WoodenBoat 241 NovDec 2014

Building an outboard-powered Skiff • Boatbuilding School

THE MAGAZINE FOR WOODEN BOAT OWNERS, BUILDERS, AND DESIGNERS

Sailing the CHARLES W. MORGAN
An ACF Cruiser in Turkey
Maryland Crab Fishing Boats

www.woodenboat.com
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November/December 2014
Number 241
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Page 22

50 Stormy and ISTAR
A new Coaster, after decades
of perseverance

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Page 42

58 Preserving an

L. Francis Herreshoff Classic

FEATURES
24 Sailing with the
CHARLES W. MORGAN
Authenticity in rig makes the 1841 bark
a vision of the past
Tom Jackson

The restoration of BEN MY CHREE
Tyler Fields

33 HIAWATHA
An American yacht in Istanbul
Tom Pamperin
Page 68
68 Accuracy School
A year in the life of the Northwest
School of Wooden Boatbuilding
Lawrence W. Cheek
Page 33

42 Scrapin’ Time
The crabbers and crab boats
of Smith Island, Maryland
Randall Peffer

82 Building an Amesbury Skiff, Part 2
A classic outboard-powered boat, in
oak, locust, and cedar
Graham McKay
96 The Boat Shower
A practical, minimalist solution
Nat Benjamin

2 • WoodenBoat 241

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Number 241
November/December 2014
Page 98

Reader Services
108 How to Reach Us
112 Vintage Boats
114 Boatbrokers

Departments

117 Boatbuilders

5 Editor’s Page
A Scale-Model Economy

122 Kits and Plans
126 Raftings

6 Letters
14 Currents edited by Tom Jackson

128 Classified
135 Index to Advertisers

66 Wood Technology
Engineered Boat Planking

Richard Jagels

TEAR-out supplement Pages 16/17

78 Launchings…and Relaunchings

Getting Started in Boats:

Robin Jettinghoff

Waking Up Your Boat

Jan Adkins

98 Designs: Sketchbook
Aurora: A modern classic
daysailer/club racer

Laurie McGowan and Michael Schacht

102 Designs: Review
Tumblehome 24: Speed and style
Brendan Riordan

106 The WoodenBoat Review
• Sextant
Daniel Parrott
• Lofting a Boat Steve Kessler
• Books Received

136 Save a Classic

BLACKJACK: A genuine Friendship
sloop

Maynard Bray

Cover: During the summer
of 2014, the 1841 whaleship
CHARLES W. MORGAN

set sail on her first voyage in
almost 90 years. In the final
phase of her restoration, she
was completely rerigged with
cotton canvas sails and hemp
and manila cordage.
See page 24.
Photograph by Dennis Murphy/
Mystic Seaport Museum

WoodenBoat (ISSN 0095–067X) is published bimonthly in January, March, May, July, September,
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November/December 2014 • 3

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WOODENBOAT SCHOOL

A little piece
of paradise...

You are cordially invited to join us here
in Brooklin, Maine in 2015 for
an experience you’ll benefit from
for years to come!
Call today for our 2015 course catalog or
access our entire program at

www.woodenboat.com
First day of reservations is

Friday, January 2, 2015.
Phone or fax only please.

WOODENBOAT SCHOOL
P.O. Box 78 ✶ Brooklin, Maine 04616

P: 207–359–4651 ✶ F: 207–359–8920

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41 WoodenBoat Lane • P.O. Box 78
Brooklin, ME 04616–0078
tel. 207–359–4651 • fax 207–359–8920
email: [email protected]
website: www.woodenboat.com
Chairman & Editor-in-Chief
Jonathan A. Wilson
Publisher & General Manager
Jim Miller
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 Jenny Bennett,
Harry Bryan, Greg Rössel
Copy Editor Jane Crosen
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Director Richard Wasowicz
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Director Todd Richardson
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Carl Cramer

A Scale-Model Economy
Nearly three years ago, Senior Editor Tom Jackson spent a week at Mystic
Seaport—and later, two additional weeks—working alongside the crew
of shipwrights rebuilding the whaleship CHARLES W. MORGAN. This
immersive experience informed a comprehensive article on the ship’s
history and restoration (WB No. 226) and left us waiting, with bated breath,
for the finished ship. She appears on the cover of this issue under sail off
Boston last summer, and Tom’s account of finally sailing the MORGAN
appears on page 24.

The MORGAN’s significance is unparalleled: She is the oldest American
commercial ship still floating, and the last of an American whaling fleet
that once numbered more than 2,700. It’s almost impossible to imagine
today the economy that gave rise to the demand for whale oil and bone—
the former of which lit homes and lubricated machinery, and the latter
of which was used to make everything from carriage springs to hoop
skirts. It’s likewise difficult now to comprehend the hardship of working
in an industry that took crews to sea for up to three years at a time for the
speculative gamble of a full hold and a good price. The restoration of the
MORGAN —and the sailing of the vessel last summer—gives us a rare peek
into this past, though we still must squint away our modern convenience
and perspective in order to get but a small glimpse of the economy of
whaling.
The restored MORGAN, of course, is not earning money catching
whales. But it’s interesting to see that around the vessel there has sprung
up a small and fleeting market—a mini-economy, if you will. Nathaniel
S. Wilson and his crew in East Boothbay, Maine, expertly made 19 new
sails for the whaleship. Hemp rope came from a company called Lipmann
in Hamburg, Germany; manila from the Philippines was sourced by the
T.W. Evans Cordage Co. of Cranston, Rhode Island. The 3,800 yards of
sailcloth required to make the new sails was custom-woven in India per
order of the industrial fabrics division of the Maryland-based C.R. Daniels
Company. Blacksmith Matthew Harkins of Newcastle, Maine, pounded
out more than 70 pieces of hardware on his forge. Longleaf pine came
from Bobby Shortridge near Potawan, Virginia. And, somewhat poetically
R & W Rope supplied the cordage for the boltropes and, after a laborious
search, appropriate thread for the new sails came from the New Bedford
Thread Company. The last two companies are located in New Bedford,
Massachusetts—the MORGAN’s port of call in her working days.

But that’s not all. No fewer than ten new whaleboats were built for
the restored MORGAN (see Currents, WB No. 226), one of which came
from the Beetle Company itself, which started off building whaleboats,
and others from educational boat shops ranging from Philadelphia
(Workshop on the Water) to the Bronx (Rocking the Boat) to Amesbury,
Massachusetts (Lowell’s Boat Shop, which also built the Amesbury skiff
whose construction we feature in this issue and the previous one).

It’s a fleeting thing, this mini-economy built around a single whaleship.
But, just as a scale model helps us to understand a ship, its tiny size helps
us to understand the impact of 2,700 whaling ships at the height of the
whaling industry.

Copyright 2014 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 communica­
tions 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.

November/December 2014 • 5

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Farewell to You, David Kasanof
Good Morning Matt,
There is an  old adage that says, “A
good ship is made up of a good
captain and a good crew.”  I firmly
believe that David Kasanof’s stellar 40-year career and recognition
as an exemplary crew member of 
WoodenBoat is a  splendid example
of this proverb.
David’s always razor-sharp wit
and self-effacing humour has
always contained “tongue-in-cheek”
important technical information,
but moreover the  most important
message over the years has been
“Don’t take your life so damned
seriously” and that boating, when
conducted properly and safely, is
supposed to provide us with  fun
and like-minded friends.  David’s
Fo’c’s’le column has always been
one of my favorite Wooden­Boat
“read first” offerings, and for sure
he will be greatly missed by all of
his  readers everywhere.
 The real message here for all of
us is that in real life there are always
changes. Whether we like it or not,
we  should try to prepare ourselves
for those inevitable changes and be
able to chart a new course. I would
personally like to wish David a fair
tide and smooth sailing in his wellearned retirement. 
Our best to all WoodenBoat crew. 

Joe Fossey Sr.

Barrie, Ontario   
I am sorry to read that David
Kasanof is no longer writing his
interesting and informative column
for you-all.  Hope you find someone
to carry on the idea of that type of
column.
C. Henry Depew
Tallahassee, Florida
I was very sorry to read that David
Kasanof is sailing off. His articles
are the next thing I read after Free
Boats in the back. His world is more
like my world, where the glue never
sets.  No blonde bimbos or perfect
boats. Thank him for me and buy
him a nice ale. A pat on the back for
a job well done.
Jay D. Sandler
via e-mail

Two-Six…Myth
Dear Matt,
I was chagrined to see the wonderful
GRAYHOUND in such a careless
fashion. The author repeats a false
etymology for the pervasive “TwoSix—Heave!” call, claiming that
“Two and Six were the assigned
gun crew positions for men who
hauled on heavy tackles to wheel a
gun carriage back into position after
firing.” I’ve heard this false history
repeated umpteen times aboard
various sailing vessels, but never
with any substantiation. That’s
because it’s a myth, as a quick
fact-checking mission would have
revealed. Had you queried the likes
of Walter Rybka, senior captain at
the Erie Maritime Museum, about
the phrase (try it), his broadside
would have blown that particular
canard right out of the water—and
out of the pages of this fine magazine.
Dan Brayton
Associate Professor of English and
Environmental Studies
Middlebury College
Middlebury, Vermont
Author Patrick Holian replies:
Skipper Marcus Rowden explained
the origins of the phrase to me.
All sources I checked later support
his explanation. Even a Pittsburgh
Post Gazette article that includes
Walter Rybka, who the chagrined
Dan Brayton refers to, had this
take: “The phrase dates to the
days when the No. 2 man and then
the No. 6 man assigned to a
warship’s cannons would heave
them into position.” Repeated sources
in my fact- checking support
Rowden.

Making Fast (Volume 47) that was
titled “Mousing a Mooring Line,” I
thought to myself: “Oh good, now
I’ll learn what mousing is.” But alas.
The word is first used in this helpful (not to me!) sentence: “Use the
pennant between that eyesplice and
its float to mouse the mooring line
by taking figure-eight turns around
the cleat or bitt and then belaying
it.” There are at least six words in
there whose meaning I don’t really
know. After several careful readings and study of the illustration, I
felt the wind go out of my sails, just
a bit. Please keep up your efforts to
make sailing accessible, but I think
you may want to clarify who your
target audience is, and be careful
with the lingo.
David Kriebel
Magnolia, Massachusetts
Your point is well taken, David, and
we’re grateful that you spoke up. For
doing so, please accept this complimentary personalized definition: Mouse—
To seize [wrap] a piece of small stuff
across a hook used in the rigging to prevent its unhooking. (That definition is
from Rene de Kerchove’s International
Maritime Dictionary, which we highly
recommend for both the budding and
accomplished nautical linguist.) Please
note that the term commonly applies to
other pieces of hardware in addition
to hooks; reduced to simpler terms, “to
mouse” simple means to secure something—a large line or a shackle pin, for
instance—with a small piece of line or
wire.
—Eds.

Mousetrap

Bill Page

I am a longtime subscriber and
avid reader of your magazine. I am
also the sort of reader that your
“Getting Started in Boats” insert is
designed for—at least I thought I
was. I’m building a wooden boat—
Joel White’s Marsh Cat—and am
not an expert sailor, and I have
found the topics covered in the
Getting Started series helpful. So,
when I got to the paragraph in

To the Editor:
Bill Mayher’s profile of Bill Page
(WB No. 240) brought back tons of
memories for me. His parents were
still living in Winterport when I
lived there in the 1970s; the boatyard he had started in the Quonset
huts was where I kept and worked
on a series of wooden boats during
those years; Bill Page’s friend Don
McNaughton still stored a fine boat

6 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/25/14 4:53 PM

there. Bill, of course, had moved on
to Camden and the brokerage business Mayher describes so well in his
article. I spent a lot of time poring
over listings there as my interest
in wooden boats deepened, and
around 1980, with Bill as broker, I
bought WINGS OF THE MORNING,
a Samurai 28, with a partner. I well
remember Bill remarking that we’d
“be back before long” because boat
partnerships seldom worked out.
While I’m sure he knew that from
experience, I still like to point out
that he was wrong in our case: With
three different partners at different times, I owned several boats
that way until about three years
ago. As Mayher notes, “Bill was
straight up about the way he represented boats to clients,” and he was
being straight up with us. Perhaps
we’re the exception that proves the
rule.

David D. Platt
Falmouth, Maine

Dear WoodenBoat,
I’d like to thank Bill Mayher and
WoodenBoat for writing such a flattering article in the previous issue
concerning my various boat activities through the years. It appears
that my son, Tom, dug into a chest
of really old family photographs
and sent some to WoodenBoat while
my wife, Paula, and I were off happily cruising aboard SERIANNA!
(I should have kept a lock on that
chest!)
Somehow, however, an error
crept in regarding the building of
the 35' Warner ketch SANDPIPER ,
and I want readers to know that
my late wonderful friend Gordon
“Swifty” Swift built the entire boat,
and not just the hull, while I was
busy in Camden with the yacht

brokerage business. While he was
building the boat, I did build the
spars and rig, and completed a few
final finishing details after she was
trucked to Camden from Swifty’s
shop. But Swifty worked very hard
on the whole boat, and did a superb
job. I will be forever grateful to him
and his lovely wife, Doris, for all they
did for us, and the many pleasures
derived during that entire building
process.
Thank you again,
Bill Page
Cushing, Maine
While we’re on the subject, we’d also like
to correct the record on one other point
regarding Bill Page’s career: His tenure
with the brokerage he founded, Page
Marine Services (now Cannell, Payne
and Page), began in 1968 and lasted for
nearly two decades, and not for the single
decade stated in the article.
—Eds.

November/December 2014 • 7

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y on
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WBStore-241.indd 13

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CURRENTS

NIC COMPTON

2.

NOBUTADA OMOTE

PATRICK HOLIAN

3.

1.

A world of wooden boats
by Tom Jackson
When people who are passionate about wooden boats travel, they seek out yet more wooden
boats. The universal appeal of watercraft is astounding. From Africa to the Mediterranean,
from the North Sea to Japan, steps taken to save the traditions of indigenous boatbuilding
seem contagious. Read on.
—TJ

P

atrick Holian of Marco Island, Florida,
writes of his adventure through the
Okavango Delta in Botswana, Africa:
“‘Silence, please. And don’t make any
fast movements. If you do, the elephant
might charge.’ Those wise words come
from my guide, Balebogeng ‘Bally’
Mbwe, who expertly poles our wooden
boat directly past a bull elephant a mere
25 yards away. But Bally calmly continues to maneuver our mokoro along the
jungle verve of the shore.
“Mekoro (the plural form) are long,
narrow canoes used for millennia on the
delta, one of the largest in world. Think
Florida Everglades, but with elephants,
hippos, crocodiles, and a black mamba
or two thrown in for good measure. ‘I
was seven years old when I first joined my
father to hunt from the mokoro,’ recalls
Bally, a delta native. ‘We went after lions,
buffalos, and impala. My father hunted
with a bow and arrow.’ Sitting low in the
boat, with the rail just inches from the
water, I cannot imagine how anyone
could hunt from these boats, let alone
maneuver while standing.

“But in the following days, I discover
how mekoro are ideally suited for the
Okavango. Bally comes from a family
of mokoro builders. His father, now
deceased, built 35 of them, two with
his son. ‘At first, I thought it would be
simple, but it was very, very hard,’ he
says. ‘You have to keep the sides thin,
the bottom flat, and the ends tapered. If
they are too thick, you will never be able
to pole the boat through the water due
to its weight.’
“While jackalberry (Diospyros mespiliformis) is sometimes chosen for
construction, the sausage tree (Kigelia africana) is the timber of choice
due to its large size, termite-resistant
wood, and workability. Using an axe,
the builder fells and limbs a tree, then
roughs out the bow and stern. A smaller
axe is used to refine the shape. The
log is soaked for five days to soften the
wood, then hauled ashore to dry for a
day before the bark is removed and the
interior shaped. Instead of using fire,
as in former times, builders use axes to
hollow the hull.

1. Bally Mbwe poles a mokoro along
reedy waterways of the Okavango
Delta in Botswana. The thin-walled
dugout canoe, traditionally used for
hunting and fishing, is now used for
tourist excursions. 2. Traditional boats
converged on the Greek islands of
Syros and Paros for days of sailing
camaraderie at the Cyclades Classic
Yacht Regatta. The 15’ ALEXANDRA
X, center, built by Syros boatbuilder
Manolis Zorgos as a wedding gift,
has the traditional lateen rig, but
Nikos Daroukakis gave his 18-footer
CHRYSSOPIGI, a type from Hydra, a
junk rig. At right is a replica French
naval cutter built by Nikolas Vlavianos.
3. Douglas Brooks, who is writing
a book about Japanese traditional
boatbuilding, led the construction of
a traditional ayabune at the Mizunoki
Museum of Art in that country’s town
of Kameoka.

“‘If you are lazy, it will take four
months to build a mokoro,’ Bally says.
‘If you are not lazy—three months. It’s
a long process.’ Even the ngashi, the
pole, takes two days to make. Polers
choose a straight branch with a fork,
usually from the terminalia tree. The
fork allows them to push off the thick
delta grass roots for propulsion. Without it, the pole would simply stick into
the mud bottom.

14 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/25/14 2:29 PM

Edited by Tom Jackson

“I

t’s that No 9 bus syndrome all
over again,” Nic Compton writes
from England: “You wait years for a
Greek wooden boat regatta, and then
three come along all at once. It all
started with the Spetses Classic Yacht
Race, launched in 2011, which inspired
the first Cyclades Classic Yacht Race,
launched in 2013, which was in turn followed by the Corfu Classic Yacht Race,
launched in 2014.
“But whereas the Spetses regatta
(and by extension Corfu, which has the
same organizers) from the outset set
out to be a prestige event, attracting the
smartest classic yachts in Greek waters
as well as headline sponsorship from
Chivas Regal whiskey, the Cyclades
Classic Yacht Race has been more of a
community affair.
“For a start, the regatta takes place
between two islands, with one day’s racing around the cans off Syros, followed
by a 30-mile passage race from Syros
to Paros, and then another day’s racing off Paros. The two islands’ sailing
clubs work together, although the real
community events take place on Syros,
starting on the very first day.
“Whereas the first night of the Spetses regatta is celebrated with expensive
cocktails at the Poseidonion Grand
Hotel, in Syros the local boatyard
cleared its slipway and laid on a massive barbecue. Tables and chairs and a
small stage were positioned between a
wooden gulet, a steel ferry, and a derelict caique. The whole town, it seemed,
turned up for freshly grilled sardines
and wine. A band came on and played
traditional Greek songs, and about 50
people danced hand in hand—an unostentatious dance that was all about the
pleasure of being together rather than
being flash. ‘There used to be many
small village ceremonies in Greece,’
says event organizer Miltos Sakellariou.
‘It was part of the quality of life. These
ceremonies give people a closer and
deeper relationship; they make you real-

ize that we all depend on each other.
That was some of the feeling I wanted
to bring back.’
“The racing itself was a mixed bag,
as you’d expect from a fleet of 10 boats
ranging from the 65' topsail schooner
JOHANNA LUCRETIA , taking a year out
from the Tall Ships circuit to cruise the
Mediterranean, to the 15' ALEXANDRA X,
a lateen dinghy built by retired Syros
boatbuilder as a wedding present for
his nephew-in-law. Other boats of interest were the 42' ATHENA , based on the
sponge-fishing boats of Simi, and the
18' CHRYSSOPIGI, based on the open
fishing boats of Hydra, both newly built
by Nikos Daroukakis and traditional but
for their junk rigs. A more traditional
interpretation was the lug-rigged NAUTILUS , built by Nikolas Vlavianos and
based on an 18th-century French naval
cutter said to be capable of 15 knots.
“But it was a traditional Greek caique
from Spetses, the AGIOS GIORGOS, with
a mainsail emblazoned with the Spetses
motto ‘Freedom or death,’ and its crew
dressed in traditional costumes, that
won every race in the Traditional Boat
class, while CHRYSSOPIGI won overall
in the Open Boat class. It was a fitting
result for an event that mixed the best
of tradition and innovation in true
Greek style.”

“I

recently returned to Japan to
spend a month there building a
traditional river fishing boat at the
Mizunoki Museum of Art in Kameoka,”
Douglas Brooks writes from Vergennes,
Vermont.
“The project was the brainchild of
the museum’s director, Riko Okuyama,
who approached me at a conference
several years ago and said she wanted
to see a boat built with students. We
settled on an ayubune, a particular type
One falkuša
helped keep
the traditional
lateen-rigged
Croatian
fishing boat
type alive,
but a second
replica
additionally
helped bring
back the
tradition
of annual
races to the
island fishing
grounds.

that was once commonly used on the
Hozu River for catching ayu (sweetfish)
and for transportation during spring
floods. Eventually, we found a wrecked
24' ayubune on the riverbank. Ironically,
a fiberglass mold made from an original
18' boat gave us overall dimensions
while the larger boat provided construction details.
“These boats have a pram-type bow,
important for providing buoyancy forward to prevent the bow from burying
in whitewater. It was a great design to
build in a museum setting because the
wide bow alleviates the tricky task of
bending wide planks over fire.
“I had six students, working two at
a time each day, during the project.
While building the boat, I found an
original 15' ayubune, and after the project was completed my students and I
did a thorough lines-taking of the two
original boats. Right now, I am working
with the museum and Renaud Vergnais,
a French architect working in Kyoto, on
a set of drawings for all three boats.
The museum is now hosting an exhibit
on the boat and traditional boat preservation, open through October. Also, I
hope to publish drawings of the 15', 18',
and 24' ayubune with them.
“In the course of my stay, I met many
people interested in preserving traditional boatbuilding. I think I can say
that a wooden boat revival is under way
in Japan, something that was absent just
10 years ago.”

“I

n Croatia,” James Bender writes,
“as in other places around Europe,
traditional lateen-rigged vessels still
sail, but in the town of Komiža on the
island of Vis, the revival of the local fishing vessel the falkuša (see WB No. 149)
came with a tradition of racing to an
offshore island group, Palagruža, some

IVO PERVAN

“Bally handles his ngashi masterfully in rhythmic, fluid motions. The
simplicity of these boats is a delight,
and while most are now used for tourism, the mokoro tradition continues.
In recent years, some have introduced
fiberglass mekoro, believing that sausage trees are in decline. Bally works at
Oddballs Lodge, one of the few remaining Okavango camps that exclusively
use wooden mekoro. ‘Since I was born, I
have always traveled by wooden mokoro.
My parents were poor. It was our only
transportation. This is my tradition,
and I hope that it will always continue.’”

November/December 2014 • 15

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9/25/14 2:29 PM

“I

t has been an exceptional year in
Norway, especially for the celebration of naval architect Colin Archer,”
Evelyn Ansel of Mystic, Connecticut,
writes from her sojourn in Scandinavia.
“The attention stems in part from
two phoenix-from-the-ashes resurrections of Archer-designed boats. One was
W Y VERN, an 1894 ketch that was
recovered last year after sinking with the
tragic loss of one life. The other was

EVELYN ANSEL (both)

42 miles from their home port.
“Komiža fishermen have been documented there as far back as the 12th
century, and their continual presence
keeps the small cluster of islands part
of Croatia, even though they are closer
to Italy than to any Croatian port. Historically, sardine fishermen raced to
secure safe moorings and haulouts in
Palagruža’s few shallow bays, and stragglers had to settle for less-favorable
anchorages and camps. Fishermen who
arrived last sometimes had to carry
their catch up a narrow path to the top
of the 300' cliffs to find space to dry and
process sardines. The last race was run
in 1925 with 125 boats—meaning that
about 600 people lived on this inhospitable rock in the open sea.
“By the 1980s, mechanization made
the falkuša obsolete. At the time, only
one boat, the wrecked hulk of the CICIBELA , was believed to exist. Professor
Josko Bozanić and naval architect Velimir Salamon took her lines and created
plans for the replica KOMIŽA~LISBOA ,
built in 1992. A second replica, MIKULA ,
was built more recently, and now both
regularly race. This year, a local sailor,
Pino Vojkovič, launched a third falkuša,
and there is already talk of a fourth.
“The revival of the race has become
a rallying point for interest in local
boats and traditions. Beside the falkuša,
lateen-rigged boats from other parts of
Croatia have joined in the celebration.
These included several leut, decked
workboats up to 26' long used in the
Kornati islands of central Dalmatia,
and two bracera, cargo vessels of up to
40' LOA from Dubrovnik and Omiš.
Even the Croatian navy participated
with a 10-meter rowing and sailing cutter. Of course, both falkuša led the fleet,
anchoring two hours before the rest of
the fleet after making the 42-mile run
in less than 7 hours.
“Last summer, another aged falkuša
was discovered on the island of Hvar.
JAGLICA , which means needle-fish, is
now being restored. As the fleet grows,
so does the interest in the race and the
boats. What was once a dying tradition
is being rebuilt in a new form, linked
not to fishing but to the preservation of
more than 400 years of heritage.”

Above left—WYVERN, a 60’ Colin Archer ketch that was raised after sinking in
the Baltic Sea in 2013, underwent a full restoration in time to join a fleet sailing
into Bergen, Norway, this year. Above right—A dockyard fire precipitated a
restoration project on the rescue boat COLIN ARCHER, named for her Norwegian
designer, whose designs were celebrated in a coastal festival in Oslo this summer.
COLIN ARCHER of 1880, hull No. 1 of

Archer’s famous ‘redningskoites,’ or rescue vessels, which was damaged in a fire.
“I encountered W Y VERN July 24 in
Bergen—along with about half a million other revelers—at the arrival of
a fleet cruising in company after the
Tall Ships Race. Large steel-hulled sailtraining ships from around Europe
were interspersed with a few wooden
boats, one of them being W Y VERN. She
was a knockout: at 60', she is the largest double-ender ever to come from
Archer’s board. The sight of her ghosting into the harbor flying all canvas in a
light breeze just before sunset made the
hair on the back of my neck stand up. A
second Archer-designed boat, LIV, redningskoite No. 5, was also among the
fleet that day.
“ W Y VERN’s arrival became even
more poignant for me when I learned
about the most recent chapter in her
history from Mons Arne Grøsvil, her
primary skipper from 1984 to 2009.
During the 2013 Tall Ships Race’s first
leg, this well-maintained veteran of six
previous races sank in the Baltic Sea just
south of Gotland. At 2:45 a.m. on July
11, after four days of hard sailing into
winds gusting to 26 knots, she started
rapidly taking on water. Swedish rescue
boats responded, and race participant
W YLDE SWAN stood by. Her crew were
taken off starting at 4:20 a.m., and the
co-captains abandoned ship at 6:00
a.m. By 8:20 a.m., all were safe ashore.
However, at 9:20 a.m., three of W YLDE
SWAN’s crew boarded W Y VERN in an
attempt to save her. When she sank

some 20 minutes later, one was trapped
belowdecks and went down with her.
(Results of an inquest are pending.)
“Grøsvik was appointed by Bitten
Bakke, director of the Stavanger Maritime Museum, which owns the boat, to
lead salvage efforts. When W Y VERN
was raised August 11, 2013, a 3" gap
between the 12-ton lead ballast keel
and the timber keel was discovered
in way of the mainmast step, a result
of keelbolt failure as she worked hard
to windward. W Y VERN was taken to
Stavanger’s Naustvik Slipway for hull
repairs. In January 2014, she voyaged
under her own power to Hvide Sande
Skibs og Baadbyggeri in Denmark for
installation of new systems and a full
interior refit. She returned to Stavanger Maritime Museum, which owns the
boat, in time for the cruise to Bergen.
“A separate rolling cruise in company, which became known as the ‘Constitution Convoy,’ began earlier in July
informally in Florø, gathered momentum in Bergen, and grew to nearly 100
boats by the time it reached Oslo for
the Kystens Kulturfest (Coasting Culture Festival), which is put on each year
by Forbundet Kysten (www.kysten.no).
The festival, which coincided with the
200th anniversary of the Norway’s independence from Denmark, attracted close
to 300 boats of all kinds, ranging from
a replica of an early 19th-century slooprigged gunboat to modern fishboats.
About 15 Archer-designed boats—most
especially COLIN ARCHER and three
other redningskoites—were a center of
attention.

16 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/29/14 9:27 AM

GETTING STARTED IN BOATS
from the Editors of

Volume 49

GS-Vol49-Waking Boat_04.indd 1

Magazine

Waking Up Your Boat

9/28/14 6:10 PM

Waking Up Your Boat
Text and Illustrations by Jan Adkins

T

his is the bosun’s traditional call to the
sleeping watch below: “Wakey wakey!
Rouse out, you sleepers, out and down!
Here I come with a sharp knife and a clear
conscience!” Sound sleepers found themselves
dumped on the deck, their hammock line cut
by the bosun’s knife. Rouse out!

A boat nodding by a dock or a mooring has
its own small life, murmuring in its sleep like
a dreaming dog. Your wakey wakey should
reflect a thoughtful and prepared boating
style. How you wake up and deploy your lines,
systems, and precautions should make clear
sailing easier.

WOODENBOAT PUBLICATIONS, INC.
P.O. Box 78 (41 WoodenBoat Ln.), Brooklin, ME 04616 • Tel. 207–359–4651
www.GettingStartedinBoats.com • www.WoodenBoat.com
1–800–273–7447 (U.S. and Canada)

Subscribe to WoodenBoat Magazine: 1–800–877–5284
2 • Waking Up Your Boat (Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 241)

GS-Vol49-Waking Boat_04.indd 2

9/28/14 6:10 PM

Pre-Flight

“A

ll pilots—professional airline pilots,
Piper Cub civil aviators, and hotshot fighter pilots—share a ritual:
the Pre-Flight Checklist. They’ve gone
through the same or similar lists thousands
of times, yet they persist, and they usually
recite it out loud. The reason is simple: There
are intricate combinations of failure that
can become a toxic cascade because a simple valve wasn’t closed or a switch was set to
a wrong position. They know it’s possible to
overlook something out of sheer, dumb familiarity. They can forget. So can you.
If the pros won’t neglect basic checklists, someone getting started in a new discipline might do well to develop a similar
respect for human failings. A good prevoyage checklist is part of your wake-up.
Make it a ritual, before you drop a single
dockline, to go through your pre-flight
checklist.

Waking Up Your Boat

GS-Vol49-Waking Boat_04.indd 3

(Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 241)

•

3

9/28/14 6:11 PM

Break it Down

P

arcel out areas of importance. You can’t possibly include every necessary item on your
checklist, but the breakdown into spheres of concern will prompt you to remember details
for this voyage or this particular combination of weather and passage. You’ll find your own mnemonics—your memory aids. Here are some areas upon which to focus:
Hull
Check the integrity of the hull, rudder, and
centerboard. Also, check which through-hull
fittings must be opened and closed to leave
the dock with confidence. As in:
Open Through-Hull Valve
To Heat Exchanger

Deck
What might go wrong on the deck to jeopardize
safe sailing? What hatches should be dogged
(locked) and what should be undogged for
quick access? It’s an accepted scientific principle that an engine will fail at the worst possible time; that’s when you need working sails,
right now.
Remove And Stow Mainsail
Cover And Jib Bag In Lazarette

4 • Waking Up Your Boat (Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 241)

GS-Vol49-Waking Boat_04.indd 4

9/28/14 6:11 PM

Stowage

B

e specific about stowage locations; this
is a task list for your crew. If your
canvaswork extends to
shrouds around handholds,
flaps over dodger windows,
snoods covering binnacle,
winches, or windlasses, this is
the place to call for a check.
Rigging
Standing and running rigging deserve careful scrutiny. Your checklist
might even call for a visual inspection
of all shackle pins and cotter pins. This is
also a good place to specify ready-to-hand
essentials:
Uncoil and flake down mainsheet;
clear and overhaul jibsheets.
Detach main halyard from starboard
stanchion base and attach to mainsail
head; check for clear running.

Crew
Certainty about the crew’s safety, comfort, and
ability to perform is a hallmark of good skippers. What does every crew need every time?
Plenty of water ready to drink, for starters.
There should also be ample sunscreen
onboard: Inexperienced sailors don’t
realize the destructive strength of
ultraviolet light amplified
by reflections off the water.
PFDs should be checked
for a good fit, and the crew
should either wear them at all times or know
where to find them when the time comes. Antinausea meds should be encouraged, and crew
members with prescription meds should have
them readily available. Sunglasses, hats, clothing appropriate to warm or cool weather, and
foul weather gear should be quickly available.
Make some decisions about how you want
your crew to stow personal gear securely. This
is not a trivial consideration: Cosmetics, toothpaste, or loose papers shifting all over the
cabin sole in a seaway are an internal hazard
to navigation.

Waking Up Your Boat

GS-Vol49-Waking Boat_04.indd 5

(Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 241)

•

5

9/28/14 6:11 PM

Orientation And Task
restocked first-aid kit, throwable flotation in
the cockpit, and the man-overboard hoist on
deck and affixed to stern pulpit.

A

s a skipper, it’s your responsibility to make
certain every shipmate knows where
to lay hands on the emergency tiller,
manual bilge pump, first aid kit, and other
critical items.
Green or able-bodied, all of your shipmates
should know how to operate your particular
head—valves to holding tank or open water,
flushing, clearing, and how to reset the head
valves so the head doesn’t siphon water into
the boat while underway!
If you’re the skipper, it’s
your responsibility to assign tasks. Crew members
should know what’s expected, what they should do,
and what they shouldn’t do.
Watching under the sail for
traffic may sound basic but
it’s a critical task.

