rhode Island’s Sakonnet Harbor as the velvety vastness
of night descended. After a dinner of steak and beans,
cooked in the cockpit, we turned in. I worried about
sleeping through my shifts at the bilge pump, which
was mounted next to my pillow and emptied into the
centerboard trunk. Because our berths were but 2"
above the bilge, the internal tides waited upon the sloth
of no man.
Two days and 50 miles of downwind duty later, we’d
left Buzzards Bay astern and awoke to the sound of the
halyards singing at the Cape Cod Canal’s Sandwich
basin. Imagining the pleasures of a sleighride to Cohasset, 40 miles up the shore, we were greatly distressed to
find a Force 3–4 northeaster piping up. The prospect of
70 miles of grinding to weather was sobering, but we set
out nevertheless. When it came to pounding, the little
sloop had few peers, and nothing made her leak more
freely. Hour after long hour of beating, she plugged
into a foul tide and fractious chop, with cascades of

spray streaming aft, and progress seeming scant.
If we got into trouble, we’d have to get ourselves out
of it. We had no marine radio to call for help, for this
was well before handheld units were available, and the
old 3-hp outboard barely ran, to say nothing of having
no battery-charging capabilities.
Lurching through the interminable body blows, we
rode the rail, pumped the bilge, and inched along in a
headache of warring seas, swaying in sympathy to her
rolling gait. We came less to think about our stream of
actions and reactions than to be them. The afternoon
ripened glacially, and when at last the tide turned in
our favor, we could feel the difference in the sloop’s
mood though we were still headed for Lisbon. We had
to force ourselves to ignore our slow progress and live
in the moment. Searching the horizon felt like seeing
false summits when mountain climbing—a sight that
lifts hopes your labors will soon be over, only to reveal
another arduous slope to be scaled. Church bells tolled
eight times when we wearily sailed into Cohasset after a
12-hour slog. To sailors of our humble order, it seemed
a significant event—and felt great when we stopped.  I
was reminded of Hilaire Belloc’s observation, “Those
who sail for pleasure would go to hell for the fun of it.”
      A sweet-tempered breeze the next day wafted us
30 miles east to Rockport on Cape Ann. Sailing past
a sign warning that there were no berths available in
the inner harbor, we landed at the dinghy dock. When
the harbormaster came round, I asked where we might
lay for the night. Shaking his head, he asked where our
boat was. When I pointed to LEIGHT, he erupted, “Oh,
that little pisspot.” Our pitifulness seemed to strike a

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dAvId BUCkMAN

Cleve at the helm as LEIGHT explores some of the backwaters at Winter Harbor on the island of Vinalhaven.
She excelled at what we called “contact cruising.”

chord, for he instructed us to raft up to his own boat
in the shadow of the famous Motif No. 1, an old stone
quay that was the centerpiece of this historic teacup of
a harbor. That night, Cleve almost won the sloop from
me in a game of poker, but I got two wild cards in my
last hand and skunked him to the tune of $200, for
which he promised to send a check soon as he got on
land again, though I’ve yet to see it.

A

s we made for the Isles of Shoals, 9 lonely miles off
the Maine and New Hampshire coasts, a humpback whale cruised alongside for 20 minutes.
Imagine: one of the biggest mammals in the world visiting our little sloop. Edging offshore in the Force 3
southwesterly, at length we sailed into Gosport Harbor,
where we tied up at the dock of the Star Island Unitarian Conference Center. We’d barely taken a breath
when we were summarily ordered off the premises.
Wiggling our way into nearby Haley Cove, a rockbound bight no larger than a tennis court and shallow
as a bathtub, we hauled away on the centerboard and
slid the bow onto a smooth strand of ledge amidst a
gaggle of skiffs that had been rowed there by Unitarians, who could land anywhere they damn well pleased.
Walking around this treeless sweep of island we visited
the old Captain Haley house which dates back to the
1700s when the Isles of Shoals were a wild and unholy
place populated by fishermen who greatly annoyed Boston’s Puritans with their savage ways, excess of drink,
and licentiousness—the colonial version of sex, drugs,
and rock-and-roll. Under the great vault of vitreous
sky, we were breathless at the infinite curve of sea that

stretched unbroken to the shores of Europe more than
2,400 miles to the east. That our little sloop was a passport to such a stirring spectacle exceeded our wildest
expectations.
      After putting Cleve ashore at Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, I continued eastward singlehanded. Two
days of light-air sailing found me 40 miles up the
coast, at the entrance to Casco Bay. Solo sailing was
intense. If I left the helm for a minute to make a sandwich or pump the bilge, even with a shock cord holding the tiller amidships, the little sloop wandered
about alarmingly. Worrying my way through a dungeon of fog in a Force 2 easterly, a few hours’ work
brought me to a velvet cove on the west shore of Jewell Island where I got the 10-lb CQR down in a kneedeep tide pool. The flickering lantern set a mosaic of
golden light to dancing on the overhead and warmed
the snug little cabin.     
    With the morning forecast calling for more fog, and
a flood tide making, I hauled anchor, raised the centerboard, shipped the rudder, straddled the bow with a
canoe paddle in hand, and spent hours mucking about
the shadowy emerald grottos at the head of navigation,
landing on a shingle beach. Chattering terns swooped
by on scimitar wings. There was a hush to the swirling
mists that rendered the place wild and mysterious.
As much as the cruising guide revealed of the coast,
we came to find that a good deal of it showed no signs
of having been profaned by man. The little sloop’s ability to sail into the slimmest of possibilities meant that
the quality of her accommodations were extraordinary.
Wherever she called, we had the best of berths.    
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DaVID BuCkMaN

Wherever LEIGHT sailed, even in the most crowded of harbors, she enjoyed the best of berths. Here she is
tucked in at the dinghy dock in Camden, Maine.

The Damariscotta River was a lovely contrast to the
restless sea. Meandering along on a ribbon of silk,
Riverside Boatyard on the Newcastle shore specialized—as it still does—in servicing wooden yachts, and
the thunk, thunk, thunk of a caulker’s mallet seemed an
ancient muse. Henry David Thoreau called river towns
“winged villages,” for their mercurial connections to
distant lands. Dropping sail at the Damariscotta town
dock, I wandered along the brick-fronted Main Street,
and looked into shop windows and the eyes of locals to
see what I could make of this decidedly foreign place.
LEIGHT was a handy gunkholer, too. Ghosting
silently along to a whispering breeze in the backwaters of Winter Harbor on Vinalhaven Island, we
tacked up a slender gut hardly wider than a country
road and silently streamed along muddy channels
where blue herons stalked prayerfully. We came to
enjoy contact cruising and dried out in the mud on
Swans Island, which reduced the rate of leakage for
a while. The best of it was the extraordinary wildness
and beauty of perfectly protected little eel ruts far
from the madding crowd. There being no tradition
of dinghy-cruising on these shores in those days, we
saw places virtually unknown to the world, which is a
powerful notion. 
Days later, when fog-shrouded Roque Island rose
over the bow, I was duly intimidated by the severe seascapes and 15' tides of the far Downeast shore. The
cruising guide suggested that those who cruised here
were able saltwater men. I certainly wasn’t, and that fact
made my adventures seem all the more compelling.

Skirting the mile-long crescent of Roque’s sandy
beach, I found it looked like a great gull’s wing spread
in flight. This was the holy grail of Downeast cruisers.
I guided the sloop shoreward where she was received
with a sigh. Turning to take in the sweep of wild islands
and sea, I felt centuries removed and thousands of
miles from home. This bare-bones cruising business
was extraordinary.
I’d been warned about the Bay of Fundy dozens of
times. Every cruiser we talked to had a story about the
tumultuous seas churned up by the world’s highest
tides, which can rise and fall as much as 53' at the head
of the basin. From 1880 to 1974, more than 110 ships
came to grief within a dozen miles of Canada’s Grand
Manan Island. Thoreau’s observation that travelers
generally exaggerate the difficulties of the way, was a
comfort.
Heading east and reefed to northerly weather, by
the time we made Lubec Narrows the sloop was swept
into a cauldron of roiling tide rips. I could feel the seas
vibrating through the floorboards as the sloop was surrounded by acres of churning water. Totally engrossed
by the uproar, it took me a while to realize there was a
sureness to her lively dance across the burning coals,
and a few hours later we sailed into the breathless cut of
water at Head Harbor on Campobello Island, the tide
range having escalated to 20'.
For a card-carrying social defective, my travels in the
tatty little sloop were often possessed of companionable overtones. Only minutes after making fast, I was
surrounded by locals who wanted to know what had

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a ID BuCk MaN (aLL)
av
Dav
DavID

In addition to finding good berths in crowded harbors, LEIGHT was able to find shelter in some of the most unlikely places.

drifted in on the tide. One craggy old fellow gave me a
small bag of clams he’d just dug.
Enjoying a day’s rest at nearby Northwest Harbor on
Deer Island, before my last leg up the Bay of Fundy, I
profited from a local fisherman’s advice, and the next
morning hugged the shore to avoid the strongest of the
ebb tide and take advantage of back eddies that ran
there. It was lively going riding the boils of current.
Peering to starboard I was surprised to see the pale
loom of Nova Scotia off to the east. It took my breath
away, because I suddenly realized that I could sail there
in four hours, head along Nova Scotia’s south shore,
trace the outer coast to the northeast, go through the
Canso Causeway, then make for Prince Edward Island,
the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and back home
via the Mississippi and Intracoastal Waterway. Just to
hold such thoughts was inspiring.
Blowing into Saint John, New Brunswick, as evening
came on, the docks let into the city center were in a constant state of motion, so I spent a fair part of the night
at a bar in the belly of an old tugboat drawn ashore,
drinking pints of pale ale. When the 29' tide served
the next morning, I nipped through the Reversing

Falls and into the St. John River, which offered hundreds of miles of stunning pastoral scenes that felt an
era removed from the moment. Swells of verdant meadows descended to water’s edge. Barns and farmhouses
were tucked in among canopies of maple and oak. Redwinged blackbirds arced across the gentle waters, and
songbirds raised their voices in a pleasant chorale as we
sailed past tiny farming villages that looked like 18thcentury woodcuts.
There had been a spectacular sense of scale to our
modest adventurers. We’d  muddled along, gone to
great lengths close to home for next to nothing, and
found our native shore more dramatic than we ever
imagined. We practiced the art of living large, suffered
a few privations, and learned many things we would
not have known otherwise. There was an element of
chance in pursuing our ambitions, but doing nothing
seemed riskier.
This article is excerpted and adapted from David Buckman’s book,
Bucking the Tide, about the adventures described above. The book is
available at www.eastworkspublications.com. David has been sailing
for 71 years, and cruises between the Chesapeake and Newfoundland
from his home port in Round Pond, Maine.  
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LAUNCHINGS
Edited by Robin Jettinghoff
hese pages are dedicated to sharing news of recently
launched new boats and “relaunched” (that is,
restored or substantially rebuilt) craft. Please send
color photographs of your projects to: Launchings,
WoodenBoat, P.O. Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616, or
e-mail us at [email protected].
Include the following information: (1) length on
deck; (2) beam; (3) type, class, or rig; (4) boat’s name;
(5) names and contact information (include e-mail or
phone) of designer, builder, photographer, and owner;
(6) port or place of intended use; (7) date of launching
(should be within the past year); (8) brief description of
construction or restoration.

TOM PAMPERIN

T

Above—Ross Lillistone’s website, www.baysidewoodenboats.com.au,
reports that the Phoenix III is his most popular design. Lance Pamperin of Winneconne, Wisconsin, built his 15' 2" × 4' 9" Phoenix III
hull from 1⁄4" Baltic birch plywood. Lance appreciated the fore-and-aft
buoyancy chambers and convertible bench seats when he spent two
weeks camp-cruising on Lake Huron last summer.

CARA TOuRETzKY

Left—Ron Touretzky built this ultralight
skin-on-frame canoe from ponderosa pine
and red oak. The skin is aviation-grade
Dacron over Kevlar roving sealed with
polyester resin. An Arrow 14 design by Platt
Monfort (www.gaboats.com), TRIXIE is 14'
long, 28" wide, and weighs just 23 lbs. Ron
and his family will paddle TRIXIE near
their home in New Jersey.

Above—Michael Windsor, of Windsor Boat Works (www.windsorboat
works.com) in Gravenhurst, Ontario, designed this 16' runabout based
on a 1930s Lake Muskoka Gentleman’s Racer. Brad Dagenais spent
four years building TESS from plywood and mahogany. Power for TESS
comes from two restored 1958 Mercury 45-hp outboards. You’ll see
Brad and TESS on the waterways near his home in Orillia, Canada.

CHRISTIAN NEuMANN

JOHN CHAPIN

Below— Christian Neumann of Tirol, Austria, built
the first hull from Iain Oughtred’s Spike plans, and
thus named her SPIKE NR. 1. The 12' 3" × 4' 2" hull
is planked with marine plywood on oak frames,
and trimmed in ash, fir, and spruce. Neumann will
sail her on Alpine lakes and rivers in Austria and
Germany, and on the waters around Venice. Plans are
available at www.woodenboatstore.com.

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BONNIE NICKELS

Below—Dave Higby of D. & H. Finish Carpentry and Wooden Boats of Gaines,
Michigan, just built his first boat, a 15' 6" × 5' 4" Jericho Bay Lobster Skiff
designed by Joel White (see WB Nos. 210 and 211). The hull is strip-planked
1
⁄2" ash, while the transom, breasthook, and trim are of cherry. Dave harvested
all the wood locally. Contact him at 810–287–0745 or dhfinishcarpentry@
gmail.com. Get plans from www.woodenboatstore.com.

HILARy CALNAN

Below—Father and son, Joe and Brian Giroux, spent 14 months building two
cedar-strip 12' kayaks. The boats are based on Nick Schade’s Great Auk design,
found in his book The Strip-Built Sea Kayak. One kayak is for Joe’s wife who gave
up her garage during the construction. The family paddles on waters near their
home in southeast Michigan. Get Schade’s book at www.woodenboatstore.com.

JOE GIROUx

Above—In 1985, archaeologist Daniel La Roche
excavated four 34' -long, pre-1750 batteaux plats in
Québec City. Joe Calnan transferred the dimensions from a drawing in La Roche’s report at
two-thirds scale to create LAFORTUNE, a 23' × 4' St.
Lawrence River batteau plat. Her stitch-and-glue fir
plywood hull is designed for four rowers and a cox, or
conducteur. Contact Joe at [email protected].
Below—Kevin Lewis chose to launch his 16' × 6' Weekender,

GRANDE ROJO, on June 21 under the midnight sun in Alberta,

NANCy LEWIS

TRACEy MUNSON

Canada, because there was no one around then to see if anything
went wrong. Construction was stitch-and-glue plywood with lots of
epoxy and screws, according to Kevin. Contact him at rafternk@
hotmail.com; plans are available at www.stevproj.com.

Above—Mary Sue and Bob Traynelis built this 16' Florida model
pulling boat, BLISS, at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum with
Public Boatbuilding Program Manager, the late Dan Sutherland.
This Rushton design has a mahogany keel, Atlantic white cedar
planking, slippery elm ribs, iroko decking, and oars of hard cherry.
The couple decorated the three thwarts with wood mosaics of their
design. Contact [email protected].

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LAUNCHINGS

Connor Hill

Below—in august 2011, Paul laBrie launched this 20' -long
Bangor Packet, designed by Joel White, in Garland, maine.
laBrie strip-planked the 80-lb hull with pine, decked her with
4mm sapele plywood, and trimmed her with douglas-fir. He
modified White’s plans to take a removable Piantedosi row
Wing sliding-seat rig. Finished boats are available from www.
labriesmallcraft.com, plans from www.woodenboatstore.com.

Paul laBrie

Above—Charlie Hill of ashburn, Virginia, just launched
THe Carol lYnn iii, a 28' richard Woods–designed catamaran, constructed of okoume plywood. He built the major
components in his backyard over four years. Then, because
of her 18' beam, he had to move those pieces to a marina,
where he spent three more years assembling them. Plans are
available at www.sailingcatamarans.com.

JørGen aSk

Left— draGon Harald FairHair ,
at 114' loa with a beam of 27', is the
largest Viking ship replica yet built.
launched June 5 in Haugesund, norway, she took on stone ballast, and had
her 3,200-sq-ft silk sail bent onto her
56' -long yard. She carries 50 oars and
will retrace Viking routes to istanbul,
and perhaps later to america. For more
information, see www.vikingkings.com.

mike kimBrel

rene Vidmer

Below—mike kimbrel entered his 34' dreamboat design in the
WoodenBoat design Challenge of 2010. He finished building
the prototype hull, marY linda , last summer with 5⁄8" plywood
sides, and two layers of 1⁄2" plywood on her bottom, all ’glassed and
epoxied. mike is currently fitting her out as a motorsailer. mike
and his family cruise on Puget Sound in Washington. Contact
him at [email protected] or 360–273–9202.

Above—rene Vidmer built kiSS oF THe WolF, a Jim
michalak–designed Power Cuddy Skiff, in his nazareth,
Pennsylvania, backyard. The design is a 15' 5" -long flatbottomed hull that carries a 9.8-hp outboard motor. Vidmer took kiSS oF THe WolF on an 8,000-mile maiden
voyage circumnavigating the eastern half of the united
States. Plans are available at www.duckworksbbs.com.

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...AND RELAUNCHINGS

ERIC HuFF

K ATE HOLDEN

Right—This 10' 2" lapstrake tender didn’t leak a drop when
launched this May after a rebuild by Mike Moros of Brooklin, Maine. Originally launched in the early 1960s by the
Camden Shipbuilding Company (now Wayfarer Marine)
in Camden, Maine, she was built as a tender to John
Porter’s Bunker & Ellis–built KITTIWAKE II in Penobscot
Bay. She graces Penobscot Bay once again, afloat at Great
Spruce Head Island, Maine.

Below—Jim Cameron restored this 1951, 15' Century Palomino,
and launched her last summer in St. Regis Lake, New York. After a
refit that included replacement of the chine logs, he stripped her
down to bare wood before giving her a glossy blue hull. Jim and
his family enjoy FIREFLY on the lakes of the Adirondack region of
New York. Contact him at www.adkguideboat.com.

ERIK A HEMPHILL

Above—In 2008, Jeff Poisson found this 17' Commander
runabout in a garage in Massachusetts. Built in 1960 by
Cruisers, Inc. of Oconto, Wisconsin, it had been stored
there since 1973. After a three-year restoration with
assistance from his cousin Rob Poisson, Jeff launched
S.S. MINNOW on Wallum Lake, Massachusetts, powered
by her original motor, a 1960 Mercury 70-hp 700 model. 

CLAIRE WAKEFIELD

Hints for taking good photos of your boat:

Above—The Antique Boat Museum of Clayton, New York,
just relaunched WILD GOOSE , a 1915 high-speed launch
by Hutchinson’s Boat Works, after a two-year complete
restoration by the museum. Cleveland Dodge purchased
her in 1928 and kept her for 80 years. After his death, his
children donated her to the museum. In the 1990s, the
museum incorporated her silhouette into its logo.

1. Please shoot to the highest resolution and largest size
possible. Send no more than five unretouched images on a
CD, and include rough prints of all images. We also accept
transparencies and high-quality prints.
2. Clean the boat. Stow fenders and extraneous gear below.
Properly ship or stow oars, and give the sails a good harbor
furl if you’re at anchor.
3.  Schedule the photo session for early, or late, in the day to
take advantage of low-angle sunlight. Avoid shooting at high
noon and on overcast days.
4. Be certain that the horizon appears level in your viewfinder.
5.  Keep the background simple and/or scenic. On a flat page,
objects in the middle distance can appear to become part of
your boat. Take care that it doesn’t sprout trees, flagpoles,
smokestacks, or additional masts and crew members.
6. Take many photos, and send us several. Include some action
shots and some of the boat at rest. For a few of the pictures,
turn the camera on its side to create a vertical format.

We enjoy learning of your work—it affirms the vitality of the wooden
boat community. Unfortunately, a lack of space prevents our publishing
all the material submitted. If you wish to have your photos returned,
please include appropriate postage.

September/October 2012 • 105

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MODELS: Already built, and ready to

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REVIEW

PRODUCTS • BOOKS • VIDEOS • STUFF

AIDA
AIDA, by Maynard Bray. Noah Publications, P.O. Box
14, Brooklin, ME 04616. 156 pp., $45. Available from the
WoodenBoat Store, www.woodenboatstore.com

Reviewed by John C. Harris

T

he lovely Herreshoff yawl AIDA has delivered no refugees or relief supplies, no soldiers from Dunkirk,
conducted no wartime patrols. She took no mountaineers to Patagonia, nor singlehanders across the Atlantic. She has spent her whole life as a pleasure boat in
New England. AIDA is a small yacht, a very fine one that
has enchanted generations since her 1926 launch. In
this age when the glossy magazines note in linear miles
the cumulative lengths of luxury yachts on order, and
when plutocratic owners commission their own adoring
coffee-table books, what makes us care about this 331⁄2'
yawl?
We’ll return to that question in a moment, but first
I’ll explain why I’m deploying my prejudices early:
In a few short years I’ve acquired a gentle wife, a tiny
baby girl, a 40th birthday, and a growing skepticism
about my own material urges. The worship of yachts
is something I’m starting to associate with a dissolute
bachelorhood. I once bought an expensive book about
the 295' schooner-yacht ATHENA . Two hundred pages
of stagey photography and breezy captions celebrate the
extravagant details afforded by Silicon Valley millions
($100 million is the number I heard). The effect is at
once arresting and nauseating. My patience for such
glossy coffee-table books has thinned.
While I awaited my copy of AIDA, a new book by
Maynard Bray about the fine yawl, to temper my
prejudice I reread for the tenth time Into the Wind, a
1957 book by Mary Van Nes. This slim page-turner
follows the Van Nes family of eight as they acquire and
live with the 72' Alden schooner CHAUVE-SOURIS, also
launched in 1926. Hilarity and misadventure unfold in
this sparkling memoir, climaxing on the last page with a

family ballot vote on whether to sell or keep the monster.
It is a terrific addition to the genre of boat-as-almosthuman-family-member, joining well-known books like
Joe Richards’s incomparable Princess and Farley Mowat’s
semi-fictional The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float. These books
affirm my essential belief that a yacht can be a part of
a rich and healthy family ecosystem. A pleasure boat,
even the humblest sort, is the fabric on which family
memories are printed. Sometimes, as with AIDA, the
yacht is truly loved all her life.

I

t is easy to see why. AIDA’s pedigree is golden, and
Bray sets down the lineage in a fast-reading, wellillustrated chapter. The savant Nathanael G. Herreshoff

September/October 2012 • 109

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designed for his own use a 26' sloop called ALERION,
a yacht of such perfection that the writer’s prose box
is soon emptied of purple crayons. (The ALERION of
1912 is still in production 100 years later, both in wood
and in fiberglass.) In 1924, Capt. Nat lengthened the
keel-centerboard ALERION design to create the 30'
PLEAsuRE , again for his own use, on Florida’s Biscayne
Bay. ALERION and PLEAsuRE are thin-boned daysailers with very modest accommodations. To create a
cruiser, sidney Herreshoff filled out his father’s PLEAsuRE design, hardening the bilges, adding freeboard,
and stretching her to 33' 6". A wealthy industrial family
ordered her built in 1926, the first of just four owners
to date. she was launched with the infelicitous name
GEE WHIz but acquired the more musical AIdA with a
change of ownership in 1935.
Like the Verdi opera, AIdA needs a couple of spins
before her surpassing brilliance can be appreciated.
short-ended for the period and with a wide coach roof,
she is not as sleek as some of the more-famous Herreshoff
beauties. But she has a rightness that can’t be dated,
with an eye-watering lines plan, a neatly proportioned
yawl rig, and flared cabin sides meeting at a point ahead
of the mast. down below the fit-out is spartan by modern
tastes, with mostly sitting headroom and the galley sited
forward of the mast, but its smart paneling, symmetry,
and open spaces are restful.
All of this has been faithfully preserved and polished
for 86 years, 40 of them in the Bray family. Maynard Bray,
this magazine’s technical editor, worked for many years
at Mystic seaport museum and has a historian’s knack
for pinning down detail, little of which is missing from
the book. We learn exactly when grabrails were added
to the cabintop, when the engine exhaust was relocated,

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110 • WoodenBoat 228

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7/25/12 2:29 PM

Woodenboat RevieW

and the shifting locations of the head. Bray, who has
been captioning the Calendar of Wooden Boats since the
1980s, narrates with the wholesome, non-threatening
flavor of Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac dispatches.
The book is divided into short, stand-alone chapters
rather than a narrative arc. I tend to read such picture
books backwards or from the middle, so this format
works for a boat nerd like me.
The book opens with a description of sailing the
boat: getting underway, shortening sail, close-quarters
maneuvering, and anchoring. We then move on to a
discussion of the design and, following that, a chapter
on her owners. An appendix amplifies this chapter with
correspondence between her second owner, Henry C.
White, and Nathanael Herreshoff. In one of the letters,
the smitten White asks Herreshoff to marry him to
the boat upon his arrival at the Rhode Island yard, as
his home state of Connecticut “is The Land of Steady
Habits....and moral irregularities are frowned upon
here.” (Herreshoff declines, saying he is “no parson.”)
Chapter four comprises a series of vignettes called
“Using AIDA,” and it succinctly covers events like the
boat’s 1968 delivery to Maine and a summer living
aboard with an active toddler and a 10-year-old.
Excluding the bittersweet delivery to her new owners,
we have only these 12 pages detailing 40 years of family
adventures. Perhaps a charismatic sailboat of such
contented longevity deserves a less technical account
than this. I’d have liked to know why the spinnaker
was abandoned after a single early trial on page 77, for
example; maybe it was a funny story. By the time we
move through a chapter on maintenance, and another
covering AIDA’s extravagant and well-deserved 2008
restoration by Doug Hylan, she feels like a precious
museum installation. Still, while I wanted more stories
of foaming reaches and snug harbors, of near misses
and stray kisses, through all of Bray’s technical detail
shines the light of true passion. And that is what makes
us care about this 331⁄2' yawl.

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IDA’s charisma carries the day, and she is done
a great favor by Benjamin Mendlowitz’s radiant
photography and exquisite book production. Mendlowitz, a friend and neighbor of the Brays, has mastered
the capture of Maine’s singular blue-green light. This
is an unusually handsome volume, made better still by
daughter Kathy Bray’s watercolors, by Doug Hylan’s
unusually fine CAD drawings, and by the happy inclusion of many original Herreshoff Mfg. Co. drawings.
This book is an enduring testament to the genius of this
little yacht.
The Bray family were gentle and thoughtful owners
and had the wisdom to require a highly competent restoration as part of a sales agreement when they let AIDA
go in 2007. Few wooden boats are so lucky. The new
owners inherit one of the finest light cruisers on American waters, better than new and ready for new family
memories, foam in her teeth, and poetry in her soul.
John C. Harris owns Chesapeake Light Craft in Annapolis, Maryland, where he designs, builds, and writes about wooden boats.

Photo Courtesy: Small Craft Advisor Magazine

A

Learn more about John Welsford and the Scamp in the
March/April 2012 issue of WoodenBoat. Howard Rice is the
famed small boat adventurer and Cape Horn solo sailor.
For more information or to register, please contact the School at
360-385-4948 or e-mail us at [email protected]
The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is hosting
several short classes next summer. Check out our web site
for additional classes.

www.nwboatschool.org

/NWBoatSchool
/NorthwestMaritimeCenter

September/October 2012 • 111

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Woodenboat RevieW

The New York Yacht Club,
A History, 1844–2008

July 21–22 Classics at Larchmont Race Week
Larchmont Yacht cLub, nY
www.larchmontyc.org
[email protected]

Aug. 11–12 Corinthian Classic Yacht Regatta
marbLehead, ma
www.corinthianclassic.org
[email protected]
[email protected]

Aug. 19

Opera House Cup
nantucket, ma

www.operahousecup.org
[email protected]

Aug. 24–25 Herreshoff Marine Museum—
Herreshoff Classic Regatta
bristoL, ri
www.herreshoff.org

Sept. 1–2

Museum of Yachting Classic
Yacht Regatta
newport, ri
www.moy.org

Sept. 15–16 Indian Harbor Yacht Club
Classic Regatta
Greenwich, ct
www.indianharboryc.com

Sept. 22–23 Greenport Classic Yacht Regatta
Greenport, LonG isLand, nY
www.sailgreenport.org

Sept. 22–23 American Yacht Club
rYe, nY
www.americanyc.org

Sept. 29–30 Heritage Cup
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The New York Yacht Club, A History, 1844–2008, by
John Rousmaniere. Published by The New York Yacht
Club and Seapoint Books, 1 Government St., Suite 1,
Kittery, ME 03904. 336 pp, illlus, index, $199.