Navigation
You may be a paper-chart
traditionalist (this is Wooden­
Boat, after all) or a GPS
geek, but the principle is
the same: Lay out or boot
up the charts you’ll need.
If you’re among the digi­
tari, locate your backup
paper charts. You never
know.
Eyeball navigation and
dead-reckoning are just as important as
charts and plotters: Your best binoculars
should be hanging safely within reach, and
you should have quick, sure access to your
tide charts, dividers, chart plotter or parallel rules, and a calculator. Check your masthead weathervane and
your telltales.

Safety
It’s all about safety. All of
this. But there should be a
specific part of the checklist
for cataclysms, which are
the very times you don’t
want to run about finding
what you need. Check for
fire extinguisher gauges “in
the green,” up-to-date flares,

6 • Waking Up Your Boat (Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 241)

GS-Vol49-Waking Boat_04.indd 6

9/28/14 6:11 PM

— A Pair of Benches
for Handsawing —
Weather

S

pend time with NOAA weather before
you make a move. We grant that their
predictions aren’t always spot-on. They
have, however, this virtue: They err on the
heavy side, so if the indicators are ambivalent, they’ll predict a storm sooner than a
light breeze. Know what you might meet out
beyond wading depth.
If you’re the skipper, the crew’s comfort is
your burden; give a thought to extra fleeces,
blankets, sun hats, gloves, sunblock, cabin
heater, and cabin fans.
Engine
Power installations in sailboats are seldom
simple. The fluid hull shape and the milled,
hex-bolted, brutal aesthetic of engines are
seldom a comfortable mating. You must
know where your power’s soft spots lie: Have
you had problems with fuel, current, overheating, transmission? Identify what could
go wrong and reflect your concern in the
checklist.
Generally, you should always check the
fuel level, crankcase oil (level and “color”),
coolant and heat exchanger, and belt tensions. This isn’t overhauling a stopwatch; it’s
ticking off the primary vulnerabilities. It’s
never a waste of time to check for anything
that might fall on or near the propeller shaft,
even if you must hang upside down for a few
moments.

Electricity: Mooring
If your boat lives at a mooring ball, you should
check the levels of your batteries, consult your
voltmeter, and maybe even employ a hygro­
meter to test the specific density of the
battery water.
Electricity: Slip
If your boat resides at a dock or slip, you’ll likely be shifting from AC shore power to DC internal power. Remember the bitter argument
between DC Edison and AC Tesla, and reflect
that crossing over is not simple. Go through
the steps carefully. When you’re ready to drop
lines, detach the heavy shore cable after the
power has been turned off at the shore breaker
box and figure-8 coil the cable to take aboard
or leave in the dock locker—your choice, your
checklist. Marine three-contact plugs are positive locks, so if you neglect this detail, your voyage will be short and ignominious.
Shore Contact
Have you filed a float plan? Does each crew
member’s spouse, partner, children, boss, doctor, AA sponsor, or stockbroker know where
the crew will be? Will the voyage take the crew
out of cell-phone range? Do you have alternate
objectives or routes? Is your insurance paid up?
Just as the transition between AC and DC is
tricky, it’s also disorienting to step from a constantly connected, largely abstract shore life to
a simpler but more immediate world of
necessity and seamanship. If you’re in
charge, recognize this and help your
crew to make adjustments. Ashore,
we tend to rely on infrastructure to
protect us from mishap. Afloat,
we pretty much take care of
our own well-being and safety.
Admittedly, it involves risk and
limited skills. But getting away
from the shore and from the
grid of normal fallbacks is
refreshing. It’s also a way we
reset our heart’s instruments.

Waking Up Your Boat

GS-Vol49-Waking Boat_04.indd 7

(Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 241)

•

7

9/28/14 6:11 PM

The Crew Meeting

Y

ou may, like Odysseus, sail with the
same heroic souls for years, but most
recreational voyages are salad events—a
mix of experienced mellow veggies and crisp
greens. It’s therefore important to orient everyone before getting underway, appointing

people to tasks and positions that fit their
skills and abilities. The crew meeting is the
time to do this, and it also presents an opportunity to point out the locations of seacocks,
emergency gear, and basic necessities—and
to ask and answer questions.

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, www.woodenboatstore.com

8 • Waking Up Your Boat (Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 241)

GS-Vol49-Waking Boat_04.indd 8

9/28/14 6:10 PM

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“A

on to race three days into gale-force
headwinds. She’s at home in such conditions, she ‘ just kept going faster and
faster,’ Gransaether said, averaging 9.5
knots—but reaching 11.2 knots with
an all-women watch, as he was quick to
point out—enough to give her First in
Class and First Overall.”

“T

he Republic of Karelia consists
of a swath of northern European
lands slightly smaller in area than
Minnesota,” Anthony Shaw writes from
Finland. “The region has been fought

ANTHONY SHAW

“I caught up with Knut von Trepka,
41 years the caretaker of COLIN
ARCHER , which had joined the fleet
after the first leg of the Tall Ships
Race from Holland to Norway. Only
17 months earlier, she had been badly
damaged by a fire. Co-skipper Tor
Erling Gransaether told me that an
electrical cable overheated an out-ofreach contact, melting the fuel-filling
pipe and allowing vapors to ignite. The
fire destroyed the deck and about 10
percent of the interior but fortunately
left the original 1893 hull undamaged. The team responsible for COLIN
ARCHER decided to take the opportunity to replace the deck and restore
the interior to its pre-1960s configuration. The 16-month, $500,000 project,
which began at the Maritime Center
Fredrikstad a week after the fire, was
completed while the boat remained in
the water. COLIN ARCHER is owned by
the Norwegian Maritime Museum in
Oslo, where she returned in May 2014
with a rebuilt engine, a new deck, and
her original elegant and understated
interior restored.
“With Gransaether as skipper and
a crew of six that included his 16-yearold son, Vemund Baltzer, she went

over first by Viking explorers and then
for four centuries by the precursors of
the current nation states of Sweden,
Finland, and Russia. After the annexation of much of Finnish Karelia by the
Soviet Union after World War II, the
parts of the region now inside Russia are
depopulated and covered once again
with dense arboreal forest. However, as
home to the two largest freshwater lakes
in Europe, it is no surprise that wooden
boats are still part of the contemporary
culture here.
“On the island of Kizhi, 45 miles
Historic boat
types, including
Kizhanka that
have a distinctive
turned-in profile
of the forward and
after stems, were
celebrated at a
festival of wooden
boats in Kizhi,
Russia.

18 • WoodenBoat 241

Currents241-ADFinal.indd 18

9/25/14 2:29 PM

is standard. The kizhanka on display
were all constructed from solid planking, many sealed with tar, and with contemporary adaptions such as pinned
rowing oarlocks, rowing mirrors, as well
as an ancient diesel motor or a modest
gaff sail.
“The woodcraft of traditional builders has outlived the tortuous politics of
recent times, and in the curious melting pot of post-Soviet Russia reveals
similarities that long outlast the differences. And the dugout canoes could
even have been imported from across
the Barents Sea.”

Around the yards
During the August celebration marking
WoodenBoat’s 40th anniversary, visitors
had a chance to tour the extraordinary
wooden boat building yards in Brooklin, Maine. Here’s what they saw:
n At Brooks Boats Designs, proprietor
John Brooks had set up his Dragonflyer
3.2 out front. The boat is meant to be
small enough to carry in the back of a
pickup truck, or in a pinch even on top
of a car, and light enough to be rolled

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TOM JACKSON

across Lake Onedin from the regional
capital Petrozavodsk, a selection of
these craft are on permanent display
at a Unesco World Heritage Site whose
most prominent feature is the 8thcentury Church of the Transfiguration,
a wooden Orthodox church constructed
without any metal fastenings. In August
2014, the island hosted the Kizhi
Regatta, a festival of wooden boats
and boatbuilders, including re-enacted
historical dramas and naval battles,
alongside folk dancing and disco-driven
aerobics. Traditional wooden boats were
pulled ashore for display alongside
classic 1960s aluminum-hulled workboats, replica dugout canoes, and a
frail-looking craft constructed of reindeer hide stretched over what appeared
to be ash frames.
“The most intriguing of the attendant traditional boats were the 4- to
5-meter [about 13' to 16'] Kizhanka.
These boats are lapstrake-built, typically double-ended, and have characteristic swept-back stems constructed from
the base and root of a modest-sized pine
tree. Also participating in the regatta
was a comparable ‘Keltolainen’ lake
boat from the western edge of Karelia
in Finland, where plywood construction

John Brooks’s DragonFlyer 3.2 sloop,
10’8” LOD and only 100 lbs, is meant
to be simple enough to introduce
young people to sailing yet fast
enough to keep them coming back.

down a beach for launching. “It’s a
great trainer, and an easy boat to use,”
he said. “One of the concerns with sailing is that it has become less and less
popular over the past 30 years, so the
idea is to make sailing more accessible.”
With glued-lapstrake plywood construction, it weighs only 100 lbs. The sliding
gunter rig keeps the mast short enough
to fit in the boat.
Brooks specializes in light plywood

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November/December 2014 • 19

Currents241-ADFinal.indd 19

9/25/14 2:29 PM

n At D.N. Hylan & Associates Boatbuilders, two significant projects had
just been completed. One was a restoration of recently retired WoodenBoat
Publisher Carl Cramer’s L.F. Herreshoff–
designed ketch DEVA, and the other was
a new construction of a small cruising
powerboat with lobster-yacht influences.
The DEVA restoration involved primarily reworking the deck and topsides, the
bottom being sheathed in copper plating.
Looking fresh, she was relaunched in
time to sail in the Eggemoggin Reach
Regatta off Brooklin in early August.
The handsome powerboat was
inspired by designer Harry Bryan’s advocacy of slender boats intended for fairly
low speeds and very low fuel consump-

a neatly finished cabin includes a small
galley and head, with V-berths forward.
D.N. Hylan & Associates, 53 Benjamin
River Dr., Brooklin, ME 04616; 207–359–
9807; www.dhylanboats.com.
TOM JACKSON

construction, but not always in small
boats. He reimagined Joel White’s
Haven 121⁄2 design, which in turn reimagined the Herreshoff 121⁄2, to produce his Somes Sound 121⁄2, and most
recently he took a fresh look at the
popular Swedish-made Folkboat. The
first of his 26' LOA American Folkboat
designs is now under construction.
Brooks Boats Designs, 831 Reach Rd.,
Brooklin, ME 04616; 207–359–2491; www.
brooksboatsdesigns.com.

Doug Hylan, of D.N. Hylan &
Associates Boatbuilders, spoke to
visitors about the yard, which just
launched a handsome and fuelsipping 28’ cruising powerboat.

tion. “I am sold on this idea of Harry Bryan’s of using outboard motors in wells,”
Hylan told his guests. The new boat,
custom built for a Brooklin resident, uses
a 60-hp outboard motor. “You don’t see
them or hear them so much—they’re very
quiet. Steering in reverse, reducing draft
when you need to, clearing lines out of
the propeller, weight considerations—all
of those are good reasons for an outboard
in a well.”
The boat has a large cockpit, similar
to some of Bryan’s designs, with a lobster­
yacht-style wheelhouse forward. Below,

n At Brooklin Boat Yard, the principal
building shed was abuzz with activity on
a new 74' flush-decked sloop, designed
by German Frers with collaboration
from a prominent architect who prefers to remain (in print anyway) anonymous. The racing yacht has—to say the
least—some peculiarities. “There are
close to 800 penetrations of the hull
and deck that will be lined with glass
blocks,” in serpentine shapes, Eric
Blake told the visitors. The hull itself is
a lamination of western larch and carbon fiber over a foam core, done in a
single vacuum-bag operation. Onboard
Systems of New Zealand is contracted
for the push-button hydraulics system.
“There are 32 hydraulic functions,”
Blake said, “so the system onboard
is similar to that of a commercial airliner.” Another contractor is The Boeing Company, which is 3D-printing all
of the yacht’s hardware in titanium.
“The steering wheel pedestals [one
per side] are like titanium sculptures,”

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20 • WoodenBoat 241

Currents241-ADFinal.indd 20

9/25/14 2:29 PM

TOM JACKSON (both)

Above left—A 74’ German Frers–designed cold-molded racing yacht with
riotously unusual use of glass in the deck and hull, elaborate computercontrolled hydraulic systems, and sculptural hardware is taking shape at
Brooklin Boat Yard. Above right—The versatile yard is also finishing out a
strip-built 29’ LOA Joel White–designed double-ender.

Blake said. A May 2015 launching is
expected.
Meanwhile, a 29' LOA Joel White–
designed double-ender was being finished out in a second shed. The builder,
who lived in Vermont, died with the
project unfinished. A Brooklin resident bought the hull for completion at
Brooklin Boat Yard. After fairing the
cedar strip-built hull and sheathing it
in ’glass set in epoxy, the yard turned

to the interior fitout, following the
owner’s wishes for a spartan accommodations plan. Project leader Brian Larkin pointed to the project as a sign of
the yard’s diversity, capable of handling
new high-tech constructions alongside
traditional constructions and faithful
restorations.
Brooklin Boat Yard, Center Harbor Rd.,
P.O. Box 143, Brooklin, ME 04616; 207–
359–2236; www.brooklinboatyard.com.

n At Brion Rieff Boat Builders,
two extensive reconstructions were
under way side-by-side. PATAPSCO II
(ex- SURPRISE), an N.G. Herreshoff–
designed Fishers Island 31, had just
had a new timber keel steam-bent
into place. Rieff described making
the steambox out of culvert sections
welded together to accommodate
the 40' white oak timber. “We steambent it in one operation, and hauled
it up in place, and three guys sat on
this end, and three sat on that end,”
bringing the timber in range for
clamping. The yacht, built in 1930, is
44' LOA . “We saved the topside doubleplanking,” Rieff noted, and much of
the lower planking as well.
Rieff was also building a new hull
for the R-boat SHADOW, which was too
far gone to restore. The hull was
expected to be sent to another yard
for deck installation and completion.
During the visit, the one-mold-perframe building jig was set up and
faired, ready for hull construction to
begin.
Brion Rieff Boat Builders, 76 Flye Point
Rd., Brooklin, ME 04616; 207–359–4455;
www.rieffboats.net.

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November/December 2014 • 21

Currents241-ADFinal.indd 21

9/25/14 2:29 PM

n Eric Dow has built 51 Haven 121⁄2 s
to Joel White’s much-admired recasting of the Herreshoff 121⁄2. He works
in a building his great-grandfather
built more than 100 years ago. “That’s
what we did until 2008, when the economy went down, and they stopped just
like that,” he said. “We haven’t had
one since.” Until that market segment
revives, his work focuses on boat maintenance and restoration. Meanwhile, a
storage building Dow put up a few years
ago is chock-full. “By the time the roof
was on, it was full,” he said. “This is primarily what we’re doing now—hauling,
launching, storage, maintenance, and
repairs. In about two months, this shed
will be so full you wouldn’t be able to
shove an extra canoe in here.”

TOM JACKSON

TOM JACKSON

Brion Rieff Boat Builders
has two significant
restoration projects in the
works, one a rebuild of a
Fishers Island 31 (right),
which most recently was
given a new steam-bent
timber keel. At left, molds
for a completely new hull
for the R-boat SHADOW are
set up, ready for planking.

Eric Dow, master of Joel White–
designed Haven 121⁄2 s, used boat
storage and maintenance to get
through the Great Recession.

Eric Dow Boat Shop, P.O. Box 7, Brooklin, ME 04616; 207–359–2277; www.dow
boats.com.

TOM JACKSON

n At North Brooklin Boats, proprietor
Eric Jacobssen was nearing completion of an unusual 18'4" Chamberlain
gunning dory, with oars supplemented
by an electric auxiliary. The engine
is by Aquamat, an Austrian company.
“It’s a spectacular piece of equipment,”
Jacobssen said. “At full throttle, you only
get about an hour and a half, two hours.
But at half-throttle, one-third throttle—
which is really fine for a gentleman

Eric Jacobssen has a Chamberlain
gunning dory with electric auxiliary
power nearly ready for launching at
North Brooklin Boats.

22 • WoodenBoat 241

Currents241-ADFinal.indd 22

9/25/14 2:29 PM

Across the bar
n Renn Tolman, 80, July 5, 2014,
Homer, Alaska. Born in Keene, New
Hampshire, Mr. Tolman showed an
early taste for adventure, starting with
skiing. After serving a stint with the U.S.
Army in Europe, during which he skied
the Alps, he returned home and graduated from the University of New Hampshire in history. He worked as a teacher
for a time, but soon headed West, where
his various jobs included ski patrol service in Colorado and Wyoming. In 1970,
he moved to Homer, Alaska, drawn by
his passion for hunting and fishing.
There, he worked as a carpenter and
began building boats suited to his surroundings. His V-bottomed Tolman
Skiff earned a reputation for practicality and seaworthiness around Kachemak Bay and gained in popularity.
Gruff, opinionated, but much admired,
Mr. Tolman built about a hundred of
the plywood skiffs for clients. He also
wrote an instructional book called A
Skiff for All Seasons (reviewed in WB
No. 113), later republished as Tolman
Alaskan Skiffs, with step-by-step instructions on building them. In September
2014, the Kachemak Bay Wooden Boat
Festival included a Tolman Skiff rendezvous to honor his accomplishments.
Mr. Tolman was also an avid Celtic-style
musician on flute, pennywhistle, and
guitar, and a lively contra dancer. Every
year he held a New Year’s Eve community dance in his boatbuilding shed; he
also contributed to an album, “Roughly
Cape Breton,” and in 2013 he reissued a
1969 book-and-recording compilation,
The Nelson Music Collection, originally
co-authored by his father, flutist Newt
Tolman.
n Gerald L. Stevens, 91, August 1,
2014, Chester, Nova Scotia. Mr. Stevens
was born on Tancook Island, where his
ancestors five generations back were

shipwrights, among them Amos Stevens, who is credited with developing
the famous Tancook schooners in the
late 1800s (see WB Nos. 58 and 126).
After working as a stevedore in Halifax
and serving with the Canadian navy
for four years during World War II, Mr.
Stevens returned to Nova Scotia to join
his father, Perry Stevens, and his uncle,
Emery Stevens, in forming Chester Sea
Craft Industries Ltd. After his father
died, Mr. Stevens went out on his own,

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remaining at current speed. The boat
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owner lives on a rocky shoreline.
Jacobssen has built nearly 20 Sunshine dinghies, one of which was nearing completion. The lines come from
Walter Simmons, who measured an existing well-respected boat a century old.
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November/December 2014 • 23

Currents241-ADFinal.indd 23

9/25/14 2:29 PM

Morgan241-EdFinal.indd 24

9/27/14 5:03 PM

Sailing with the

CHARLES W. MORGAN
Authenticity in rig makes the 1841
bark a vision of the past

A

for the sails, which were made by Nat Wilson and his
crew in East Boothbay, Maine. The shrouds looked
right because they were right: galvanized wire wormed,
parceled, and served, well tarred at each appropriate
stage, with hemp lanyards reeving through her deadeyes. The running rigging all consisted of high-grade
manila, specially fabricated in the Philippines. The rigging work had proceeded relatively quietly as the shipwrights rebuilt the lower hull. Upstairs in the rigging
loft of the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard and
down in the basement of the Rossie Mill building on
the museum grounds, hundreds of specific lines were
planned, cut to length, finished, and organized. It all
came together in a frenzy of work leading to the June
2014 deadline for departure.

Rigging
The rigging project provided a fresh opportunity to
analyze historical records to inform the work, just as
had been done with the hull reconstruction. Unlike
the hull, however, nothing of the original rigging
remained. The CHARLES W. MORGAN was originally
a full-rigged ship, with square sails on all three masts.
Following fashions and economics of her times, she
was converted to a bark in the 1870s—meaning she
no longer flew square sails on the mizzen. In addition,
the large single topsails on the mainmast and foremast
were divided in two, making lower and upper topsails
of more manageable size. Photography was rare early
in the ship’s life, so the best evidence of her rig and
alterations to her deck structures come from late in her
working life, when photography was in widespread use.
Experts facing the question of what part of her career

Previous page—Cotton canvas sailcloth was specially
woven in India to supply the 3,800 yards of 24”-wide cloth
needed for the CHARLES W. MORGAN ’s new suit of sails. The
2014 sailing itinerary—which included sailing off Boston,
Massachusetts, as shown here—was the 1841 ship’s first
sortie since the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut
acquired her in 1941. Right—Following the style of her
later years, the lower shrouds are of galvanized wire, with
wooden slats in place of cordage ratlines.

CAROL ANSEL

BENJAMIN MENDLOWITZ

lmost any mast against a skyline can inspire a poet
or painter, but it takes authenticity, the ring of
truth, to take the breath away from even the
most jaded professional mariner. That such a ship—
ready for sea with a crisp and purposeful air—should
also be the oldest surviving American square-rigged
merchantman only makes the sight more compelling.
Such was the CHARLES W. MORGAN in the summer of
2014 during her first venture to sea in more than 90
years.
Mystic Seaport Museum, the ship’s owner since 1941,
called it the 38th Voyage, a coda to her 80-year working
life of 37 whaling voyages worldwide, starting in 1841.
In the recent season, she left her homeport of Mystic,
Connecticut, for neighboring New London, then on to
Massachusetts, stopping at Newport, Martha’s Vineyard,
New Bedford, the Cape Cod Canal, Provincetown,
Stellwagen Bank, and Boston before returning home
in early August.
During the years of her most recent hull restoration,
which assured her structural integrity below the waterline (see WB No. 226), the focus was largely on timber: sawn live oak frames and shaped longleaf pine and
white oak planks. She was relaunched in July 2013. But
during the summer of 2014, whenever she stood quayside in any of those Massachusetts and Connecticut
ports of call, all eyes went first to her masts and rigging.
I was not immune. Like many people, I have seen the
CHARLES W. MORGAN many times in my life, starting
from a tender age. Driving slowly down Academy Avenue to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in early
July 2014 to catch up with her as one of some 79 chosen
“38th Voyagers” who joined for a day of sailing, I saw
her for the first time completely on her own, as a ship
ready for sea, her rigging looking more complete than
ever, her crisp white sails neatly furled.
It was no accident that the sails showed crisp and
white against the sky. The cotton duck was custom-woven

by Tom Jackson

November/December 2014 • 25

Morgan241-EdFinal.indd 25

9/27/14 5:03 PM

Carol Ansel (both)

Above left—Because the cotton duck sailcloth “hands,” or furls, very easily, it was very much liked by the crew, which gave
the ship crisp and orderly harbor furls. Above right—Unlike the sailors of the CHARLES W. MORGAN ’s working days, the crew
all wore harnesses aloft, and when climbing the steep futtock shrouds in way of crosstrees they clipped in to an additional
safety line that would have been unheard of in former times.

The fore course, here hauled up by its clewlines
and buntlines for furling, is made of No. 4 canvas
duck, the heaviest cloth used in the new sails.
Historically, a ship bound for Cape Horn would
have used No. 1 or No. 2 cloth for its lower sails,
according to sailmaker Nat Wilson.

wire rigging came later. “We use the Brooklyn Bridge
as the benchmark for commercial wire,” Otto said.
Engineer John Roebling developed wire cables for the
famous New York suspension bridge, opened in 1869.
His first uses of wire rope date to 1841, the same year
the MORGAN was launched, but the stunning Brooklyn
Bridge solidified its reputation. “When the Roebling
Company figured out how to make it cheap, commercial wire really took off at that point,” Otto said. When
the MORGAN was converted to a bark, the mizzen lower
shrouds were the first to be converted to wire. “Every
chance they got, they replaced every set of shrouds
and backstays from hemp to wire, finally with the main
lower shrouds in 1915.” The existing wire shrouds and
stays were inspected, refreshed with paint-on galvanizing, and given new worming, parceling, and serving.
Both hemp and manila rope were used for her cordage. The hemp rope came from Lippmann German
Ropes in Hamburg. “They still have a long ropewalk,
and they made all of our bigger cordage on the long
walk, and regular marline and all of our other hemp
for us,” Otto said. “From the day I started looking to

NANCY BLOOM

to restore her to chose a span of years: 1900 to 1911.
“That’s great for the hull, but not so great for me,”
said Matt Otto, the shipyard’s lead rigger. “Every voyage
is different. Every chief mate has a different idea of how
the rig should work.” So within a decade, or even within
the same year, photos can show variations. “But I had
really good pictures from a large-format camera, taken
in 1906—a starboard quarter and a port bow—taken
about 15 minutes apart, which you can tell by where
the gear is hanging in these two photos. We were trying to use those two photos to do as much of the rig as
possible. It was just a snapshot of that day, early in the
morning. Once we established that was what we wanted
to do, that’s what we ran with.”
Right away, Otto noticed that the blocks in the photo
were very different from those in use on the ship in
more recent times. After the Danish-built iron-hulled
training ship JOSEPH CONRAD came to Mystic Seaport
in 1947, he believes, some “cross-pollination” began to
occur, and some European-shaped blocks, which are
oval but squared-off at one end, slipped into use on
the MORGAN. “The American type, like those made by
Boston & Lockport Block and Tackle Company, are more of a true oval. As I was looking through the photo evidence, I saw that
pretty much all of our blocks needed to be
replaced with a better shape.” Museum volunteers built all-new, ash-bodied blocks for
the ship.
Some existing rigging was reused, most
notably the wire shrouds and stays. At her
1841 launching, the whaler undoubtedly
used hemp for her standing rigging, since

26 • WoodenBoat 241

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having it on hand was 18 months. This is the best we’ve
had in 15 years or so, and it’s really nice to work with.”
Manila, which is made not of hemp but of abaca from
the Pacific region, came by special order for a very
high-quality rope from the Philippines via T.W. Evans
Cordage Co. of Cranston, Rhode Island.
“Hemp and manila are used in different ways,” Otto
said. “Hemp is a very strong fiber, used for block strops
and other structural things, like [deadeye] lanyards and
tiller rope. It holds tar very well, and the tar stabilizes
the hemp so water can’t get into it and cause rot. Manila
doesn’t hold tar as well, and the fibers are shorter than
hemp, so it doesn’t have quite the strength. But it’s a
wonderful fiber—very pliable, flexible, very good for
running rigging.”

Sails

Carol Ansel

While Otto worked on endless rigging preparations,
Nat Wilson and his crew spent 19 weeks in the winter of
2013–14 making a full suit of 19 sails. U.S. government
standards—which are still on the books—and period
treatises gave him the specifications for thread-count
and the 24" panel width for 3,800 yards of cotton sailcloth, which was custom-woven in India, via the industrial fabrics division of the C.R. Daniels Company in
Maryland. Before use, the canvas was given a nontoxic
finish to protect against moisture and mildew damage.
Given that the MORGAN wouldn’t be sailing around
Cape Horn, Wilson specified lighter-than-usual sailcloth: No. 4 for the courses and upper and lower topsails, No. 6 for topgallants and jibs, and No. 8 for the
flying jib, gaff topsail, and royal sails.
“Compared to other materials, cotton is very forgiving, very soft, a lot easier on the body to use,” he said.
Because the loft had long experience in sails of a full
array of materials, the project posed no unique problems. “It was standard fare, since we have been doing it
pretty constantly right along. What was unusual was the
focus for a good period of time. To have no other project for 19 weeks was a delight, knowing that you’re coming in every day and you always had a sail to work on.
“We had an estimated number of man-hours to do
the job. We had made 16 and had three left to do, and

we had surplus hours. So we said, ‘Let’s hand-seam the
last three sails.’” And so the sailmakers working under
Wilson—Sam Upton, Mike Bartles, and Adam Yanchunis—each made a lower staysail fully by hand. “They
were extremely careful,” he said. “They wanted to be
sure they knew what each step was. They are also thinkers, too; they could solve problems as they came up. It
took some of the weight and worry off me.”
Even the sails with machine-sewn body seams
required extensive hand work, such as sewing on hemp
boltropes and galvanized steel corner rings. Blacksmith
Matthew Harkins of Newcastle, Maine, made more
than 70 pieces of ironwork that were incorporated into
the sails. This included 50 new “spectacle rings,” a type
of corner ring formed to have a large ring to receive the
sheet and two smaller rings to receive boltrope splices.
“They’re quite complicated to build properly,” Wilson
said, noting that the metal in way of the largest ring is
made thicker to resist wear over time. As a pattern, Harkin used a ring from Wilson’s own collection.
The hemp cordage used for boltropes came through
R&W Rope in New Bedford, but Wilson had trouble
finding suitable sailmaking thread. By chance, a sewing machine company in Georgia steered him to New
Bedford Thread Company. “I called them, and lo and
behold they had linen thread and cotton machine
thread, which has less twist and the right twist that we
needed. I had it in three days—out of her home port!—
which was very helpful.”

Sailing
Reports of surprisingly good sailing characteristics
during the early days of the 38th Voyage surprised Matt
Otto not at all. “I see a pretty fine boat up forward—I
don’t look above the waterline,” he said. “She’s got a
nice long, clean run. I thought she was going to handle
just fine. When we put her in the water and got the rig
in the boat, I could see how her balance was setting, as
ballasted, and I thought it was all right. I thought she
sailed really well right out of the box. She tacked. She
wears short—incredibly short,” meaning she jibes readily. “She handles really nice. These guys back then had
this down to a pretty fine science. This is what they did.
They understood it. They built a lot of these. They
were good at it. When we look back at this,
because it’s old technology to us, we say
things like ‘better than expected.’ Well, no,
she handles like she’s supposed to, and she
handles very well.”
Capt. Kip Files, who came away from his
Maine-based schooner VICTORY CHIMES to
take command of the MORGAN for the season, could see it as well. “Looking at her out
of the water, and at her entry and run, you
knew she was a good sailing vessel. But she has
At Stellwagen Bank, a historic whaling ground off
the outer tip of Cape Cod, the veteran of 80 years
of worldwide whaling paid tribute to the survival
of her former prey, some of whom obligingly
surfaced very close by.
November/December 2014 • 27

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Benjamin Mendlowitz

In a fresh breeze—and with an owner’s pennant from the
Morgan family flying at the foremast top and from the Wing
family at the mainmast top—the CHARLES W. MORGAN in
her voyage provided the only opportunity in history to have
color photographs taken of an authentic whaleship
under sail.

been even better than I thought. She sails remarkably
well. She has a wonderful hull shape, and then there’s
this sort of ‘factory ship’ on top of it,” with ample deck
space and high bulwarks. “It works. She’s remarkable.”
“I grew up with cotton sails,” said Files, a native
of Bangor, Maine, who learned to sail on his family’s
Friendship sloop. “They do shrink, and you have to be
sure to keep the sails dry. I can tell you that this sailcloth handles very nicely. In the hand, nothing is better
than natural fiber. Cotton is so much easier to grip. In
my business, I’d love to have them, but you can’t buy
the proper cotton. Like any suit of sails, we’ve had some
stretch here and there. But it’s as traditional as it can
get, and she sails like a dream. Nat did such a great job.”
In each port of call, it has been standard practice
for the CHARLES W. MORGAN crew to unfurl the sails
to dry when necessary. “It’s a part of seamanship that
has vanished,” First Mate Sam Sikkema said. “You see
photos from a hundred years ago, and all these ships
would have their sails hanging to dry. It was part of the
job. Compared to the cotton duck that is readily available, this specific sail canvas is really very easy to hand.
It’s quite easy to stow a sail. That is, when it’s dry—when
it gets wet, it’s tough, wet, and stiff, but still not as bad
as regular cotton canvas. Nat Wilson really understands
how to cut a square sail, to get that perfect shape. It is a
joy in this ship to have such a great suit of sails.”
When using hemp and manila rigging, Sikkema said,
“it’s not really a challenge so much as it is a different
mind-set.” Fairleads have to be large enough to accommodate the line’s swelling when it is wet, and tending to
rig tension is a constant task. “As far as hemp itself, it is
great, because it stretches so much less than synthetics.
The [deadeye] lanyards have probably 5 percent or so
stretch, then it stops dead. The manila we have is longer

fiber than what you find nowadays. It is a much tighter
lay than manila that you find commercially available.
It’s very firm at first, but once it loosens up, it’s fine, and
a lot more stable than other manila I’ve seen. I would
say it’s probably easier on the ship,” he said. “With an
old wooden hull, it makes you nervous putting synthetics on it. There is less tension in the rig with natural
fiber, because you need to preload less. With synthetics,
you have to put strain on them,” to allow for anticipated
stretch.
“The geometry of a rig, of what you want square sails
to do, hasn’t changed a lot over time,” Sikkema said,
concurring with Files’s view of her handling. “There are
details about how the rig works: you need to be able
to brace yards right up, sheet home hard, and set the
yards to get the sails as flat as possible. You’ve got to get
the ship to do those things, always. It was surprising to
me when I came back for the sailing project, people
were saying, ‘She’s just going to be a pig, a bad sailer,
you won’t be able to tack her.’ I’m thinking, ‘Why would
that happen?’ What was surprising to me was that she
was even better than that. She’s very docile, very easy to
handle. Some ships sail fine, but not this easily. What’s
fun about it is that she’s a sweetheart of a sailing ship.
This is the sort of ship you can sail into harbors, on and
off the dock, under sail—if you knew her. Getting used
to her didn’t take that long. She has done everything
we’ve asked of her.”
In New London, she sailed away from the dock
before taking a tow. “Capt. Files and I have both sailed
barks on and off docks. The rig is what makes the ship
so handy. There’s a reason why this became the rig of
choice for the bulk of latter-day sailing ships. You have a
lot of control over balance. So we said, ‘Let’s do it. Why
wouldn’t you?’”
“I was aboard,” Wilson said. “They sailed her off the
dock, with no tug, backed the lowers, turned on her
heels, ran downriver, and picked up the tug down to
the sound. That was a good omen.”