Reviewed by Stan Grayson

T

hursday, September 20, 1934 shaped up as a very
bad day for Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and the New
York Yacht Club. Four years earlier, “Mike” had graced
the cover of Time aboard ENTERPRISE, having successfully defended the AMERICA’s Cup. But now, sailing the
127' J-boat RAINBOW and down two races to aviation
pioneer Thomas Sopwith’s ENDEAVOUR , the defender
was behind again, six minutes behind. The conditions
were light air, Vanderbilt’s nemesis. Believing the Cup
lost, he relinquished the helm to his closest adviser, a
grand-nephew and namesake of Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, and went below.
Here’s how John Rousmaniere introduces what happened next. “On deck, Sherman Hoyt was calmly weaving some wizardry to make this race, as he would say in
his autobiography, ‘one of the most astounding ones of
my experience.’” Hoyt had studied Sopwith’s tactics the
way an NFL coach studies an opponent’s film. The only
sounds aboard RAINBOW were the whisper of Hoyt’s
brilliant navigator Zenas Bliss, the burble of water along
the hull, and the occasional click of a big winch as a
sail was minutely trimmed. Goaded into needless tacks,

112 • WoodenBoat 228

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Woodenboat RevieW

Sopwith lost the race and, soon enough, his challenge.
Such tales are at the heart of this remarkably conceived and executed book. Drawing on sources ranging
from Dickens to yachting journalist Winfield Thompson and historian W.P. Stephens, among others, Rousmaniere has woven an insightful, instructive portrait of
the New York Yacht Club. Nearly every page offers some
intriguing anecdote such as the following. The fabled
AMERICA was so slow to come about that she was fortunate in how little windward work was required during her race for what was then known as the Queen’s
Cup. In 1974’s AMERICA’s Cup, it was not until the night
before the first match that Dennis Conner was asked
to be starting helmsman in COURAGEOUS, a boat he
had never even sailed. Said Vice Commodore Bob
McCullough, “Young man. I don’t want you to feel like
we’re putting any undue pressure on you.”
Such events grew from an idea conceived by a horseracing promoter and ferry-line owner in Hoboken, New
Jersey, named John Cox Stevens. On the afternoon of
July 30, 1844, Stevens anchored his schooner off New
York’s Battery and welcomed aboard eight yacht owners.
After a brief meeting, the men agreed to rendezvous
three days later and cruise to Newport. The New York
Yacht Club had been born.
The book details the backgrounds of the club’s founders
and its many subsequent luminaries. The first recording
secretary was Dr. John C. Jay, grandson of the first Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court. Charles Francis Adams
was the “only descendant of two presidents to win the
Cup and the first amateur to steer the whole match.”
Edwin D. Morgan’s immense wealth allowed him to change
boats (racing catboats to big yachts) as readily as other
men change shirts, and he was the first of five Commodores
named Morgan. In modern times, men now legendary in
the sport emerged, among them Briggs Cunningham,
Olin and Rod Stephens, Ted Hood, Cornelius Shields,
Arthur Knapp, Ted Turner, and Bob Bavier.
The book describes many vessels. Banker C. Oliver Iselin graduated from the rough-and-tumble world of sandbaggers to own the 83' Burgess cutter TITIANA (1888)
that could set 7,000 sq ft of sails. Ocean-racing pioneer
Robert E. Tod owned Nat Herreshoff’s largest schooner,
the 162' KATOURA (1914), with mainsheet blocks “the size
of watermelons.” The club’s first one-design was the New
York 30 (43' 6" LOA). They “will be mighty good boats,”
designer Nat Herreshoff told W. Butler Duncan who
headed the one-design committee. (The 30s celebrated
their 100th anniversary in 2005.) J.P. Morgan’s 1917 steampowered commuter NAVETTE (114' × 14' ) ran silently at 18
knots “without a sound and hardly a ripple.”
As the Gilded Age faded, an ever-increasing emphasis on Corinthian sailing gradually took hold, and
changing times and design rules resulted in club’s
adoption of smaller yachts. By the time postwar AMERICA’s Cup racing resumed in 1958, the remote splendor
of the J-boats’ professional crews and wealthy, amateur
after-guards had been replaced by 12-Meters berthed
in downtown Newport, manned by “mostly amateur
crews…filled with college kids on summer vacation or
stockbrokers taking leave from the office.”

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September/October 2012 • 113

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HOW TO
REACH US
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Woodenboat RevieW

The book recounts social changes as well as those
involving boats and sailing. In 1961, Commodore H.
Irving Pratt removed the odious restriction against
Jewish members that existed at the NY YC as it did in
many of New York’s private clubs, banks, and law firms.
That permitted entry of a sailor known for his humility
and leadership. Bus Mosbacher promptly defended the
AMERICA’s Cup in 1962 in WEATHERLY. In 1984, newly
elected Commodore Mosbacher eliminated the club’s
“Lady Associate Members” category so that women
became eligible for full membership.
Of the book’s 17 chapters, one—“In Blue Water”—
focuses entirely on ocean racing. In the brutal 1963
Transat, Clayton Ewing’s 58' S&S yawl DYNA sailed to
fourth place despite rudder failure 1,000 miles before
the finish. Yachts like DORADE, CARINA , and Vice Commodore John Nicholas Brown’s 73' BOLERO, launched
in 1949 and now beautifully restored by Ed Kane, are
discussed. In 1988, the Browns’ magnificent home,
Harbour Court, became the club’s Newport clubhouse,
its furniture selected with the help of multifaceted Elizabeth Meyer, a woman accustomed to somewhat larger
projects.
No NY YC book could be complete without the story of
the club’s Whitney Warner–designed W. 44th St. home,
opened in 1901. Marvelous text and photographs tell
the story of one of the world’s most unusual buildings,
its mind-boggling Model Room, and its 14,000-volume
library and archives. This extraordinary library was
capably used by John Rousmaniere, an historian, bluewater sailor, and NY YC member uniquely qualified for
this project.
This big (9" ×12") book is illustrated with spectacular
paintings and photographs—most will be entirely new
to readers—and is beautifully designed and printed.
Uncomfortably small caption type is one of the few quibbles I had. A DVD accompanies the book, scripted by Rousmaniere and entertainingly narrated by Gary Jobson.
Published in 2008 for the membership, the book is
now available for general sale. Given the state of publishing today, the book is a bargain. It is available from
www.smithkerr.com, the publisher/packager. Think of
The New York Yacht Club as a centerpiece for your yachting library that you will return to often, whether for
information or simply to embark on those voyages of
imagination that all good books prompt.
Stan Grayson is a regular contributor to WoodenBoat.

OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION OFFICES:
Australia and New Zealand

Australia New Zealand
Boat Books
Dollars
Dollars
31 Albany Street
1 yr
$55.00
$57.50
Crows Nest 2065 NSW
2 yrs
$110.00
$115.00
Australia
3 yrs
$150.00
$156.82
Telephone: (02) 9439 1133
Fax: (02) 9439 8517 · Email: [email protected]
Website: www.boatbooks-aust.com.au

Europe

Evecom bv
Postbox 19
9216 ZH Oudega (Sm)
The Netherlands
Telephone: (0) 512 371999
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.evecom.eu

1 yr
2 yrs
3 yrs

Holland/
Germany
EUR 39.50
EUR 75.00
EUR 107.50

United
Kingdom
GBP 35.50
GBP 66.00
GBP 96.50

(CE tax included)

books Received
Nicolaes Witsen and Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age,
by A.J. Hoving. Published by Texas A&M University Press,
John H. Lindsley Building, Lewis Street, 4354 TAMU,
College Station, TX 77843-4354, www.tamupress.com.
310 pp., hardcover, $120.00. ISBN: 978–1–60344–286–2.
In 1671, Nicholaes Witsen, a Dutch scientist and diplomat,
published a volume explaining the “shell-first” method of ship
construction; here, A.J. Hoving examines and clarifies Witsen’s
methods and text.

114 • WoodenBoat 228

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Woodenboat RevieW

Galloping Ghosts: Australasian 18-Footers 1890–1965, by
Robin Elliott. Published by David Ling Publishing Ltd.,
P.O. Box 34 601, Birkenhead, Auckland, NZ 0746, New
Zealand. 224 pp., softcover, 49.99NZD. ISBN: 978–1–
877378–57–7. The history of these improbably canvased racing dinghies includes their evolution from cutting-edge racers
of the 1890s to the carbon-fiber fliers they are today.
Shakespeare’s Ocean: An Ecocritical Exploration, by Dan
Brayton. Published by University of Virginia Press,
P.O. Box 400318, Charlottesville, VA 22904, www.upress.
virginia.edu. 280 pp., hardcover, $40. ISBN: 978–0–8139–
3226–2. Brayton explores Shakespeare’s understanding of the
ocean in the Age of Exploration, through readings of his works.
* Kelly: A Father, a Son, an American Quest, by Daniel J.
Boyne. Published by Mystic Seaport, P.O. Box 6000,
Mystic, CT 06355, www.mysticseaport.com. 288 pp.,
paperback, $16.95. ISBN: 978–0–7627–7929–1. In his
review of the hardcover version of this book in WB No. 204,
Llewellyn Howland III called Jack Kelly and his son Jack Jr.
two of the greatest oarsmen ever.
* The Troller Yacht Book: How to Cross Oceans without Getting Wet or Going Broke, by George Buehler. Second
edition, Published by the author in Whidbey Island,
Washington, www.georgebuehler.com. 188 pp., hard­
cover, $45. ISBN: 978–1–61434–472–8. This 2011 edition
of yacht designer George Buehler’s popular book contains much
important information for those considering ocean cruising in
a powerboat.
The Loss of the Schooner KESTREL , and other Poems, by
Richard Dey. Published by the author, www.richarddey.
com. 132 pp., paperback, $19.99. ISBN: 978–1–4691–
6028–6. A thoughtful collection of poetry about boats and the
sea by a lifelong sailor and professor of maritime literature.
The Sagas of the International One-Design: A Celebration of
75 Years, by Alessandro Vitelli et al. Published by Concepts
Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1066, Bridge Street Market­
place, Waitsfield, VT 05673, www.conceptspublishinginc.
com. 208 pp., hardcover, $65.00. The history and design
characteristics of this class are explored though a series of
stunning photographs.
The Lord God Bird, by Tom Gallant. Published by The
Quantuck Lane Press, an imprint of W.W. Norton &
Company, 500 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10110, www.
wwnorton.com. 220 pp., hardcover, $24.95. ISBN:
978–1–81593–70247–6. From WoodenBoat contributor
Tom Gallant, an insightful novel about a canoeist’s fleeting
encounter with an ivory-billed woodpecker—and a meditation
on man’s place in nature.
The Voyage of the CORMORANT, by Christian Beamish.
Published by Patagonia Books, 259 W. Santa Clara
St., Ventura, CA 93001, www.patagonia.com. 320 pp.,
paperback. ISBN: 978–1–938340–03–1. A three-month
cruise sailing and surfing in Baja California.
* Available from The WoodenBoat Store, www.wooden
boatstore.com

…the World’s Finest Oars and Paddles, since 1858.
Handcrafted in Maine, used all over the world.
• Oars and Paddles
• Wooden Masts and Spars
• Bronze Rowing Hardware
• Adirondack Guide Boat Oars and Hardware
• Boat Hooks
• Wooden Flagpoles
• The Shaw & Tenney Whitehall

www.shawandtenney.com
PO Box 213, Orono, Maine 04473 – 800-240-4867

Yacht Sails
Rigging
BUILDERS OF HIGH-QUALITY HAND-FINISHED SAILS
Full-service sail and rigging loft
P.O. Box 71, Lincoln St., East Boothbay, Maine 04544
(207) 633-5071
September/October 2012 • 115

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Vintage Boats

KITS
PLANS
and&serVices

You are invited to attend the
2012 ACBS Annual Meeting and International Boat Show
September 21-22, 2012
Big Cedar Lodge on
Table Rock Lake, Missouri

www.TableRock2012.com
For more information on The Antique & Classic Boat Society, Inc. www.acbs.org Phone: 315-686-2628 Email: [email protected]

Reproductions of the finest
watercraft ever produced.

Traditional construction with modern materials.
Exact detailing in all aspects, steering wheels,
controls, instrumentation, etc. Small family shop
ensures superb quality control. No fluff, no dreams,
just beautiful, faithfully reproduced boats at an
attractive price. Many models from 20 to 30 feet.

ish ros

F
B
MaRiNE SERvicE

6 Newcomb Street, Queensbury, NY 12804
518–798–4769 • [email protected]

The wooden runabout co.
Building and restoring fine wooden boats.
www.woodenrunabout.com

616-396-7248
4261 Blue Star Highway, Holland, MI

116 • WoodenBoat 228

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Grundy
INSURANCE

FOR CLASSIC BOATS
At Grundy, Agreed
Value “All Risk”
coverage is issued
without a marine
survey in most
cases, saving you
time, money, and
aggravation!

It’s Smooth Sailing
When You Insure

With Grundy

• Surveys Are Typically Not Required
• High Limits of Liability
• Lowest Deductible Options (Usually 1% or $500)
• Crew Coverage
• Restoration Shop Of Your Choice
• Coverage During Restoration Or Construction
• Search And Rescue
• Environmental Damage Coverage
• Government Action Coverage
• Wreck Removal Expenses
• Emergency Expenses Including: Towing,
Cost Of Delivery Of Fuel, Essentials, Cost
Of Repairs & Labor At Time Of Breakdown
• Uninsured Boaters
• Medical Expenses
• Longshoremen’s & Harbor Workers
Compensation Act Coverage
• Available Global Navigation Coverage

For a Fast, Accurate Quote,
CALL 888-647-8639 or visit www.grundy.com today!