A Living Ship
When I saw the MORGAN anew, at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, I first saw her from off the port bow,
and the masts looked taller than I recalled, the rigging
much more complete.
“It’s only 117',” Otto said, “which is actually not very
high. She looks tiny with the CONSTITUTION,” which
became obvious when she shared the U.S. Navy frigate’s
dock for some days in Boston. “The reason is that she is
tiny. When we look at the MORGAN, she looks like a big
ship, but when she was launched she was a small workboat.” Nevertheless, all together it really was enough to
take my breath away.
I caught up with nine other voyagers who had the

28 • WoodenBoat 241

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Andy price/Mystic Seaport museum

Mystic Seaport Museum

Above left—A photograph printed from a glass-plate negative known to have been taken in 1906 provided key information
about the whaleship’s rigging, and a specific moment in time for her rig restoration, long after she had been converted
from a full-rigged ship to a bark. Above right—In Charlestown, Massachusetts, her rigging made an impressive display of
authenticity, even moored nearby the much larger USS CONSTITUTION.

TOM JACKSON

privilege of sleeping in the fo’c’s’le overnight and then
going along for the ride on the daysail to Provincetown,
at the extreme tip of Cape Cod. Oversized fenders held
her away from the quay as she strained at her mooring
lines in a strong Cape Cod Canal current. Crew were
coming and going. Below, a generator, tanks, lights, a
bank of heads (all meant to be removable), gave her a
purposeful look I hadn’t seen before. The ’tween-decks,
once a place of quiet reverence, bustled with quotidian
life, the crew’s bicycles and backpacks stowed alongside
hawsers.
Judging by photos, other “voyager” legs were lucky:
some sailed among whales off the Cape, with whaleboats lowered in salute. Others sailed into New Bedford in fine weather. Our group was nonetheless lucky
with sailing. On a whole-sail breeze, the passage across
Cape Cod Bay was an easy downwind waltz that threatened to end too soon. Just off Provincetown, certain of
arriving on schedule, Capt. Files called for new courses,
with multiple tacks. The crew put the ship through her
paces, tacking back to windward, wearing, setting all

sail. It was quite a show for those aboard and for those
ashore. She didn’t hesitate in stays, seeming at once
both nimble and stately. I asked Files how this day compared to other sails so far: “This...this is pretty much
over the top,” he replied.
By August, the CHARLES W. MORGAN was destined
to be back at Mystic Seaport, to the granite Chubb’s
Wharf. Whether she might sail again is a decision for
a later time. But the voyage clearly has given her a new
legion of advocates.
“These vessels,” Files said, “were never designed for
the dock. They were designed to move. The learning
curve goes straight up when you do what it was designed
to do.” The skills of sailmakers, riggers, caulkers, shipwrights, and sailors, all necessary to the ship’s preservation,
are themselves preserved in the process.
“It’s a great perspective on maritime preservation,”
said Wilson, who worked at Mystic Seaport in the early
1970s at a time when the ship was just being freed from
its bed of sand. “When you see her away from the shoreside surroundings, you realize how really small she is,
relative to the big ocean. I have to say that with her and
CONSTITUTION both, why they are so successful and why
they are still around is because it was known how well
they sailed and handled. We have to relive that again,
and the only way you do that is to sail it, to have that
memory of what it was about. Her mission now is her
own preservation, to get out and sail now and again
to show people why these were such good vessels. You
don’t discover that if the ship is in the sand or tied
to the dock. She should be sailed at least twice every
generation.”
Tom Jackson is WoodenBoat’s senior editor.

The author had his first glimpse of the ship outside of
Mystic Seaport when she was moored at the Massachusetts
Maritime Academy in Cape Cod Canal.

Lead rigger Matt Otto’s crew at Mystic Seaport consisted of
Nick Canzellarini, Alex Peacock, Sarah Clement, Haley Gove,
Howard Visze, Ron Lavoie, and John Howard.

30 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/29/14 9:43 AM

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ALI KONYALI

HIAWATHA

An American yacht in Istanbul
by Tom Pamperin

“E

veryone knows HIAWATHA ,” Ozgur Numan tells
me.
I’ve come to visit Numan at his workshop at
RMK Marine, where he’s in charge of restoring the
elegant 50' motoryacht for Istanbul’s Rahmi M. Koc
Museum. He’s running a hectic schedule. At the
moment, HIAWATHA’s rudder is being refitted in the
workshop downstairs, while the hull is being faired
for another coat of paint. One of the stateroom doors
stands propped against the scaffolding nearby, ready
for refinishing. Meanwhile, framing continues on a
newly planked lapstrake hull in the next bay, and a
steam tug awaits attention out in the yard. Nevertheless, Numan has kindly taken the time to bring me to
his office for an interview—and a cup of tea. Here in
Istanbul, tea is compulsory.
Built for U.S. politician and lobbyist Charles H. Sherrill’s personal use in 1927, HIAWATHA accompanied
him to Istanbul when he became the American ambassador to Turkey in 1932. At the end of his tour in 1933,
Sherrill donated his boat to the U.S. government. Since
then, HIAWATHA has spent 80 years ferrying diplomats

and visiting dignitaries, including Eleanor Roosevelt
and Hillary Clinton, between Europe and Asia. When
the U.S. Ambassador’s office moved inland to Turkey’s
new capital, Ankara, HIAWATHA stayed on with the
U.S. Consul General’s office in Istanbul. Less important
now for day-to-day operations—the first bridge over the
Bosphorus opened in 1975—HIAWATHA remains an
iconic symbol of America’s enduring presence in the
city. Lately, the boat has been operated by private contractors at no cost to the U.S. government. Still, without
constant use and maintenance, this became less and less
practical.
Finally, worried that neglect and lack of use might
eventually lead to permanent damage, the Consulate reached an agreement with Turkish industrialist
Rahmi M. Koc in June 2013. He would arrange to have
HIAWATHA restored to pristine condition in exchange
for a permanent loan to the waterfront museum he
founded (see WB No. 232), where she would go back
into action giving regular tours of the Bosphorus
and the Golden Horn and serve as a dockside display
between outings. The Consulate and the museum

Above—After a restoration completed in 2014, HIAWATHA is once again a familiar sight on the waters of the Golden Horn off
Istanbul, where she was first taken in 1932 by Charles H. Sherrill, then the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey.
November/December 2014 • 33

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9/26/14 4:14 PM

BRUNO CIANCI

In a recent arrangement with the U.S. Consul General, HIAWATHA has joined the waterfront display at Istanbul’s Rahmi M.
Koc Museum, where she will offer regular cruises along the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus Strait.

would become, in effect, joint custodians of this
important part of Istanbul’s cultural legacy. And now
Numan and his workers are racing to finish the restoration in time for the scheduled relaunching in late
April.

“I

was there,” Numan tells me now, trying to explain
HIAWATHA’s importance to the city of Istanbul.
“Not in 1932, but I was a kid. It’s a reality that she
was the most famous boat on the Bosphorus. She was a
very hard worker, taking people from this side [of the

The American Car & Foundry Company

T

he 19th century was the age of the railroad,
with demand for rail services expanding rapidly
throughout the United States, and manufacturers stepping in to provide engines, cars, and infrastructure. In 1899, 14 railroad car manufacturers combined
to create the conglomerate called the American Car &
Foundry Company. Later, as the pace of railway expansion slowed, manufacturers started looking for other
opportunities.
In 1901, the American Car & Foundry Company
branched out into shipbuilding by taking out a 10-year
lease on a manufacturing plant in Wilmington, Delaware, owned by the Jackson and Sharp Company. In
addition to building the nation’s first narrow-gauge
railroad cars, a series of luxurious private rail cars
for European royalty, and a variety of other rolling
stock, Jackson and Sharp had acquired the adjacent

Christina River Shipyards in 1875. Starting with schooners and barges, the Jackson and Sharp plant moved
on to steam-powered tugs, ferries, and cargo vessels as
marine technology evolved.
By the time American Car & Foundry purchased
Jackson and Sharp outright in 1911, the plant was
focused more and more on shipbuilding. And while
many U.S. shipyards had already shifted to iron and
steel construction, the Jackson and Sharp plant stuck
with wood, perhaps wanting to avoid retraining its
skilled labor force, which had established an apprenticeship program for new workers. The company had
also developed efficient working systems, for example
vacuuming up sawdust from milling operations, for use
as fuel.
World War I brought opportunities for shipbuilders,
and American Car & Foundry was quick to respond.

34 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/28/14 7:05 PM

HIAWATHA’s control panel retains the simplicity of an earlier
age, with few changes to the original layout or systems. The
ship’s wheel, damaged in a 1989 firebombing attack, was
one of the only things that had to be replaced.

BRUNO CIANCI

inland sea that defines the city’s southern edge and
provides a link to the Mediterranean via the Dardanelles farther west. And the Golden Horn, the estuary
that long protected the ancient city of Constantinople from invaders approaching from the north, leads
northwest from the junction of the Bosphorus and the
Sea of Marmara, extending the city’s natural network
of fast, efficient water transport. From Roman times
through the Byzantine era, the Ottoman Empire, and
on into modern Turkey, Istanbul has been the crossroads of nations and empires, the meeting of East and
West. As a result, before the Bosphorus Strait was first
bridged in 1975, Istanbul had established a centuriesold tradition as a city of boats. Even today, public ferries
along the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn provide the
easiest access to Istanbul’s extensive waterfront areas,
and boats are everywhere: cargo ships, fishing boats,
tour boats, cruise ships, and water taxis. In such a setting, it’s not hard to see how a striking motoryacht like
HIAWATHA has become a celebrity.

Bosphorus Strait] to that. People would see this boat
and say, ‘Oh, there’s the HIAWATHA!’ They’re not saying, ‘There’s the….’” He trails off, apparently not able
to think of another Istanbul boat that might be familiar
enough for anyone to name.
It might seem unlikely that any boat could be as well
known as Numan claims, but, like San Francisco, Istanbul is a city surrounded—and defined—by water. At
Istanbul, the Bosphorus Strait, which separates Europe
from Asia, opens into the Sea of Marmara, a large

During the U.S. mobilization in 1914–15, their Jackson and Sharp plant launched the largest tonnage of
wooden ships of any shipyard in the country, according
to State of Delaware historic archives. In 1917, a team
of 100 Jackson and Sharp workers built and launched
eight submarine chasers in just six months. After the
armistice, shipbuilding efforts shifted to fine yachts and
pleasure craft, with orders for more than 300 by 1925,
a demand satisfied largely by naval architect Walter J.
McInnis’s series of ACF cruisers. But the postwar prosperity was short-lived, cut short by the Great Depression. At its worst, according to one former employee,
the Jackson and Sharp shipyard was reduced to just
four part-time employees as demand plummeted during the economic collapse.
Once again, war saved the plant—this time World
War II. The Jackson and Sharp plant put its workers

H

IAWATHA’s plans designate her an ACF–50, a
motor cruiser designed by naval architect
Walter J. McInnis for the American Car &
Foundry Company. After doing design work for a number of firms, McInnis signed on as chief naval architect
for George F. Lawley & Son of Massachusetts in 1925.
His performance must have impressed his bosses: just
one year later, Albert E. Eldredge, Vice President of
Lawley & Son, joined with McInnis to create a new
design firm in Boston, Eldredge-McInnis, Inc. McInnis
handled the design work while Eldredge took care of
business operations. Although Eldredge died in 1936,

back on the job building naval vessels: wooden-hulled
submarine chasers, minesweepers, salvage vessels,
barges, and various small craft. But the good times
barely outlasted the war this time. By 1950, down to just
50 employees, the Jackson and Sharp plant was shut
down. In a dark foreshadowing of the yard’s closing,
one of its last projects was the preparation of railroad
cars to carry home the remains of U.S. servicemen who
had initially been buried overseas during the war.
To view an extensive collection of historical photographs from the Jackson and Sharp shipyard (including one of the newly launched HIAWATHA underway),
visit the Delaware Heritage Collection, http://cdm
16397.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm, and search on “Jackson and Sharp ship.” See also Mystic Seaport Museum’s
Eldredge-McInnis, Inc. Collection, http://library.mystic
seaport.org/manuscripts/coll/spcoll094.cfm.
—TP
November/December 2014 • 35

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9/26/14 4:14 PM

Understated elegance made American Car & Foundry’s
stock cruisers popular with the elite yachtsmen in the
United States. Her restoration retained all of her original
hardware and furnishings.

ongoing financial crisis that was destroying fortunes,
shutting down banks, closing factories, and creating a
600 percent increase in the U.S. unemployment rate.

McInnis continued designing until his retirement in
1976, and Mystic Seaport’s Eldredge-McInnis Collection lists over 350 McInnis designs—mostly fishing
boats, power cruisers, and military craft, with the occasional sailboat, motorsailer, or dinghy.
American Car & Foundry quickly became one of
McInnis’s most important clients, commissioning a
series of stock designs for commuter yachts. The ACF–
50 was drawn in 1927, expanding a line that already
included the ACF–35, the ACF–41, and the ACF–68;
later McInnis would add the ACF–54 and the ACF–30 as
well. It’s easy to see the attraction of these boats: long
narrow hulls for easy cruising at moderate speeds, large
covered cockpits, elegantly furnished accommodations,
shiny brass hardware, and a distinctive sheerline that
swoops upward from the rear cockpit to a raised deck
forward.
Page through the issues of MotorBoating or The Rudder
from the early 1930s and you’ll find page after page of
ads and reviews for McInnis’s ACF designs, evidence
that an extensive market for elegant wooden-hulled
cruisers and commuter yachts persisted in the U.S. well
into the Great Depression. A 1930 advertisement
describes the ACF–54 as “a comfortable summer home for
the most exacting yachtsman”—a summer home that
doubled, no doubt, as a welcome refuge from the

HIAWATHA’s current engine is a six-cylinder, 165-hp GM
with a deep-throated rumble that is “perfect for this boat,”
according to restoration manager Ozgur Numan.
After a complete overhaul, it’s expected to provide a top
speed of 15 knots.

BRUNO CIANCI

BRUNO CIANCI

T

he restoration and repair of wooden boats, of
course, is always something of a Pandora’s box.
It’s difficult to say what work will be needed until
you begin, but you rarely find less than you expect.
Happily, though, HIAWATHA has weathered the years
fairly well, and Ozgur’s crew was able to retain much
of the original material, which is one of Ozgur’s chief
goals with any restoration he does. “You always feel this
with any restoration,” he tells me, “but with this boat it’s
even more important.”
HIAWATHA was originally planked with a double
layer of western red cedar over sawn oak frames, with
no caulking. The original inner planking was reinstalled after removal and careful inspection, but the
entire outer layer had to be replaced. That posed something of a problem, since western red cedar is almost
impossible to find in Istanbul. Fortunately, after briefly
considering mahogany for the outer planking, a substitution he wasn’t really happy with, Ozgur discovered an
unclaimed allotment of western red cedar at Istanbul’s
airport Customs office—just enough to replank the
hull. Small repairs were also made to the decks, repaying seams and refinishing, but no extensive work was
necessary.

36 • WoodenBoat 241

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BRUNO CIANCI (ALL THIS PAGE)

HIAWATHA’s engine, a six-cylinder 165-hp GM that
had replaced the original power plant earlier in the
boat’s life, is being completely overhauled, and the
drive train renewed; it’s expected to provide a maximum speed of 15 knots. As for hardware and fittings,
the result will be “95 percent original”—cabinet hinges
and knobs, cleats and vents, portholes and vents, a folding swim ladder, the ship’s bell, and more. “We had
everything,” Numan says. And they won’t be making
any changes to the original layout or onboard systems
beyond repairing what’s already there, he adds. “We are
not adding any lamps or pumps. It’s a
very simple boat.”
He’s especially pleased with the
condition of the original copper fuel
tanks. “They’re beautiful,” he tells me.
“Polished copper tanks with leather
straps.” If pressure testing doesn’t

reveal any problems, they’ll be remounted in the open
area belowdecks to show them off, rather than hiding
them in a compartment.
It’s surprising that so much has survived intact,
because HIAWATHA’s status as a symbol of the U.S. government’s presence in Turkey has brought its share of
dangers as well as fame. The late 1970s and early 1980s
saw rising unrest as Kurdish separatists challenged government security forces. Martial law was declared in
Istanbul in 1978, and was not lifted until 1985. Still, the
conflict continued. On the night of December 6, 1989,

Above—After structural repairs and
replanking were completed, HIAWATHA’s
hull was painted at Ozgur Numan’s
workshop at RMK Marine. Meanwhile, other
workers focussed on refitting the rudder
(inset). Right—HIAWATHA’s original brass
hardware was carefully removed (inset)
and great pains were taken to clean,
repair, and reuse the pieces. Throughout
the yacht, the fittings are “95 percent
original,” according to Numan.
November/December 2014 • 37

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9/26/14 4:14 PM

ALI K ANYALI

An icon reborn: HIAWATHA’s long history as a beloved and instantly recognizable part of Istanbul’s maritime culture will
continue well into the 21st century.

Know-how is the

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38 • WoodenBoat 241

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the pro-Kurdish terrorist organization “Warriors of the
16th of June” (the name was inspired by the date of a
citywide workers’ protest in 1970) firebombed the boat
at her moorings, a dramatic denunciation of an increasing Turkish involvement with the International Monetary Fund that had been urged by the U.S. government.
Although no one was harmed, the attack caused
damage that seemed so extensive that several sources
erroneously reported that HIAWATHA was completely
destroyed. Fortunately for the ongoing restoration
effort, though, the bomb was detonated in the cockpit
rather than belowdecks, and the damage was not as
severe as it initially appeared—the hull and the original
interior were largely unharmed. By the time the current
restoration got under way in 2013, the firebombing was
ancient history and the boat was back in working order.
Still, not everything has gone smoothly with
HIAWATHA’s restoration, as is often the case on major
restorations. After taking notes for a few minutes on
what he’s done so far, I ask Numan what the biggest
challenge has been. He stops for a moment to think.
“Time,” he says finally. “In this case, we have a deadline. And we were not expecting this amount of frame
work.”
As it turned out, Numan’s crew has had to replace
about 20 percent of HIAWATHA’s sawn oak frames.
Many other frames had to be repaired, and some floor
timbers required attention as well, because earlier

work had left them in poor condition, with many fastening failures and botched replacements. Numan
hesitates, clearly not wanting to blame anyone unfairly
when he doesn’t know the whole story about what
caused the damage. “It wasn’t very well maintained,”
he says at last, shaking his head. “Probably she was
neglected. Forgotten.”
Fortunately, there should be little danger of
neglect in the days to come. If the restoration goes as
planned, HIAWATHA will be too busy taking museum
visitors on regular tours of Istanbul’s waterways from
the Rahmi M. Koc Museum’s docks on the Golden
Horn to waste away in the slow demise that’s the fate
of all too many classic wooden boats. Istanbul may be
more a city of bridges than a city of boats these days,
but with HIAWATHA once again traveling the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, it’ll be a little easier to
remember some of the best parts of the city’s past.
With each new voyage, and each new sighting, a
restored HIAWATHA will provide a welcome invitation for Istanbul to celebrate an age when quality
mattered more than quantit y, and st yle more
than speed.
Tom Pamperin is a freelance writer who lives in northwestern Wisconsin. He spends his summers cruising small boats
throughout Wisconsin, the North Channel, and along the
Texas coast.

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November/December 2014 • 39

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Scrapin’ Time
The crabbers and crab boats of Smith Island, Maryland
Text by Randall Peffer

Photographs by Jay Fleming

“I

was fi fteen when I started on the water.” Seventythree-year-old Chesapeake Bay waterman Maurice
Marsh eyes my son Jake. “How old are you?”
“Fifteen.” Jake nods. “Sixteen next month.”
Marsh pushes a loose suspender strap from his mudstreaked oilskin overalls back onto his shoulder. Then,
with his neon orange gloves, he scoops up a handful
of juvenile blue crabs culled from our last lick with
the scrapes over the shallow grass beds east of Smith
Island, Maryland. He smiles as the crabs begin darting
away underwater in that peculiarly graceful way that
has earned them the nickname “beautiful swimmers.”
It’s 0730. The June sun’s blazing over this cove in
Tangier Sound. Marsh, Jake, and I have already been
scraping for crabs for more than two hours in Marsh’s
purpose-built boat, DARLENE, just the way our ancestors
on Smith Island did more than a century ago.
Bringing Jake with me from our home in Massachusetts was a last-minute decision. But this morning
on the Bay, I am beginning to get the sense that Jake’s
coming to Smith Island will touch him in ways that
neither he nor I can yet imagine.

O

ur trip began as a mission to bear witness to
this much-admired boat. DARLENE is one of
only about 20 to 25 remaining wooden boats

that watermen call scrape boats or barcats (see sidebar), vessels that are still working, still scraping for soft
crabs the way Smith Islanders have harvested the Bay
for more generations than anyone here can remember.
Since having her lines measured by the curatorial staff
of the Smithsonian Institution and figuring in Paula
Johnson’s classic The Workboats of Smith Island, DARLENE
has been the most photographed, modeled, and replicated barcat in the fleet.
Built in 1990 by the highly respected Smith Island
builder Leon Marsh, DARLENE measures 30' long and
10' wide. She draws less than 2' and displaces 6,000 lbs.
Massively built with the classic Chesapeake “rack-o’eye” method (no plans), she has a hard-chined, deadrise, cross-planked hull. Like her sisters, DARLENE was
built upside-down. She has an immense 12" × 12" keel
timber and 4" × 6" chine logs. All her framing is local
white oak. Side and bottom planking is yellow pine.
While she is an open boat, she has 12" side decks or
“washboards” for a waterman to stand on or use for
emptying his crab scrapes.
DARLENE’s ancestors worked under sail, but she
has a GM 4-53 diesel. As is traditional on scrape boats,
she steers with a “ joystick” on her starboard side and
draws her fuel from a repurposed 15-gallon beer keg.
The boat’s fans say she has the sweetest lines on all of

Above—Aboard the JESSICA LYNN, Jesse Brimer, Jr. scrapes for crabs in Back Cove near Smith Island, Maryland, as a morning storm
passes overhead.

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Chesapeake Bay. As one waterman put it, “Looking at
her is like looking at candy.” Marsh named her after his
daughter.

T

he Bay was reaching its high-water mark this
morning at 0430 when Jake and I splashed
down the tide-flooded road in our sea boots
from our B&B toward the fuel dock to meet Marsh
and DARLENE for a day of crabbing. After two days
of strong easterly winds and rain, the gods seemed to
have taken pity on Smith Island watermen and tossed
us some fair weather. A light southerly
and a full moon cast a web of silvery
streaks across the water as DARLENE
wound her way through the marshes to
come to this cove.
“People used to live out here,” says
the thick-chested waterman while hauling in one of his scrapes by hand. He
points to a mile-long bank of marsh
called Buck Ridge to the west. “No
more. The land washed into the Bay.”

There’s no wistfulness in his voice. Like many other
Smith Islanders, Marsh is used to watching the gradual disappearance of the life he was born to. He says
that his grandfather worked a cargo schooner called
the THOMAS B. SHAW that could carry 3,000 bushels of oysters. Gone. His wife’s father was half-owner
of the oyster dredging skipjack RUBY G. FORD. Gone.
His family dredged the skipjack BERNICE J. Gone. The
annual Chesapeake harvests of oysters and crabs are
mere shadows of what they were when he was 15. Just
like Smith Island.

Jesse Brimer, Jr. hauls in a crab scrape.
A scrape consists of a small rectangular steel
frame of about 3’ to 4’ in width with a 7’-long
net bag attached. When dragged along the
bottom, it scoops up grass and the crabs
hiding in it.

November/December 2014 • 43

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Johnny Krantz Tyler in BETH AMY (left) and David Laird in SCOTTY BOY scrape in Tyler Creek at sunrise.

Lying 12 miles out in the Bay on the border between
the states of Maryland and Virginia, Smith Island can
be reached only by ferry from Crisfield, Maryland, on
the Chesapeake’s Eastern Shore. With 350 years of history dating back to the island’s discovery by explorer
Capt. John Smith, it has a long tradition of isolation
as well as harvesting the Bay’s oysters and crabs. In its
heyday 100 years ago, Smith Island had a population
of over 800 souls who spoke—and still do speak—with
what some people liken to the dialect of the original
settlers who came from Cornwall, England.
But modern times have been hard on Smith Island.
During the past 150 years, more than 3,000 acres of it
have eroded away. This erosion and a decline in the
Chesapeake’s oyster and crab populations have taken
a toll. The Smith Island that Jake and I found when we
arrived yesterday has fewer than 250 inhabitants.
They love their island fiercely. Because it continues
to erode away with the onslaught of rising Bay levels,
the state of Maryland decided a few years ago that
investing in island infrastructure for the long term was
a losing proposition. Geologists have predicted that the

island will disappear underwater in 25–50 years. Given
such a dire prognosis, the state offered to buy out the
residents and relocate them. More than 97 percent of
the islanders rejected the buyout. And, at last, the state
and the Army Corps of Engineers have begun to team
up on renewal projects to save the three island communities of Ewell, Rhodes Point (called Rogue’s Point
by islanders), and Tylerton, where tides regularly creep
across lawns and streets at high water.
But all is not lost. Marsh’s son Alan is continuing in
the tradition, working his own scrape boat.
“Two fellas under 30 are scrapin’ now,” Marsh says
as he picks soft crabs from a mass of eelgrass piled in
the dump box. “State of Maryland says we ain’t goin’
to have neither crabs this year. Best news I heard in
awhile. They ain’t never right.... Look at all these pretty
crabs.”
He shoots Jake a pleased glance as he sorts through
the eelgrass in the dump box, picks out the keeper
crabs, and tosses them into buckets and baskets for
different sizes and types. Then he says something to
the effect that when you have Bay water in your blood,

Scrape Boats and Barcats

O

ver the past 120 years, Chesapeake watermen
have built and employed a variety of small boats
for crab scraping. The current iterations of these open
workboats owe much to the two-sail bateau or “skipjack” of Chesapeake Bay oyster dredging fame. Called
scrape boats in Maryland and barcats in the Virginia

section of the Chesapeake, these boats are built with
heavy keels, often over 9" square for a 30' boat. They
have 1" or 11⁄4" side and bottom planking. Framing is
generally white oak with planking sawn from yellow
pine.
The late Smithsonian curator Howard Chapelle’s
Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiffs published lines drawings of a number of
scrape boats built in the first decades
of the 20th century that look like miniature skipjacks, complete with raked

Builders of sailing crab scrapes quickly
adapted hulls to engine power, allowing
very low freeboard, as seen here on David
Laird’s SCOTTY BOY, to simplify the task
of hauling scrapes aboard.

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Crab Talk: Sooks,
Jimmies, Peelers, Busters,
and the Fishery

T

Maurice Marsh takes the helm of DARLENE . This crab boat
might be the best known of the fleet, as it was featured in Paula
Johnson’s classic book, The Workboats of Smith Island.

you’ve got to follow the water, you’ve got to hold onto
this waterman’s life. “You know what I’m sayin’?”
Jake smiles a little. Something’s starting to click for
him. He’s been going to sea in our family’s research
schooner since he was two weeks old, sailing his own
boats for the past nine years. But he has never fished for

masts, big centerboards, outboard rudders, long
bowsprits, and trailboards. As the scrape boats converted to power over decades, backyard builders,
including Tangier Island’s Jerry Pruit and Smith
Island’s Leon Marsh, kept the basic dimensions of
the skipjack (beam of one-third the length) as well
as the “box-built” cross-planked, deadrise structure
and the partial decking “washboards.” Builders of
power scrape boats eliminated the outboard rudder
and centerboard trunk while lowering the freeboard
back aft to ease the hauling of the scrapes. Builders
also broadened the transom of the boat into what is
called a “blunt” or “square” stern.
Giving the boat a fuller, flatter after section created a more buoyant and stable working platform.
It also reduced the boats’ tendency to squat at high
speeds as more and more powerful engines were
added. The mythology surrounding scrape boats is
that they can “float on a heavy dew.”
—RP

he blue crab’s Latin name is Callinectes sapidus,
which means “beautiful savory swimmer.” They
live all along the Atlantic coast of the United States,
but prefer estuaries such as Chesapeake Bay, with
its mix of salt and fresh water.
Male crabs are called “ jimmies.” Females are
“sooks.” They live about three years and molt 18–21
times during their lives. These molting crabs, larger
than 3½" across the breadths of their shells, are the
quarry of Smith Island watermen. Known as “peelers,” crabs on the cusp of molting hide from predators in the grass beds of Tangier Sound. Peelers can
be identified by their pinkish belly aprons and the
pinkish-red fringe around their back fins.
Watermen on Smith Island “babysit” their captive
peelers with nearly religious zeal at their pounds in
waterside “crab sheds,” watching for them to begin
to molt and become “busters.” Once the crabs’ old
exoskeletons have begun to “bust” open and the
crabs slip from their old shells, watermen harvest
the “soft crabs” and prepare them for shipping to
the mainland.
Peelers and soft crabs accounted for only about
5 percent of the weight of the overall crab catch a
year in Maryland, but soft crabs sell for $30 to $48 a
dozen, five times more than hard-shells.
In 2007, the blue crab fishery crashed to its lowest level since 1945. The regional economic impact
was so great that the Federal government declared
the Bay crab fishery a Federal Disaster. The alarming decline in the fishery forced new cooperation
among the natural resource offices of Maryland,
and Virginia, and a 34 percent reduction in the
harvesting of female crabs and sustainable harvest
goals.
These new efforts to protect the Bay’s crab populations seemed to be working when 2012 crab surveys estimated a total of 765 million crabs in the
Chesapeake, the highest number, by far, since the
early 1990s. But 2013 and 2014 surveys have estimated only about 300 million, about average for
crab populations during the past decade. Despite
the lower population estimates, the scrapers of
Smith Island have found an abundance of peelers
—RP
during 2014.
November/December 2014 • 45

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9/26/14 5:29 PM

crabs, never worked this Bay. It’s only because he’s on
this trip with me that he is starting to realize that he has
roots in Chesapeake Bay and on Smith Island. It’s only
today that he has remembered that his grandmother is
a Smith, a direct descendant of the man who discovered
this island, a relative of its early settlers.
“I’m half Smith,” says Marsh as if to claim following
the water as a birthright.
Me, too, I think. I spent much of my 20s on the Bay
fishing oysters and crabs and connecting with my waterman’s heritage. Now, as I kick back in the workboat
between licks and dream about noshing a piece of the
iconic 10-layer Smith Island cake, it seems I’m witnessing a change in my son as he takes stock of this vast,
muddy estuary and his roots.

A

t first this morning Jake had just watched Marsh
practicing his craft, perfected over 59 summers.
Many watermen catch crabs with wire traps
called “pots” these days, but at $35 apiece, crab pots
can really run up the cost of fishing for a waterman
deploying 1,000 traps or more. So Marsh sticks with
the low-cost, tried-and-true Smith Island tradition of
crabbing.
He tows a scrape over the port and starboard sides
of DARLENE. Each scrape is a metal cage 3' 8" wide
trailing an attached net bag. Bound to the scrape boat
by ¾" nylon line, each scrape tows about 20' behind the
boat, sliding through the eelgrass and widgeon grass
beds that grow on the Bay floor. About every 10 minutes Marsh slows the boat and hauls back the scrape by
hand. When full of grass and crabs, it can weigh over
100 lbs. Six days a week during the April–December
soft crab season, Marsh, usually working alone, tows his
scrapes at between 1 and 2 knots for crabs that have
come into the grass to molt. He catches the “peelers”
that are just about to molt and the soft crabs that have
just molted. After he catches his crabs, he transfers the
peelers to shedding tanks ashore (see sidebar, “Crab
Talk”).
As the morning unfolds, Jake begins taking more
initiative in the fishing. Not only does he volunteer
to empty the dump box of juveniles, but by 0930 he is
actively sorting through the scrape pile of grass and
crabs with Marsh and me. And by 1030 he is learning how to dump the net bag after Marsh wrestles the
scrape aboard. With each new haul of a scrape, Jake
seems more confident. At some point conversation
ceases altogether in DARLENE, and we are just three
men with a job to do. Three men who have found their
rhythm. Three men following the water.
It seems a century ago...or timeless. Only once does
the spell break. In sorting through his scrape pile, Jake
finds a seahorse. From somewhere deep beneath his
oilskin overalls, he retrieves his cell phone and snaps
Jake Peffer works with Maurice Marsh culling crabs aboard
DARLENE .

46 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/26/14 5:29 PM

pictures of the creature before returning it to the wild.
So it goes. Twenty-first-century technology meets the
prehistoric Chesapeake in a Smith Island scrape boat.
At 1230 Marsh hauls his scrapes without a word to
us and turns DARLENE toward the white church spire
three miles to the west on Smith Island. After sipping
from a can of root beer, he looks over his buckets and
baskets of crabs and says, “It was a fair day,” as if such
a recognition should be enough for any man. At one
point he motions to the washboard forward of the
dump box and says to Jake, “Have a lie-down. I know
you’re tired. I’ll tell you what. You ain’t alone.”

Maurice Marsh and his son Allen depart their shanty in Ewell at
dawn for a morning of crab scraping.

Jake stretches out on the washboard. Lying on his
back, he crosses his arms over his chest, closes his eyes,
and grins up at the summer sun. I think I know what
lies behind that pose and that grin. When I worked on
the water, I used to lie back like that on the washboard
of Capt. Bart Murphy’s AT LAST as we headed home
after a day of crabbing.

Johnny Krantz Tyler hauls in a scrape.

November/December 2014 • 47

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STELLA GRACE is the newest addition to the Smtih Island crab fleet. The boat is based on the lines of Maurice Marsh’s DARLENE .



STELLA GRACE

“O

h I guess...it’s really like a terrible affliction as
every day gets closer to getting the keel into the
garage...and it all seems to be out of control of my
good sense.”
So begins a dialogue on WoodenBoat’s online
Forum that spans six pages and more than three
years as it follows Rob Lake’s adventure in building  STELLA GRACE, a classic Smith Island scrape
boat modeled on the lines of master builder Leon
Marsh’s DARLENE. Lake’s boat is the first full-sized
Smith Island crab scrape built since the Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum launched its VOLUNTEER in
2002 (also a DARLENE replica).
No stranger to tools and precision woodworking,
Lake grew up helping his contractor father, and he
built furniture during college. He’s a mechanical
engineer at the naval air station at Patuxent River,
Maryland. At age 51, he had never built a boat. But
in 2011 he caught the boatbuilding bug after a local
captain in Solomons, Maryland, “made me drink
rum with him.” He was hooked after the Calvert
Marine Museum showed him the fetching lines of
DARLENE and his 15-year-old son, Mitch, declared a
yearning to follow the water.
As is clear from the long, detailed and witty
thread on the WoodenBoat Forum, as well as the
great pictures and narrative on Lake’s boatbuilding
blog (see sidebar “Further Reading”), the man who
calls himself “wollybugger” online is a dynamo of
energy, an assiduous researcher, and an attentive networker. Pulling in information from other builders

of Chesapeake watercraft, devouring classic books
on Bay-built boats, and making pilgrimages to maritime museums around the Chesapeake, Lake garnered the perspective and technical know-how to
move his project to completion.
Lake is also resourceful. After a lot of conversation about finding the appropriate lumber and discovering that most commercial boatbuilding timber
was beyond his budget, he decided to go old-school
and track down his lumber just the way Chesapeake
backyard builders have done for centuries. He
headed out to the local farms where he found the
Amish community of St. Mary’s County, Maryland,
ready and able to supply and mill all the white oak
and yellow pine that he needed. He also discovered
that some of the local Amish folk were excellent
machinists who could make anything he needed.
Three years and countless “hours of fun” later,
the 30' × 10' STELLA GRACE, with her Cummins
4BT diesel, splashed into the Patuxent River in
midsummer, just a few weeks after Mitch got his
commercial crabbing license.
“When you get into these things, you think you
are building a boat,” Lake says. “But what you find
out you are really doing after a while is getting
into the minds and lives of all those builders
who came before you. You are passing the Bay’s
traditions forward.”
As the Smith Island watermen would say, “That’s
the right smart of it.”
—RP

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In the early morning, Allen (left) and Maurice Marsh pack crabs bound for Crisfield, Maryland, and then to markets across the
country and overseas.

If You Go
Ferries
Several passenger ferries travel twice a day to Smith
Island from Crisfield. The ride takes about 45 minutes.
All ferries leave at 12:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. from the city
dock, where Maryland Route 413 ends at the waterfront.
Return trips from the island depart at 7:00 a.m. and 3:30
p.m. from Tylerton, and 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. from
Ewell. The tour boats of Smith Island Cruises (410–425–
2771) leave from Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield, Maryland, and travel to Ewell every day of the summer.
Places to Stay
Smith Island has four B&Bs. Smith Island Bed & Breakfast offers sunset and waterfront views from rocking
chairs on the enclosed porch. Don’t miss its signature
dessert, Smith Island 10-layer cake.
Places to Eat
Dinners and picnic baskets (as well as breakfasts, of
course) can be arranged at any of the island’s B&Bs. The
Bayside Inn and Ruke’s, close to the ferry in Ewell, offer
traditional Bay cuisine like fresh oysters and steamed
crabs.
History and Culture
The Smith Island Center in Ewell shows a short film and
features exhibits, including the 17’ scrape boat ISLAND
JEWEL, that bring alive the watermen’s work, island
traditions, and the distinct dialect of the island.
For more information, visit www.smithisland.org.

I can guess at what thoughts are swirling through
my son’s mind as he nods off. He can’t wait to go crabbing again. Another Smith Island scraper named
Johnny Krantz has offered to teach Jake how to haul a
crab scrape by himself, offered to show him the difference between a “medium,” “hotel,” “prime,” “ jumbo,”
and “whale” soft crab. Maybe Jake’s beginning to
sense that no matter where his travels take him, he will
come back here to this Bay. Like Maurice Marsh,
Johnny Krantz, and his father, he’s part Smith. There’s
Bay water in his blood.
Randall Peffer is the former Chesapeake Bay editor of WoodenBoat.
He is author of numerous books, including Watermen, an account
of the shellfishing families of Tilghman Island, Maryland in the
1970s. His most recent book, Seahawk Burning, is the third of his
Southern Seahawk Trilogy.
Further Reading
Beautiful Swimmers, by William W. Warner
An Island Out of Time: A Memoir of Smith Island in
the Chesapeake, by Tom Horton
The Workboats of Smith Island, by Paula J. Johnson
Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiffs, by Howard I. Chapelle
Deadrise and Cross-Planked, by Larry Chowning
Barcat Skipper, by Larry Chowning
Building the STELLA R - A Chesapeake Crab Scrape,
http://scrapeboatstella-r.blogspot.com

WoodenBoat Forum, http://forum.woodenboat.com/
showthread.php?133119-Smith-Island-Crabbing-Scrape

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Stormy and ISTAR
A new Coaster schooner, after decades of perseverance

Text by Jim Gilbert
Photographs by Benjamin Mendlowitz

I

t is an emotional moment for Dr. Charles “Stormy”
Mayo. One of many moments, no doubt, over the
tumultuous 39 years of ISTAR’s making.
It’s autumn 2013, in Provincetown, Massachusetts,
and even in the dim light streaming into ISTAR’s stillunfinished saloon I can see the tracks of tears streaming
down his face.
“It’s like being in the center of the tree of my life,”
Stormy is saying. “This is where my mother died,” he
says, pointing to a plank. He raises his finger a few
planks. “This is where my first son was born.” Another

few planks. “This is where Nathaniel, my second son,
was born.”
Stormy takes a deep breath and raises his hand to the
heel of a deckbeam. “This is where Barbara got sick.”
He pauses for a second and raises his finger another
inch. “This is where the work stopped.”
I wonder briefly if Stormy gets this emotional every
time he comes below, or if it’s simply easier to share his
feelings with someone who was there at the start of his
long journey to build ISTAR . Journey? Odyssey might be
a better description. Whatever you call it, the finish line

Above—ISTAR took to the sea at last in 2014 at Provincetown, Massachusetts, showing the traditional schooner
characteristics that compelled her builder, Dr. Charles “Stormy” Mayo, to start construction so many years before. She is
built to Murray Peterson’s Coaster I design of 1931.

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ISTAR ’s construction started as a backyard project at Mayo’s

father’s house in 1975. Little did he know that 39 years would
pass before a crane would lift her out in preparation for
launching day.

jim gilbert

B

is near, and Stormy knows it and feels the magnitude of
the moment when ISTAR’s keel will, finally and against
all odds, taste the salt water of Provincetown Harbor.
When she does, Stormy’s tears seem to be saying, she
will do so less as a mere 36' Murray Peterson–designed
coasting schooner, and more as a 10-ton miracle—an
alchemy of wood and earth painstakingly wrought by
the sheer force of human love and perseverance.
“This boat anchored my life,” he whispers, almost
defiantly. “The boat anchored me.”
“You know, I really don’t care if I ever actually get
to sail ISTAR ,” Stormy says after a long moment of
silence. “If I make it from the pier to
Long Point, I’ll call all this experience a huge success.” He pauses again.
“Building this boat has been about the
process, about the journey, not about
the ending. It’s been about the experience. If there’s another experience
waiting for me at the end....” Stormy
leaves the sentence unfinished.

acktrack a few months. It’s July 2013, and I’m
on Bradford Street in Provincetown visiting a
friend, about to turn up a shady clamshell lane
when I see a freshly varnished bowsprit poking out
above a riotous bed of tall dahlias. Stormy’s dahlias, I
suddenly remember. I have only rarely passed through
this part of Provincetown over the past four decades,
but each time it has been with great sadness to see the
abandoned hull of ISTAR , bow pointing toward the harbor, as if permanently moored in a blustery summer
sou’wester. Besides the new bowsprit, it also looks as if
there’s a fresh coat of paint on the hull, spurring me
to take a closer look. Past the flowers, I see someone
hunched over the windlass on the foredeck. When he
looks up, I immediately recognize Stormy and say hello.
In minutes he’s invited me to join him up on deck. I
apologize for my intrusion, explaining that I had heard
he had stopped working on the boat, but nobody told
me he had started up again.
We recall my last visit to his makeshift shipyard,
in 1979, when I was a reporter for the now-defunct
Provincetown Advocate, writing a progress report on his
ambitious backyard schooner. We had earlier covered
the pouring of ISTAR’s lead ballast keel. By the time
of this visit, the strip-planking on the voluminous 36'
mahogany hull was mostly complete. We joked about
Stormy’s anxiety over the next construction phase,
steaming and bending the white oak framing stock
he had just bought. Amid the aroma of freshly sawn
mahogany planks stacked under his makeshift plastic

Mayo considered abandoning his
schooner project and once even came
close to cutting up the unfinished
hull. Instead, he summoned up his
determination and returned to work,
spending 12 years more before at
last basking in the joy of having
completed the job.
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With Long Point Lighthouse off her starboard bow outward bound from Provincetown, ISTAR promises to live up to the
Coaster design’s renown for seaworthiness and comfort for far-ranging cruising.

cover, we talked also about his scientific interests, particularly his PhD thesis on growing tuna from eggs.
Pausing in the late-afternoon July sun, what I now
see after all these years is impressive: a fair hull with
lovely proportions, beautiful hardware, salty details
and fittings, and examples of a high level of woodworking skill. Gleaming, freshly varnished laminated spars
sit astern in the small clearing that has been ISTAR’s
only home for nearly four decades. Stormy gives a selfdeprecating snort when I ask him what prompted him
to start again.
“Sometime around 1993, I decided I had to do something with this thing in my father’s yard. He had been
my inspiration for ISTAR , and now he was in the last
throes of Parkinson’s syndrome, and I was spending a
lot of time at his house taking care of him. It hurt me
terribly to see the boat. Water had gotten in the hull,
which was covered only with sheets of plywood. Leaves
and dirt had blown down below and there were trees
starting to grow out of it,” he said, shaking his head.
So he went out and bought a chainsaw to cut the hull
apart. “I figured it would be easier to burn if it were
in pieces. I even wondered if I could collect all those
thousands of bronze nails from the fireplace and sell
them, along with the lead from the keel.” Stormy said
he went so far as to gas up and start the chainsaw to
make sure all was ready to begin the demolition. “The
truth is, I didn’t really feel all that badly at the time,”
he recalls. “I thought, ‘I’ve done the very best I could
under the circumstances.’ I said to myself, ‘This has

been a great learning experience’.” But even with his
saw in hand and a well-thought-out plan in mind, the
days and weeks passed. Slowly, it dawned on him that
he couldn’t destroy his dream.
“So I put the saw away,” he continues. “I realized in
that moment if I couldn’t destroy the boat, then the
only option left to me was to finish what I had begun.”

B

oats have always been a central element in the
life of the little fishing village of Provincetown.
For centuries, its shipwrights built hundreds of
schooners to work the dangerous but lucrative North
Atlantic fishing grounds. But by the 1970s, Province­
town hadn’t splashed a serious, oceangoing schooner
for many decades. Thus, ISTAR was a great local story
even without Stormy, but an even better one with him in
it. Stormy was a hometown boy, son of one of Province­
town’s most respected families. His father was Charlie
Mayo III, skipper of CHANTEY III, a custom 31' Crockerdesigned sportfisherman, who had become one of the
pioneers of sportfishing for giant tuna, famous enough
to be the subject of a 1962 feature in Sports Illustrated.
Stormy’s father’s lineage dates back to the original
Massachusetts Bay Colony and includes a long line of
Yankee and Azorean ship captains. His parents were
among the town’s oldest maritime families. But even in
the 1970s, the fish that had long provided the area’s
main livelihood were starting to disappear from the
Cape’s famous banks and ledges. Stormy was coming
home with his doctorate in marine biology not to fish

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Murray Peterson and the Coaster schooners

W

BILL PETERSON

hen Murray Peterson finally finished drawing—
on his own time—the profile of his first Coaster,
he left the drawing on his drafting table at the John G.
Alden Company office with a sign above it: “At Last.”
The story goes that when he returned to work the next
day, one of his coworkers had jokingly scrawled a
rejoinder: “She will be last.”
Nevertheless, such is the staying power of Peterson’s
timeless schooner designs that WoodenBoat in its inaugural issue in 1974 carried a tribute to the designer
shortly after his death. Author John F. Leavitt paid
tribute to the Coaster s, and the 41-footer SILVER
HEELS graced the cover of WB No. 1. Nobody knows
how many sets of plans for Peterson’s three Coaster
designs have been sold over the years, first by Peterson
and later by his son, Bill, who is himself a naval architect.
Born in 1908 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Peterson
was fascinated by the commercial coasting schooners
that were then still working the inshore waters and
could be found alongside Portland’s docks. Determined to become a boat designer, he began formal
studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
but soon realized that such training would lead to a
career of designing large steel ships. He left MIT and
found work with Alden’s yacht design office as a draftsman. Later, when the Great Depression decimated
Alden’s staff, Peterson went out on his own, first in
Marblehead, Massachusetts, and before long in South
Bristol, Maine.
The first Peterson Coaster was 36'4" LOA and was
launched in 1931. Work continued to be scarce for
yacht designers, but Peterson had means of his own
and had the boat built at Goudy and Stevens in East
Boothbay. According to friends, the boat cost him
$7,500 “all in.”

Coaster II, which was similar to its predecessor
but larger at 42' 7" LOA , was completed in 1933, also
by Goudy and Stevens, for Peterson. The last of the
series, the 41' 2" LOA Coaster III, was completed by
F.F. Pendleton in Wiscasset, Maine, in 1935. While
somewhat different in size and interior arrangement,
they all share the same clipper bow, the same basic
gaff rig with topsails, generous beam, raised quarterdeck, and elliptical transom. All are highly regarded
for balance, speed, and agility. Stormy Mayo’s construction of ISTAR differs from the original Coaster I
plan in that its engine is aft. Peterson had placed the
engine amidships, which is said to have added considerably to the original Coaster I’s sailing qualities. In
Coaster II, Peterson chose a more typical aft placement for the engine, but with Coaster III he returned
to the idea of placing the engine and fuel tanks amidships. With all sails set, Coaster III carried 1,000 sq
ft of canvas, compared with the 800 sq ft carried by
Coaster I.
In his WoodenBoat tribute, John F. Leavitt conceded
that Peterson was never interested in racing. Nevertheless, he praised the Coaster designs for speed. “It’s
a fact,” he wrote, “that no schooner, and seldom any
other cruising craft...sailed past Coaster III.”
Most Peterson Coaster s have been built by professionals, but amateur builders, too, have been tempted
by Peterson’s timeless traditional lines despite the difficulty of building such a shapely hull. Stormy, whose
ISTAR has the distinction of being the latest amateurbuilt Coaster, said the complexity was daunting. One
saving grace was the extraordinary detail in the plans,
including beautifully rendered construction drawings
and notations. “There must be 75 pages in the plans,”
he said. “It’s a book, really.”
—JG

ISTAR is constructed
to Murray Peterson’s
design for the first
of three schooners
he had built for his
own use, basing them
on traditional New
England coasting
schooners he had seen
growing up in Maine.

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Below decks in the main saloon under the skylight of the aft trunk cabin, ISTAR recalls the heritage of her ancestral coasting
schooners. The saloon table is a lamination made of offcuts to represent all the various woods used in her construction.

commercially like his forefathers but to build ISTAR.
Within months of his return, he was helping to figure
out what was happening to the fish and the sea life off
Provincetown’s shores. Within a few years, he was playing a key role in developing Provincetown’s budding
whale-watching industry and had become one of the
founders of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, well-respected today for its far-reaching marine
research, including the work on right whales that has
made Stormy one of the world’s most notable authorities
on the species.
Boats have always been a central element in the
Mayo family. Stormy’s dad had spent his schoolboy
summers dragging for fish from his father’s schooner,
LITTLE JENNY. As a young man, he had left town to
explore the world in the first ISTAR, a wooden ketch.
As young adults, he and Stormy’s mother, Ing, sailed a
variety of boats up and down the Atlantic coast. Stormy
said his dad liked all manner of boats but loved traditional wooden boats best, and schooners most of all.
His father took him to Bahia Mar in Fort Lauderdale in
1960 to look at a Peterson–designed Coaster schooner
named OCEANUS. “I remember him telling me this
was the most beautiful schooner design in the world,”
he said.
On another trip, this time to the Bahamas in the

mid-1960s, his father went well out of his way in Exuma
Sound one afternoon to look at another schooner
he had spotted in the distance, which turned out to
be another Peterson design, the 41' schooner SILVER
HEELS. So it came as no surprise to anyone when
Stormy bought a set of plans in 1973, while he was
still in graduate school at the University of Miami. He
returned to Provincetown late the following year with
his new wife and fellow marine biologist, Barbara, fully
intent on building his dreamboat. But, as he points out,
“Life has a habit of getting in the way of life.”
ISTAR got her real start in 1975, when some companies were developing plans for dumping toxic wastes
deep in the Puerto Rico Trench. They needed a pair of
institutionally unattached marine biologists to develop
baseline studies. Barbara and Stormy fit the bill perfectly, and their consulting work over the following
years earned them the money to begin their schooner.
They came across a rare lot of old African mahogany
planks late in 1975, which they purchased for $10,000.
They began collecting lead for their ballast keel that
same year, and in June 1976 poured their first casting.
Serendipity—along with life—continued to both
bless and obstruct their plans. Stormy and Barbara
were coming into greater demand as marine biologists. Stormy was hired to be the lead scientist for the

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The forward trunk cabin provides space and access for the
V-berth, with opening portlights for ventilation.

S

Dolphin Fleet, the new whale-watching operation out
of Provincetown. They continued as consultants, and
in 1976 they started the Coastal Studies Center, which
began to consume even more of their time. So they
were only able to work on ISTAR, Stormy said, “in fits
and starts.”
Still, they spent every spare minute on the boat, making steady progress. Between his inexperience as a boatbuilder and the lack of free time, Stormy made a few
decisions that he said he has since come to regret. Foremost among these was not building a proper shelter for
the project. That lapse proved costly later when Stormy,
busy with raising two small children and caring for
both his dying wife and his fragile father, had neither
the time nor psychological strength to rebuild ISTAR’s
flimsy original awning, which by then had blown away.
His advice for every amateur builder: “For God’s sake,
invest your start-up money to cover your boat properly!”
The other major mistake he made, Stormy admits,
was not listening to his old friend, Provincetown boatbuilder Francis “Flyer” Santos, about leaving out the
garboard plank as he was laying up the hull. “Like an
absolute idiot, I didn’t follow his good advice. I drilled
a bunch of limber holes,” he said, “but they just got
clogged up, and my hull turned into a bathtub.” In all,
Stormy estimates, repairing the resulting water damage
took two years once he resumed work.

tormy stopped working on ISTAR shortly after
1985, when Barbara was diagnosed with cancer.
For more than a decade, the hull sat untouched
and exposed to the weather. Even from the outside, he
could see what was happening. “The wood around the
garboard plank turned grayer and grayer and grayer,
until it turned black,” he said. The color of the wood
mimicked his dark emotional state, which was not
helped by the fact he had to pass by the hull every time
he walked in or out of the house while caring for his
father. The boat became an ignominious reminder of
the horrific losses he and his two sons were still experiencing. “I consciously wouldn’t look at her when I
passed,” he said.
After what he calls “the chainsaw incident,” he slowly
resumed working on the boat, beginning first with the
long process of repairing the damage that water and
negligence had caused. It was a time of ups and downs,
Stormy said. “I started by going below and clearing out
the limber holes,” he said, “then the bilges.” When he
did, he was pleasantly surprised at how well ISTAR had
actually stood up despite the 12 long years of neglect.
The white-oak floor timbers had survived almost perfectly intact, along with most of the hull structure. The
worst casualties were a 16' section of the laminated keel
and a few lower planks. Structurally, he believed, the
rest of the boat was fully intact. But one day his oldest
son, Josiah, called over, “What’s this?” When he joined
his son at ISTAR’s stern, he found his son pointing to
a small mushroom growing out of the transom that
Stormy and his father had painstakingly constructed
many years before. It took them three months to rebuild
the lovely oval-shaped transom, which is also radiused
and raked.
ISTAR’s scantlings are no doubt a prime reason
for her survival and resurrection. Stormy had decided
from the start to overbuild ISTAR as much as possible.
His oversized white-oak frames are placed on 10" centers, much closer than the strip-building specifications
that Howard Chapelle called for in his book, Boatbuilding. Stormy built far stronger floors than Peterson’s
detailed plan called for. After replacing the keel, Stormy
sheathed the hull in fiberglass cloth set in epoxy, using
18-oz cloth, which was doubled below the waterline,
“ just to be on the safe side.” In all, ISTAR’s intentional
over-construction, Stormy said, added about half a ton
to the schooner’s completed displacement.
Along with the African mahogany used in the
planking and railcaps, and the aged white oak for the
schooner’s frames and floor timbers, the woods used in
ISTAR’s construction represent a veritable wish-list for
any woodworker’s lumber rack: laminated Douglas-fir
deckbeams, 3⁄4" nine-ply Bruynzeel plywood decking,
hand-picked Sitka spruce spars, longleaf pine bulwarks,
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The builder’s sons, Nathaniel and Josiah, have been able to join their father in sailing the new schooner, whose construction
began long before they were born.

lignum vitae deadeyes, and western red cedar ceiling.
Stormy and Barbara had bought a substantial amount
of African mahogany planking stock, not knowing how
much they would eventually need. When he resumed
work on the project, he found to his dismay that a halfdozen of his precious planks in the stack beneath the
hull had rotted. “I felt I had just raped the rainforest,”
he said of the discovery. But as he worked through the
construction, he realized he had just enough wood
to complete the boat. Providentially, the last board
provided enough for the final interior trim and even
enough for ISTAR’s boom crutches.
In retrospect, he says, the quality of the materials
that went into his boat’s construction is such that he
probably couldn’t afford to build her today. “ISTAR
became less expensive with every passing year,” he
jokes, shaking his head at the cost of today’s supplies,
especially lumber, lead, and bronze.
For all the sadness embodied in ISTAR’s history,
even larger measures of serendipity moved the project
forward. Stormy bought a brand-new suit of Dacron
sails and steering gear from a Canadian couple who
had abandoned a yard-built Peterson project. Toward
the end, he worried that he might have to replace the
Westerbeke diesel he had installed 30 years earlier. “I
had only run it once,” he said.
He called up Westerbeke asking for advice. “‘It’s a
diesel engine,’” Stormy recalls them saying. “‘Just push
the button.’” Sure enough, the engine came to life, he

said, on the very first try.
Most of the assistance was human, not material.
Whenever he needed a hand, friends or experts from
all around Massachusetts would appear to help him out
at a critical moment. In Provincetown, old shipwrights
and mariners like Capt. Joe Andrews and Grassy Santos were always there with advice and encouragement.
Schooner rigger Joe Mello of Mattapoisett helped set
up the rig. Even at the end, when Stormy was trying
to figure out how to get ISTAR from his back yard into
the sea, his friend Mike Winkler, a local crane operator, came to the rescue, volunteering a massive crane
for the job of plucking ISTAR off her supports, loading her onto a truck, then moving and offloading the
hull and stepping the masts in one smooth operation
in a single morning. Stormy especially credits John
Burman of Kingman Yacht Center in Cataumet—who
recently completed a Joshua Slocum SPRAY replica—
with answering numerous questions and addressing a
litany of concerns over the years.
His sons, Nathaniel and Josiah, put in countless summer and vacation hours. But perhaps most symbolic of
the universe smiling down on ISTAR , he said, was the
2008 appearance of Kurt Smiley, a young man whom
Josiah had met surfing in Costa Rica. For the cost of
a $400 plane ticket, Kurt flew up to Cape Cod and
immediately became a pivotal player in ISTAR’s rebirth.
The son of Peter Smiley, a Santa Cruz boatbuilder who
had worked with Northern California ultralight icons

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Rather than lying in wait in a back yard for completion,
ISTAR now waits at a mooring in Provincetown Harbor,
in every way ready for sea.

who had watched Stormy and his family’s private struggles over the years, as well as many others who had not
even been born when ISTAR’s first planks were shaped
and hung. His emotions and the wishes of townspeople
“were simply staggering,” he said.
“ISTAR really belongs to many people,” he said.
“They’ve had their eyes on this boat for so many years
they’ve developed a real sense of ownership.”

L

Bill Lee and George Olsen in the 1970s and ’80s, Kurt
turned out to be a “wizard” in Stormy’s view, and he
credits him with helping to drive ISTAR to the finish
line. A fine metalworker and carpenter who ultimately
shaped the majority of ISTAR’s exquisite fittings and
decorative elements, Kurt also was a superb “deputizer,”
Stormy said, who kept the project on track.
For his part, Kurt said he fell in love with ISTAR the
moment he laid eyes on her. His first job was spending
three days cleaning up the three-decade-old “disaster
area” that had built up around the hull and workshop.
Like many involved in the project, Kurt saw ISTAR as
more than just a boat. Just as the schooner had been a
father-and-son collaboration between Stormy and his
dad, so it became for Kurt and his father. ISTAR was
similar to MARIE CELINE, a 42' Peterson coasting schooner that Peter Smiley had professionally captained and
maintained in Hawaii, and Kurt had frequently visited
the boat in his youth. When Kurt first saw ISTAR, he
said, “I could see the end result.” Peter, who visited as
the project neared its end, helped with rigging. “He’s a
man like my father,” Stormy says. “A man of few words
who is exceptionally good with his hands.”
After four decades of working on ISTAR , Stormy still
does not consider himself a woodworker. But he appreciates those who are. “It’s amazing to watch the way they
touch the wood, the way they understand it in a way I
don’t,” he said. “It’s just different, like the way a doctor
touches a patient’s skin.”
“People refer to me as the builder of the boat,”
Stormy said. “But am I really? If you take away all the
things I didn’t build for ISTAR , the simple fact is that
she wouldn’t sail. She’s actually a lot of peoples’ boat.”
During her flawless full-moon launch in mid-June,
appropriately enough on a stormy day, hundreds gathered, first in the street to watch the “big lift” and then
at the end of McMillan Wharf to watch ISTAR take her
first sip of salt water. The crowd included many people

ate June, 2014. The sails are being bent on, and
the last lead ingots of trim ballast are being
placed in ISTAR’s hull. Stormy is anxious about
finishing the remaining tasks because ISTAR is sitting
in a slip borrowed from another Provincetown schooner, HINDU, a 79-footer designed by William Hand.
Stormy is exuding a different kind of energy now. Not
the frantic, last-throes-of-a-four-decade-project kind of
energy, but the kind of happy, anticipatory energy you
see in every sailor readying his boat for the summer.
Sitting in the cockpit, he is resting with his elbow a few
inches away from ISTAR’s steering wheel, the one originally used on CHANTEY III. It’s clear he is feeling content, that if his father were still alive he would be both
pleased and proud.
Capt. Andrews, now in his late 80s, had just struggled down the steep gangplank from the pier to see the
boat for himself. “You done good,” he had told Stormy.
“That’s about the highest compliment I could ask for,”
he said, shaking his head in amazement.
It’s a crisp day with a nice breeze from the northwest,
the kind of breeze you pray for in October when you’re
looking to sail from New England to warmer waters.
“Of course, the question now is what to do with her,”
Stormy says, his eyes scanning the Provincetown waterfront. It’s not hard to imagine his father on the deck of
one of his many boats, looking forward to another fishing charter, another sail.
“I think there may be a second volume in the ISTAR
saga,” he says suddenly, smiling. “Don’t you love the
color of deep tropical water?” he asks, as if ISTAR were
already nosing into a long, tradewind-flecked roller. It’s
no stretch of anyone’s imagination to see that the cold
veils of darkness have finally vanished, and that ISTAR’s
second chapter is about to be written in the warm
breezes of his imagination.
Among many newspaper and magazine positions, Jim Gilbert
was a former associate editor at Cruising World, and founding editor-in-chief of ShowBoats International. His first
novel, The Admiral (Christopher Matthews Press), debuted
in May 2014. A summer resident of Cape Cod for 50 years, he
splits his time between Boston; Cape Cod; Miami Beach; and
Otavalo, Ecuador.
November/December 2014 • 57

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Preserving an
L. Francis Herreshoff
Classic
The restoration of BEN MY CHREE
Text and photographs by Tyler Fields

I

n 1932, Willoughby Stuart of greater Bath, Maine,
commissioned L. Francis Herreshoff to design a
sloop-rigged daysailer. L. Francis, the son of
Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, had already designed
some smaller boats for the Stuart family for day outings
along Maine’s rocky shores. The new boat was to be a
larger one for the waters of Casco Bay. It would be easy
to singlehand, but still large enough for the entire Stuart
family to enjoy. Herreshoff drew plans for a 28' keel/
centerboard knockabout, his design No. 53. He gave
the hull modest overhangs and a subtle sheer, and the
result is elegant, clean, and harmonious. Britt Brothers,
of West Lynn, Massachusetts, built the boat. Like
many of L. Francis’s designs, this sloop was simple,
with no unnecessar y clutter to stand in the way of
enjoy ment.

The one and only hull built to this design, BEN MY
CHREE, sailed among the islands of Casco Bay for

decades, isolated and largely unnoticed. Adding to
BEN’s obscurity, design No. 53 remained absent from
the published works on L. Francis’s designs. In fact,
one of the most popular of L. Francis’s several books,
Sensible Cruising Designs, was compiled by Roger Taylor
with the assistance of L. Francis’s personal secretary,
Muriel Vaughn. Taylor would later write a handful of
pieces on his experiences sailing BEN, and says he certainly would have included BEN in the book had she
been uncovered earlier.
After her launching in 1933, BEN lived year round
on Bear Island on the New Meadows River, just outside
of Bath, where Stuart had a boathouse and railway constructed for her care. Because she remained hidden for

BEN MY CHREE won First Place, Professional Restoration for Sailboats in the Concours d’Élégance at this year’s WoodenBoat
Show in Mystic, Connecticut. During the final day of the show, BEN was able to get out on the water and enjoy the breeze as

she sailed among the other classic yachts visiting Mystic.

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decades, far from the rest of the yachting world, it’s no
surprise that no other was built to her lines. Beyond her
remote location, another stumbling block to the building of a sister certainly would have been the stock market crash of 1929, which wiped out much of the wealth
amassed in the early 20th century. The effect of this
was clearly felt throughout the yachting world. To illustrate the trend: In 1914, the Herreshoff Manufacturing
Company (HMCo.) contracted the building of 34 new
boats. In 1925, HMC o. executed contracts for nearly
75 boats. By the year 1933, four years after the crash
and the year BEN was built, HMC o. showed contracts
for only four boats.
While there has been no true wooden sister built, in
the early 1950s L. Francis modified No. 53’s drawings
by adding a full keel and small cabin. This became
PALMETTO, built by Norman Hodgdon in 1955 for
Thomas Taylor. Again, only this one boat was built to
these new plans. PALMETTO remains in great condition and sails from Long Island, New York.
By the mid-1980s, BEN MY CHREE was sitting idle in a
Massachusetts boatyard. Out of the water for years, she
was very much showing her age. Bill Harding, founder
of Harding Sails in Marion, Massachusetts, stumbled
upon her and although he did not immediately recognize the boat’s heritage, he believed her graceful lines
to be from the drawing board of a Herreshoff. After a
little research and a handful of phone calls, Harding
found his hunch to be correct.
Ten years before that discovery, Harding had found
success with the Doughdish, a replication of the Herreshoff 12½ in fiberglass. After returning BEN to fighting trim and sailing her for a season, Harding believed
design No. 53 would also prove to be great for series
production in fiberglass. The following three decades
proved him right: More than 75 fiberglass BEN MY
CHREE reproductions, named the Stuart Knockabout
after Willoughby Stuart, have been built. Meanwhile,
BEN herself was bought and sold two more times. After
a few years of sailing from Marion, BEN found her way
back into storage and, again for sale—this time at Ballentine’s Boat Shop, patiently awaiting a new owner
and a second chance. After nearly 80 years, she had
been repaired and refitted, but now needed more
substantial attention.