Chris-Craft 26´ SPL Racer

K-Class Raceboat V12 Packard

Lockpat II - 1931 40’ Hacker Custom Runabout V12 Packard 2025 cu.in.

Miss Crude - Gold Cup Hisso V8

New Build: Amy Ann - 2011 30’ Morin Custom V12 BPM

S

ince 1971, we have offered complete restorations of vintage runabouts
and new boat construction. We have been selected by top boat collectors
around the world to restore and maintain some of the most sought-after boats in
existence. For those interested in buying or selling rare and collectible runabouts
and race boats, we now offer a brokerage service.

989-686-7353

www.morinboats.com

New Build: 28´ Electric Racing Launch

[email protected]
September/October 2012 • 117

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That was then.

This is now.

This is now.

Get out
and boat.

WoodenBoat

PO Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616

www.woodenboat.com

The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory
Victory, oil on canvas painting by JMW Turner, c. 1806, Tate Britain

ThatwasThen228.indd 118

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BOATBROKERS
MAGNOLIA is an exceptional vessel in both design and construction—a handsome ‘Alden’ Style
56' Rollins
Schooner
2008

schooner capable of passages anywhere in the world in elegance and comfort with no sacrifice
to structural integrity, built by Paul Rollin’s Boat Shop in York, Maine. Interior joinerwork
includes frame and panel doors and cabinet faces made of select cherry and curly cherry
finished bright in high-gloss marine varnish. Overhead house beams, deck beams and carlin
caps are black locust and cherry finished bright with white for contrast.  
The current configuration sleeps
seven to eight adults.
Location: Cortez, FL
Price: $850,000
Contact: Sid Imes, Cell 662-352-9460
E-mail: [email protected]

C U S TO M BU I L D I N G

“GOSHAWK”

DESIGN

R E S TO R AT I O N

B RO K E R AG E

“KATRINA”

“GINGER”

Built by Brooklin Boat Yard. Located:
Brooklin. ME Asking: $1,595,000

Beautiful varnished topsides. Excellent
maintenance history. Located: Brooklin,
ME Asking $125,000

Built by Brooklin Boat Yard. Located:
Brooklin, ME REDUCED $375,000

Own racing history. Brooklin's current
restoration project. Located: Brooklin, ME
Asking $55,000

“CLASSY LADY”

“GERANIUM”

“SEAHAWK”

“PLOVER”

Built by Brooklin Boat Yard.
Located: MDI, ME REDUCED $235,000

Located: Brooklin, ME.
Asking $120,000

2005, Spirit of Tradition Sloop, 76' 1963, Concordia Yawl, 41'

1971, Crocker / White Ketch, 36'
Built by Brooklin Boat Yard.
Located: MA REDUCED $125,000

DESIGN

207-359-2594
[email protected]

2007, Ultimate Daysailer, 50'

2006, Modern Classic Daysailer, 34' 1965, Concordia Yawl, 41'

NEW CONSTRUCTION, SERVICE & RESTORATION
207-359-2236
[email protected]

“THE HAWK”
1968, Tripp/DeHood One-Tonner, 37'

1994, Spray Ketch Daysailer, 26'
Cold-molded wood-epoxy construction.
Located: NH REDUCED $19,900

BROKERAGE

207-359-2193
[email protected]

P.O. Box 143, Center Harbor • Brooklin, ME 04616 USA • www.brooklinboatyard.com
September/October 2012 • 119

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BOATBROKERS

Metinic
Yacht
Brokers

DaviD EtniEr Boat BrokEragE
1959/1991
DOWNEAST CRUISER
$110,000

1980 GRAND CRAFT $61,500

124 Horseshoe Cove Rd., Harborside, Maine 04642 • 207–326–4411
—Located at Seal Cove Boatyard—

We welcome quality,
well-maintained boats for
our listings.
Please visit our website:

Contact David directly at:
www.etnierboats.com
207-522-7572
or [email protected] to discuss your buying or selling needs.

22’ ElEctric launch w/trailer
Unique opportunity to
own a ready to use and
recently completed,
rare custom-built boat
which could take years
to acquire if commissioning a new build.
Vacuum-laminated cedar hull with epoxy/fiberglass
covering; antifouling bottom paint; Perm PMG 132
motor; full custom-fit cover.

own “Java” the original casey- built concordia 39 yawl, built in 1938.
this legendary ray hunt designed yawl was extensively rebuilt in
2003, resulting in essentially like new hull and deck, carefully
preserving the original interior and such parts of the hull that
were sound. original rig is completely refurbished. how often is
it that you can own such a piece of maritime history and yet be
confident that maintenance costs are predictable and manageable? Unmatched value at $165,000. OFFERS ENCOURAGED

For more information,
contact 678.303.0166
$89,500

Ballentine’s Boat Shop
Wooden Boats for Sale:

1929 Herreshoff Fishers Island 31’
1964 Aage Nielsen Yawl 41’
2008 Wooden Power Boat
1939 Herreshoff 12 1/2
1975 Stadell Schooner
1954 15’ Lyman Runabout
1990 Doug Hylan Peapod

AZURA
HUSSAR
MARJORIE
LILLIPUT
GOLDEN GOOSE

$89,000
$140,000
$189,000
$25,000
$130,000
$4,500
$4,800

New & Used Doughdishes and Stuart Knockabouts also available
MARJORIE

AZURA

HUSSAR

www.BallentinesBoatShop.com ~ 508-563-2800 ~ [email protected]
120 • WoodenBoat 228

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BOATBROKERS

David Jones Yacht Brokerage

Classic Wooden Boats
P.O. Box 898, Rockport, ME 04856
207-236-7048 Fax 207-230-0177 Email: [email protected]

©Benjamin Mendlowitz

www.davidjonesclassics.com

SERENADE 1938 Nicholas Potter Bermudian Sloop 62' LOD.
Completely restored to her original luster, this sleek classic is
ready for the racing circuit or just to cruise in comfort. Recent
price reduction from $880,000 to $695,000. Haley survey
available to interested parties.

September/October 2012 • 121

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BOATBUILDERS
Rumery’s Boat Yard
Biddeford, Maine 04005
(207)282-0408
www.rumerys.com

Elegant & fast – no wake
Your choice of deck and cabin layout

Rumery’s 38

A full service boatyard
Heated storage, custom construction
Repairs & restoration of wooden &
composite boats to 60 feet

122 • WoodenBoat 228

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YNOT YACHTS
TIMELESS BEAUTY & CLASSIC STYLE
T 412.337.2191

PH OTO: © B IL L Y B L A CK

www.ynotyachts.com

BOATBUILDERS

CUSTOM BUILDS, DESIGN, REFIT & RESTORATION

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32' Noank Schooner Restoration

Beetle Cat® Boat Shop
Traditional wooden boat building and restoration
from skiffs to 50' power and sailboats.

Sole Builder of the Beetle Cat Boat

New 12' Onset Island Skiff

APBY 20' CAT, 2009

SPENCER LINCOLN 38', 2010

We offer

BOATBUILDERS

New Boats • Used Boats
• Storage • Parts
• repairs • Maintenance

Beetle, Inc.
3 Thatcher Lane
Wareham, MA 02571
Tel 508.295.8585
fax 508.295.8949
www.beetlecat.com

Celebrating 65 Years
Beetle Cat — Celebrating 91 Years

APBY DAYSAILER, 2008

APBY 14', 2011

www.areyspondboatyard.com

P

N
Celebrating 65 Years

E N D L E T O

YACHT•YARD

Storage available for the upcoming winter

R e b u i l d e r s o f C l a s s i c Ya c h t s

525 Pendleton Point Rd. • Islesboro, ME 04848
(207) 734-6728 • www.pendletonyachtyard.com
www.quicksilvermaine.com

Celebrating 65 Years

Offering a full range of services since 1946.
Storage available for this winter.
Register your Crocker Design at

www.CrockersBoatYard.com
Manchester, Massachusetts



888-332-6004

124 • WoodenBoat 228

WB228Builders.indd 124

Please Visit Our Website to

7/25/12 4:23 PM

)*4503*$$3"'54."/4)*1
*OUSPEVDJOH3FVCFO4NJUIT5VNCMFIPNF#PBUTIPQ

3FTUPSJOHBOEDPOTUSVDUJOH
IJTUPSJDBOEDMBTTJDXPPEFOCPBUT

BOATBUILDERS

/FX4R'U#PBUTIPQ/PX0QFOt3PVUF
4PVUIFSO"EJSPOEBDLT

THE WATER IS WAITING
www.tumblehomeboats.com 518.623.5050

September/October 2012 • 125

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Don’t Be Afraid

To Put It In The Water

Handmade Small Boats by Nick Schade
www.WoodenKayaks.com

Maine’s Premier Wooden Boat
pulsiferhampton.com

MP&G L L C

WOOD BOATBUILDING
YACHT RESTORATION

RECENTLY COMPLETED
Structural upgrades
to Newport 29 ROGUE

AMORITA
NY-30

SallyAnne Santos

BOATBUILDERS

Maintenance and
engine work on Fay &
Bowen Golden Arrow
CURRENT PROJECTS
Cabin, rig and
rudder work on
N.Y. 32 SALTY

929 FLANDERS ROAD, MYSTIC CT 06355
TEL

860–572–7710

www.mpgboats.com

GREAT LAKES BOATBUILDING CO.
7066 103 Ave., South Haven, MI 49090 • 269–637–6805

www.greatwoodboats.com

Seal Cove Boatyard, Inc.
BOX 99 / HARBORSIDE, MAINE 04642
TEL: 207-326-4422 / FAX 207-326-4411

Remember
when sailing
was simple
and fun?
It can be again in
our 12' classic
sailing dinghy.

You Will Find Us
Personable, Knowledgeable
and Skilled in a Broad
Range of Services

Visit our website
for more details

Same
Folks...It’s the
That’s Right,
Railway
She’s Off the

Boat.

DESPERATE LARK - Herreshoff, 1903.
In Our Care for Over 40 Years
E-mail: [email protected] • www.sealcoveboatyard.com

126 • WoodenBoat 228

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Custom designs, traditional construction, repair,
restoration, custom bronze hardware

HAzel 18

Already successful on the race course in the 2012 Vineyard Cup.

www.gannonandbenjamin.com
P.O. Box 1095 • Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 • (508) 693–4658

Every Detail in a Custom Van Dam is
Handcrafted to be as Unique as its Owner.

BOATBUILDERS

Come sailing with us aboard our new 18' design.

~ Unlike Any Other ~
www.vandamboats.com

~ Beta Marine engine dealer ~

Recent Projects 2011-2012
• Replace fantail on 65' 1931 Chesapeake
buy boat passenger vessel
• Re-frame re-plank, reef, and caulk 38'
1929 Matthews
• Total restoration and re-power Navy
motor whaleboat
• Awlgrip paint job on 45' motoryacht
• Re-fasten frame and plank work on
20 ton sailboat
• These and many more projects in our
two locations, please call or e-mail to
inquire about restoring the boat that
you love.
• Other fine boats may be seen in person
or at www.cwbw.com

435 Old Taughannock Blvd.,
Ithaca, NY 14850 607.272.1581
September/October 2012 • 127

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Restoration
and Preservation of
Antique and Classic
Wooden Boats
207.882.5038

C UTTS & C ASE
S HIPYARD

edgecombboatworks.net

a full-service boatyard

DESIGNERS & BUILDERS
OF
FINE WOODEN YACHTS

BOATBUILDERS

SINCE

1927

P.O. BOX 9
TOWN CREEK
OXFORD, MD 21654
410-226-5416

FREE E-Newsletter!
1. Go to www.woodenboat.com
2. Fill in and Click

Stay in touch
with ALL we do!

www.cuttsandcase.com
[email protected]

Traditional Boat, LLC
Wooden Yacht Construction ~ Restoration ~ Repair

www.mainetraditionalboat.com

hil Mitchell —
P
Wooden boat
restoration and

repair. All makes
cruisers, runabouts,
and sail. Major hull
work, small repairs,
refinishing.
­— Call 865-603-1418 —
Knoxville, Tennessee

207-568-7546 • Unity, Maine • ABYC Certified Marine Systems

Giesler Boat Builders
Builders of finely-crafted traditional wood boats

18 models to
choose from
– starting at
$2,000
B. Giesler & sons

705.724.2648
www.gieslerboats.ca
[email protected]

www.restorationsbyphil.com

Boat Schools

List Your Programs With Our New Online Service
WoodenBoat is launching a new, free
listing program for boat schools.
Simply go to www.woodenboat.com/boatschools and
follow the instructions in the FAQ.
Readers are welcome to join the site at any time to
search for programs of interest to them. It may take a
few months for this service to be complete.
WoodenBoat Publications
41 WoodenBoat Lane, Brooklin, Maine 04616
207-359-4651 www.woodenboat.com

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TRADITIONAL
BOAT WORKS, INC.
New construction & repairs on wooden boats only
Masts and spars a specialty
Superb craftsmanship by skilled professionals, at 
reasonable rates, in one of the few quality West Coast 
wooden boat yards. Fully insured, references.
ALTAMAR California 32 #2

CURRENT PROJECTS:
• Rhodes 33’ THERAPY
•  Knud Reimers 30 Square 
Meter VANJA VI
•  Luders designed/built 
commuter LAUGHING  
LADY                                                     
•  Nick Potter California 32
#2 ALTAMAR

Douglas Jones, 3665 Hancock Street, San Diego, CA 92110 USA
Phone or Fax: 619 542 1229 • [email protected]

www.traditionalboatworks.net

On Portage Bay since 1927

Jensen

Motorboat Corp.

BOATBUILDERS

ALTAMAR and LAUGHING
LADY are available as 
projects; ask for details and 
estimates

1417 NE Boat St.
Seattle, WA 98105

Phone: 206-632-7888

e-mail: [email protected]










Hull & cabin repair, refit & restoration
structural & finish woodworking
Interior joinery & custom cabinetry
electrical & systems repair & installation
Complete painting & varnish work
Mast & rigging installation & repair
Fiberglass & gel coat repair
Welding & metal fabrication

September/October 2012 • 129

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KITS
KITS & PLANS
PLANS
Chesapeake Light Craft

1.

2.

4.

5.

3.

6.

Build one of our 90 award-winning boat kits, like this Cocktail Class Racer. More than 22,000 CLC boat kits sold since 1991!