In 2012, BEN MY CHREE found a new owner and her
restoration was finally underway. Every effort was taken
to reproduce BEN as originally built by Britt Brothers.
The guiding principle of the restoration was to save
whatever could be saved and to authentically replace
what could not—and to always keep in mind the
delicate balance between restoration and preservation.
L. Francis’s opinion of altering his designs, even in the
slightest detail, is no secret. In Sensible Cruising Designs,
he wrote:
If H-28’s design is only slightly changed, the whole
balance may be thrown out. If you equip her with
deadeyes, build her with sawn frames, or fill her virgin
bilge with ballast, the birds will no longer carol over
her, nor will the odors arising from the cabin make
poetry, nor will your soul be fortified against a world
of warlords, politicians and fakers.

The restoration touched every single piece of BEN —
from a new oak keel and replacing worn planks to
replacing the steam-bent frames. Piece by piece, BEN
was returned to her condition at launching in 1933.
Eighty years after her christening, the restored BEN
MY CHREE was relaunched after two years of work. BEN’s
mast was then stepped and her rig tuned. It was striking,
after taking step or two back, to see the extreme rake of
her rig. It instantly brought to mind a few other L. Francis
designs: Araminta, Rozinante, and Ticonderoga. All of
these later designs have, rightly so, taken their places in
many of our lists of favorite yachts.
Once her sails were raised and she tacked out of the
mooring field, BEN was met by a line of her modern
siblings. Buzzards Bay’s fleet of Stuart Knockabouts
were sailing toward the starting line of the 2013 Stuart Knockabout Regatta. As BEN beat into the heavy
southwest wind and steep chop, her looks were not
the only discernible L. Francis characteristic. To no
one’s surprise, she handled these conditions just as
you would expect from a true Herreshoff classic,
capably and mannerly, and with simple understated
elegance.
In the following words and images, we see how
Ballentine’s Boat Shop went about the restoration of
BEN MY CHREE.

Removing Paint
One of the first major steps in BEN’s
restoration was removing the many years of paint
buildup, both above and below the waterline. Considering all of the available options—chemical
strippers, heat, grinding—hiring a media blasting
contractor proved not only the most efficient, but
also the safest for the hull and for those stripping
it. The medium with which the hull was blasted
was a fine powder of recycled crushed glass, which
efficiently removed the paint while not damaging
the underlying wood. After the blasting, BEN was
moved into the carpentry shop, her home for the
remainder of her restoration.
November/December 2014 • 59

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New Floor Timbers
After the new frames were steamed and bent into
place, the floor timbers were systematically removed
and replaced with new ones of locust, fastened with
bronze screws. Notice the rough condition of the original keel plank.

Frame Replacement
Nearly all of BEN’s oak frames were broken, split, and
sistered, and many of the plank-to-frame fastenings had
deteriorated. The resulting loss of strength had enabled
the hull to warp and twist. The removal of frames was
undertaken in two steps. First, every other frame
was taken out, and the planking behind stripped and
sanded. All screw holes were then plugged. The hull
was then carefully persuaded into proper shape and
supported before the new frames were installed. When
that was done, the remaining frames were removed
and replaced.

Cutting the
New Keel
The new backbone
was cut to shape,
bagged, and then
steamed in place
right on the hull.
Over time, as the
oak became pliable,
it was slowly and
carefully clamped
over some strategically placed blocking, giving the new
timber a slight overbend to compensate
for the eventual
springback before
final fastening.

Preparing for a New Keel
By the time of this photo, BEN had received new
frames, floors, sheerstrakes, and transom. Her stem
had also been replaced to prepare for the new oak
keel plank. Here she rests after being flipped bottom
up for better access. The original keel plank has been
removed and placed on sawhorses to be used as a
guide for making the new oak backbone.

The New Keel,
Installed
The fairing process continued with BEN upside
down. The bottoms of
the frames and floor
timbers were planed fair
to accept new mahogany
garboards. This photo­
graph also shows the
measuring and marking
of the rabbet to be cut
into the new keel plank.

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Some New Planking
Rabbeting and Sealing the Keel
With the rabbet cut and faired to the frames, the keel
plank was permanently fastened through the floors
with bronze bolts. The bolts were countersunk and
bunged before a thin sealer was applied to protect the
new oak and prevent it from checking.

Here the garboards and first two planks have been
replaced, because they were in worse condition than
the rest of the hull planking. The decision was made
to replace them, rather than repair them, as they add
considerably to the boat’s longitudinal strength.

Bunging and Fairing
After the new bottom planks and new sheerstrakes
were installed, and the fastening holes bunged, the
remaining planking was then repaired. The complete
hull was then faired and prepared for painting.

Caulking
Here, Doug Watson, a
longtime Ballentine’s
employee, begins
caulking the port side.
Once this was
completed, all seams
were primed and payed
with seam compound
before the boat was
handed over to the
finish department
for painting.
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Rolling the Rebuilt Hull
Once primed, the hull was gently
rolled by crane right-side up, with
little stress to the rebuilt hull.

Bulkheads and Primer
Back in the carpentry shop again, BEN awaits the next step in her
restoration. Here, the bulkheads have been fitted and her interior gets
the final sanding before being primed. All of BEN’s interior and underdeck surfaces would receive the same attention.

A New Centerboard Trunk
This shows the new centerboard
trunk construction. With the trunk’s
starboard side still to be built, you
can see the locust bedlog and one of
its planked pine sides in place. After
the trunk was completed, bronze
angle brackets between the bedlogs
to t he f loor timbers were added
for additional structural rigidity.

Deckbeams
The cutting and fitting of deckbeams continues. This photo shows the
new oak beams sitting on top of the original fir sheer clamp. This also
shows the forward area of the boat painted and the bilge coated with
Interlux BilgeKote, a highly durable finish formulated specifically for
this purpose.

A New Planked Deck
Normally in a restoration, the work
would be completed with a few proven
contemporary materials. However, this
project remained true to the original
plans and scantlings as L. Francis drew
them. This included a traditional pine
deck, installed by Ed Pardo. The deck
was sheathed in painted canvas, rather
than the now-common plywoodand-epoxy alternative. Before being
fastened to the deckbeams, each pine
board’s underside was primed
and painted.
62 • WoodenBoat 241

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November/December 2014 • 63

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New Rigging
With BEN MY CHREE painted, varnished, and out of
the shop, her mast was stepped to measure for new
running and standing rigging. Again, trying to keep
to a period-accurate aesthetic, we chose to use P.O.S.H.
for her running rigging. This polyester cordage looks
just like hemp with its dark color, but it has the soft
feel and durability of modern rope.

Original Hardware
Ballentine’s tried with every step to save and reuse
BEN’s original materials. Whether it be planking or
hardware, every effort was taken to save her history and
patina. The boat’s bronze hardware was refurbished
and re-installed before the last coat of paint was
applied to her new canvas deck.

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64 • WoodenBoat 241

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A Shakedown Sail
BEN MY CHREE sailed into

Buzzards Bay during her
shakedown, crewed by
Steve Ballentine and Julia
Doyle-Kingsbury. Steve
Ballentine founded
Ballentine’s Boat Shop in
1974 and Julia is one of
the sailmakers from
Squeteague Sailmakers
on Cape Cod who made
the custom sails.

Tyler Fields grew up in Oregon, where his passion for photography
and wooden workboats of the Pacific Northwest developed. After
graduating from Oregon State University, he  moved to Massachusetts and found success photographing New England’s classic yachts,
both in the shop and on the water.

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November/December 2014 • 65

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Engineered Boat Planking
by Richard Jagels

E

COURTESY OF VENDIA WOODS

ngineered wood for commercial and residential buildings
has been around for several
decades and now holds a commanding role in wood-frame construction. In this column, I first discussed
engineered wood composites in
1978 (WB No. 25), with a follow-up
in 1997 (WB No. 134). Both times I
was rather pessimistic that products
designed for the building trades
could find applications in boat construction. The water-world imposes
limitations not seen in land-based
construction. As ever-more engineered
wood products became available,
I became resigned to the view that
no company would produce an
engineered product specific­ally for
the limited boatbuilding market
other than marine plywood panels.
But then a few months ago, I was
contacted by Lenka Trebatica, an
environmental services professional
with Vendia Woods, a company
located in the small town of Rautalampi, Finland. Lenka had been in
communication with Belfast, Maine,
boatbuilder Arch Davis, who had
suggested that I might be interested
in reviewing a new product called
“marine plank.” In subsequent email

correspondence, Lenka provided
me with product specifications as
well as samples that I could examine.
Vendia marine plank is a kind
of exterior-grade plywood, but one
that differs significantly from other
products on the market. Most exterior-grade plywood is sold in large
sheets, typically 4' × 8' sheets, and
sometimes 4' × 10' or 4' × 12'. The
panels are made up of veneers that
have been peeled from logs that
rotate on a giant lathe while a stationary knife strips off the veneer
in a predetermined thickness. Due
to the interplay of forces produced
by the knife and a wedging bar,
small longitudinal cracks or checks
generally develop in this rotarycut veneer. These checks are then
opened when the curved veneer is
flattened into plywood panels. This
micro-checking invites decay fungi
and is a leading cause of paint or
varnish failure (see WB No. 163).
Vendia marine planks are made up
of sliced veneers, either tangential
(flat plane) or radial (quartered)
in orientation. This reduces the
checking problem, improves stability of applied finishes, and produces
surfaces more similar to sawn wood

planks. Vendia planks also differ significantly from normal “balanced”
veneer plywood. The number of
cross-plies is greatly reduced (see
photo, next page), with just enough to
stabilize the multiple longitudinal
plies near each surface. Especially
on the thicker panels, this more
readily allows for carving, routing,
or just easing of edges—similar to
what can be achieved with a solid
wood plank. With lapped plank
joints, cross plies can be hidden.
Vendia marine planks are produced from woods local to Finland
(see www.vendia.fi/vendia-marineplank). In a country that lies partly
above the Arctic circle, the choices
are limited. Two extensively planted
conifers, Picea abies (Norway spruce)
and Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine), are
the ones used in Vendia marine
planks. Surface veneers are pine,
while interior plies are either pine
or spruce. The short summers of
Finland produce trees that grow
slowly, producing wood with tight
grain and reduced internal stresses.
Plantation trees are often pruned to
reduce knots. Vendia marine planks
have no knots on surface plies, and
only small tight knots are allowed
in interior plies. I could find no
voids in any of the sample panels I
received, and Lenka informed me
that voids are not allowed.
The planks are available in various
widths and thicknesses and in two
lengths, either 2,600mm (8' 6" ) or
3,000 mm (9' 10" ). The widths start
at 100mm (4" ) and increase in
25mm increments up to 250mm
(10" ). Five different thicknesses are
available, from 4mm (about 1⁄8" ) up

Vendia Woods of Finland has created
a plywood-like planking material
intended specifically for boatbuilding,
with promising results.

66 • WoodenBoat 241

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to 15mm (about 5⁄8" ). All the planks
have two transverse plies; the number of longitudinal plies increases
from three in the two thinnest
planks up to five, eight, and ten in
the three thickest ones.
A melamine-fortified urea formaldehyde glue is used, producing
a clear line. Phenol formaldehyde
is the standard in U.S.-produced
exterior-grade softwood plywood—
but this produces a dark glue line.
Urea formaldehyde is less waterresistant than phenol formaldehyde,
but when combined with melamine
it meets European and U.S. criteria
for exterior grades and produces a
more aesthetically pleasing edge.
At this time, planks are not treated
for decay resistance, but Lenka tells
me that the company is considering
heat treatment (see my column on
thermally modified wood in WB No.
215). Finland has been in the forefront with thermal modification of
wood for exterior applications.
In recent years a renaissance of
sorts has been evolving in agriculture, where small farms with specialty crops target a select consumer
base. Perhaps Vendia marine planks
are a portent of the future in forest
products, where small companies
produce specialty products for select
wood consumers. We can hope.
So when will this new marine

plank appear in your local lumber­
yard? Currently, Vendia marine
planks are marketed only in Europe,
but Lenka says the company is seeking a U.S. wholesaler. If that comes
to fruition, U.S. boatbuilders will
have a chance to try this engineered
wood product.

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].

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This view of corner of a Vendia marine
plank with a thickness of 12mm (about
1
⁄2”) shows how well it can be roundedover. This plank is made up of ten plies,
with three parallel plies forming each
surface and only two cross-plies.

SEA HISTORY ALIVE

November/December 2014 • 67

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Accuracy School
A year in the life of the
Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding
Text by Lawrence W. Cheek · Photographs by Charles Espey

“W

hen people ask me what I’m doing here,”
says Penelope Partridge, “I tell them I’m in
accuracy school, learning how to be a more
accurate human.”
Partridge is 25, knife-witted and confidently ambitious. At this moment she is nine weeks into her term
at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, taking far too long to chisel her practice lap joints into a
pair of fir planks. I’m wondering whether she has the
right stuff to succeed here—not because she’s a woman,
one of three who started in this year’s class of 51, but
because her obsession with accuracy seems too narrowly focused. Considering the expense of commercial

boatbuilding and repair, perfectionism had better be
filtered with real-world efficiency.
But as I hang out at the Port Hadlock, Washington,
campus and observe other students, I see that most of
them are slow and inefficient at this early mark. Here’s
the first surprise: According to the faculty, 80 percent of the incoming students have little or no experience with woodworking or boats. John Sandoval, who
arrived with intentions to build his own sailboat and
sail around the world, has never set foot in a sailboat.
Mussa Ulenga, whose former life revolved around managing a hotel in Zanzibar, had never held a saw in his
hands before enrolling here. His plan, though, is even

Jeff Hammond, head instructor at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, Washington, discusses
the finer points of a Venetian batela with students Andrew McGilvra and Jacob Simmering. Author Larry Cheek shadowed
students in the school’s class of 2014 to learn about their motivations and ambitions—and the ways the school changed them.

68 • WoodenBoat 241

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Student Penelope Partridge spiles
a plank on a 28’ Forest Service
scaler’s boat designed by H.C.
Hanson. Partridge has dubbed her
studies in Port Hadlock “Accuracy
School.”

more ambitious than Sandoval’s: establish the first
indoor boatbuilding enterprise in his country, a world
apart from the build-on-the-beach tradition handed
down through generations in Zanzibar.
“I tell people I’m going to a school in the U.S. to
learn boatbuilding,” he says. “They never hear about
a boatbuilding school. They say, ‘There’s a school for
boatbuilding? Why you want to do that?’”

W

hy, indeed, do we have schools for wooden
boat building—more than half a dozen in
the U.S. alone, and more overseas, with
career-oriented degree programs? Why create a formal education process for a craft that has traditionally
been passed on through trial-and-error self-learning
or apprenticeship, for highly specialized skills that
would seem to offer extremely constricted employment
possibilities? The answer relates back to the near-death
of the wooden boat building culture.
Through the first half of the 20th century, Seattle
was a lively nexus of commercial wooden boat building,
with most of the industry clustered around Lake Union
just north of downtown. The Prothero Boat Company
was one of more than a dozen shops, and when in 1959
brothers Frank and Bob Prothero launched their last
boat, a 50' Alaskan seiner, they closed the shop doors
forever. In the next decade most of the neighboring
shops followed it into extinction. Bob Prothero wasn’t
optimistic about a wooden boat revival, but he believed
that teaching traditional boatbuilding skills might at
least help preserve craftsmanship in its wider sense in
America, and he decided to launch a nonprofit school
on the Olympic Peninsula northwest of Seattle. The
Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding opened in
Port Townsend in 1981, and migrated 10 miles south to

the Port Hadlock waterfront in
2004.
Prothero, who died in 1986,
would not be thrilled at seeing the epoxy, fiberglass, and
plywood now deployed in some
of the school’s workshops—
students can choose a track
in either contemporary or traditional
boatbuilding—but
he would likely be astounded
at the career opportunities
its graduates are finding. The
employment possibilities are anything but constricted.
Pamela Roberts, a former cellist and school principal who now works as the school’s full-time director of
education, says that 100 percent of the 2013 graduates
landed jobs. Some were in marine trades, others in
more distantly related fields. Burt Rutan’s cutting-edge
aerospace firm has hired four grads because of their
experience with composites. A 2013 alum, who also has
an English degree and training as a professional chef,
plays three freelance fields as an editor, chef, and woodworker. A 1993 alum makes custom acoustic guitars that
sell for $5,000 and up. One recent student already had
an architecture degree in hand when he enrolled in
the boatbuilding school. As he approached graduation,
he crafted an exquisite wooden box in the boatshop,
worked with Roberts on a video portfolio, and mailed
it in the box to the architecture firm he wanted to work
for. The firm called the school and summoned him to
the phone. Two days later they hired him to lead a team
doing historic building renovations—“the job of my
dreams,” he later told Roberts.
Roberts and other staff meet regularly in a roundtable discussion with area employers, mostly from the

Sam Hunt and a fellow student sheathe the interior of a
Drascombe Longboat in fiberglass.
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Bradley Suedekum caulks the bottom of the now-inverted Venetian batela that appears on page 68.

marine trades. “The number-one trait they tell us they
see coming out of this school is not woodworking and
not boatbuilding,” she says. “It’s problem-solving.”
Roberts adds, “If you have really good problem-solvers,
you have people who are steeled to be patient and persistent. You have people who are willing to take risks and
don’t give up easily—and who have faith in themselves
that they can do the job.”
At the same time, it’s not an easy route to get to that
point. A large fraction of the students are young or
middle-aged military veterans, and though the GI Bill
will pay their tuition ($17,400 per year), they often have

little or nothing in savings to float them through a year
of full-time school. Seventy percent of the students are
on some form of financial aid. A few weeks into this
term, Roberts will realize that several of them are struggling to scrape together enough money to eat. She will
quietly connect them with the local food bank. “I’ll also
occasionally just go out and buy food, and we’ll lay out a
big spread in the classroom,” she says. “I’ll just say, ‘Hey,
you guys have worked hard and you deserve a treat.’
We’re just trying to make sure we don’t have anybody
who’s going hungry. I’m really proud of how responsive
the school has been on this.”

Left—Caleb Underwood and Mussa Ulenga fit frames in a Carl Chamberlin–designed Wilcox 36—a so-called “Chamberlin Sea
Beast.” Right—Korey Ruben uses a template to lay out planking.

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Left—Adrian Candaux lays out deckbeams for
the 36’ Carl Chamberlin design. Candaux was
once a rodeo rider and a logger, and brought
insight from those careers to his boatbuilding
studies: “Before you break a horse, or go up a
tree, ” he said, “a little insight into the finished
product helps.” Bottom left—Corey Rogers
works at framing under the eye of instructor
Ben Kahn.

The students, whose ages in this class range from 24
to 70, also wrestle with illness, the sometimes unprecedented musculoskeletal demands of physical work
eight hours a day, and the occasional shocking realization that this life is way wrong for them. Of the 51 who
start the term, 41 will finish. Even the ones who stick
with it often have to ride out the troughs of dejection
in feeling they don’t measure up. Roberts is not a boatbuilder, but she’s a nurturer. Students who wouldn’t
dream of opening up their feelings to a male instructor
will come to her and pour out their discouragement,
say, at their crappy practice dovetail joints. Roberts will
make a pass through the workshop the next day, greeting the students and quietly surveying the constellation
of dovetails. And finally she’ll visit the dejected student
and whisper conspiratorially: “Oh, honey. Believe me,
you’ve got no problems.”

T

he term opens on a cool autumn day in October
with a morning assembly in the one large sit-down
classroom. There’s coffee and bagels, tall stacks of
textbooks, an inspirational cedar-strip canoe hanging
from the rafters, and a 5' boat model used to demonstrate traditional carvel planking. The staff and faculty
introduce themselves, some offering warnings about
what’s coming. “This is wooden boat heaven here,” says

the school’s then-director Pete Leenhouts.
“People are going to be trying to sell you
a wooden boat. People are going to be trying to give you a wooden boat. Don’t accept
any wooden boat without talking to your
instructor!”
Instructor Peter Bailey, who’s logged
50 years of building boats in commercial
yards and, intriguingly, for movie studios,
tells the assembly a story about a yard
owner whose ear was so refined he could
gauge the sharpness of a hand plane by its
sound shaving wood. Walking through the
yard one day, the boss heard the giveaway
chatter of a dull plane in action. Its user
was fired on the spot.
“We teach woodworking and boatbuilding to the highest standard here,” Bailey
tells the students. If his introduction is
calibrated to deliver twin shivers of
excitement and fear, it works.
After the introductory session the students tour the school’s workshops. Two
are dedicated to small craft—traditional
carvel and lapstrake in one, contemporary composite
construction in the other. A third workshop, a substantial trek uphill from the campus’s waterfront buildings,
is the 8,000-sq-ft large craft shop. By spring there’ll be
a 36' motor cruiser, a 26' Bartender, and a 21' runabout
all underway inside the shop, and it won’t feel crowded.
Nothing here resembles a manicured, nicely planned
college campus. The older buildings used to serve the
waterfront as general store and freezer facilities for
commercial fishermen. Random sheds shelter various
old boats, and a couple of derelicts have just been left
out to weather the biodegrading nag of the Northwest’s
winter rain. Ad hoc footpaths connect the sheds and
buildings. A quirky but wonderful local institution, the
Ajax Cafe, is half-surrounded by the campus, though
it’s an independent business. And of course there’s
waterfront—the campus occupies the scenic toe of Port
Townsend Bay, a 6-mile-long boot-shaped inlet that
serves up some of Puget Sound’s best sailing.
The students return from a scattered lunch on this
first day to find their classroom converted into a tool
mart. Incoming students typically have to spend $500
to $700 on the basic hand tools—block plane, chisels,
spokeshave, pull saws, ear and eye protection, etc. No
one visibly winces; one student who came from an engineering school says his textbooks for a typical year ran
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Mussa Ulenga and Cyrus Dworsky
bend frames for the Wilcox 36.
Ulenga was a hotel manager in
his native Zanzibar; Dworsky hails
from Deer Isle, Maine.

$1,200 to $1,600. Once the tools
are collected, there’s no wasting time. The students break
off into groups of seven or eight
with an instructor to learn the
basics—the absolute basics—of
cutting and shaping wood.
“Some of this is going to be
super-redundant for some of
you,” Bruce Blatchley, contemporary instructor and surfer
dude, says to his group. “But
I want everybody to be on the
same page.” He starts by demonstrating how to draw a pencil
line on a piece of wood. “One
crisp stroke instead of back and
forth. If it’s a long line, roll the
pencil around as you go so it will
self-sharpen and the line won’t
get thicker.”
Blatchley moves on to handsawing a lap joint. Elementary as
this is, he slips in some advanced
technique without announcing
it. Instead of cleaning up his
cuts with a sanding block, he
deploys a chisel, even hollowing
out a slight concavity “about the
thickness of paper” to make a
tiny lagoon for glue in the joint.
And he lays out some observations about mindful work:
“Keep your minds squarely on the task at hand, not on
things like the surf...which half an hour ago was 16' at
18-second intervals.” A dreamy look flickers across his
face; the students are concentrating so desperately that
they don’t get it.
I later ask Blatchley a question that’s been gnawing at
my own Sisyphean self-education as a boatbuilder: How
much does native talent figure into eventual success?
Blatchley looks around mock-furtively to see whether
anyone else is listening, then gives an honest answer.
“Quite a bit, I think. But a substantial part of talent is in
the ability to pay attention and focus.”

T

eaching these fine points of craft here is not academic exercise. After a couple months of practicing basic woodworking skills, the students will
begin building boats, and all of them will be for sale.
Between 20 and 25 percent of the school’s operating
revenue comes from boat sales. The sales and commissions depend on the school’s reputation for quality, and
that quality rests on the students’ skills and the instructors’ vigilance.

The school’s boats enjoy a good reputation. Stu Weibel, who owns a 26' Atkin cutter built at the school in
1993, says he’s never encountered a shortcut or substandard workmanship in it. “This boat brings tears to my
eyes and joy to my heart,” he told me.
Each group of seven or eight students first builds a
flat-bottomed skiff. There’s a variety of designs; faculty
members avert boredom by trying to find new designs
every year. This year’s most intriguing newcomer is
the 15' Endigee, a carvel-planked beachcomber’s skiff
designed in the 1940s by an amateur, Nelson D. Gillette. His descendants sent the boat school a set of the
unpublished plans, and the faculty became intrigued.
Three of the other 2013–14 skiffs are 10' Atkin “Flipper”
dinghies. Two are lapstrake, while Blatchley’s group has
adapted the third to plywood and ’glass. In a nine- or
twelve-month term it’s impossible to expose every student to every form or issue of boat construction, but
the faculty piles on the challenges. “Whenever you have
an opportunity to build something that’s outside your
comfort zone,” Blatchley tells his students, “you should
capitalize on it.”
A December Monday morning presents one cluster

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Korey Ruben and Austin Hatch
framing the Wilcox 36.

of skiff builders with an uncomfortable issue. On Friday
they’d planked the bottom of one of the Flippers with
cedar planks—rather green planks, it turns out. Over
the weekend the seams had yawned open to as much
as 1⁄8". “Like the Grand Canyon,” groans one student.
Monday then turns into a lesson in extreme caulking.
I ask Blatchley how often the students commit a mistake that can’t be fixed. “Almost never,” he says, verbally
italicizing the qualifier. “Only two times in my memory
here have we ended up literally cutting up a boat and
putting it in the dumpster. One was a little pram where
we installed the transom wrong and ended up with
extreme rocker. The other was a 14' boat where a lot of
little things just added up.” One of last year’s boats, a
near-flawless Sid Skiff executed in bright-finished lapstrake red cedar, had a finger-sized patch of mismatched
yellow cedar in one plank, which had cracked in the
act of bending. Students in the 2012 class grabbed a
random scrap of wood for the repair, figuring the boat
would be painted. But students in 2013 couldn’t bear to
paint it, so the contrasting patch remained as it was—a
testimonial to boatbuilding by flesh-and-blood humans
in real-world conditions.
“We have a lot of discussions about the distinctions
between craft and art,” says senior instructor Jeff Hammond. “A lot of people will put unbelievable amounts
of time into a boat, treating it as a work of art. A craftsman understands the client’s needs for quality, but also
understands economics. You aim for perfection but
settle for a little less. That’s Bob Prothero talking.”
Most days in the shop I notice instructors doing
some task that students, in an ideal world, would be
doing themselves—repeatedly, until they get it right.
For example, I saw Ernie Baird on his knees, chiseling
a skiff’s stem into an elegant trapezoidal section. I ask
why he’s not having a student do it. He paused for a
long minute, thinking through his answer—before he
ran a commercial boatyard, he had earned a degree in
philosophy. “There are some techniques we can teach
on throwaway wood,” he says. “Others we can do on the
actual boats, where if we make a mistake, it’s repairable—like that last plank, where the seam wasn’t good

enough, so I had them remove it
and do it over. Then there are the
things like this stem, where if we
make a serious mistake it would be
nearly impossible to effect a graceful repair, and it would detract
from the boat’s value. In some
cases, the best thing I can offer
the students is an example of the
process done properly.”
Through these first few months
the instructors lean relentlessly
on the students to commit precise work. Mussa Ulenga’s rabbet
in a practice stem doesn’t pass. “Be glad this isn’t on a
real boat, because it would be very difficult to correct,”
Baird tells him. “I’m demanding; I want everything
done right.” But he concludes the private lecture with
an encouraging grin, along with an order to do the rabbet again. Hammond shows me a skiff his students have
essentially built twice, but he’s not unhappy about it.
“Frankly,” he says, “the more mistakes they make, the
more they learn.” Student Charles Garrett, an ex-Navy
fighter pilot, says there’s an environment of constant
critiquing here, just as there was in the Navy. “But it’s a
lot lower stress here,” he says. “The critique tends to be
a lot gentler.”
In a year of observing I never hear an instructor
berate a student for sloppy work. They just make the
miscreant do it over. And over.

T

he ethic of doing things right hangs in the air, pervasive as the peppery whiff of cedar sawdust.
The simple flat-bottomed skiff projects mostly
close out at the end of the fall quarter, and starting in
January the stakes soar with vastly larger and more complicated boats. Eleven are underway—some just beginning, some picked up from where earlier classes left off.

John Sandoval, left, and Lafayette Duvall work in the
school’s small-craft shop.
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Instructor Peter Bailey demonstrates spiling to
student Korey Ruben.

Larger boats take three or four years to build.
The faculty says the school is capable of building
just about any wooden boat that a commercial
boatyard can, but it may take up to four times
as long. The biggest boat on the school’s current
agenda is the 36' Wilcox, a Carl Chamberlin–
designed motorsailer aptly named SEA BEAST
after the owner’s favorite dog. Instructor Ben
Kahn figures it will consume four years from lofting to delivery. “It’s not the best possible learning situation, admittedly,” he says. “This year’s
class will get really good at lofting and setup and
framing. Next year’s class will get really good at
planking.” But as this year’s lofting-to-framing crew
rolls along, Kahn sees that they are indeed, really good.
After the keel is laid and the stem, and transom fastened in place, the students drop plumb bobs from the
extreme ends of the boat. The 36' boat’s length deviates
from the plans by only 1⁄32".
I hang out and watch a different crew working on
the 21' Hacker runabout, which they’re cold-molding in
plywood. They’re fitting the inner of two layers of diagonal panels to the frames. Wherever a gap of as much

as 1⁄64" appears, a student will take it back to the workbench and plane off a near-microscopic sliver. There’s
no instructor standing over them, and functionally,
this overweening precision is totally unnecessary—the
outer layer will be bonded to these inner panels with
polyurethane adhesive sealant, which would fill and
seal gaps ten times the size of the ones they’re struggling to eliminate. No one says anything about the level
of precision expected; they just do it. It’s an unvoiced
group ethic.

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74 • WoodenBoat 241

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Penelope Partridge explains: “When you’re working
in a small group like this, you represent each others’
work. So you’re not only accountable for the portion
that’s in your hands; you also affect how someone else’s
work is going to be projected. So you have to do your
best—for them! You can’t take away from someone
else’s craftsmanship.”
Blatchley’s crew is building a 22' plywood lapstrake
Drascombe longboat that the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) will use for sail training and
voyaging. And there’s something unusual here: On the
exterior, the plank laps are epoxy filleted where face
of a plank and the edge of its upper neighbor meet.
Then, each plank is individually sheathed in ’glass cloth
set in epoxy, with the ’glass rolling smoothly over the
fillet and trimmed flush with the face of the next plank.
The interior is given a similar, but continuous, sheathing. Blatchley says he devised the technique, which the
students carried out under his supervision, to meet
the client’s wish for a very rigid hull.
“We’re doing things that aren’t necessary contractually,
but are best for the boat. That makes me feel good
about it. And these guys will leave here knowing how
to do the best thing, rather than just get the job done.”
If there’s any drawback to this ethic, it’s that the graduates may radiate out into the world brimming with
ideals that commercial enterprise may find unrealistic
or even preposterous. But what’s the alternative—an

education in expedient thinking and corner-cutting?
These are arguably just what we don’t need any more
of in the world.
What if all business and trade schools hammered on
doing things better than the market demands?

S

even months into the term, Penelope Partridge
doesn’t look slow or tentative anymore. She’s now
working solo on a substantial project: installing
Port Orford cedar ceiling in a 28' motor cruiser that the
school, somewhat unusually, is building on speculation.
“What I’ve discovered about Penelope is that she
likes seeing a whole project through from start to finish,” says Peter Bailey, her boss on this job. So he’s letting her run with it. She’s milled the cedar, shaped and
fitted the planks, and is installing every piece.
I ask her what she’s learned besides the technical
skills to saw and plane planks. “An understanding of
our different mental landscapes,” she says. “How our
minds shape our individual work ethics. I’ve discovered
that I work best being overwhelmed by a large number
of potential projects.”
She says she has also discovered nuances in accuracy
school. “At first I thought it meant cultivating the practice of being accurate with everything all the time, being
obsessively accurate. Now I realize that’s a great way to
start out, and I’m glad they had us doing it, but now
that we’re moving into more leadership over our own

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For information, including a complete itinerary, please visit: www.woodenboat.com
November/December 2014 • 75

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9/26/14 3:38 PM

Cyrus Dworsky, Adrian Candaux, and
Penelope Partridge clamp a frame head
on the Wilcox 36.

tasks, I see it’s important to discover
what different things have more and
less tolerance for accuracy. And this is
a metaphor for life. If you obsess over
being so accurate with everything that
you miss the bigger picture, you’re
wasting a lot of energy.”
The instructors generally let the
students work at their individual paces
through the first two quarters, then
begin pushing them for more speed
and efficiency in the third and fourth
quarters. Ernie Baird explains with
what could be a truism for acquiring
any skill: “It’s possible to get fast after you’ve gotten
good. It’s a lot harder to learn accuracy after you’ve
already learned speed.”
Near the end of his year at the school, Adrian
Candaux is working with astounding speed and efficiency—especially considering that he lost his right
arm in an industrial accident years ago, and had no
woodworking experience before enrolling here. He

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had been a lifelong rodeo rider and a fifth-generation
logger. Early in the first quarter, I watched him making
a wooden mallet, one of the beginning exercises all the
students have to do, and noted that his handle emerged
with a gracefully organic form, the grain complementing the curve almost as if it were intended as sculpture.
I asked if anything he’d done before was now playing
out in his woodworking. He answered in his

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76 • WoodenBoat 241

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Instructor Bruce Blatchley
discusses the details of a Grandy
skiff with John Sandoval.

characteristic few words: “Before you break a horse, or
go up a tree, a little insight into the finished product
helps.”
Corey Rodgers constructed his credentials on the
way here. After four years in the Coast Guard, he built
an 8' × 20' red-cedar-planked cottage on wheels in his
native Georgia. He and girlfriend Melissa Miller towed
it to Washington State, parked it deep in the woods a
few miles from the school, and are living in it during

his studies. Their plan is rapidly
evolving into a life riddled with
boats: At the end of their year
in Port Hadlock they’ll sell the
mobile cottage, move to Florida,
buy a sailboat to live on, and
he’ll finish his education with a
marine engineering program at
a community college.
I ask what attracted him to
wooden boats in particular.
“The people, the nature of the
work with wood, kind of what it
stands for in this day and age,” he says. “A wooden sailboat is one of man’s crowning achievements. It doesn’t
get any more beautiful than that.”
Rodgers, this wistful old salt, is 24 years old.

Lawrence W. Cheek began his amateur boatbuilding learning
curve in 2002 with a two-week summer course in strip kayak
building at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. He
is now working on his fifth boat.

November/December 2014 • 77

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hese pages, along with the Boat Launchings section of www.woodenboat.com, are
dedicated to sharing recently launched wooden
boats built or restored by our readers. If you’ve
launched such a boat within the past year, please
email us at [email protected], or
write us at Launchings, WoodenBoat, P.O. Box
78, Brooklin, ME 04616.
Please include the following information:
(1) the boat’s length and beam; (2) the name
of its design class or type; (3) the names of the
designer, builder, owner, and photographer;
(4) your mailing address along with an email
address or phone number; (5) the port or place
of intended use; (6) date of launching; and
(7) a few sentences describing the construction
or restoration. (8) Send no more than five
photographs (jpg images at 300 dpi) and
enclose a SASE if you want anything returned.

AMY EISENBERG

Edited by Robin Jettinghoff

LAUNCHINGS

T

The Bayfront Maritime Center (www.bayfrontcenter.org)
launched two new boats in Erie, Pennsylvania, built by high
school students in the Bayfront Alternative Education Program
and Project SAIL. MIGHTY OAK, a 22' St. Ayles skiff designed by
Iain Oughtred, is the beginning of Erie’s first community rowing
program. PUFFIN, a 12' San Francisco Pelican, designed by
William Short, will be used in BMC’s summer sailing programs.

CRYSTAL LALUZERNE (BOTH)

Twelve volunteers of the Patuxent Small Craft Guild
at the Calvert Marine Museum recently built a 14'
plywood-on-white-oak runabout. The hull is from
William D. Jackson’s Mustang, found in Boat Builder’s
Handbook, Vol. 6; and the deck layout is from
Jackson’s Meteor design, found in Boat Builder’s
Annual, Vol. 3 (both published by Science and Mechanics).
Find out more at www.calvertmarinemuseum.com.

CALVERT MARINE MUSEUM

DEBBY SAILSBERY

In 1969, Frank Happ started building this redwood-strip
canoe, which had appeared in an article by Floyd McGuckin
and Jack Payne in Popular Science (March 1967). Frank died
before he could finish her, and the nearly complete canoe
sat in his garage untouched until Mike Sailsbery bought her
in 2010. Mike finished the 16' 3" hull off last fall and paddles
her in western Pennsylvania.

Richard Dirks of Egg Harbor, Wisconsin,
launched his LI’L BOAT last September after 10 years of construction. With help from
his friend Dan Lash, Rich built the hull of
this 15' Marsh Cat from strips of 7⁄16" Atlantic
white cedar that he then covered with fiberglass and epoxy. Plans are available from
www.woodenboatstore.com.

78 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/27/14 5:46 PM

LAUNCHINGS

BUD McINTIRE

Last fall, the Great Lakes Boat Building School finished
building this inboard utility launch designed by Paul Gartside.
Traditionally built, RIVERWOOD has white cedar planking
on white oak frames, fastened with copper rivets and siliconbronze screws, and a Port Orford cedar transom. She’s
powered by a Yanmar single-cylinder diesel. Find out more
at www.glbbs.org.

HORACE HAYNES

Horace Haynes of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, recently
launched this 19' Sweet Caroline dory skiff designed
by Glen-L (www.glen-l.com). He built the boat from
marine plywood on a backbone of white oak, then
covered the hull in fiberglass. She’s powered by a 60-hp
Mercury four-stroke. Horace plans to run the rivers
of Alabama.

LEA HEGGE (BOTH)

Nick Twist of Cornwall, in Great Britain, built this 20'
Venetian S’ciopon for his friend Graham Brown. In 1980,
Ugo Pizzarello took the lines from a traditional boat, from
which Gilberto Penzo (www.veniceboats.com) drew
the plans that Nick followed. LA FENECI’s hull is made
from marine plywood, iroko, epoxy, bronze ring nails, and
stainless-steel screws. Contact Nick at [email protected].

NICK TWIST

ROY GUMPEL

JANIE JANE is a 19' 6" Ohio Sharpie designed by Reuel Parker
(www.parker-marine.com) and built by Harald Hefel of Pawcatuck,
Connecticut. When he had to take down the animal fencing from
his property before moving to a new house, Harald decided to build
a boat from the fence materials. JANIE JANE has white oak frames,
spruce planking, and silicon-bronze fastenings.

THE IRH is a fixed-seat whitewater dory designed and built by Mark Stuber
of Red Lodge, Montana. Mark gave the 10' hull a large, flat bottom
section that results in a draft of little more than an inch. She has been
through several Class III and Class IV rapids already. For more information
on THE IRH, contact Mark at [email protected].

November/December 2014 • 79

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Starting with a 1955 design by Francis Jones of the
Kestrel 22, naval architect Fernando Yllescas of
Cadiz, Spain, made some modifications to create the
21' 7" RAYO VERDE. She has a lapstrake, riveted
plywood hull, which he covered in epoxy. The frames
and keel are made of acacia and iroko. Contact
Fernando at [email protected].

THE YLLESCAS FAMILY

LAUNCHINGS

ROD TAIT

As owner of Orca Canoes & Kayaks in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Rod Tait has
built many strip-planked canoes and kayaks. He strayed from the usual models
in building this 10' Lawton tender. Following plans from Newfound Woodworks
(www.newfound.com), Rod stripped this hull with red cedar and trimmed her
out with cherry. Find out more about Rod’s boats at www.orcaboats.ca.

While attending the 2012 WoodenBoat Show,
Jim Green bought the book Building the Weekend
Skiff by Richard Butz and John Montague
(available at www.woodenboatstore.com).
Building the plywood skiff took him a bit more
than a weekend, but Jim eventually launched
his own weekend skiff, powered by a Minnkota
C2 electric motor. Jim cruised on local lakes
near his home in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

Dave Werner built this modified Yankee Tender to
share with his granddaughters, Marlena and Eve.
Starting with plans from The WoodenBoat Store
(www.woodenboatstore.com), Dave modified them
by lengthening the hull from 12' to 15', and building
it with 1" × 6" tongue-and-groove cedar, covered with
fiberglass and epoxy. Dave and his granddaughters row
MARLENA EVE on Eagles Mere Lake in Pennsylvania.

JIM GREEN (BOTH)

JULIE STAUFFER

GARY TAYLOR

After years of fishing trips on the west coast, both
commercial and personal, Thomas Curran wanted a boat
set up to fit his needs, so he designed one. After three
years of construction, he launched CALM SEAS, a 30' ×
9' 8" sportfisherman powered by 115-hp Honda. CALM
SEAS has a plywood hull fastened to Douglas-fir frames.
Contact Thomas at [email protected].

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HANNAH MILSOM

JERRY THORSELL

Bill Brooks spent seven years restoring
this 1948, 33' Chris-Craft Sedan Deluxe
Cruiser. He refastened the hull, replaced
the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing
systems, recanvased the deck, and installed
a marinized GM 350 engine. His final job
was to give the deck and house 11 coats of
varnish. He launched ANDANTE on Lake
Pend Oreille in Idaho last year.

RELAUNCHINGS

When he retired 15 years ago from work as a
physician, Neville Lewis found a new patient,
a 25' Glen-class sloop designed by Alfred
Mylne in 1945. Neville replaced all of her
steel fastenings with stainless and bronze.
Though her planking was sound, he had to
replace the floors, deadwood, and transom.
Neville now sails GLEN ORCHY out of
Devon, England.

FAR LEFT: KEIFFER PHILLIPS; LEFT: PATRICIA BROWN

WILLIAM’S FINE IMAGES

About 14 years ago, Bruce Matthews and his son, Alex, then age 10,
built this 11' 2" Shellback dinghy from plans by Joel White. They
rowed it for several years, but when it started leaking, it spent the
next six years under a tarp. Last summer they relaunched it after
repairing the leaks and refinishing it over the winter. Alex and Bruce
row on Lake Champlain in New York. Plans are available from
www.woodenboatstore.com.

Nearly 30 years ago, Keiffer Phillips built
a Steve Redmond–designed Whisp and
named her after his daughter, Karly Lynn.
Daughter Karly grew up and boat KARLY
grew neglected—until last year when Keiffer
and his wife, Patricia Brown, brought KARLY
back to life, restoring her fully, and sailing
her for the first time in 30 years on
Lake Lanier in Georgia.

Hints for taking good photos of your boat:
1. Set your camera for high-resolution images. We prefer jpg format,
at 300 dpi minimum.
2. Stow fenders and extraneous gear out of the camera’s view. Ensure
the deck is clean and uncluttered.
3. Take your photographs in low-angle sunlight for best results. Early
morning or late afternoon usually work well.
4. Keep the horizon level and the background simple and scenic so
your boat stands out from its surroundings.

5. Take some pictures of the boat underway and some at rest. Vertical
format often works well for sailboats. Shoot lots of images, send us
your five favorites.

We enjoy learning of your work—it affirms the vitality of the
wooden boat community. We receive so many submissions
that there is not room in the magazine for all of them to be
published. Launchings not printed in the magazine can be seen
at www.woodenboat.com/boat-launchings.

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Ali Goodwin

Building an
Amesbury Skiff
A classic outboard-powered boat, in oak, locust, and cedar
Part 2: Planking and finishing
by Graham McKay

Construction photographs by Bob Barton

In the previous issue (WB No. 240), author-builder Graham
McKay walked us through the steps of building the framework for an outboard-motor-powered Amesbury Skiff. Here,

Planking
The first plank, as with almost any flat-bottomed boat,
is the garboard. These planks are wide, requiring 18"
stock. If they were to be cut from a single straight plank
of pine or cedar, there would be considerable grain
runout, and the planks would most certainly split. For
that reason, Amesbury Skiff garboards have always
been made from 1⁄2" marine plywood. It just so happens that two lengths of 8'-long plywood joined with a

he teaches us to plank and finish the boat in the dory-building style of Lowell’s Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts.
—Eds.

10:1 feather scarf provide the builder with just enough
length for a garboard. The garboards, when laid out
flat on round-sided dories and skiffs such as this,
typically resemble a pronounced frown; the shape of
the bottom and angle at which the garboard meets the
bottom determine the amount of this frown.
The shapes of these planks are determined by a process called spiling, and spiling planks on dories is right
out of the Spiling for Dummies book. On Lowell boats,
the shape of a plank is defined by two factors. The first
is a series of “lining measurements,” which are plank

Above—The Amesbury Skiff is a classic outboard-powered workboat derived from the dories of the Massachusetts North
Shore. It is also an ideal recreational boat—great for exploring, fishing, and family outings.

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clean the edges up at the bench with a plane—except
for where the garboard overlaps the bottom. I suggest
letting that joint overlap by about ¼", and then planing
off the excess when the boat is complete. I also leave the
ends a bit long and trim them once the plank has been
fastened.

Plank Bevels

widths measured vertically up from the boat’s bottom
at the base of the stem, the midpoint, and the base of
the transom. These dimensions are given on the plans.
The second factor determining the shape of a plank is
where the edge of the plank below it lies—or where the
edge of the bottom lies in the case of the garboard.
To begin spiling, clamp your garboard blank onto
the boat so it overlaps the bottom and has enough
material along its top edge to accommodate the three
lining measurements. Now mark your plank widths on
the stock; the forward width (F1) is 131⁄2", the middle
width (M1) is 101⁄2", and the aft width (A1) is 11". To
reiterate: Lining measurements are taken vertically;
if you measure along the stem and transom, a bananashaped boat will result.
With the garboard stock still clamped onto the skillet, trace the inside and outside of the bottom, stem,
and transom onto it. Trace the frames as well to help in
clamping the plank back in the correct position. Having fully marked
up the inboard face of your plank,
you can now remove it and lay it
flat on the bench with the markings facing up. Hunt down your best
batten—for this process you’ll want
one that’s 18' long, 1" wide, and 9⁄16"
thick—and strike a fair curve around
the three points you marked for the
top edge. (You may need to tweak
the ends of the batten beyond your
F and A points to obtain a nice fair
curve.) The plank’s top edge is now
officially spiled.
Cut out the plank by whatever
method you see fit. I freehand the
cut on a tablesaw with a long outfeed
table, but you can also use a portable
circular saw or a bandsaw. Make sure
to cut a little outside the lines, and

With the plank cut out and its top edge planed to the
spiled line, it’s time to lay out the edge bevel. This boat
is built with dory laps, which means both edges of mating planks are beveled where they overlap. The top outside edge of each plank (except at the sheer) gets what
we call a “standard bevel,” which is 1" wide by half the
plank thickness. There is also a 3'-long “gain” at each
end of the standard bevel—the gain being the tapering
of the bevel that allows the laps to appear flush at the
stem and transom. To lay out gains, I simply use a yardstick to measure 3' in from the stem and transom and
then draw a 3' inclined line from my “half thickness” to
a feathered tip at the end of the plank. I then plane the
sloping bevel, being extra careful to not go beyond the
1" line marking the width of the bevel.
When using plywood for the garboard, I can never
see a line drawn on the edge of the plank because the
plies obscure it. But I can use those plies to advantage.
The ½" plywood that I typically use is made up of nine
plies, so I plane the bevel until I’ve exposed four-anda-half plies and their lines are straight along the bevel,
indicating there are no humps or bumps. To make
the gain, I begin 3'
from the stem and
transom and visually
work a gain into the
bevel using the plies
similarly as a gauge
for the incline.
Once beveled, the
garboard is ready to
be hung. Clamp it on

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the boat once more to check the fit all along the bottom edge and at the stem and transom. Adjust as necessary and then gather a bunch of 21⁄2" No. 10 bronze
ring nails, a Forstner bit as big as the heads of these
nails, a 6" × 1⁄8" drill bit, a hammer, and a nail set. You’ll
also need to make a jig for marking the fastening locations. I use a piece of scrap with one straight edge, and
cut out a notch in it such that the straight edge can be
laid on the outside of the boat’s bottom and clear the
overhang of the garboard, leaving about 2" outboard of
the garboard. This jig projects the plane of the bottom
to the outside of the garboard. Mark 7⁄16" up from where
the jig hits the garboard, and drive nails horizontally
into the edge of the bottom using the Forstner bit to
countersink the heads. A lubberly job is apparent when
nails are poking through the inside of the bottom. A
good way to assure success—or, at least, to practice—
is to first drive nails only at each cleat and frame, so
any errors are hidden. Drive the rest of the fastenings
when the boat has been turned upside down and the
garboard planed flush.
These boats were designed and built before modern

light high-horsepower outboards could push them
along at breakneck speeds through a 2' chop. Traditionally, luting, or a tiny caulking seam, would have
been enough to seal the seam between the bottom and
garboard. However, if you plan to hang anything more
than a 15-hp engine on your boat I would suggest using
polysulfide adhesive sealant. If you do this, you’ll have
to fully fasten the plank with nails every 3" before the
goo cures. Be careful to keep the garboard from creeping down as you fasten it. I will typically start with the
plank about 1⁄8" above its lines, knowing that the fastenings will tend to pull it down as they are driven home.
I use 2½" nails into the bottom, 2" nails into the transom, and 1½" nails into the stem. The nails at the stem
should be about 2" apart, fall right at the bearding line,
and be driven perpendicular to the plank face.
With the garboard planks hung and fastened, trim
their after ends flush with the transom. The forward
ends are trimmed at an angle so the outboard faces
of the planks are longer than the inboard faces; this
ensures that you will have enough material when you
dress the hood ends before installing the false stem.

Timber Cuts
  On most boats at Lowell’s, frames are initially cut
oversize and then trimmed to accommodate planking as the boat is planked. This trimming process
is called a timber cut, and the Amesbury Skiff requires
these cuts. They follow vague rules depending upon
the boat; for the Amesbury Skiff, the rules are pretty
straightforward.
The first rule is for the plank above the garboard—
the broadstrake—and it is a so-called standard cut. At
Lowell’s, a standard timber cut refers to a straight line
drawn from the top of the bevel of a plank below to
a point on the frame where the 10" mark on a ruler
intersects the outside edge of the frame. For the first
cut you will end up taking very little of the frame away.
I always mark on the after side of the frame, as the
shape of this boat dictates that more is
trimmed away from the forward side of
the frame than from the after side. When
laying out timber cuts, I like to clamp
rulers at each frame and at the transom
and use my eye to check the overall fairness of the cuts before actually cutting.
In the Amesbury Skiff, the frames show
a gradual flare from the middle of the
boat forward to the stem; the aftermost
frame and the transom have parallel
timber cuts. Don’t get too caught up with
the 10"-mark rule; it’s more important
that the cuts look fair relative to each
other than the timber cut be exactly at
the 10" mark. Once marked, trim the
frame to the line using power planer,
bench plane, and spokeshave.
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Spiling Subsequent Planks
As with the garboard, spiling planks on Lowell boats is
very simple. The first step is to get out plank stock 5⁄8"
thick and wide enough (inside the sapwood of course) to
cover the 1" lap on the plank below and reach the marked
plank widths forward, amidships, and aft. Clamp the
plank to the boat to confirm you have enough stock all
around. I usually push the plank up until I barely have
the lap covered. At this point, mark your plank widths vertically, with your tape measure bent along the curvature
of the planking, from the base of the stem (F1 on the
drawings in the previous issue), at the midpoint of the
boat (M1), and at base of the transom (A1). This being
the second plank, I will add the widths for garboard and
second plank and use that sum as the measurement from
the bottom, rather than measuring widths from the top
of the garboard—which would compound any errors.
Once you’re assured that you have enough wood for
the second plank, trace the top edge of the garboard
onto it, making sure your pencil is at a right angle to
the new plank’s face. Also mark the locations of frames,
stem, and transom. Remove the plank from the boat and
place it on the bench, inside face up, just as you did with
the garboard, with the bottom edge of the plank toward
you. Using a 1"-wide batten, transfer the line traced from
the top of the garboard down 1" to account for the lap.
To establish the top edge of the plank, use your long batten to connect the three points you marked there with a
fair curve. Cut out the plank and plane down to the lines
without taking them away, trusting your eye to sight for
any high or low spots.

Bevels, Revisited
The middle planks require bevels on each edge: the
standard bevel on the top outside edge of the plank and
a bevel on the lower inside edge of the plank to match
the standard bevel that was cut on the garboard. I’ve

already described the standard bevel in the discussion
of the garboard. The process for the matching bevel is
more difficult to explain, so bear with me.
Using a bevel gauge, take the angle between a frame
and the bevel you are trying to match. Note that the second plank does not lie against the frame for its whole
width, so the idea is to lay the handle of the bevel gauge
to mimic the plank’s position. Place the gauge on the
boat so the corner of its handle is against the frame,
while the gauge’s opposite end—the rounded end with
the wing nut—is at the upper corner of the lap (not the
upper inside corner of the plank). With the handle thus
positioned, adjust the blade so it lies flat along the garboard’s standard bevel, and lock it there. There should
be a little triangular gap between the bevel gauge’s
handle and the frame.
Take the bevel gauge to the corresponding frame
marked on your plank and lay the handle flat on the
plank, parallel with the lap, with the blade against the
edge of the plank. Using the blade as a guide, draw an
inclined line originating between the marks representing the frame, across the plank’s edge. (The location
of this inclined line is somewhat arbitrary, for moving
it several inches in either direction results in only a
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Lay out and cut a standard bevel on the top outside
edge of the second plank before trying it on the boat.
This will save you going back to the bench should your
matching bevel fit perfectly on the first try. If it does,
call me and tell me how you did it!

Fastening
When the plank fits and the bevels are tight when
pressed together, it’s almost time to clamp and fasten
the plank. But before doing so, I lay out my rivet locations on the inner face of the plank I’m fastening to by
drawing a line ½" down from, and parallel to, its top
edge. Then, along this line every 3" between frames,
I mark a rivet location. I then clamp the plank to the
frames and put two rivets between each frame, first
making sure the 1" line drawn for the matching bevel
is just barely visible above the plank below. With the
middle part of the plank tacked on, I clamp the ends in
place and fasten them into the transom with 2" bronze
ring nails and into the stem at the bearding line with
1½" ring nails. With the plank fully tacked on, I’ll then
go back and plumb all of the frames before driving a 2"
ring nail through the lap and into each frame.

negligible discrepancy in the bevel you’ll soon be cutting.) Next, measure 1" along the plank’s edge in the
same direction in which the inclined line slopes, and
mark a point; then draw a line square along the plank’s
edge from this point. The point at which the two lines
intersect is the limit of your matching bevel in that location. Repeat this process at each frame and connect the
intersections with a straightedge to create a continuous
line on the edge of the plank. (During the spiling process, you already drew a line on the plank’s inside face
to represent the 1" lap width.)
Use the same process to determine the bevel at the
stem and transom, which will automatically provide you
with a gain. With your matching bevel now laid out, go
to town with slick, drawknife, plane, and whatever else
works for you.

More Timber Cuts
Using the bevel on the second plank (aka the broadstrake), lay out the timber cuts for the next plank. For
this particular plank, the timber cuts are what we at
Lowell’s would call “up with the lap,” which means
that a straightedge laid across the standard bevel on

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the plank just hung projects the line for the next timber cut onto the frame. Just as before, I advise setting
up all of the cuts with a short straightedge clamped to
each frame, and then eyeing them all together for fairness. The cuts should show an increasing flare forward,
while the transom cut should be parallel to the cut on
the aftermost frame. (Due to the gain at the transom,
timber-cutting the transom “up with the lap” would
result in a pronounced tumblehome in the after three
planks.)

into the top outside
edge of the plank,
test the fit, adjust
bevels at stem and
transom, if necessary, and prepare to
fasten. (Note that
when adjusting the
stem bevel on boats
such as this with
pronounced stem
curvature, it is often
necessary to plane a
flat landing along
the bearding line to
achieve a good fit
and keep from
splitting the plank.)

Timber Cuts for
the Sheer Plank
Binder Plank
With the timber cuts complete, it is time to spile as
before. This third plank is the straightest of all. Therefore, you can plan on using your straightest piece of
stock for it. Clamp your stock (i.e., the plank blank) at
each frame and ensure there is enough overlap. Mark
your designated plank widths and trace the top edge of
the plank below, just as you did earlier. Lay the new
plank on the bench and move the traced line down 1"
with a batten, then strike a fair curve through your
three plank-width marks along the top edge. The
matching bevel on this plank is simpler than that on
the plank below it; since the timber cuts are “up with
the lap,” the plank will not require beveling except for
the gains at each end, the amount of bevel for the gains
being determined the same as it was for the previous
plank. As before, lay out and cut a standard bevel

As with the binder plank, the timber cuts for the sheer
plank are “up with the lap” at all of the frames. This
again should result in a gradually increasing flare
toward the bow. The transom cut, again, is parallel to
that of the aftermost frame. The stem should not have
any bevel in it yet where the sheer plank lands; it’s most
accurate to determine this bevel with the sheer plank
clamped in place, fitting the top of the plank into the
stem so the stem head
remains square above
it. Spile the sheer
plank using the plank
widths on the plans,
and with the plank
clamped in place mark
the sheerline on all
frames, stem, and transom. Again remove the
plank from the boat,
tack a batten on the
boat along the sheer
marks, and sight it from
many angles to make

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sure it looks right. Adjust as necessary, then transfer
any adjustments back to the plank before cutting it out.
Lay out and cut the matching bevels at the gains before
clamping the plank back up.
Now fit the refined sheer plank to the stem. Once the
plank is fastened, transfer the sheer heights across to

the other side of the boat to guide in spiling the opposite sheer plank, and bevel the stem to match the first
side—but leave a little extra wood at the top of the stem
to allow for fitting. Also, leave extra material on the top
of the sheer plank to assure a proper fit into the stem
and allow for any discrepancies.

Inwale and Outwale (Rails)
With planking complete, it’s time to fit the rails. But
before they can be fitted, you’ll need to install quarter knees—the pieces that strengthen the connection
between the sheerstrakes and the transom. I fit these
knees square to the inside faces of the sheerstrakes and
notch their forward legs to accept the inwale. At Lowell’s Boat Shop, we give our Amesbury Skiffs elongated
quarter knees that run from the transom all the way to
the aftermost frame, which distributes the forces on the
transom over a wide area and provides a good landing
for cleats, running lights, and such. Amesbury Skiffs get
a “double rail” (as we call them at Lowell’s), meaning
that there is an outside rail, sometimes called an outwale, and an inboard rail, often known as an inwale. The

inwale is fitted by cutting notches into the frame heads
so the 5⁄8" × 15⁄8" rail stands off the sheer plank 11⁄4" with its
top flush with the top of the sheer plank. I use a square
to project the top of the sheer plank across the frame
head and position the notch in relation to that line.
A precise fit at the ends of the inwale is a mark of good
craftsmanship, and achieving this can be a trying experience. Patience will pay off, however. Start by fitting the
forward end into the V-shaped notch between the stem
and sheer plank. With that end fit, clamp the rail tightly
in place against the plank for about one-third the distance from the stem to the first frame. Then let the rail
rest in the frame head notches and carefully fit its aft
end into the notch you made in the quarter knee. Before

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Small Boats
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A GUIDE TO TRAIL

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final fitting, round over the rail’s lower inside corner so
it feels pleasant to the hand. Tack the rail in place at the
frames with 11⁄2" ring nails driven into the lower half of
the rail perpendicular to the grain of the frame head
(about a 30-degree down angle). I avoid using screws in
the frame heads, as they tend to split to the tops of the
frames. Leave the rest of the inwale unfastened until the
outer rail is in place.
With the inwale tacked in place, wrap the outer rail
around the top of the sheer plank and clamp it in place.
I find it easiest to leave the corners of this rail square for
now, and to run a router around them after the rail is fastened. Rivet through the upper half of the outer rail, the
sheer plank, the frame head, and inwale at each frame.
Fasten through all at the quarter knees, and screw the
ends of the outer rail into the transom and stem. At this
point, make wedges out of scrap plank stock about 2–3'
long and fit them between the inwale and sheer plank
up forward and rivet through all. It will be obvious at
this stage that some extra support is needed between
the frames. Fit 8" oak blocks midway between the frame
heads and, as before, rivet through all. The final step
in installing the rails is fitting the breasthook, which
should be laid out with the grain running athwartship and cut so it bears evenly on both of the inwales
as well as the after face of the stem. I fit and fasten
the breasthook leaving it proud of the inwale by about
¼" so that it can be faired into the angle of the sheer.

Transom
Finishing the transom requires a scoop-out for the outboard motor, a transom pad, and knees to beef up the
structure. The standard transom height for short-shaft
motors is 15", measured from the outside of the bottom, and for long-shaft motors it’s 20". I recommend a
long-shaft for these boats to keep water from slapping
in over the transom when backing down. Once you
have cut out the scoop for the appropriate shaft length,
you will need to install a 26"-wide pad to reinforce the
transom where the motor lands on it. Use oak, locust,

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Thwart Risers
Before fitting the thwart risers, you must fair (or dub)
the inside edges of the frames so the risers will lie flat
across them. I also round the tops of the frames into
the inwales, as shown in the photograph. The risers are
typically cut from leftover 5⁄8" planking stock or a piece
that was too narrow for planking. The finished width of
these pieces is 3", and the riser has so little sweep that
a straight piece of stock can be persuaded into place by

or some other appropriate hardwood placed with the
grain running perpendicular to the transom. Bed the
pad in epoxy or other compound and mechanically
fasten it with 11⁄2" No. 12 wood screws.
The final operation is to install two knees at the outboard edges of the pad. These knees are notched over
the aftermost bottom cleat and are riveted through it
and the bottom of the boat. They are likew ise
fastened through both the transom and pad with 3"
No. 14 bronze screws. Finish the top edge of the transom as desired, making sure you leave enough room in
the scoop-out for the engine to fully articulate.

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www.halfhull.com

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Phone: 808-832-3682
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www.honolulu.hawaii.edu
November/December 2014 • 91

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edge-setting. I start with a piece of 6"-wide stock long
enough to span all of the frames and overhang the forward and after ones by about 6". I rip this piece down
its middle with the tablesaw set at 33°, which yields both
the port and starboard risers in a single cut. Mark the

riser heights down from the top of the inwale at each
frame, as shown on the drawing in the previous issue,
and screw in the risers working from the middle to the
ends. The 33° angle should be facing up to create a flat
on which the thwarts will land.

Seating
Seating in Amesbury Skiffs varies depending upon the
owner’s preference. The basic seating plan involves
athwartship seats, called thwarts, at the F and AM
frames, and saddle seats between the transom and aftermost frame. (The photo at right shows the framework
for these saddle seats in a plywood-bottomed skiff.) A
typical variation is to install a foredeck forward of the
foremost frame at seat level along with a bulkhead at
that frame, leaving room beneath for a locker. Feel free
to make up your own scheme, keeping in mind that the
boat is beamy enough to allow for a center console.
Fitting the athwartship seats is a simple process in
dories and skiffs such as this one. Lay out and mark the
width of the seat on the top of the seat riser. Then use
story sticks to find the length of each seat. (Story sticks
for fitting seats are strips of wood the thickness of the
seat with 45-degree angles cut in each end.) Lay the
lengths out on your seat stock to create a symmetrical

seat. Undercut the ends at 33° and lay out the notches
for the frames. To cut the notches, set the tablesaw
blade a little less than its full height and carefully freehand a series of saw kerfs to remove the material for the
notch. The seats may require further fitting, but using
this method should get you well within the ballpark.

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Bottom
With the interior now complete, the boat can be freed
from all bracing and removed from the building bed.
With the help of five of your best friends, roll the boat

over and trim the garboard flush with the bottom,
minding any stray nailheads. Reset any nails that stick
out beyond the face of the garboard. Trim the hood
ends at the stem flush with its face, making sure they
remain square to the centerline. If the hood ends are
trimmed too far, the outer stem will not seat properly.
Caulk the bottom seams and, when painting over the
caulking, dribble some paint into the gap between the
garboard and the bottom. Putty all the seams as well
as the small gap between garboard and bottom and
the nail heads in the garboard. Fit the two small skegs
that should lie 13" off the centerline and, if you see
fit, run a full-length runner, or keel strip, down the
middle of the bottom to give the boat a little extra
traction. 

False Stem

Graham Mck ay

The hood ends at the stem are covered with a false stem,
which is a piece of 5⁄8"-thick stock of the same material
as the stem. The width of this piece is to be the same
as the thickness of the stem so that stem and false stem
are flush with each other above the sheerline. The bend
in the false stem can be too much to ask of a piece of
dry oak, so I cut out the strip and let it soak in the river
overnight. The wood doesn’t absorb too much water in
this short time, but usually emerges sufficiently limber

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November/December 2014 • 93

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Graham Mck ay

to bend into place. Clamp the false stem to the stem
head and slowly wrap it into place while bracing it by
whatever means suit your setup. Let it dry overnight.  
Before fastening the false stem, lay out a centerline
on its face and mark for nails every 5". The hood ends
should be first sealed with paint, and the false stem
bedded in an appropriate compound or epoxy before
installing. To fasten the false stem, clamp it at the stem
head and start fastening with 2" ring nails, beginning

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94 • WoodenBoat 241

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at the sheer plank and working toward the bottom of
the boat. After the boat is turned right-side up, determine how you want to finish the stem head. (The standard Lowell’s stem head is cut off three fingers up from
the sheerline.) Fasten the portion of false stem above
the sheer plank with two pair of 11⁄2" ring nails side by
side set about 3⁄8" in from the edges. Once the false stem
is fastened, fair it into the planking. I typically leave the
false stem square from the bottom of the sheer plank to
the top of the stem head.