1805 GeorGe Ave. AnnApolis, MArylAnd | 21401 | 410.267.0137 | clcboAts.coM
130 • WoodenBoat 228

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Build Your Own Boat
Thousands have, using plans from the most respected
name in boat designs for amateur builders since 1953.

• Full-Size Plans,
Patterns & Kits
• Boatbuilder Epoxy
and Supplies
• Steermaster Cables

KITS & PLANS

Glen-L Marine Designs offers over 300 designs in
sail, power and row from 5' to 55' that YOU can build.
• Inboard Hardware
• Raptor® Products
• Books & DVDs
• Bronze Fastenings
• Free Newsletter & More

Our online customer support community is second to
none. Experienced builders log in every day to help
you. Visit us online and see. Better yet, join us!

www.Glen-L.com/WB
Glen-L Marine Designs
9152 Rosecrans Ave. Bellflower, CA 90706 855-262-1317
Use key code WB1210 for 10% off purchases thru Nov. 1, 2012!

September/October 2012 • 131

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FiberglassSupply.com

Materials:
Kits and Plans:
• Vacuum Bagging Supplies
• 11’ Hollow Wooden Stand Up
• Epoxies
Paddleboard, Kit Only

System Three®
• 18’ Hollow Wooden Unlimited
Paddleboard, Kit or Plans

WEST System®

MAS® Epoxies
• Surfboard Frame Kits for Strip
• Reinforcements
Plank Surfboard Building

Fiberglass Cloths
• And More!!!

Carbon Fiber
Check us out at:

Aramids
www.fiberglasssupply.com
• See our Full Catalog Online
Burlington, Washington - www.fiberglasssupply.com - Toll Free 877.493.5333 - Fax 360.757.8284

KITS & PLANS

NUTSHELL PRAM
Thousands Built • Joel White Designed • 7’7” or 9’6” • Build from Plans or Kits

The WoodenBoat Store • PO Box 78 • Brooklin, ME 04616 • 1.800.273.7447

Order On-line: www.woodenboatstore.com
132 • WoodenBoat 228

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The

7/25/12 4:37 PM

oughtred st. ayles skiff kits

Kits for
the designs of
Paul Fisher
Duck Trap
Iain Oughtred
Crayke Windsor

Okoume plywood planking with traditional
precut scarfs and hull molds CNC machined by

Blue
Hill,
Maine

For pricing & ordering: [email protected] • 1-207-460-1178
www.cnc-marine-hewesco.com For kit details: www.jordanboats.co.uk

Welcome to
WoodenBoat’s Directory
of Boat Plans & Kits

www.woodenboat.com/boatplansandkits

PO Box 78 • Brooklin, ME 04616

207-359-4651

www.woodenboat.com

KITS & PLANS

Our newest web service is FREE to designers and
readers alike. If you are a designer, you may upload details of your plans and kits. Simply go to
the website noted above, and follow the upload
instructions at “Frequently Asked Questions” on
the left-hand side. You must have full ownership
of these plans and kits.
We hope to include as many boats as
possible, and boats of all hull materials.

Another service for you, from WoodenBoat.
September/October 2012 • 133

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CLASSIFIED
MCLAUGHL
AN
IN
MI
EST.

CO

.

1970

.
JR

DA

To place a Classified Ad, visit our website www.woodenboat.com
or call our Classified Ad Manager at (207) 359–7714.
Deadline for the November/December issue: September 5, 2012

RPORATIO N

.

Custom Cold-Molded Boats and Yachts to 40'
41 years of experience DMCBoats.CoM

SATTER’S RESTORATION—Traditional wooden canoes and boats
restored. Quality woodwork, brightwork, repairs. Branchville, NJ, 973–
948–5242, www.sattersrestoration.
com.

HADDEN BOAT CO.—WOODEN
boat construction and repair to any
size; sail and power. 11 Tibbetts Lane,
Georgetown, ME 04548, 207–371–
2662.
MI A MI, FORT L AUDER DA L E,
FLORIDA KEYS—30+ years experience building, repairing, and restoring boats. Quality workmanship, with
composite construction expertise.
References. Call 305 – 634 – 4263,
305–498–1049. rmiller35@bellsouth.
net, www.millermarinesystems.com.

SALT POND ROWING —Specializing in glued plywood lapstrake and
strip-plank construction. Rowboats,
light dories, and recreational shells.
Designs by John Brooks, Joel White,
Joe Thompson. Also rowing supplies:
oars, leathers, oarlocks, gunwale
guard, etc. www.saltpondrowing.com.
Sedgwick, ME, 207–359–6539.
LOW ELL BOATS — COMPLETE
wooden boat restoration services and
marine surveying. GARY LOWELL,
Greensboro, NC, 336 –274 – 0892.
www.lowell.to/boats.

A career path is a journey
of many steps.
Take your first one here.

www.themichiganschool.org

Woodenboat
School
10 1⁄ 2' & 12' SK IFFS —Traditional
handcrafted plywood/oak, epoxy
bonded, stainless-steel screws. Rugged
but lightweight. Easy rowing and
towing. Stable underfoot. $1,150 &
$1,500. Maxwell’s Boatshop, Rockland,
ME. 207–390–0300, jmax@midcoast.
com.

One- and Two-week courses in
Boatbuilding, Seamanship, and
Related Crafts

June–September

—Offsite winter courses also offered—

For a complete catalog: WoodenBoat School,
P.O. Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616,
Tel: 207–359–4651

or view the catalog at www.woodenboat.com

NAVTECH MARINE SURVEYORS’
course. Sur veying recreational/
SAIL MAINE ABOARD MAINE’S
commercial vessels. U.S. Surveyors
oldest windjammer, “Lewis R. French.”
Association, Master Marine Surveyor
Enjoy great sailing, lobsters, new
program. FL, 800–245–4425.
friends, and fresh air (no smoking).
Sailing from Camden, 3-, 4-, and 6day cruises with only 22 guests, May–
October. Capt. Garth Wells, P.O. Box
992 W, Camden, ME 04843. 800–
469–4635. www.schoonerfrench.com.

THE DORY SHOP—Custom-built
small boats and Lunenburg dories
since 1917. Oars and paddles too.
Call 902– 640 –3005 or visit w w w.
doryshop.com.
REPAIR, RESTORATION, STORAGE,
and SURVEYS. Low overhead and
low rates, 35 years exper ience.
MICHAEL WARR BOATWORKS, S.N. SMITH & SON, boatwright/
Stonington, ME, 207–367–2360.
timber framer. Annual maintenance,
restoration, and building to 45'. Our
JOHN M. KARBOTT BOATBUILDING. goal is to make wooden boat ownerCustom wooden boat building and ship predictable and enjoyable. P.O.
repair. Lobsterboat styles a speciality. Box 724, Eastham, MA 02642, 978–
WoodenBoat School instructor. Mem- 290–3957, www.snsmithandson.com.
ber Massachusetts Marine Trades
Association. 789 Rocky Hill Rd, Plym- D&H FINISH CARPENTRY AND
outh, MA 02360. Phone/fax 508– WOODEN BOATS. Traditional styles
224 –3709, w w w.by-the-sea.com/ cold-molded for efficient ownership.
karbottboatbuilding.
MI, 810-287-0745.

The 22nd Annual

WoodenBoat
Show
June 28–30, 2013

www.thewoodenboatshow.com

RATTY’S CELEBRATED QUOTATION
with original illustrations featured
on our shirts and bags. 301–589–9391,
www.MessingAbout.com.

THE BOAT INSURANCE STORE.
Insurance program for wooden boats.
LAWRENCE FOX AGENCY, 1–800–
553–7661. Our 50th year. www.boat
insurancestore.com.

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CLASSIFIEDS

RESCUE MINOR 20' MOLD with
plywood stations on excellent strongback. Ready for boat construction,
$5,000. [email protected].

1-800-762-2628
WWW.HAGERTYMARINE.COM

GEODESIC AIROLITE DESIGNS—
Sweet Pea is a great canoe for small
people. Weight: 8 lbs, capacity: 150+
lbs. Monfort Associates. 207–882–
5504, gaboats.com.
ETERNITY IN PARADISE— Memorial services at sea in Hawaii. Ashes
atseaOahu.com, 808–235–2284.

COMMISSION WATERCOLOR OR
Oil Portrait of your treasured boat
by D.Hellums, classically trained,
award-winning artist. Submit photograph or on location. Any size, framed,
ready to hang. 713–443–0962, dale_
[email protected].

Jordan Wood Boats

P.O. Box 194, South Beach, OR 97366
541–867–3141

REBUILT CHRIS-CRAFT 6-cylinder
engines: K, KL, KBL, KFL, KLC, M,
ML, MBL, MCL. Assorted V8s. Mitch
LaPointe’s, www.classicboat.com.
952–471–3300.
THE FINEST WOODEN POND sailers. Free brochure: 1–800–206–0006.
www.modelsailboat.com.

www.jordanwoodboats.com
******************

Distinctive Boat Designs
Meticulously Developed and Drawn
For the Amateur Builder

HERCULES ENGINE PARTS
Model M, ML, MBL, K, KL

HERCANO PROPULSION, LLC
Business Hours: M-F 8:30-4:30 EST
Phone: 740-745-1475
Fax: 740-745-2475

ELEGANT SCALE MODELS. Individually handcrafted custom scale
model boats. JEAN PRECKEL, www.
preckelboats.com, 304–432–7202.

GR AY MARINE, CHRIS - CR A FT,
Chrysler engines remanufactured to
the highest standards. All engines are
test run at our facility and come with
a written warranty. We stock many
models including the Gray 4–112 and
the Sea Scout 91. We also have a large
parts department with parts for above
engines, also Zenith carburetors,
Paragon, Borg Warner, AC and Carter
fuel pumps. Van Ness Engineering, CAPT. JOSHUA SLOCUM’S solo
252 Lincoln Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450, circumnavigation in “Spray” is one
201–445–8685, fax 201–445–3099. of the greatest adventures of all time.
Kit recommended for modelers with
plank-on-frame experience. Includes
laser-cut wood, rigging, Britannia
fittings, sailcloth, plans, and instructions. BlueJacket Shipcrafters, 160 E.
Main St., Searsport, ME 04974, 800–
448–5567, www.bluejacketinc.com.

CRADle BOAt
BABy tenDeR

BeACh CRuiSeR
FOOtlOOSe

CATALOG OF 40 SIMPLE PLYWOOD
boats, $4. JIM MICHALAK, 118 E.
Randle, Lebanon, IL 62254. www.
jimsboats.com.

BU I L D N.G . H E R R E SHOF F ’S
COQUINA, 16'8" sailing and rowing
boat. Under license from MIT’s Hart
Nautical Collection, Maynard Bray
and Doug Hylan have produced a
builder’s package for both amateur
and professional builders. PLANS—
11 sheets of detailed drawings for
both cedar and glued-plywood lapstrake construction. $200 + $10 S&H
U.S. ($30 international). CD—550
photos and text describing all aspects
of construction. $50 + $10 S&H U.S.
($20 international). Free downloadable study plans and information
about kits, bare hulls, and completed
boats are available at www.dhylanboats.com. Send check or money
order to: Coquina, 53 Benjamin River
Dr., Brooklin, ME 04616.
LEARN HOW TO BUILD your own
cedar-stripped boat. Plans for dinghies, canoes, row, sail, paddle, outboard. www.compumarine.com. AZ,
520–604–6700.

JAMES WHAR R AM DESIGNS —
World-renowned, safe, seaworthy
catamarans, 14'–63' to self-build in
ply/epoxy/’glass, from plans that are
IMAGINE THE PRIDE and Satis- “a course in boatbuilding.” wharram@
faction you’ll feel gliding over the wha r r a m.com, web shop: w w w.
water in the “classic” wooden boat wharram.com.
YOU created. Leave a voicemail
24/7—877–913–2116, for your FREE SHELLBOATS.COM—Sailboat kits,
“Consumer Guide to Building Your handcrafted in Vermont. Check out
our web site, or call 802–524–9645.
Dream Boat.” www.Glen-L.com.
September/October 2012 •

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CLASSIFIEDS
ORCA BOATS—Strip/epoxy canoes
and kayaks, plans, materials, courses,
repairs, and restorations, BC. www.
orcaboats.ca, 604-312-4784.

SMITHSONI AN INSTITUTION
PLANS from the National Watercraft
Collection, H.I. Chapelle drawings,
Historic American Merchant Marine
Survey, etc. Send $20 check to Smithsonian Institution for 250 -page
catalog to: Smithsonian Ship Plans,
P.O. Box 37012, NMAH-5004/MRC
628, Washington, DC 20013-7012.
www.americanhistory.si.edu/csr/ship
plan.htm.

CAJUN PIROGUE-JON BOAT-SKIFFS.
Paddle, row, motor or sail. Designed
for first-time builders. Kits and plans.
www.unclejohns.com, or call 337–
527–9696.

DOUGLAS FOWLER SAILMAKER—
Highest-quality, full-seam curved
sails since 1977. Traditional sails a
specialty. White, colors, and Egyptian
Dacron in stock. 1182 East Shore Dr.,
Ithaca, NY 14850. 607–277–0041.

ClassiC BoatinG MAGAZINE—
The most popular and complete
publication on antique and classic
boats. Subscription $28, Canada $36
USD, overseas $78. Samples $5,
Canada $7.50, oversea s $12.50.
Classic Boating, 280-D Lac La Belle
Dr., Oconomowoc, WI 53066. 262–
567–4800.

BOAT KITS—PLANS—PATTERNS.
World’s best selection of 200+ designs
on our web site. Boatbuilding supplies—easy-to-use 50/50 epoxy resins/
glues, fasteners, and much more.
Free supplies catalog. Clark Craft,
716–873–2640, www.clarkcraft.com.

H AV E TOOLS W ILL TR AV EL .
Wooden boat builder will build,
rebuild, or repair your project on
site or in my shop. $20/hour. VT,
802–365–7823.

SHAW & TENNEY, Orono, Maine—
Traditionally handcrafted spruce
masts and spars since 1858. 1–800–
240–4867, www.shawandtenney.com.