Finishing Touches
As with any wooden boat, there are endless finishing
touches one can add. The boat we built on these
pages received two coats of primer inside and out, then
two coats of yacht enamel. The mahogany transom
was finished bright, and the similarly varnished locust
transom pad contrasts beautifully against it.
I would highly recommend a small center console
just aft of the FM frame. The Amesbury Skiff we use at
Lowell’s is fitted with a 25-hp four-stroke motor, which
gets her up on a plane with little effort. Mind the differing weight of outboards when considering power for
your skiff, as you may find that a 30-hp weighs far more
than a 25. The converse may even be true.
Amesbury Skiffs are tried-and-true designs that,

much like a Novi boat or a Cape Cod catboat, give you
lots of capacity in a relatively short length. These skiffs
are stable, fast, and dry and, being flat bottomed, are
ideal for slips that dry out at low tide. Fitting a set of oarlocks between the F and FM frames will also allow you
to row should the engine quit or for working in shallow water. Modifying the size of Amesbury Skiffs is also
relatively easy as well; they can be built in any length
from 12' to 24'.
Graham McKay is the manager and head boatbuilder at Lowell’s
Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts. He is also a professional
captain of traditionally rigged vessels and he holds an MA in
Maritime History and Archaeology from the University of Bristol. 
Graham lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
We strongly suggest that would-be builders purchase
full-scale drawings from Lowell’s Boat Shop. The price
of the two-sheet set is $60. They may be ordered by
contacting Lowell’s Boat Shop, 459 Main St., Amesbury,
MA 01913; 978–834–0050; www.lowellsboatshop.com.
The shop also welcomes calls or e-mails from builders
seeking assistance with construction problems.

Special thanks to Philip Capolupo and SPS New England for
their loan of a motor for the photo shoot of our 16' Amesbury Skiff.

November/December 2014 • 95

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A Boat
Shower
One boatbuilder’s
practical, minimalist
solution
Text and photographs
by Nat Benjamin

T

o wash…or to wish to wash. For the average
sailor, this dilemma remains as relevant a conundrum today as ever it was. Rarely however, does
one find a truly welcoming shower on a modest-sized
boat. They are usually cramped, with a confusing
curtain configuration attempting to protect brightwork and other head accouterments while the bather
splashes about in close proximity to the rest of the crew.
Furthermore, the thought of having to mop up the
head with your towel once you have finished showering
is enough to convince you that maybe you are really not
that smelly after all, and that the distance your shipmates are keeping is surely coincidental.
And so we sail, wishing to wash, cruising along in a
fine little vessel with its pressurized supply of hot water
securely confined in its tank, all the while conniving a
plan of detour to the nearest marina or to “visit” an old
friend (whose name will soon come to you) who lives,

preferably not to windward, and at a reasonable destination that can be reached before dark. Perhaps you
even attempt to lure your companions by telling them
that your friend has wi-fi, that universal 21st-century
convenience no less desirable than indoor plumbing.
Of course, when anchored in a quiet cove on a warm
day in the appropriate latitudes, all hands can leap over
the side with a bottle of dish soap and have a proper
scrub-down in bathing suits or otherwise. The brine
bath can then be followed with a nice freshwater rinse
on deck from a “sun shower”—a cleverly devised flexible plastic container, hung in the rigging, that heats
water by direct sunlight or, absent sunshine, can be
filled with hot water from the galley and then carried
on deck.
Our schooner, CHARLOTTE, carries 250 gallons of
fresh water, readily heated by the Cummins diesel. Convinced that an on-deck shower was the best alternative,

Above—In a “eureka” moment, the author realized that a welding torch setup could be adapted for mixing hot and cold water
to provide a deck shower aboard the schooner CHARLOTTE . Inset—Extending through a porthole, the showerhead provides a
great way to wash off saltwater after swimming.

96 • WoodenBoat 241

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Left—The curved welding
tip has a typical offthe-shelf showerhead
brazed to it. With 20’-long
hoses, the shower can be
moved around on deck
as needed. Above—With
hoses indicating red for
hot and green for cold,
repurposed gas valves allow
temperature and flow to be
adjusted easily by the user.

I went on a futile search for a handheld showerhead
with integral control valves. I discovered that neither
the cheesy plastic units nor the high-end designer models could be controlled that way.
Pondering this dilemma one afternoon while I was
brazing a bronze fabrication in the shop, it dawned on
me that a gas welding torch requires adjusting the flow
of oxygen and acetylene by manipulating the control
knobs on the brass handle in order to achieve the right
mixture for the correct temperature of flame at the
tip, just as hot and cold water are mixed. Eureka! The
long flexible hoses from the supply tanks of oxygen and
acetylene are even appropriately colored green and
red, respectively. It occurred to me that if I attached a
showerhead to the welding tip and connected the hoses
to my onboard pressure water system, I would have a
beautifully engineered portable shower restricted only
by the length of the hoses.
As I reflected on this simple and practical solution,
I wondered why it had not previously been done. Concerned and perplexed, I questioned the size of the orifices in the welding unit. Perhaps they were too small
to allow an adequate quantity of water to pass through
this marvelous device because it had been manufactured for other purposes? Reflecting on my life’s work
of trying to stop the flow of water through holes of any
kind, I quickly realized that this would not be an issue.
After locating a spare torch handle in the recesses

of our welding inventory, I purchased a $10 stainlesssteel showerhead from a local hardware store and
brazed it to an appropriately curved welding tip. I then
attached 20' of welding hose to the hot (red) and cold
(green) ship’s water system hoses. Success! The water
flows through the showerhead in a sufficient but not
excessive volume and can be easily adjusted to anyone’s
delight and relief. Another bonus is the built-in shutoff, which the parsimonious skipper will freely demonstrate. Although the connections and stowage of this
amenity live under the sink in the head, it has yet to be
used in that “spacious” compartment.
The obvious advantage of an opening port in the
head is that it also provides easy access to the showerhead, which can be brought on deck through the port
and carried around at will. Shower, rinse the salt off
the varnish, or fill a bucket and do the laundry. Join the
civilized world. And above all, keep your shipmates and
mates smiling. In the event that a modicum of modesty
is requested, find an old hula hoop—they come in various diameters—hang a curtain around it, and haul it
up via a halyard to the required height. Now you have a
commodious, circular, open-air shower stall where you
can sing with impunity and sparkle once again.
Nat Benjamin is co-proprietor, with Ross Gannon, of Gannon &
Benjamin Marine Railway in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts; see
www.gannonandbenjamin.com.
November/December 2014 • 97

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9/28/14 5:36 PM

DESIGNS: SKETCHBOOK

Aurora

A modern classic daysailer/club racer

Design and commentary by Laurie McGowan, with Michael Schacht
Dea r Desi gners,

seem s to have taken a
1970s, one-desi gn development
rInte
nd
Sou
the
on
cle
arti
an
hy-i nspi red boats and away
I’m currently research ing
turn towa rd lightwei ght, ding
g Isla nd Sou nd in
Lon
on
lar
popu
e
ballasted pocket-cr uiser
wer
ily
that
heav
)
ly
clubs (SIC
from the relative
this knockgned
desi
er
Mow
rles
rclubs, Tria ngles, and
Cha
Inte
.
the 1920s and ’30s
knockabouts such as the Sou nd
York sailors in 1926, and
en me to wonderi ng:
gott
’s
that
And
gns.
Desi
about class for a group of New
Bermuda One
winter by the Hen ry B.
le
ckabout concept
sing
a
kno
the
over
t
of
n
buil
e
utio
wer
evol
28 of them
What wou ld the pure
yachtsan
nthi
Cori
t
ckabout, the
grea
kno
The
a
g
nd.
ifyin
Nev ins Yard on City Isla
look like today? If I were spec
of the great supporters
one
was
lds
Shie
s
eliu
be:
Corn
ld
man
para meters wou
er one to rest on his lauof the creation of this class. Nev
One
l
iona
rnat
Inte
the
d
lope
rels, Shields eventual ly deve
— 28–30' LOA
by a Six-Meter he encoun, overhan gs at
Desi gn (IOD)—a class inspired
— Pronounced, but not extreme
sed
eclip
. The IODs quickly
n
ster
and
tered while saili ng in Bermuda
bow
nd and the SICs scattered
the Sou nd Interclubs on the Sou
— 400 –500 sq ft of sail
r, Shields developed the
Late
ght.
p-cr uisi ng couple
thou
I
so
r
d—o
to the win
— A sma ll cabi n to hou se a cam
ckevolution of the kno
Shields One Desi gn—a furt her
and for gett ing out of the weather
about concept.
— Very light on the helm
“knockabout” referred
contemporar y
In the early 1900s, the term
— A displacement in line with
t.
ail boat with no bowspri
Sou nd Interclubs, Tria ngles,
(The
s.
dard
to a wholesome jib-a nd-m ains
stan
arou nd-t he-buoys raci ng
h 5,000–6,000 lbs.
The type was handy for both
and Bermuda One Designs weig
ywhere by
ever
e
wer
gives the
outs
also
it
ckab
but
Kno
y,
g.
and for daysailin
That’s heav y for toda
s putt ing thei r own spin on
carr ying power and
saile
som
awe
the 1930s, with regional club
boat
Alden-designed Tria ngles,
w what
the type. Marblehead had its
momentu m. I’m curious to kno
igan One Desi gn, and
Mich
hern
you wou ld aim for desi gnin g such
t
men
lace
Lake Mich igan its Nort
disp
ed Bermuda One Desi gn.
r.)
Bermuda its appropriately nam
a boat for a contemporar y sailo
er
uda boats, the types
Berm
and
York
New
the
g of jib, mai nsai l, and spin nak
istin
cons
In the case of
plan
Sail
—
r.
n raced agai nst each othe
were so simi lar that they ofte
ng the fi nest of the knocked any sort of machinThe Sou nd Interclubs were amo
Whi le the early knockabout lack
fleet of them
ll
sma
a
that
ntly
ive in this new boat
rece
erat
imp
ned
abouts, and I lear
ery, a sma ll motor wou ld be
, after they were sold from
crowded mar inas.
from
or
slips
from
ng
went to Lake George, New York
saili
for those
e for many years,
ther
on
ant is requ ired.
held
erpl
y
pow
The
d
nd.
eale
Sou
conc
nd
Lon g Isla
So, a sma ll, carefully
ore in
expl
I’ll
c
topi
y—a
well built by a
toda
be
d
val
coul
revi
and are undergoing a
It’s also importa nt that this boat
.
denBoat.
form
Woo
kit
of
in
e
issu
lable
t
avai
nex
be
the
in
and
,
h
dept
skil led amateur
kno ckab outs in
of
ed
mor
ena
been
I’ve
For yea rs,
in part icular, and lately
—Matt Mur phy
general and Sou nd Interclubs
ld hav e happened had
WoodenBoat
or,
wou
t
Edit
wha
ng
deri
won
been
hav e
the type. In the
lop
deve
to
d
inue
cont
lds
the likes of Shie

Dear Matt,
When looking at the used and new daysailers available online, one might think that every shape and
arrangement for such a sailboat has been worked
out. However, I think that there’s still room to design
something like what you’re looking for, and it should
not break the bank to build it.
The Sound Interclub is a beautiful design, and is
typical of many daysailers of 90 years ago, but they
can require a lot of upkeep today. A modern take on
this classic should be of modern wooden construction, have one-design class possibilities, be designed
with the option of kit construction in mind (to be finished either by professionals or amateurs), but most
of all be a delight to sail and watch sailing.

The waterlines and sections are very full on the
Sound Interclub and the overhangs are angled quite
steeply, which results in surprisingly round waterlines
forward. I decided to refine those areas right off the
bat, and lowered the slope of the forefoot and run
(which lengthened the waterline) while keeping the
somewhat springy sheer. I then refined the waterlines, buttocks, and diagonal lines, and these changes
have resulted in a very slippery shape. The sections
could be described as “rounded-V,” and there would
be good form stability once heeled due to the flat run
and firm turn of the bilge aft. The area around the
rudder has to be flat or nearly flat as the rudder is in
a drum and its lower plane is flush with the bottom
of the boat. The whole drum rotates with the rudder,

98 • WoodenBoat 241

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Aurora harks back to the knockabout sloops of the 1920s and ’30s, but she has the displacement, underbody, and rig of a
thoroughly modern boat.

so any V in the hull there would result in a strange
shape when turned.
I played around with the ratios of sail area-todisplacement and displacement-to-length until a
nice balance was found. A fairly shallow “winged”
bulb keel—one with about a 40 percent ballast-todisplacement ratio—was then added. The bulb,
really a bulb with its aft end and sides flattened,
doesn’t extend forward of the leading edge as in
many modern designs; this will help the boat get
clear of fouled lines. (Naval Architect Eric Sponberg’s website has many tips that I find very helpful
on keel and rudder design as well as tools such as
ratio formulas for analyzing hulls. See www.
sponbergyachtdesign.com.)
The rudder is a high-aspect-ratio
design and would give excellent
control on all points of sail.
Because it is in a drum, it may
be almost completely balanced
and transfer little torque to
the tiller, so I’ve swept the leading edge back to help improve
feel. The rudder blade may be
lifted completely clear of the
boat, like a daggerboard, and
as with the keel it would help the
crew get the boat clear of fouled
lobster-pot warp. There would be
some carbon fiber in the rudder and
drum, as a little goes a long way here. The
circular bearings are really rings of UHMW
plastic at the top and bottom of the drum.

I originally intended the rig to be that of a Soling
one-design, to help keep costs down. But I decided on a
more exciting arrangement—with more sail area in a fattop mainsail and high-aspect jib. A reeving bowsprit isn’t
needed, since a gennaker may be set right off the bow, forward of the jib tack. Running backstays are needed when
the gennaker is used, however, or while racing. The jib is
self-tending, and its track is just forward of the mast. I settled
on a mainsheet traveler that bisects the cockpit for ease of
sail handling, though it is definitely in the way. There’s just
no easy way to have an effective traveler; any other setup
would be clunky while sailing, so I opted for simplicity of
installation—which also simplifies sailing and improves
performance. As with many modern racers, this one
has a tall mainsail that would need to be reefed
in all but the lightest winds; the first reef would
bring the head to the height of the forestay
and shrouds.
Hull construction is of 3⁄8" (10mm) lapstrake mahogany marine plywood, built
on a mold that cleverly uses ribbands, or
mold stringers; these stringers aid in
the layout, bevel cutting, and gluing of
the hull—a technique refined and
taught by small-boat builder
Thomas Hill. The drawing shows
how the ribbands are used in cutting strakes in place, before final
Aurora’s glued-lapstrake-plywood
construction lends itself to kit
construction, and is accessible to
the ambitious amateur builder.
November/December 2014 • 99

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9/27/14 6:38 PM

DESIGNS

The tall, fat-top mainsail will
require early reefing. The
high-aspect-ratio jib sheets to a
traveler, so is self-tending.

Particulars
LOA
27' 11"  (8.51m)
LWL
19' 5"  (5.92m)
Beam
7' 3"  (2.21m)
Draft (hull only)
1' 1⁄2"  (0.32m)
Draft (with keel)
4' 0"  (1.22m)
Displacement
2,350 lbs. (1.07t)
Ballast
940 lbs. (0.43t)
Sail area
283  sq ft  (26.3  sq m )
Power
6-hp (4.5 kW), 24V
electric drive system

installation. Using full-sized
Mylar patterns, each strake
may be finished and
sheathed on both sides with
Xynole set in epoxy, which
can be done on the bench to
save a lot of construction time. The hull
would be relatively quick to build, and it
would be light compared with most other
types of wood construction because the
stringer-like effect of the laps allows for thin
planking. A strip-planked version of this
boat would require 5⁄8" western red cedar
strips, for example.
The cockpit and decks are built of 1⁄2"
(13mm) plywood, and the cabin sides are
of 3⁄4" (19mm) plywood, while the cabin
roof is built of two laminated layers of 3⁄8"
(10mm) plywood—glued to a nice camber.
This construction will help minimize deckbeams below.
Xynole tape, 2" wide, is needed to protect each exterior lap edge once a strake
is installed. Why Xynole and not fiberglass
sheathing? Partly because this type of construction results in a flexible boat, but also
when the strakes are trimmed to shape
during installation (to the ribbands with a
router) and the bevels are cut with a hand
or power plane, the plastic Xynole fibers won’t ruin
plane blades or router bits as ’glass cloth would. 
The keelson, stem, horn timber, floor timbers, and
frames are laminated Douglas-fir. The frames are made
up ahead of time by being laminated right on the building jig’s station molds—at the same time the strakes are
being made, and before the ribbands are installed on the
mold. These frames are removed once glued, then after
the boat is turned over and the building jig removed,
they are trimmed and installed. The frame blanks and

ribbands have the same 11⁄2" (38mm) thickness. Several
1
⁄2" (13 mm) bulkheads and the longitudinal 3⁄8" (10mm)
cockpit uprights, galley and head cabinets, and berth
uprights help spread the rig and keel loads. There are
no direct rig or rudder loads on the transom, so it may
be lightly built of two layers of 1⁄4" (6mm) plywood.
Although the hull is wooden, the fin keel is laminated E-glass (built in two halves in female molds) with
the bulb part laminated right into the fin.  It would
make sense to have both the rudder and drum, and
two halves of the keel, provided as a
kit as the savings in costs (including
shipping), compared to lead castings
for each boat, would be substantial.
A more refined and easier-to-repair
keel shape may be made in fiberglass

The boat’s lapstrake planking, trunk
cabin, and relatively short ends are
somewhat reminiscent of the Nordic
Folkboat.

100 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/27/14 6:38 PM

DESIGNS

Aurora’s lines depart from her forebears in many ways. The sections are quite flared, as compared with the nearly plumb
sections of early knockabouts; the bow is shorter and the angle of the counter much shallower. The relatively short fin keel
and separate rudder will allow the boat to tack on a dime.

than one cast in lead, as well. The keel would be finished
by gluing the sides together, then taping along the centerline on the outside, in recesses built into the keel mold.
Then lead shot mixed with epoxy would be poured into
the hollow keel. Filling the keel with a few pours would
avoid the big batches of epoxy that might cause overheating. Multiple pours also provide better control over
final weight and also slow down the installation of the
keelbolts, which helps a great deal with their alignment.
The flanged keel would be glued to the ’glass-sheathed
hull with a methacrylate adhesive, and there would be
two keelbolts forward of the inside hollow at the top
of the keel, and two aft on either side of the propeller
shaft. This type of keel construction would be a bit less
dense than a lead-only one, but would be denser than
one in cast steel.
The upper central part of the keel is open for installation of the dripless shaft seal, bilge pump, and the
lower pulley of the electric motor. Because of the thickness (width) of the keel required, it is a fairly long 63
Series NACA foil section.
Analysis shows that while motoring in calm weather,
almost 5 knots may be maintained with around 3 hp
at the shaft and with a 14" (355mm) two-blade folding

propeller. This is perfect for an electric setup, and there
are now plenty of 24–48V electric systems on the market
in this power range. Battery charging may be handled
by shore plug-in, or flexible panels laid in the cockpit,
or perhaps by panels built into the sail cover.
The layout is simple and traditional, with an 8' 9"-long
(2.67m) self-draining cockpit. In the cabin, there’s
a head to port, a small galley to starboard, two settee
berths forward of this, and finally a forepeak. There is
good storage in the cockpit seats and aft in the lazarette. Headroom is “low sitting.” The companionway
step houses the electric motor.
This new daysailer has graceful, almost Nordic lines,
and will have a nice, predictable motion; good reserve
buoyancy and stability; and an excellent turn of speed.
The simple and powerful rig and electric motor will
only add to the pleasure of a day’s outing on this
modern classic.
Do you have a boat concept you’d like to see Laurie McGowan
and Michael Schacht develop on these pages? If so, send it to
Sketchbook, WoodenBoat Publications, P.O. Box 78, Brooklin,
ME 04616, or email it to [email protected]. Your
letter should be no longer than 500 words.
November/December 2014 • 101

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DESIGNS: REVIEW

Tumblehome 24
Speed and style

Particulars
LOA
23' 10"
LWL
23' 5"
Beam
7' 2"
Draft
2' 0"
Displacement
4,100 lbs
Power
409 hp

Design by Stephens Waring Yacht Design
Commentary by Brendan Riordan

A

s far as design challenges
go, this one is a real doozy.
Reuben Smith of Tumblehome Boatshop in Warrensburg,
New York, approached Stephens
Waring Yacht Design to create a
family cruising boat with the signature look of a 1920s Gold Cup
racer. I was certain it couldn’t be
done, but Stephens, Waring, and
Smith all know what they are about,
and together it looks like they have
proved me wrong.
Typically designers work for the
owner, and I was interested to speak
with Bob Stephens and Reuben
Smith about a working relationship
where the builder had commissioned the design. Smith explained
that he was eager to demonstrate
to existing and prospective clients
that Tumblehome could take a project from the earliest conceptual
phase all the way through construc-

tion, launching, and trials. He had
extensive experience and clear goals
about the aesthetics, performance,
and construction detailing, so it was
natural that he would assume the
responsibility of synthesizing his client’s goals and working directly with
the designer to see them realized.
As designer, Stephens seemed a
little more reticent about working for
the builder rather than the owner,
although he was quick to point out
that it had worked well in practice.
“It was a little tricky at times, a bit
harder to know how well you are
serving the end user’s interests, but
it is also easier in some ways. Reuben
was very knowledgeable with a clear
idea of what he wanted in the boat
and what he needed from us in terms
of plans and details.” Notably, Stephens chose to include renderings
of an early concept that, although
less 1920s Gold Cup, was neverthe-

This 23’10” runabout is a great platform
for socializing, with its unusually large
cockpit and facing settees behind the
helm station.

less striking and with more of the
designer’s fingerprint and signature. I sensed a wistfulness that the
project hadn’t gone that route, and
we spoke of the difference between
working in the vernacular and executing an existing idea well versus
advancing concepts which are, if not
altogether new, at least distinctive.
A good working relationship
only goes so far when you are trying to create a powerful, fast racing machine that is also a pleasant
family boat for the lake. Stephens
and Tumblehome have approached
this challenge by employing an
aesthetic that invokes some of the
“gentlemen’s runabouts” of the era
between the wars. BABY BOOTLEGGER , IMP, GREENWICH FOLLY, and
EL LAGARTO served as inspiration
and helped set speed targets for the
project. Designer and builder have
also incorporated creature comfort.

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Above the waterline, the hull is a study in curves; below the water, straight lines
rule, with a consistent 18° of deadrise aft. The deck has a strikingly pronounced
camber.

A cockpit this spacious is unheard
of in “gentlemen’s runabout” racers, and a large double hatch in the
aft deck provides access to a spacious stern platform and a robust
and neatly stowed swim ladder. I
was initially concerned about what
it might be like to sit in those after
settees when the helmsman decides
to really open her up, but Smith
assures me that the cockpit is configured with something more akin
to bucket seating such that friends
and family will feel secure regardless of throttle position.
The lines plan for this collaboration is a study in contrast. Above
the water, curves abound. The
flared forward sections transition to

convex shapes aft where we find a
seamless transition of the topsides
into the barrel shape of the afterdeck befitting the builder’s business
name. The concavity in the outermost buttock aft left me scratching
my head for a minute. Clearly this
is the result of striking a contour
through a section of such dramatic
tumblehome where the topsides
change shape rapidly over just a few
feet.
Many of you will immediately
notice the dramatic deck camber.
For sailboat beam cambers, a good
rule of thumb is 3⁄8" of crown per
foot of beam, but here we see cambers roughly twice that amount.
While it looks excessive to me in

the lines plan, there is little reason
to walk around on deck, and such
a large percentage of that barrel
shape is removed in way of the cockpit; certainly nothing looks amiss in
the dozen or so perspective renderings I received.
Below the water, dramatic curvature is replaced with the straight-line
sections of constant 18° deadrise aft.
This feels about right for a 60-mph
racer that is also expected to tour
the lake with guests aboard. Designers occasionally employ less deadrise for boats capable of running at
November/December 2014 • 103

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DESIGNS

Despite the new boat’s nod to the fast (and not necessarily uncomfortable) racers of the past, creature comforts abound here.

The boat’s construction,
by Reuben Smith’s
Tumblehome Boat Shop
of Warrensburg, New York,
features a series of ring
frames set up on a
strongback. These define
the shapes of both the hull
and deck, which are
cold-molded and
vacuum bagged.

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DESIGNS

these speeds on protected water, but
they often do so at the expense of a
smooth ride. In anything oceangoing, Ray Hunt demonstrated the
benefit of even more deadrise, but
to my way of thinking designer and
builder got it just right for this application.
Stephens employed a chine flat
that runs the full length of the bottom. I can’t recall ever noticing one
that is widest in the middle and
tapers toward both ends as this one
seems to. The designer tells me he
did this to preserve the look of a
classic…while keeping the modern
constant deadrise bottom intact,
and he wanted a wide chine-flat to
keep down spray.
Curiously, the builder informs
me that the underbody of this
boat has caused something of a stir
among some of the Lake George
classic powerboat cognoscenti. I
was surprised to hear this, because
this underbody brings to mind hulls
from Ray Hunt, Doug Zurn, Matt
Smith, Steve Dalzell, and others.
When I look at the shape of things
under water here, I find a lot to like

and nothing novel or untested.
Classic runabout enthusiasts
may adhere to warped hull forms
to present a flatter running surface aft and increase lift per unit
of surface area. Fair enough, but
from my admittedly limited experience these warped-bottom hulls
tend to squat at speed resulting in
reduced visibility for the helmsman
and occasionally less than desirable directional stability. For my
part I love the straight, flat buttock
runs Stephens employed. Here is a
shape that will rise bodily without
squatting as it comes up to speed—a
desirable feature in any recreational
boat.
I am undecided about the
amount of reverse in the sheer in
profile. While it looks very good in
the renderings, isn’t it possible that
this sheer shape came about precisely because warped bottom hulls
tend to squat? Could it be that these
hull shapes evolved from a “reduce
the stem height, or else pray there
is nothing in the way” approach to
collision avoidance? I would prefer
to leave a little more height to the

stem, since this boat is going to run
so nice and level.
The forebody shows a modest
convexity to the underwater sections that looks just right for ease
of planking. This shape of submerged forebody also delivers a soft
entry and a smooth ride, but with
the 409-hp marinized Corvette V8
engine, I honestly don’t know how
much time that part of the boat
will spend in the water. The bottom
shape is probably not a developable
surface, but it looks close. I wonder
whether designer and builder ever
contemplated plywood for the bottom planking. There is something
to be said for the stiffness imparted
by using plywood here, and with the
quality of resins used in the marine
grades these days, longevity is not
the concern it once was. Still, this is
not a design for amateur builders,
and the choice of material for the
bottom doesn’t change that.
Finally I must spend a minute on
the sheets of construction details
that I received. Bob Stephens and
Paul Waring are, quite simply, the
best draftsmen in the game. Theirs
is the only fully modern design
office I know of that still draws by
hand, but if you ever have a chance
to work with their plans, you will see
why they do it. The sheets I received
were bursting with all of the information to build the boat. In the
margins I found the designer’s preferred method of applying sound
attenuation and achieving proper
engine hatch gasket compression.
Another corner clearly detailed the
propeller-shaft hull penetration
with the hull skin scalloped away
for ease of access to the pair of setscrews securing the Cutless bearing
in the Garolite stern tube. These
details are presented with such artistry that I wonder how it is that Stephens Waring hasn’t put the rest of
us in the yacht design business out
of business altogether.
Brendan Riordan is the in-house designer
for Rockport Marine in Rockport, Maine.

This detail of the new runabout’s construction aft is one of many impeccable
drawings by Stephens Waring Yacht Design.

Designer: Stephens Waring Yacht Design,
92 Main St., 3rd Floor, Belfast, ME 04915;
207­–338–6636; www.stephenswaring.com.

November/December 2014 • 105

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REVIEW

PRODUCTS • BOOKS • VIDEOS • STUFF

Sextant: A Young Man’s

Daring Sea Voyage and the Men
Who Mapped the World’s Oceans
Reviewed by Capt. Daniel S. Parrott
Sextant: A Young Man’s Daring Sea Voyage and the
Men Who Mapped the World’s Oceans, by David Barrie.
Published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. 340 pp., hardbound, $25.99.

A

t first glance, David Barrie’s Sextant appears to
fall into the canon of recent nautical literature
inspired by the success of Dava Sobel’s Longitude of 1995. The formula entails telling the story of
a specific and important maritime development in a
new way, and in not too many pages. The only pitfall
is that if the original story isn’t compelling in its own
right, no amount of repackaging can compensate. Sextant belongs to this canon mainly by virtue of its terse,
one-word title. The story that Barrie is more interested in telling is reflected in the two-part subtitle: A
Young Man’s Daring Sea Voyage and the Men Who Mapped
the World’s Oceans. Barrie’s book, therefore, contains
three different themes, and although their mutual relevance is sometimes strained, they do not detract from
one another, either. In the meantime, the author has
tapped into some classic sea stories and retells them
very engagingly, and with a few new twists.
The young man’s daring sea voyage in question is
Barrie’s own, undertaken in 1973, when he helped sail
a 35' sloop from Maine home to England. The voyage
figures into the book mainly in the form of excerpts
from a journal that Barrie kept at the time, arranged as
106 • WoodenBoat 241

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prefaces to each chapter. The journal entries give insight BEAGLE, who later became so tormented at having
into the daily routine, the conditions, and the vastness unwittingly abetted Darwin’s theories of natural selecof the ocean when seen from the deck of a 35' boat inch- tion and evolution that he took his own life with a razor;
ing its way across a small-scale chart of the Atlantic at 3 and the ever-fascinating, mysterious disappearance of
to 5 knots.
the French explorer Jean–François de Galaup, comte
While a transatlantic voyage in 1973 may not have
de La Pérouse, in the Solomon Islands. Familiar or not,
been quite as daring as it seemed to BarBarrie’s deft handling of what is already
rie, he rightly points out that at the
compelling material results in a new
time it was far less common, and
narrative that is well researched
far less certain an undertakBarrie has selected 10 or so
and makes excellent reading.
ing, than it is today. That
Also, the author wisely lets
difference is partly due to
many of the characters speak
significant figures, mostly British,
the development of satelfor themselves: Slocum,
lite navigation, which feeds
Shackleton and Frank Worsfrom the age of exploration under sail,
the navigator a steady diet
ley (Shackleton’s navigator)
of accurate information
were all as handy with the
many of them focused
without the effort or doubt
pen as the tiller.
inherent in old-school naviga His on the Pacific Ocean.
tion. For Barrie, the voyage is not
tory often seems inevitable because
only an adventure but also a tutorial in
it is always viewed in hindsight. By conveycelestial navigation. The skipper is a retired British
ing just how daunting, stressful, and uncertain these
naval officer who mentors and teaches the young Barrie voyages were, Barrie helps us see how success was far
how to handle a sextant and navigate by the stars. For from inevitable. He draws attention to the chicken-andthem, celestial navigation is not a backup system or a re- egg conundrum faced by early navigators using poor
enactment; it is their only means of fixing their position charts: knowing where you are only matters if you also
offshore, and Barrie develops immense respect for the know where everything else is. But how do you establish
craft and the man teaching him.
where anything else is if you don’t know where you are?
But this book is not a tutorial on celestial navigation, The answer is very carefully, very slowly, and at great
and the author makes no such pretense. He gives us one expense. Once national efforts to accurately survey the
chapter on the origins of the sextant and why it eclipsed globe were launched in the late 1600s, it took more than
previous instruments, along with a short explanation of a century just to get Europe nailed down. A 1693 survey
how the thing works. He explains the utility of a sextant, found that the French port of Brest, a major port in the
not only for navigation but also for mapmaking. More heart of Europe, was 50 miles farther east than shown on
explanation of horizontal sextant angles and vertical the best maps of the time. Imagine tackling the Pacific.
angles for determining distance would have shed more By necessity, Barrie revisits the themes explored
light on the sextant’s versatility for surveying. But gen- in Longitude. In particular, he resurrects the debate
erally speaking, Barrie belies the book’s main title by between competing theories of how best to solve the agedevoting relatively few words to it. Perhaps this is just as old problem of determining longitude: mechanically,
well, because the best and most substantial part of the using clockmaker John Harrison’s chronometer, or by
book is Barrie’s fascination with “the men who mapped observation, using the lunar distance method champithe world’s oceans.”
oned by the aristocratic astronomer Nevil Maskelyne?
Barrie has selected 10 or so significant figures, mostly Barrie explains that due to the limitations of early chroBritish, from the age of exploration under sail, many of nometers, the two approaches were not mutually excluthem focused on the Pacific Ocean. For consumers sive but rather complementary. Both relied upon the
of nautical literature, many of the figures and stories sextant, and both were used well into the 19th century.
are familiar: James Cook’s voyages of exploration, Wil- But the author also seems to feel a need to refight the
liam Bligh’s open-boat ordeal after the famous mutiny, battle by presenting quote after quote in praise of the
Ernest Shackleton’s survival of the loss of ENDURANCE lunar distance method, and incident after incident of
in Antarctic ice, and Joshua Slocum’s solo circumnavi- chronometer failure.
gation—though the last of these, while a great story, is It is no surprise that much of the book is devoted
unconnected to mapping the world’s oceans. We also to burnishing the pantheon of British navigators, given
learn about less-familiar, but no less remarkable, fig- their well-documented achievements. But it is surprisures such as Matthew Flinders, for whom the Flinders ing that Barrie found space for only a single mention
bar on compass binnacles is named. He also revisits of Nathaniel Bowditch, an autodidact of humble beginthe voyages of George Vancouver, who, like Bligh, was nings, whose new method of calculating lunar distances
a protégé of Cook’s; Robert Fitzroy, captain of the HMS published in the American Practical Navigator in 1802
November/December 2014 • 107

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Woodenboat Review

surpassed all previous methods in accuracy and utility. Also Barrie overlooks the United States Exploring
Expedition of 1838–42 led by Charles Wilkes, which is a
trove of dramatic successes and failures, and very much
the story of a man concerned with mapping the world’s
oceans. He does, however, include a thoughtful discussion of traditional Polynesian and Micronesian navigational methods.
As any writer knows, when a factual error is committed to print, it can undermine credibility in ways that
exceed the magnitude of the error itself. Therefore it
is difficult to know what to make of a journal entry in
August 1973, in which Barrie reports hearing a BBC
broadcast off the coast of Britain announcing President Nixon’s resignation. In fact, Nixon did not resign
until August 1974 and had not yet been clearly implicated in the Watergate cover-up at the time of Barrie’s
journal entry. (Vice President Spiro Agnew’s resignation, unrelated to Watergate, did occur in 1973, but not
until October.) Be that as it may, in linking up three
centuries of exploration, with the sextant as a common
denominator, Barrie has delivered something different
and worthwhile. The reader who has enjoyed this territory before will enjoy it again, and will almost certainly
learn something new.
Capt. Daniel S. Parrott is a professor of marine transportation at the
Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

Lofting a Boat
A Step-by-Step Manual
Reviewed by Steve Kessler
Lofting a Boat: A Step-by-Step Manual, by Roger Kopanycia, Adlard Coles Classic Boat Series, Adlard Coles
Nautical, www.Bloomsbury.com/US/Academic; 146
pp., paperback, $29.95.