28 DESIGNS IN OUR $12 BROCHURE,
includes: rowing and sailing skiffs,
dories, prams, lake and river boats.
Plans and instructions for 13'6" •
4'11" Nez Perce outboard (above)–
$50. Ken Swan, P.O. Box 6647, San
Jose, CA 95150. 408–300–1903, www.
swanboatdesign.com.

ATKIN ILLUSTRATED CATALOG—
135 pages, with more than 300 Atkin
designs. Famed Atkin double-enders,
rowing/sailing dinghies, houseboats,
and more. $15 U.S. and Canada ($22
US for overseas orders). Payment:
U.S. dollars payable through a U.S.
bank. ATKIN BOAT PLANS, P.O.
Box 3005WB, Noroton, CT 06820.
[email protected], www.atkinboat W W W.DA BBLER SA ILS.COM—
plans.com.
Traditional small-craft sails. P.O.
Box 235, Wicomico Church, VA,
22 579. Ph/f a x 8 0 4 – 5 8 0 – 8723,
[email protected].

FINELY CRAFTED WOODEN SPARS;
hollow or solid. Any type of construction. ELK SPARS, 577 Norway Drive,
Bar Harbor, ME, 04609, 207–288–
9045.

ICONIC BRAND SEEKS Experienced
Wood Boat Builders and Restoration
Shop Supervisor/Manager. Competitive wages, relocation assistance,
paid holidays, paid vacation, health
insurance benefits for qualified applicants. Please send resume and cover
letter to [email protected].

NEWFOUND WOODWORKS, INC.—
Cedar Strip Canoe, Kayak, and Rowboat Kits. Complete kits or order
plan sets to build yourself; cedar
strips, epoxy, fiberglass, tools, seats,
and accessories. Sign up for our e-mail
newsletter. Go to www.newfound.
com for all the info. 67 Danforth
Brook Rd., Bristol, NH 03222, 603–
744–6872.

Professional BoatBuilder—
The magazine for those working in
design, construction and repair.
Patty Hutchinson, 207–359–4651,
www.proboat.com

JASPER & BAILEY SAILMAKERS.
Established 1972. Offshore, onedesign, and traditional sails. Sail
repairs, recuts, conversions, washing
and storage. Used-sail brokers. 64
Halsey St., P.O. Box 852, Newport, RI
02840; 401–847–8796. www.jasper
andbailey.com.

SOF T COT TON FENDER S and
classic knotwork. For catalog, send
SASE to: THE K NOTTED LINE,
9908 168th Ave. N.E., Redmond, WA
98052-3122, call 425–885–2457. www.
theknottedline.com.

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CLASSIFIEDS

Composite fasteners for:
Strip Planking
Cold Molding
Fiberglass Layup
Foam Core Joining
Vacuum Infusion
RTM

STAPLES  NAILS  BRADS
 Completely non-metal

45 lbs CQR, $300. 130' 3⁄8" BBB galvanized chain, new, $500. Brooklin,
ME, 207–359–2203.

CLASSICBOATCONNECTION.COM—
Your one-stop source for all your
classic boat restoration needs. Call
507–344–8024, or e-mail mail@classic
boatconnection.com for free catalog.
MODERN MANILA. New Leoflex-X.
The latest rope technology. Looks
great, works hard. American Rope &
Tar, 1–877–965–1800 or tarsmell.
com.

 No need to remove
 Sawable, sandable, planeable, stainable
 No galvanic corrosion/electrolysis
 Bonds with thermoset resins

www.raptornails.com [email protected]
P (512) 255-8525
F (512) 255-8709

T H IS 20' C H R IS - C R A F T WA S
stripped in four man-hours. Environmentally friendly paint stripper.
For more information, call 800–726–
4319. E-mail us at [email protected],
or visit our web site, www.starten.com.

COPPER FASTENERS and riveting
tools, Norwegian and English boat
nails, roves/rivets, rose and flathead,
clench, threaded, decoration, and
more. 50+ sizes and types, 3⁄8" to 6".
Your leading source since 1987. FAERING DESIGN, Dept. W, P.O. Box 322,
East Middlebury, VT 05740, 1–800–
505–8692, [email protected],
www.faeringdesigninc.com.

BRONZE CAM CLEAT with plastic
ball bearings and 11⁄2" fastening center distance. BRONZE WING -TIP
NAVIGATION LIGHTS with glass
globe. Side mount, stern and steaming. For our free catalog, contact us
at J.M. Reineck & Son, 781–925–3312,
[email protected].

EPOXY-PLUS MARINE EPOXY, GL
10 glue, and ESC 20 putty—A complete
premium epoxy system at discount
prices. Free supplies catalog. Clark
GENUINELY MARINE LED LIGHTS,
Craft, 716–873–2640, www.clarkcraft.
made by Bebi Electronics. w w w.
com.
bebi-electronics.com, sales@bebiTARRED HEMP MARLINE. Several
electronics.com. US Agent—R. Ford,
styles; hanks, balls, spools. American E XC E P T ION A L BRON Z E a nd 727–289–4992, rogersf@bebi-elec
Rope & Tar, 1– 877–965 –1800 or Chrome Hardware—Windshield tronics.com.
brackets; navigational lighting; Tufnol
tarsmell.com.
and ash blocks; fastenings, roves, and
rivets; repair, building, and kit materials; oars, paddles, and rowing accessories; decals, apparel, and traditional
giftware. www.tendercraftboats.com.
Toll-free phone: 800–588–4682.
STARS AND STRIPES PENNANTS.
Authentic historical design exquisitely
handcrafted in the most durable
fabrics. 4', 6', 8' and 12' sizes in stock—
other sizes and designs by custom
order. Custom design and fabrication
is our specialty. Also in stock, all sizes
U.S., state, foreign, historical, marine,
and decorative flags, banners, pennants, and accessories. 77 Forest St.,
New Bedford, MA 02740. 508–996–
6006, www.brewerbanner.com.
Available in 316 Stainless Steel and Bronze

www.newfoundmetals.com
[email protected]

888–437–5512

CANOE HARDWARE: 1⁄2", 11⁄16", 7⁄8"
canoe tacks; 3⁄8" oval brass stembands;
clenching irons; 3⁄16" bronze carriage
bolts; canoe plans; clear white cedar.
STOCKHOLM TAR. Genuine kiln- Catalog $1. NORTHWOODS CANOE
burnt pine tar. It’s the Real Stuff. CO., 336 Range Rd., Atkinson, ME
American Rope & Tar, 1–877–965– 04426. Order, phone 888–564–2710,
fax 207–564–3667.
1800 or tarsmell.com.

LeTONKINOIS. All-natural varnish.
Centuries-old formula. Long-lasting,
beautiful finish. Extremely userfriendly. A merican Rope & Tar,
877–965–1800 or tarsmell.com.

THE ORIGINAL SINCE 2001. The
smallest composting toilet in the
world! EOS, PO Box 5, Mt. Vernon,
1
HAVEN 12 ⁄2 complete high-quality OH 43050. www.airheadtoilet.com,
bronze hardware sets. See our display 740–392–3642.
ad elsewhere in the issue. For our
free catalog, contact us at J.M. Reineck VACUUM-BAGGING SUPPLIES—
& Son, 781–925–3312, JMRandSon@ Fiberglass cloth, epoxy resins, wateraol.com.
b a s ed L PU p a i nt s , a nd more.
Technical support and fast service.
CANVAS FOR DECKS and canoes. www.fiberglasssupply.com or toll free:
Natural, untreated. No. 10, 15 oz., 877–493–5333.
96", $17.50/yard; 84", 14.50/yard,
72", $12/ yard; 60", $9.50/yard. BLOX YGEN SAV ES LEFTOV ER
Minimum five yards, prepaid only. Finishes. Heavy, inert gas. Patented
FA BR IC WOR K S, 148 Pine St., system. w w w.bloxygen.com, 888 –
Waltham, MA 02453, 781–642–8558. 810–8311.
September/October 2012 •

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CLASSIFIEDS

ThE BrOOKLIN INN—Year-round
lodging, fine dining, Irish Pub. Modern interpretations of classic Maine
dishes. Always organic/local. Winter
Getaway: $155/DO, dinner, breakfast,
room, Nov–May. Summer rate: $125/
DO (plus dinner). brooklininn.com,
ME, 207–359–2777.

12/24V CABIN FANS—Teak, cherry, ANGELIQUE: $6.00/BOArD FOOT
or mahogany with brass/stainless —See the pile here: http://tinyurl.
brackets. www.marinecabinfans.com. com/7dh9fr9. Location: Traverse
City, MI. Call 231–590–8660.

®

FeatherBow® $29.95
FeatherBow® Jr. $17.95

FeatherBow

Build your own Strip Built Boat
FeatherBow.com • (860) 209-5786

Bantam air Hammer

Boat riveting Kit
Designed for
Copper Rivets
n Cuts Riveting Time up to 70%
n Superior Pneumatic
n

1951 Chr IS - Cr A F T DOUBLE Stateroom 38'—Complete restoration
in 2001. Equipment includes: twin
Chris-Craft 283s, 5.0kW Kohler generator, heart Freedom 25 inverter,
Cruisair reverse heat/air, Sealand
Vacuflush, Polar fridge/freezer unit,
deck wash down, Clarion cassette/
CD stereo, and amp. Bennett trim
tabs, water heater, with teak and holly
flooring throughout. This boat requires
no restoration work, and is ready for
many summers of enjoyment. Seller
ATLANTIC AND NOrThErN WhITE
is looking for a caring new owner.
cedar and reclaimed teak, flitch-sawn,
Asking $120,000 US/CAN. Contact:
wide boards, 16' lengths, milling,
[email protected].
premium quality, fair prices. CT,
203–245–1781. www.whitecedar.com.

PLANKING STOCK IN LENGThS
to 32'—angelique, silver balli, wana,
angelique timbers. Call for quotes. W W W.DIAMONDTEA K.COM—
Gannon and Benjamin, 508–693– True teak wood. Planing, sanding
4658.
available. Quarter-sawn teak for decking; tongue-and-groove; veneer;
custom work. Also mahogany and
Spanish cedar. highest quality. We
ship worldwide. 215–453–2196, info@
diamondteak.com.

SLOW-GrOWING, OLD-GrOWTh
white oak (Quercus alba), up to 50'
long and 42" wide. Longleaf pine
(Pinus pilustrus) out to 50' long. Oldgrowth white pine, 22'–28'. Black
locust, American elm, and larch.
NEW ENGLAND NAVAL TIMBErS,
CT, 860–480–3402.

800-521-2282

www.superiorpneumatic.com

PLANKING A BOAT? FOr TIGhT
seams, order the rugged, dependable,
no-hassle Conant Clamps I’ve been
making in my Maine shop for over
25 years. Three sizes—PC-2, for dinghies, opens to 1" ($35/ea); PC-1, the
most popular, opens to 2" ($48/ea);
PC-1L, the largest opens to 4", closes
to 11⁄2" ($55/ea). Contact rick Conant,
207–633–3004; P.O. Box 498, Boothbay, ME 04537; rconant41512@road
runner.com.

BOULTEr PLY WOOD —marine
plywood 4' • 8' to 16', 5' • 10' to 20'
— 1⁄8" to 1" okoume, sapele, meranti,
teak, ash, khaya, teak and holly, teak
and rubber. Lumber—Sitka spruce,
teak, mahogany, green oak, ash,
cypress, fir, Spanish and red cedar,
teak decking—lengths up to 20'.
Milling services. Nationwide delivery.
w w w.boulterply wood.com, 888 –
“BADGEr”—OUTSTANDING her4BOULTEr.
reshoff BB25 2001, built by Pease
Boat Works. Cold-molded with standing back stay, stored indoors, seldom
used. $135,000, offers encouraged.
508–945–7800, info@peaseboatworks.
com.

TE A K , M A hOGA N Y, PA DAUK ,
purpleheart, white oak, teak decking,
starboard. Complete molding millwork facilities. Marine ply wood.
Custom swim platforms. SOUTh
JErSEY LUMBErMAN’S INC., 6268
holly St., Mays Landing, NJ 08330.
609–965–1411. www.sjlumbermans.
com.

hACKMATACK ShIPS KNEES—
Architectural Knees. David Westergard, NS, 902–298–1212, djwestergard@
gmail.com. www.westergardboatyard.
ca.
TEAK LUMBEr FrOM $7.50/bf and
teak decking from $.99/lf. Call ASI,
800–677–1614 or e-mail your require- ThE WEST POINT SKIFF—Three
ments to rogerstevens@asihardwood. models: 16', 18', and 20'. See our
website www.westpointskiff.com for
com.
more info. 207–389–2468.

CLASSIC MOTOrYAChT—1926,
62' ELCO. Shown in WoodenBoat
No. 171, March/April 2003, sketch
pg. 42. Tw in diesels. $500,000+
invested. Northern C A , A sk ing
$89,000. 415–887–9932.

“OWL,” 34' ALDEN/CASEY Cutter,
1941—Completely rebuilt 1985 to
present. $50,000, Cannell, Payne &
Page. [email protected], www.cpp
yacht.com/wood.html.

138 • WoodenBoat 228

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CLASSIFIEDS
1955, 40' SPARKMAN & STEPHENS
Sloop—Hard dodger. Completely
rebuilt 2004, one owner since 1974.
Carefully maintained. Derivative of
“Finisterre.” Written up as one of top
50 S&S designs. $90,000. Call 815–
722–3552.

BOAT COLLECTION—Old Town
and Penn Yan beauties for the finest
boathouse or restaurant. 207–322–
7070

ROYAL LOWELL 30' Wooden Lobster Yacht—Cedar on oak, bronze
fastened. Available at present stage
of completion or with option for
completion. $75,000. Traditional
Boat, LLC, 207–568 –7546, w w w.
mainetraditionalboat.com.
LAKE UNION DREAMBOAT 1928,
42' —Excellent mechanical and
structural condition. Isuzu diesel.
Beautiful boat, ready to cruise.
$80,000. Seattle, 206–212–0568, www.
oursunshineboats.com.

FULLY RECONSTRUCTED 1927
Alden 30' Malabar Jr. Yawl #326-E
—A truly unique offering! Extensively
reconstructed over seven years to the
highest standards. Yanmar diesel. Very
well documented including copious
photos. Excellent survey. $99,500.
E-mail Lou for details: murigen46 @
hotmail.com.

1965, 42' TRAWLER. 6-cyl diesel,
4K generator. Undergoing restoration, needs paint and cosmetic work. 35' CHEOY LEE—Built in 1963. 10'
TX, $27,000. Call for more details. beam, teak hull, new Universal engine,
prop, shaft. Great shape!! Portland,
Joe, 713–851–1702.
OR. $36,000. [email protected].

MAGNIFICENT 15' SKIFF—Two sets
of oars, centerboard, sail, bronze
drop rudder, trailer. Built of finest
materials. $3,900. 203–248–1704 .

42' ROYAL LOWELL LOBSTER34', 1977 CHARLES WITTHOLZ
boat—Mahogany over oak, 3306
“Dawn” Motorsailer—See March/
Caterpillar engine, Very good condiApril 1977 WoodenBoat article. 4-53
tion. 978–794–3129.
Detroit diesel burns one GPH at 8
knots, 7.5 kW Onan generator. Only
one ever built. Needs cosmetics. Great
boat, only $15,900. 651–430–2132.

“DEVA”—PRICE REDUCED FOR
quick sale! L. Francis Herreshoff
design #65. The only one ever built.
See the feature article in WoodenBoat
No. 157; and also see Herreshoff’s
The Common Sense of Yacht Design, p.
269. This pedigreed ketch is a beautiful sight to behold, and sail. LOA3 6' 6", b ea m - 8' 6", d r a f t- 4' 9",
displacement- 16, 500 lbs. Fully
1954, 21' MONTEREY EXPRESS equipped. Located Brooklin, ME.
Cruiser Chris-Craft kit boat. Built $58,000. 207–359–4651, carl@wooden
1964 by professional builder. 350 boat.com.
Chevy V8, and aluminum trailer. All
RHODES 30'4" LOA, 1958 SLOOP—
hardware and goodies. $25,000.
Fast sailing boat with many upgrades,
941–751–6713.
rebuilt hull, main sail, roller-furling
jib, Atomic Four gas engine, two
berths, head, stove, sink, icebox,
wooden mast. Newcastle, ME, info@
fairtidefarm.com.

23' FANTAIL LAUNCH—LOA 23',
beam 6', draft 2'. Inboard motor
launch has large cockpit, center console, and 13-hp Nanni diesel. Cruises
comfortably and efficiently at 7 knots.
Built in Nova Scotia in 2000 of cedar
on oak, and rebuilt in 2010. Excellent
condition—$20,000. Located in
Brunswick, ME. Call Jack, 207–443–
6643.

15' EL EC T R IC ST R I P BOAT—
Cypress and mahogany construction;
24V 600-watt motor; sun top, galva22' SCHOONER, ATKIN HULL— nized trailer. Award winner, 2009
Custom rig, new North Sails, launched Georgetown Wooden Boat Show.
2009. 5-hp Mercury outboard. CA, Smyrna, GA. $9,500. 404–405–5151,
[email protected].
805–815–0315.

20' CEDAR STRIP ROWBOAT—Two
Piantedosi sliding-seat Row Wings,
two pairs Dreher carbon fiber 11'
oars. Only used three times. Stored
inside. Asking $7,575. ccallaway@
centurytel.net.
1958 SAMURAI SLOOP—Designer,
Eldredge McInnis; builder, International Marine Corp. 28' LOA. Needs
power. Make offer. 207–807–1401.

CLASSIC 1910 LAUNCH—Gorgeous
20' Ray launch, restored, Buchanan
25-hp, trailer, $17,500. Nordland,
WA. Details: www.islandboatshop.
com.
September/October 2012 •

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139

7/25/12 2:07 PM

CLASSIFIEDS

48' HEAD BOAT—Cedar on oak,
riveted, heavily framed. 6 -71 GM.
Licensed and inspected. $33,000 or
best offer. 207–442–7616 or 207–
443–5764.

S/V SAR AH, 1955 CONCORDIA
Yawl—Attend the Concordia 75th
Anniversary (8/24/13) aboard your
own Concordia. Complete structural
rebuild 2000–2007; sailed for two
seasons; hauled in 2009. Sails and
gear garage-stored; 2012 work includes
new TDS decks; topside, cabin side,
and cockpit paint; varnish renewed;
bottom seams caulked and Trinidad
bottom paint. Interior incomplete.
Sails 1.5 seasons’ use; 54-hp Yanmar
with 80 hours; $94,900. 904–669–7410
or [email protected].

CL A SSIC DOUBLE -ENDED
R angeley Boat—17'4". Built by Barrett circa 1929. Rangeley rowing oars
included. Photos available. $3,900.
508–335–7329 or moredstripe@gmail.
com.

FULL RESTORATION OF CUSTOMbuilt 1962 International 500, 32'
mahogany sloop. Over $140,000
invested, completion in 2012. May
consider selling when complete; WILL
sell now to someone to complete
restoration and get exactly what they
want. Visit www.WhiteHawkForSale.
com for info, or call 778–828–6013.
“OCEAN PEARL,” Spaulding Dunbar
design, built Devries Lentsch, 1957.
Teak/Monel/teak, 55' WL, 62' LOD.
World cruiser looking for new home,
$325,000. All offers encouraged.
Pease Boat Works, 508–945–7800.

1961 KROGEN MOTORSAILER 42',
13.5' beam—Teak on ipol, 140-hp
Deutz, A/C. Recently restored. Passagemaker. One of three built. Formerly owned by Harold Gray, aka
NEW ACORN SAILING DINGHY— “Daddy Warbucks.” $89,000. 941–
8' Oughtred design, complete with 232–6066, [email protected].
new sails, rig, and oars. Beautifully
done. Priced to sell quickly $5,500
or with new trailer $6,200. Pictures
available. Serious only. Fair Haven,
NJ. [email protected], 732–208–
6913.

2006 GENTLEMAN’S RACER, 28' • 9'
custom. Designed by C.J. Jannace, built
by Hugh Saint. Twin 5.7 Liter, 320-hp
Chevy. 45+ mph. West System. Hull,
deck, interior of rich oxblood mahogany. Camel upholstery. Loaded with
1947 HERRESHOFF H-28 KETCH— options. Double axle trailer. Offered
VG fir on white oak to original draw- 35% below replacement at $195,000.
OL D TOW N 9. 5' M A HOG A N Y
ings. Lead keel. Refastened with Contact Nelson at 813–927–3673.
Dinghy—Original oars, brass oarbronze. Electric inboard propulsion.
locks, mahogany. 1947 order form
New sails, new rigging. $19,900.
boat #151703, built in a Grade AA
Located San Diego. 619–223–4351,
mahogany, best available. Located
[email protected].
in Chesterfield, MI. $2,450. Mike
Urness, 314–497–7884, additional
251⁄2', 1964 TROJAN BIMINI—327
pix [email protected].
Graymarine, 800 hrs. Restoration
begun, selling due to health. $3,000.
N. Alabama, 256–247–7423. Please
leave message.

2004, 14'9" WOODEN SKIFF—68"
width. Bilge, lights, hydraulic trim
tabs, 2004 25-hp Yamaha two-stroke,
trailer, $6,995. Marc, 781–706–3987.

1956 RHODES 42' “ALTAIR”—Built
by Abeking & Rasmussen. New paint
2012. Quantum main, and 115 R/F
jib. Light use for day-sailing. Original
spruce spar, and Graymarine auxiliary.
Professional maintenance by Zahnisers Yachting Center, Solomons Island,
MD. Lying in water Solomons, MD.
Call Chris, 443–926–1278; chris@
walczakyacht.com; walczakyacht.com.

H E R R E SHOF F H -14 S A I L I NG
Dinghy—Built early 1960s to design
specs. Trailer. Fair condition, needs
some work. $2,500. paul10pa@yahoo.
com or 609–276–1657.

38' 1958 CHRIS-CRAFT Constellation—Major renovations done last
year, this boat is an eye-catcher, and
a rare find. A sacrifice at $15,000.
Contact 207–266–0270 or www.red
fernboat.com.

2008, 21' HANDY BILLY located in
Iowa. Log onto “Lady Ben Classic
Wooden Boats,” click on “Used Wood
Boats for Sale” for details and more
photos. Price negotiable. Call 563–
263–2429.
17' W ITTHOLZ C ATBOAT with
trailer and outboard engine. In excellent condition. $9,000. Located
Brooklin, ME. NJ, 201–569–3787 or
201–568–1441.

2010 GLEN-L ZIP 14'—Mahogany
with West System fiberglassed hull.
1961 40 -hp Evinrude. West Palm
Beach, FL, $11,500. tbroadlick@msn.
com.

140 • WoodenBoat 228

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CLASSIFIEDS
ORIGINAL HERRESHOFF 15—Built
in Bristol, RI, early 1900s. 25' LOA,
needs some refastening. $16,000.
Call Bob, 508–567–1185, rkbuffs@
aol.com.

G E N U I N E H E R R E S H O F F 11'
Dinghy—Needs extensive restorative
work. $2,000 non negotiable. 207–
322–7070.

“PUFFIN,” 10' LAPSTRAKE DINGHY
in excellent condition. Great rowing
boat. New full canvas. Hand-made
in G orham, ME. $3,950. Email
[email protected] or call John
at 603–520–6617 or 603–569–5034.

36', 1969 CHINESE OFFSHOR E
Junk—Authentic solid teak construction, fore and aft masts. 106-hp Volvo
diesel, head, galley, dinette, V-berth.
300 gallons fuel, 500 gallons water.
Needs minor TLC. Interesting history.
$19,900, 651–430–2132.

25' 1961 SKYLARK CABIN CRUISER
—Canvas, bow and dinette bunks.
1968 100-hp Evinrude, spare propeller, anchor, 27' EZ Loader. WHaber
[email protected].

1959 CONCORDIA 39' YAWL #68
“Persephone” (ex- “Belles,” “Eight
Belles,” “Desperado”)—Built by
Abeking & Rasmussen, designed by
(C. Raymond Hunt and Howland)
Concordia. She is a must-see. True
classic in phenomenal condition.
Opportunity to own a sailing yacht
of lore. Repowered with Yanmar
3JH4E (2003), refastened in 2002,
Raytheon RL70 plotter and radar,
folding MaxProp. See in the water
Annapolis, MD. Call Chris, 443 –
926–1278; [email protected];
walczakyacht.com.

16' WOODEN SAILBOAT built by
Edward Long Boat Company, Rochester, NY, 1928. Cedar planking over
oak, Honduras mahogany cockpit
with tiller, centerboard ballast. Two
sets of sail, main and jib. Call 585–
746–1868.

31' CLASSIC CUSTOM SKIPJACK,
1983. Beautiful, fun, structurally
sound. Built without regard to cost.
Huge cockpit. 9.9 Suzuki outboard,
cockpit controls. Professionally maintained. MA, $27,500. Fred, 978–356–
2504. Leave mailing address.

30' LYLE HESS BRISTOL CHANNEL
Cutter—1997, sistership to t he
Pardeys’ famous “Taleisin.” Extraordinary craftsmanship. Mahogany on
oak. Teak cabin and decks. Hull so
fair, many think it’s fiberglass. Amazing teak and bird’s-eye maple interior.
27-hp Yanmar. Well equipped: rollerfurling, storm trysail, spinnaker, sea
anchor, radar, chartplotter, autopilot,
wind vane, refrigeration, VHF, 110V
electrical, inverter, Force 10 heater,
Force10 stove/oven, windlass, 9' Fattyknees dinghy with sailing kit, much
more. Pristine, like-new condition.
Asking $114,000. Web site www.tigressbcc.com. Call 650–868–0348.

23' LAPSTRAKE LAUNCH—Cedar
on oak, plywood bottom, John Gardner design, built 1995 North River.
Yanmar diesel, tiller, cuddy, Bristol
condition, in water RI. $25,000 or
best offer. 914–282–7915.
21' HERRESHOFF SLOOP—The last
wooden Marlin: 1947 (see Herreshoff
Registry). Needs work; galvanized
trailer. $6,600 non negotiable. 207–
BUGEYE-RIGGED SKIPJACK—48'
322–7070.
on deck, 2" mahogany on white oak.
Silicon-bronze fastened, includes
sails and new 154 Perkins diesel; plus
22" bronze propeller and SS shaft.
Pick up south shore Nova Scotia, near
Lockeport. Ontario, 519–416–7125.

“ANANDA”, 45' LES CR AWFORD
Pilothouse Ketch—Charles Davies
designed, 1979. Beautifully upgraded,
and ready to live aboard. Professionally owned and maintained. Located
at Pease Boat Works, Chatham, MA.
$110,000. Offers encouraged. 774–
722–4692, [email protected].

CAT-SCHOONER CARGO VESSEL
Replica—16' • 5'8" • 16". Very heavily-built, f lat bottom, lee boards,
outboard motor bracket. Sails well
off the wind, very cute, stable, slow!
Built to copy a type of vessel used for
carrying firewood from St. John, NB,
for lime kilns in Rockland, ME. At
Bass Harbor, ME. John MacDuffie,
P.O. Box 176, Bernard, ME 04612,
[email protected] or 207–
244–0259.
BB11 DAYSAILER, INTACT BUT IN
rough condition. Free to a good home.
631–204–7547. East Hampton, NY.

USCG HISTORIC MOTOR LIFEboat—Designed for inshore surf and
bar rescue. Self-righting and bailing,
103-hp 4-71 Detroit GM diesel. Only
privately owned boat of its type for
sale. Wet demo until end of September. Reduced to $150,000, www.capt
ronscruises.com, 207–563 –1387,
[email protected].

CONCORDIA YAWL, BUILT 1956—
Continually upgraded, and professionally maintained by the same
owner for the past 31 years. Always
a West Coast boat. Excellent condition. $115,000. Contact 46Kodama@
gmail.com, or call 360–468–4222.

THIS LADY IS ROUGH, but all the
pieces are there and original. Twin
Gray 6-71s S/N 166 and 167. Mahogany over white oak. rusty@armstrong
nautical.com.
1942 CHRIS-CRAFT 17' SPECIAL
Runabout—KLC 6-cyl engine, recent
full restoration, includes trailer. A
beautiful pre-war boat. St. Michaels,
MD. $39,000; 215–266–4885, [email protected].
September/October 2012 •

WBClass228_FINALwIndex.indd 141

141

7/25/12 3:21 PM

Order Form for Classified Ads
Please circle the issue(s) in which this ad is to appear
Ads received after the deadline may be placed in the following issue
Issue Date — Mar/Apr
Deadline — Jan 5, ’12

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Mar 5, ’12

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♦ One boat per ad.
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for errors due to illegible copy.

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one word. All else: a word is a word. WoodenBoat
does not use abbreviations such as OBO, FWC, etc.

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WOODENBOAT CLASSIFIEDS

P.O. Box 78 • Brooklin, Maine 04616
Phone: 207–359-7714, Monday thru Friday, 9am to 5pm • Fax: 207–359-7789
Email: [email protected]

Place your ad online at www.woodenboat.com/wbmag/advertising.html

Rates expire November 5, 2012
142 • WoodenBoat 228

WBClass228_FINALwIndex.indd 142

7/25/12 2:08 PM

Index to AdvertIsers
AdhesIves & CoAtIngs

Epifanes North America . . . . . . . . . www .epifanes .com . . . . . . . . . . . Cover II
Gorilla Glue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .gorillatough .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Interlux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .yachtpaint .com . . . . . . . . . Cover Iv
System Three Resins, Inc . . . . . . . . . www .systemthree .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Tetra Teak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .tetramarine .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
West System Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .westsystem .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

BoAtBuIlders

Arey’s Pond Boatyard . . . . . . . . . . . www .areyspondboatyard .com . . . . . . 124
B . Giesler & Sons Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . www .gieslerboats .ca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Beetle, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .beetlecat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Billings Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .billingsmarine .com . . . . . . . . . . 123
Cayuga Wooden Boatworks . . . . . . www .cwbw .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Choptank Boatworks . . . . . . . . . . . . www .choptankboatworks .com . . . . . . 124
Concordia Yacht Sales . . . . . . . . . . . www .concordiaboats .com . . . . . . . . . . 123
Crocker’s Boat Yard, Inc . . . . . . . . . www .crockersboatyard .com . . . . . . . . 124
Cutts & Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .cuttsandcase .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Dutch Wharf Marina . . . . . . . . . . . . www .dutchwharf .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Edgecomb Boat Works . . . . . . . . . . www .edgecombboatworks .net . . . . . . 128
French & Webb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .frenchwebb .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Gannon & Benjamin . . . . . . . . . . . . www .gannonandbenjamin .com . . . . . 127
Great Lakes Boat Building Co . . . . . www .greatwoodboats .com . . . . . . . . . 126
Guillemot Kayaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .woodenkayaks .com . . . . . . . . . . 126
Haven Boatworks, LLC . . . . . . . . . . www .havenboatworks .com . . . . . . . . . 126
Jensen MotorBoat Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Laughing Loon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .laughingloon .com . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Moores Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboatrepair .com . . . . . . . 128
MP&G, L .L .C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .mpgboats .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Pease Boatworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .peaseboatworks .com . . . . . . . . . 123
Pendleton Yacht Yard . . . . . . . . . . . www .pendletonyachtyard .com . . . . . . 124
Restorations by Phil Mitchell . . . . . www .restorationsbyphil .com . . . . . . . 128
Reuben Smith’s Tumblehome
Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .tumblehomeboats .com . . . . . . . 125
Richard S . Pulsifer, Boatbuilder . . . www .pulsiferhampton .com . . . . . . . . 126
Rockport Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .rockportmarine .com . . . . . . . . . 122
Rumery’s Boat Yard . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .rumerys .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Seal Cove Boatyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .sealcoveboatyard .com . . . . . . . . 126
Stonington Boat Works, LLC . . . . . www .stoningtonboatworks .com . . . . . 128
Taylor & Snediker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .lvjwinchesusa .com . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Traditional Boat, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . www .mainetraditionalboat .com . . . . . 128
Traditional Boat Works . . . . . . . . . . www .traditionalboatworks .net . . . . . . 129
Van Dam Custom Boats . . . . . . . . . www .vandamboats .com . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Wooden Boat Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboatshopinc .com . . . . . 129
YNOT Yachts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .ynotyachts .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Brokers

S/V ALERT/Carol De Tine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Ballentine’s Boat Shop . . . . . . . . . . www .ballentinesboatshop .com . . . . . . 120
Brooklin Boat Yard . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .brooklinboatyard .com . . . . . . . . 119
Electric Launch/Weeks Ventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
David Etnier Boat Brokerage . . . . . www .etnierboats .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
David Jones Yacht Broker . . . . . . . . www .davidjonesclassics .com . . . . . . . . 121
S/V MAGNOLIA/Sid Imes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Metinic Yacht Brokers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
S/Y MISTRAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .classic-yachts .de . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

events

Design Challenge IV . . . . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Maritime Tour of The Netherlands www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Newport Exhibition Group . . . . . . www .newportboatshow .com . . . . . . . . . 15
Provincetown Schooner Race . . . . . www .provincetownschoonerrace .com . . 110
United States Yacht Shows, Inc . . . . www .usboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Vintage Weekend . . . . . . . . . . www .oceanreef .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Wooden Boat Festival . . . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboat .org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
WoodenBoat Regatta Series . . . . . . www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
The WoodenBoat Show . . . . . . . . . www .thewoodenboatshow .com . . . . . 8-9

hArdwAre & ACCessorIes

Atlas Metal Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .atlasmetal .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Barkley Sound Oar & Paddle Ltd . www .barkleysoundoar .com . . . . . . . . . . 93
Boatlife Division Of Life Industries www .boatlife .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
CC Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .ccfasteners .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Hamilton Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .hamiltonmarine .com . . . . . . . . . . 22
J .M . Reineck & Son . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .bronzeblocks .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
New England Ropes . . . . . . . . . . . . www .neropes .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
R&W Traditional Rigging &
Outfitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .rwrope .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Shaw & Tenney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .shawandtenney .com . . . . . . . . . . 115
Top Notch Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . www .tnfasteners .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

West Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .westmarine .com . . . . . . . . Cover III
Wooden Boat Chandlery . . . . . . . . shop .woodenboat .org . . . . . . . . 111,115

InsurAnCe

Heritage Marine Insurance . . . . . . www .heritagemarineinsurance .com . . 24

kIts & PlAns

Arch Davis Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .archdavisdesigns .com . . . . . . . . 131
Chesapeake Light Craft, LLC . . . . . www .clcboats .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Directory of Boat Plans & Kits . . . . www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Fiberglass Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .fiberglasssupply .com . . . . . . . . . 132
Francois Vivier Architecte Naval . . www .vivierboats .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Glen-L-Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .glen-l .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Hewes & Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .cnc-marine-hewesco .com . . . . . . 133
Noah’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .noahsmarine .com . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Nutshell Pram/WoodenBoat
Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboatstore .com . . . . . . . . 132
Parker Marine Enterprises . . . . . . . www .parker-marine .com . . . . . . . . . . 132
Pygmy Boats Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .pygmyboats .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Redfish Custom Kayak &
Canoe Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .redfishkayak .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Tippecanoe Boats, Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . www .modelsailboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Waters Dancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .watersdancing .com . . . . . . . . . . 133
West Satsop Boatworks, LLC . . . . . www .westsatsop .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

luMBer

Anchor Hardwoods . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .anchorhardwoods .com . . . . . . . 113
Joubert Plywood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .joubert-group .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

MuseuMs

Cape Cod Maritime Museum . . . . . www .capecodmaritimemuseum .org . . 90
Independence Seaport Museum . . www .phillyseaport .org . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Lowell’s Boat Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .lowellsboatshop .com . . . . . . . . . . 36
Mystic Seaport Museum . . . . . . . . . www .mysticseaport .org/visitbyboat . . . 23

PrInts & PuBlICAtIons

Calendar of Wooden Boats . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboatstore .com . . . . . . . . . 95
MotorBoats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Wood, Wind & Water . . . . . . . . . . . . www .annetconverse .com . . . . . . . . . . . 92
WoodenBoat E-newsletter . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
WoodenBoat Subscription . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
WoodenBoat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

sAIls

E .S . Bohndell & Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Gambell & Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .gambellandhunter .net . . . . . . . . 113
Nathaniel S . Wilson, Sailmaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
North Sails Cloth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .northsails .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Sailrite Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .sailrite .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Sperry Sails, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .sperrysails .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

sChools & AssoCIAtIons

The Apprenticeshop . . . . . . . . . . . . www .apprenticeshop .org . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Center for Wooden Boats . . . . . . . . www .cwb .org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Great Lakes Boat Building School . www .greatlakesboatbuilding .org . . . . . 91
HCC METC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tech .honolulu .hawaii .edu/marr . . . . 113
International Yacht Restoration
School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .iyrs .org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Northwest School of Wooden
Boatbuilding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .nwboatschool .org . . . . . . . . . 42, 111
Westlawn Institute of Marine
Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .westlawn .edu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
WoodenBoat Directory of Boat
Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
WoodenBoat School . . . . . . . . . . . . www .thewoodenboatschool .com . . . . . 12

vIntAge BoAts & servICes

Antique & Classic Boat Society . . . . www .acbs .org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Destino Yachts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .destinoyachts .com . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Fish Brothers Marine Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Grundy Worldwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .grundy .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Morin Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .morinboats .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Wooden Runabout Co LLC . . . . . . www .woodenrunabout .com . . . . . . . . 116

MIsCellAneous

Beta Marine US Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .betamarinenc .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Half-Hull Classics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .halfhull .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Panerai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .panerai .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Strong Fire Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www .strongfirearms .com . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Wooden Boat Rescue Foundation . . www .woodenboatrescue .org . . . . . . . 110
The WoodenBoat Store . . . . . . . . . www .woodenboatstore .com . . . . 106-108
WoodenBoat’s That Was Then . . . . . www .woodenboat .com . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

September/October 2012 •

WBClass228_FINALwIndex.indd 143

143

7/25/12 2:08 PM

IMageS CourTeSy WILL McDonaLD

JEANNE
A Concordia Sloop

JEANNE

Particulars

The 25’ JEANNE is a scaled-down version of the betterknown Concordia 31s. She’s been sitting ashore since 2004,
and requires some TLC. The rewards for this work, however,
should be quick and spectacular.

Loa
25'
LWL
20'
Beam
8'
Draft
4'
Displ.
approx. 9,000 lbs
Power
5-hp Volvo MD5B diesel
Designed by Concordia Co.
(Wilder B. Harris)
Built by Carl n. Beetle,
new Bedford, Ma, 1940

by Maynard Bray

J

eanne is a scaled-down Concordia 25 and is cute as a

button. With a three-window trunk cabin, a bowsprit
and boomkin, a self-bailing cockpit and bridge deck,
and an inboard engine, she’s a real little ship. and
below deck, she has a pair of those wonderfully comfortable fold-down Concordia berths in the main cabin
as well as a single pipe berth forward. Her galley is aft,
partly under the bridge deck, and extends side-to-side,
the full width of the boat. She even has standing headroom where it counts.
Here’s what her owner says about her: “Jeanne
came out of the water in 2004 for some plank repairs.
However, unexpected obligations and relocation prevented the work from getting very far. all her gear for
sailing is stored and available, however. at this point
in her life she needs some work and TLC before she
goes back in; likely some new frames, some planking needs replacement, a new house top, an engine
rebuild, a holding tank, and various trim and cosmetics.” Jeanne’s deck is teak over plywood, and she’s
planked with Philippine mahogany held to her steambent oak frames with bronze screws. Ballast keel is lead
and weighs about 3,000 lbs. Hardware is bronze. Spars
are spruce with stainless-steel rigging. Sails are rigged
to be self-tacking (no sheets to tend), and they range
from fair to excellent.
This boat has been and is still stored at Bruce avery’s
yard in noank, Connecticut, and with his usual conscientiousness, Bruce has done everything possible to

keep Jeanne shielded from weathering, even though
she’s been stored outdoors. So, despite her obvious
structural and cosmetic needs, there’s a lot of boat
remaining.
Because of their roomier interiors, Concordia’s Waldo
Howland (considered to be the father of the famous
Concordia yawls as well as boats like this) always
preferred his 31' Concordia 25s (sometimes called
Concordia 31s) to this smaller sister. That’s perfectly
understandable and, as he points out in his book, A Life
in Boats, when building brand-new, “Materials were
less, but hours of labor were nearly the same for either
boat.” now that Jeanne exists, however, the cost of
building doesn’t really apply. Being smaller has advantages: It means easier handling under sail and lower
marina and upkeep costs, and it might even make
bringing the boat home and storing her under a temporary shed for the winter a real possibility.
This is a gem, but one that deserves a really dedicated owner, not a dreamer. In years past, Jeanne has
cruised all along the new england coast under several
owners, and has handled a good deal of weather with
comfort and safety. I hope she can do so again.
For more information, contact owner Will McDonald, P.O. Box
71, Stonington, CT 06378; 860–535–0302; emailwillmcdonald@
gmail.com.
Send candidates for Save a Classic to Maynard Bray, WoodenBoat,
P.O. Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616.

144 • WoodenBoat 228

SAC228_FINAL.indd 144

7/24/12 8:27 AM

WestMarine228.indd 3

7/24/12 3:00 PM

If We Made
Our Formula
Any Finer,
We’d Be
Bottling
Champagne.

While a bottle of bubbly certainly has very
different attributes, the level of quality and
precision that goes into producing each
can of Micron® is similar. The Micron family
of products is the pinnacle of today’s
antifouling technology — formulated to
deliver maximum antifouling performance
in even the harshest fouling environments,
and on all types of boats. And because
Micron products are polishing paints, they
actually become smoother over time,
reducing drag and fuel consumption,
leading to a significant reduction in carbon
dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions.
Micron paints also provide multi – seasonal
performance which means the boat can be
hauled and relaunched without recoating.
It gets better. Because the polishing action
reduces build-up, when the time does come
to re-apply, you’ll spend less time sanding.
You just can’t buy a better antifouling.
And that’s certainly worth raising a glass to.

International Paint LLC 2270 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ 07083
Tel: (908) 686-1300 Toll free: 1-800-468-7589 Fax: (908) 686-8545
Website: www.yachtpaint.com
, Interlux®, the AkzoNobel logo and all product names mentioned in this publication are trademarks of, or licensed to, AkzoNobel. © Akzo Nobel N.V. 2012.
Use antifoulings safely. Always read the product label.

®

Interlux228.indd 4

7/24/12 3:06 PM

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