I

n these modern times, hasn’t computer-assisted
design replaced the art of lofting a boat to full-size?
For some of us, the answer is no. Design by computer may be a faster process, but in my opinion it is
too impersonal, devoid of the hands-on touch, and is
certainly no more accurate than old-fashioned lofting.
The exercise of manually lofting a boat appeals to the
Luddite in me, but I also find that taking data from a
table of offsets and seeing it come to shape on the loft
floor is immensely satisfying.
Lofting can be a difficult subject to describe in writing; most of the existing popular boatbuilding books
devote only one or two chapters to the topic. For anyone
with little or no experience, the descriptions in those
books—with one or two exceptions—can be very hard
to follow. Enter Roger Kopanycia and his method of
instruction, as described in his book Lofting a Boat: A

108 • WoodenBoat 241

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WOODENBOAT REVIEW

The APPRENTICESHOP
of NOBLEBORO

Build, Document,
Launch, Publish,
And Sail

Bahamian midship raising frame 1947. Were these methods exported
from New England by the 18th C Loyalists? — Ruth Rodrigeuz.

The Once and Future Hampton Boat Project combines
research, documentation and interpretation with traditional boatbuilding and expeditions. Six “scholarshipwrights” under the instruction of a seasoned builder and
experiential educators will build a Hampton boat (a sail
and oars powered New England boat) using the methods
of nineteenth century salt water farmers and publish an
illustrated monograph to document the entire experience.

September 2014 - June 2015
Step-By-Step Manual, a book I never knew existed until
a friend pointed it out to me last year. In my experience, this paperback publication is one of the clearest
approaches to lofting yet produced, and it is well worth
the price.
In the introduction, the English author states that he
has taught hundreds of students from all over the world
the art of lofting using the techniques described in this
manual. He has been teaching boatbuilding for more
than 10 years, before which he worked 20 years as an
engineer. For those who have wanted to learn lofting
but have been cowed by its perceived difficulty, this
book delivers what the title claims: a step-by-step
process that demystifies the art of lofting.

Applications Much Encouraged. Contact
Lance Lee & Arista Holden at:

The Scholarshipwrights
[email protected]
[email protected]
(207) 596-7390

www.scholarshipwrights.org

Apprenticeshop of Nobleboro with Trem (see WB 209) under
construction. — Marc Castelli

November/December 2014 • 109

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Woodenboat Review

Statement required by the Act of August 12, 1970, Section
3685, Title 39, United States Code. Showing the ownership,
management, and circulation:
WoodenBoat is published bimonthly in January, March, May,
July, September, and November at 41 WoodenBoat Lane,
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Number of issues published annually: six. Annual subscription
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are located at 41 WoodenBoat Lane, Brooklin, Maine 04616.
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Publisher, Jim Miller, P.O. Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616; Editor, Matthew P. Murphy, P.O. Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616.
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The actual number of copies for single issue nearest filing
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D) Free distribution by mail, carrier, or other means:
sample, complimentary, and other free copies:. . . .2,131
E) Total distribution: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55,855
F) Copies not distributed:
Office use, left over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing
and returns from news agents: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47,007
G) Total: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102,862
I certify that the above statements made by me are correct
and complete.
Jim Miller, Publisher
WoodenBoat Publications, Inc.

Clear illustrations, which are sequential, show the steps
involved in lofting. In the above illustration, for example,
author Roger Kopanycia shows the use of a tick stick to pick
up the distance from centerline of various points along a hull
diagonal in the body plan. In the next step, the tick stick is
used to transfer the distances to a half-breadth plan.

At 146 pages, including an index and glossary of lofting terms, the volume contains concise information,
accompanied by numerous clear illustrations demonstrating the process. Part One takes the reader through
basic lofting, starting with understanding the table of
offsets through laying down the lofting grid and producing the three standard views—profile, half-breadth,
and body—that compose the naval architect’s lines
plan. This section ends with the development of the
deck camber. In Part Two, we are shown the more complex tasks of how to loft a radiused transom, how to pick up
patterns directly from the loft floor, how to develop keel
and stem cross-sections, and how to account for plank
thickness.
The difference between this publication and others
is that each and every step of the process is elucidated
and accompanied with large, crisp, line drawings that
complement the pertinent discussion.
In each part of the manual, processes are broken
down into blocks or steps. There are two steps to a page,
and each step is further subdivided, literally taking the
reader by the hand. Each maneuver is a logical progression from the previous one. At each turn, clear, uncluttered drawings illustrate the procedure or step being
discussed. There is no need to flip the pages back and
forth in order to follow the discussion as each step and
its accompanying illustration are together on the same
page.
Since anyone with an interest in lofting can easily
follow along, this manual is ideal for the person
engaged in lofting for the first time. But it is also a very
useful refresher for someone merely in need of brushing up on the process or double-checking a particular
technique.
The only criticism that I would offer—a minor one at

110 • WoodenBoat 241

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Woodenboat Review

that—is that a spiral-bound edition would more easily
lie flat, in the opened position, on the workbench.
Steve Kessler, a graduate of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, Washington, lives in Portland, Oregon.
He has served as a volunteer and shipwright on the SAN SALVADOR
galleon replica project in San Diego, California (see Currents, WB
No. 240).

ACTUAL SIZE OF A

HYDRALIGN
‘APERTURE A’
PROPELLER HUB

Books Received
The Tugboats from A (A.G. WELLS) to Z (USS ZUNI): Ships
for Victory, by Capt. Walter W. Jaffee. Published by The
Glencannon Press, Maritime Books, P.O. Box 1428,
El Cerrito, CA 94530, www.glencannon.com. 662 pp.,
hardcover, $150. ISBN: 978–1–889901–57–2. Stories of
tugboats built or purchased by the U.S. government and their
roles in significant historic events through World War II.
*Under the Cabin Lamp: A Yachtsman’s Gossip, by H. Alker
Tripp. Published by Lodestar Books, 71 Boveney Rd.,
London, SE23 3NL, England; www.lodestarbooks.com.
216 pp, softcover. £12. ISBN: 978–1–90720–620–1. First
published in 1950, this collection of tales focuses on British
Isles voyaging and is illustrated by the author.

3.250”

Life Boat: How a Century-old Boat and a New Dream
Inspired an Adventure of a Lifetime, by Mark Harwood.
Fourth edition, published by the author, 1005 Delia
Rd., Port Sydney, ON, P0B 1L0, Canada; www.lifeboat
adventure.com. 313 pp.; softcover, $15.47; ebook $3.63.
ISBN: 978–1–304–72945–3. Mark and Karen Harwood
describe voyaging around Europe aboard THE ARAB, a leaky
converted lifeboat that is 100 years old.
NORMA & GLADYS: Newfoundland’s Famous Knockabout
Schooner, by Garry Cranford. Published by Flanker Press
Ltd., P.O. Box 2522, Station C, St. John’s, NL, A1C 6K1,
Canada; www.flankerpress.com. 225 pp., softcover,
$19.95. ISBN: 978–1–77117–349–0. NORMA & GLADYS,
a fishing schooner launched in 1945, became a floating museum
in 1973 but ultimately sank in Placentia Bay.

Salt, Sweat, Tears: The Men Who Rowed the Ocean, by
Adam Rackley. Published by Penguin Random House,
375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014. 215 pp., softcover,
$16; ISBN: 978–0–14–312666–9. A gripping history of
ocean rowing over the last century.
*The LUGWORM Chronicles, by Ken Duxbury. Published
by Lodestar Books, 71 Boveney Rd., London, SE23 3NL,
England, www.lodestarbooks.com. 491 pp., softcover,
£16. ISBN: 978–1–907206–28–3. A one-volume compilation
of the author’s three previously published books describing
adventures aboard his 18' Drascombe lugger, LUGWORM.
*Available from The WoodenBoat Store, www.wooden
boatstore.com

With over 20 years of experience in
global seas, Hydralign provides compact
self-feathering propellers with minimum
drag and equal thrust under forward
and reverse gear.

Competitive pricing - International Shipping
[email protected]

www.hydralignprop.com

PH: +61 2 9957 5123
4/1 Bradly Avenue, Milsons Point
NSW, Sydney, Australia, 2061
November/December 2014 • 111

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VINTAGE BOATS
and&SERVICES
KITS
PLANS
Thank you for a successful

Annual Meeting & International Boat Show in Skaneateles, New York!

422 James Street . Clayton, NY 13624
315.686.2628 . acbs.org

Woodies Restorations
Restorers of Fine Vintage Watercraft

Antique and Classic Boat Restorations
Consultation, Sales and Service

Home of the Building Memories Experience!
Custom Canvas and Vinyl Upholstery Solutions

On Beautiful Lake Cumberland
653 Lakeway Drive | Russell Springs, KY 42642

270-866-2628 (BOAT) | 270-866-3998 (VINYL)

www.woodiesrestorations.com

112 • WoodenBoat 241

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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]
www.fishcustomboats.com

Now
taking
orders
for
delivery
in 2014

FOR
SALE
25’ Devlin “Surf Runner”
Contact Sam Devlin: (360) 866-0164 w www.devlinboat.com
November/December 2014 • 113

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9/25/14 7:51 PM

BOATBROKERS
“BOHUS EKA”

a traditional 14' oak framed North Sea rowing/fishing boat.

Built in 2002 by Roland Persson at his boat yard, “Lilla
Kålviks Båtvarv”, on the island of Orust off the west coast of
Sweden. Launched in June 2005. Includes 2 pairs of oars, extra
thole pins, winter canvas cover and a Shoreland’r trailer.

$4,500

Contact Frederic P. Anderson
40 Front Street, Noank CT 06340
860-536-4800 w [email protected]

PAGE TRADITIONAL BOATS
CUSHING, MAINE

www.PageTraditionalBoats.com
Call Bill Page 207-749-0208
[email protected]

DELIVERANCE: a Nearly New 43' Fantail Stern Long Range
Cruising Vessel, completed to high quality standards in 2011
by D.N. Hylan & Associates. She has proven to be a very
comfortable cruising boat for a couple with occasional guests,
and has a range of 1100 to 1200 miles. Her power is a fully
rebuilt Gardner slow turning diesel which makes her especially
quiet and smooth running. Draft is 3' 8" thus ideal for cruising
shoal water areas. DELIVERANCE is very well fitted out and is
being offered for sale at far below replacement cost.
Location: Maine
Offering Price Reduced to: $375,000
Please call Bill Page for more details, and view our website for
the vessel’s complete description with full photographs.

www.PageTraditionalBoats.com

114 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/26/14 6:39 PM

BOATBROKERS

SPARKMAN & STEPHENS 41' SLOOP

KHIRA

Designed by Olin Stephens and built to meticulous standards by
John Barkhouse in 1965, Chester, Nova Scotia. Her traditional
shape and bright mahogany hull make her the most stunning
boat in the harbor. An accommodating cruiser that is a delight
to sail. A sloop with prestigious pedigree that requires an owner
who enjoys being noticed and receiving compliments.

Located on Madeline Island, LaPointe, Wisconsin

Selling Price: $30,000
For details call 763-203-5591

2002

1995

w [email protected]

32’ Custom Sport
Hull 385 $125,000

30’ Triple Cockpit Runabout
Hull 159 $92,500

2013

1998

30’ Custom Sport
Hull 550 $229,000

28’ Family Edition Runabout
Hull 298 $110,000

2012

31’ Custom Sterlin
g
Hull 520 $254,000

2002

27’ Runabout
Hull 405 $105,000

2013

27’ Tommy Bahama Edition
Hull 541 $259,000

Buy a pre-owned or demo Hacker-Craft
with confidence, direct from the factory!

Contact us today for prices and our full current inventory.
1-866-540-5546 w

www.hackerboat.com w Showrooms in Lake George, NY & Dania Beach, FL

116 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/26/14 2:02 PM

BOATBUILDERS
Traditional Boat, LLC

Don’t Be Afraid

Give your wooden boat the
care she deserves

To Put It In The Water
Current Project:
Restoration of Concordia
Yawl #48, LARA
(formerly HARBINGER)

Our specialty is wooden boat
construction, restoration and repair
Our reasonable rates make it all possible.

Handmade Small Boats by Nick Schade
www.WoodenKayaks.com

www.mainetraditionalboat.com
ABYC Certified Marine Systems

w (207) 322-0157 w Unity, ME

November/December 2014 • 117

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Celebrating 65 Years

BOATBUILDERS

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

On Portage Bay since 1927

Jensen
Motorboat Corp.

1417 NE Boat St.
Seattle, WA 98105

Please Visit Our W
Seal Cove Boatyard, Inc. Register Your Cr
BOX 99 / HARBORSIDE, MAINE 04642
www.crockersboatya
TEL: 207-326-4422 / FAX 207-326-4411

Manchester, Massachusetts •

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

Phone: 206-632-7888

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

Boat.

e-mail: [email protected]

→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→

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

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

118 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/26/14 2:44 PM

H I S T O R I C

C R A F T S M A N S H I P

www.adirondack-guide-boat.com
“One pull on the long graceful oars and it all came
back. It was like dancing again with a long lost love”

•

Willem Lange, Guideboat Memories

Cedar Guideboats • Cedar Guideboat Kits
Kevlar Guideboats • Vermont Fishing Dories
Vermont Packboats

Free DVD
on request

RESTORING AND CONSTRUCTING
HISTORIC AND CLASSIC WOODEN BOATS

www.tumblehomeboats.com
518.623.5050

BOATBUILDERS

6821 RT 7, N Ferrisburgh, VT 05473
802-425-3926 • [email protected]
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/guideboat1

6,000 Sq Ft Boatshop • Route 28, Southern Adirondacks

November/December 2014 • 119

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9/26/14 2:44 PM

AMORITA

RECENTLY COMPLETED
Cabin, rig and rudder work on
N.Y. 32 SALTY

NY-30

CURRENT PROJECTS
Restoration of
Buzzard’s Bay 25 MINK #733
Restoration of
Buzzard’s Bay 15 MARIBEE #731

SallyAnne Santos

BOATBUILDERS

LLC

MP&G

WOOD BOATBUILDING
YACHT RESTORATION

Structural work on
Watch Hill 15 VIKING #885

929 FLANDERS ROAD, MYSTIC CT 06355
TEL

860–572–7710

www.mpgboats.com

D.N. Hylan & Associates

Boatbuilders

Classic designs
rendered for the
twenty-first
century

Visit our website

DHylanBoats.com
You might discover that

Custom Design
&
Construction
is well within your reach

120 • WoodenBoat 241

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P

E N D L E T O

YACHT•YARD

N
BOATBUILDERS

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

C UTTS & C ASE
S HIPYARD

Restoration
and Preservation of
Antique and Classic
Wooden Boats
207.882.5038
edgecombboatworks.net

a full-service boatyard

DESIGNERS & BUILDERS
OF
FINE WOODEN YACHTS
SINCE

1927

P.O. BOX 9
TOWN CREEK
OXFORD, MD 21654
410-226-5416
www.cuttsandcase.com
[email protected]

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

Stay in touch
with ALL we do!
November/December 2014 • 121

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9/26/14 2:45 PM

KITS
KITS & PLANS
PLANS

1.

2.

4.

3.
5.

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!
WWW.clcboats.com or 410-267-0137 for a free catalog and much more!

122 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/26/14 3:44 PM

OUGHTRED
Caledonia Yawl

T37s Racing at Seattle Yacht Club
over 2350 T37s sailing today

Kit with video
instruction from
OffCenterHarbor.com

Blue Hill, Maine
PRICING & ORDERING:
[email protected]
1-207-460-1178
www.cnc-marine-hewesco.com

www.modelsailboat.com

Tippecanoe Boats

the finest wooden model sailboats

S

am Devlin’s “Stitch-and-Glue” boat designs bring
together the beauty of wood and the durability of
composites. An already easy construction method is
made easier with the help of Devlin’s Wooden Boat
Building book and Wooden Boat Building video.

KITS & PLANS

“Dunlin 22”

We offer a full line of plans: dinghies, daysailers,
pocket cruisers, motorsailers, powerboats 8-45 ft.

www.DevlinBoat.com
Devlin Designing Boatbuilders
3010 37th Ave., SW
Tumwater, WA 98512
Phone: (360) 866-0164

November/December 2014 • 123

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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

KITS & PLANS

The plans
Boats
to make the
sea more
beautiful

www.vivierboats.com
124 • WoodenBoat 241

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9/29/14 9:40 AM

Bellflower, CA 90706
888-700-5007 • Glen-L.com/WB

Bellflower, CA 90706
888-700-5007 • Glen-L.com/WB

May/June 2014

July/August 2014

Adventure
Boat Kits

Dreams DO Come True
With Glen-L Designs

Dreams DO Come True
With Glen-L Designs

• 300 Exceptional Boat Designs
• Row/Power/Sail - 6-ft. to 55-ft.
• Epoxy & boatbuilding supplies
• Underwater & Deck Hardware
Full-sized patterns & detailed phase-by-phase instructions enable anyone to fulfill their dreams.

Special Offer

• 300 Exceptional Boat Designs
• Row/Power/Sail - 6-ft. to 55-ft.
• Epoxy & boatbuilding supplies
• Underwater & Deck Hardware

Full-sized patterns & detailed phase-by-phase
instructions enable anyone to fulfill their dreams.

• 288-page Book of Boat Designs
• Free Dinghy Plans
• $9.95 Coupon off first order
Send
address
below
Standjust
Up$9.95
PaddletoBoards
- Small
Boats - Surfboards
Stitch and Glue - Strip Planked - Plans - Materials
www.adventureboatkits.com
Burlington WA - 425-298-9632

Glen-L Marine • 9152 Rosecrans Avenue/WB
Bellflower, CA 90706
888-700-5007 • Glen-L.com/WB

September/October 2014

Special Offer

• 288-page Book of Boat Designs
• Free Dinghy Plans
• Free Supplies Brochure
• $9.95 Coupon off first order
Send just $9.95 to address below
“Blue water with white sand and dolphins swimming
around...not in my wildest dreams could I imagine
this when I started the boat.”

Glen-L Marine • 9152 Rosecrans Avenue/WB
Bellflower, CA 90706
888-700-5007 • Glen-L.com/WB

November/December 2014

Welcome to
WoodenBoat’s Directory
WoodenBoat
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.
November/December 2014 • 125

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9/26/14 3:15 PM

RAFTINGS
Specializing in the
authentic manufacture
of bronze fittings
[email protected]
(401) 625-5224
Tiverton, RI 02878

www.bristolbronze.com

Pacific Catalyst II, inc.

Expeditions in the Pacific Northwest
A small ship adventure
aboard the MV Catalyst
in SE Alaska provides a
lifetime of memories!

] Reserve winter storage now!
] Schedule Repairs & Restoration
] Lay-up with us and be ready to cruise Downeast Maine &
the Maritimes in Summer 2015
Expert Wood & Fiberglass Repair and Restoration • Outdoor Storage
www.jonesportshipyard.com
(207) 497-2701
Jonesport, ME

NEW! On the MV Westward

Bunk & Breakfast and Day Cruises
in the San Juan Islands
Summer 2014

www.pacificcatalyst.com

The Rolling Owl

• In Cherry & Walnut
• Adjustable, 18”-24”
• Ergonomic, handmade

u

(360) 378–7123

Stonington

Continuous Arm Chair

• In Cherry, Ash & Walnut
• Handcrafted Furniture
• Innovative Design

Peanut Desk

• In
In Cherry & Walnut
Cherry & Walnut

207-367-6555
www.geoffreywarnerstudio.com

126 • WoodenBoat 241

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Pocket Cruisers &
Tabloid Yachts

50’ Kettenburg $89,500
Year: 1963 Location: Seattle, WA

• Mahogany with oak frames
• Teak deck • Tall Rig

• Large windows for light interior
• Always well maintained
www.elliottbayyachtsales.com
206–285–9563

Building Plans for Six Small Cruising Craft
from the boards of the

Benford Design Group
Two fantail steam launches, 17' & 25'.
Two small workboat-like powerboats,
14' & 20'. And two sailboats; 14' long-range
14
cruiser & 20' Catboat.
Order at tillerbooks.com or call
410-745-3750. Also check out
www.benford.us for more info on these
Cottrell Boatbuilding-WBMag_Layout
10/18/13
Page 1
designs1and
scores of9:40
otherAM
designs

96 page 8½" x 11" book. $17.95 plus shipping/handling.

Cottrell Boatbuilding-WBMag_Layout 1 10/18/13 9:40 AM Page 1

DUTCHMAR
Gear so advanced, it’s simple

Let Dutchman Flake Your Main
—You've Got More Important
Things To Do!

Traditionally Built Small Craft

Advantages of the Dutchman
Sail Flaking System:

• The Dutchman works with all sails.
• No need to head into the wind to
raise, lower or reef the sail.
• The Dutchman tabs automatically
slacken the control lines.
• The Dutchman works well with today’s
stiffer sails.
Order Online at www.dutchmar.com
or call to order 203-838-0375

Searsport, Maine
Searsport, Maine

cottrellboatbuilding.com | 207. 548. 0094
cottrellboatbuilding.com | 207. 548. 0094

Raftings Pricing
$200/issue

(with one-year (6×) contract)

= $1,200/year
Email [email protected],
or call 207–359–4651

November/December 2014 • 127

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CLASSIFIED

To place a Classified Ad: visit our website www.woodenboat.com; email [email protected];
or call our Classified Ad Manager at (207) 359–4651.

Deadline for the January/February issue: November 5, 2014
LONG ISL A N D SCHOOL OF
Wooden Boatbuilding—Classes in
traditional and modern boatbuilding.
631–991–7222. www.lischoolof wood
enboatbuilding.com.

MI A MI, FORT L AUDER DA L E ,
Florida Keys—30+ years experience
building, repairing, and restoring
boats. Traditional and composite
construction. Nice people, quality
workmanship, and reasonable rates.
References. Call 305 – 634 – 4263, S.N. SMITH & SON, BOATWRIGHT/
305–498–1049. rmiller35@bellsouth. timber framer. Annual maintenance,
net, www.millermarinesystems.com. restoration, and building to 45'. Our
goal is to make wooden boat ownership predictable and enjoyable. P.O.
Box 724, Eastham, MA 02642, 978–
290–3957, www.snsmithandson.com.

The 24thAnnual

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

HADDEN BOAT CO.—WOODEN
boat construction and repair to any
size; sail and power. 11 Tibbetts Lane,
Georgetown, ME 04548, 207–371–
2662, www.haddenboat.com.

June 26-28, 2015 • Mystic, CT
www.thewoodenboatshow.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.
L OW E L L B OAT S — C o mp l et e
wooden boat restoration services and
marine surveying. GARY LOWELL,
Greensboro, NC, 336 –274 – 0892.
www.lowell.to/boats.

REBUILT CHRIS-CRAFT 6-cylinder
engines: K, KL, KBL, KFL, KLC, M,
ML, MBL, MCL. Assorted V8s. Mitch
LaPointe’s, www.classicboat.com.
NAVTECH MARINE SURVEYORS’ 952–471–3300.
course—Surveying recreational/
commercial vessels. U.S. Surveyors
HERCULES ENGINE PARTS
Association, Master Marine Surveyor
Model M, ML, MBL, K, KL
program. FL, 800–245–4425.

WoodenBoat
School

MCLAUGHL
AN
IN
MI
EST.

CO

.

1970

.
JR

DA

REPAIR, RESTORATION, STORAGE,
and Surveys. Low overhead and low
rates, 35 years experience. MICHAEL
WARR BOATWORKS, Stonington,
ME, 207–367–2360.

RATING 34 YEAR
LEB
S!
CE

RPORATIO N

.

Custom Cold-Molded Boats and Yachts to 40'
43 years of experience DMCBOATS.COM

JOHN M. KARBOTT BOATBUILDING.
Custom wooden boat building and
repair. Lobsterboat styles a speciality. WoodenBoat School instructor.
Member Massachusetts Marine Trades
Association. 789 Rocky Hill Rd, Plymouth, MA 02360. Phone/fax 508–224–
3709, www.by-the-sea.com/karbott
boatbuilding.

SAIL MAINE ABOARD MAINE’S
oldest windjammer, “Lewis R. French.”
Enjoy great sailing, lobsters, new
friends, and fresh air (no smoking).
Sailing from Camden, three-, four-,
and six-day cruises with only 22 guests,
May–October. Capt. Garth Wells, P.O.
Box 992 W, Camden, ME 04843. 800–
469–4635. www.schoonerfrench.com.

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

June–September

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

K ER M ATH SEA CHIEF— 6 cyl.,
90-hp, type P640, with Upton model
V U D t r a n s m i s s i o n w it h h e a t
exchanger. Less than 100 hours since
complete professional rebuild. $2,000.
Located Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. Details at [email protected], 250–
656–6256.

* Off-site winter courses also offered *
P.O. Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616
207–359–4651 (Mon.–Fri.)

www.woodenboat.com

128 • WoodenBoat 241

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CLASSIFIEDS
BOAT KITS—PLANS—PATTERNS.
World’s best selection of 200+ designs
on our website. 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.

Jordan Wood Boats
541–867–3141

www.jordanwoodboats.com

EXPERIENCE THE TRADITION OF
WOODEN BOAT MODELING

Distinctive Boat Designs
Meticulously Developed and Drawn
For the Amateur Builder

Crafted by your hands...you’ll enjoy the detail
and authenticity of wooden ship modeling.
With over 75 ship model kits available, we have
something for every modeler. As the oldest
modeling company in the US, we have specialized in wooden ship model kits since 1905.

THE WEB’S LARGEST SELECTION
of fossil ivory marlinespike knives,
all hand-etched with your favorite
boat and name. Personalized wine
openers, nautical instruments, 14-kt
nautical jewelry, desk accessories,
registered scrimshawed whale's teeth.
Find your perfect nautical gift on
our extensive website! Rated TOP
SERVICE by Yahoo! Use coupon code
W2014 for FREE First Class shipping!

800.448.5567

www.bluejacketinc.com

160 East M a i n S t r e e t , Searsport, ME 04974

Since
1905

E L EG A N T S C A L E MODE L S —
Individually handcrafted, custom,
scale model boats, starting at $3,000.
JEAN PRECKEL, www.preckelboats.
com, 304–432–7202.

CrADle BoAt
BABy tenDer

BeACh Cruiser
Footloose

L E A R N HOW TO BU I L D you r
own cedar-stripped boat. Plans for
dinghies, canoes, row, sail, paddle, GEODESIC AIROLITE DESIGNS—
outboard. www.compumarine.com. Classic 14. Styled after the New York
AZ, 520–604–6700.
Whitehall. Weight: 54 lbs.; capacity:
700 lbs. Monfort Associates. 207–
882–5504, www.gaboats.com.

Glen-L.com
■ Boat Plans
■ Epoxies
■ Raptor® Products
■ Underwater Hardware
■ Bronze Fastenings
■ Steering
■ Deck Hardware

■ much more...

SUPPLIES & H A R DWA R E FOR
building a boat or outfitting an existing one. Competitive prices, friendly
service. Glen-L Marine, 888–700–
5007. www.Glen-L.com/WBC (online
SMITHSONI AN INSTITUTION catalogs).
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.
w w w.americanhistory.si.edu/csr/
shipplan.htm.

JAMES WHA R R AM DESIGNS —
World-renowned, safe, seaworthy
catamarans. 14'–63' to self-build in
ply/epoxy/’glass, from plans that are
“a course in boatbuilding.”
CATALOG OF 40 SIMPLE PLYWOOD
boats, $4. JIM MICHALAK, 118 E.
Randle, Lebanon, IL 62254. www.
jimsboats.com.

FREE DIGITAL
SUBSCRIPTION
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
U.S. for overseas orders). Payment:
U.S. dollars payable through a U.S.
bank. ATKIN BOAT PLANS, P.O.
THE FINEST Wooden Pond Sailers. Box 3005WB, Noroton, CT 06820.
Free brochure: 1–800–206 –0006. [email protected], www.atkinboat​
www.modelsailboat.com.
plans.com.

SWAN BOAT DESIGN CATALOG—
Boats 10-26'. $16 U.S and Canada,
$23 overseas. Payment in U.S. funds
drawn on U.S. bank. Plans and instructions for the 13'6" • 4'11.5" Nez Perce
13 (above) $60. Ken Swan, P.O. Box
6647, San Jose, CA 95150. 408–300–
1903, www.swanboatdesign.com.

Building, Restoring & Maintaining

GR EG RÖ S SE L PL A NS — w w w.
lischoolofwoodenboatbuilding.com/
Greg_Rossel.html.

ArtisanBoatworks.com

The ArTisAn JournAl
The Bi-Annual
Newsletter From
Artisan Boatworks

Classic Wooden Boats
Read Now at

November/December 2014 •

WB241Class-05.indd 129

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CLASSIFIEDS
F I N E LY C R A F T E D WO ODE N
spars; hollow or solid. Any type of
construction. ELK SPARS, 577 Norway Drive, Bar Harbor, ME, 04609,
207–288–9045.

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

Staples and nails you
do not need to remove!

SAIL ON, LITTL E W HE E —A
children's book for all ages. www. JASPER & BAILEY SAILMAKERS.
creativedreamings.com.
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.jas per
The magazine for those working in
VACUUM-BAGGING SUPPLIES—
andbailey.com.
design, construction, and repair.
Fiberglass cloth, epoxy resins, waterb a s ed L PU p a i nt s , a nd more.
Subscriptions:
Technical support and fast service.
One year (6 issues)
w w w.fiberglasssupply.com or toll
$35.95 (US)
free: 877–493–5333.
Canada: $52 (US
funds) (airmail)

Overseas: $68 (US
funds) (airmail)

 No holes to fill in
 Easily sand off crowns & heads
 RAPTOR® fasteners accept stains
 Bonds with thermoset resins
 No galvanic corrosion/electrolysis
www.raptornails.com [email protected]
P (512) 255-8525
F (512) 255-8709

EXCEPTIONA L BRONZE A ND
Chrome Hardware—Windshield
brackets; navigational lighting; Tufnol and ash blocks; fastenings, roves,
and rivets; repair, building, and kit
materials; oars, paddles, and rowing
accessories; decals, apparel, and
traditional giftware. w w w.tender
craftboats.com. Toll-free phone:
800–588–4682.

Patty HutcHinSon
P.o. Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616-0078
207–359–4651 • Fax: 207–359–8920

www.proboat.com

W W W.DA BBL ER SA ILS.COM —
Traditional small-craft sails. P.O.
Box 235, Wicomico Church, VA,
2 2 579. Ph/f a x 8 0 4 – 5 8 0 – 8723,
[email protected].

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 website, www.starten.com.

EPOXY-PLUS MARINE EPOXY,
$69/gal with hardener; epoxy glue
and putty. Premium products at
direct pricing. No-blush, flexible,
easy-to-use 1:1 mix. Free Catalog.
Clark Craft, 716–873–2640, www.
clarkcraft.com.

COTTAGE NEAR WOODENBOAT
School—Now taking reservations for
summer 2015. There is a lot less snow
in the summer. One-bedroom cottage,
suitable for two, $550/week. Brook- H AV E TOOLS W IL L TR AV EL .
lin, ME. Contact todderichardson@ Wooden boat builder will build,
rebuild, or repair your project on
gmail.com.
site or in my shop. $25/hour. VT,
COPPER FASTENERS and riveting
802–365–7823.
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, 800–
DOUGLAS FOWLER SAILMAKER—
505–8692, [email protected],
Highest-quality, full-seam curved
sails since 1977. Traditional sails a T H O M S O N W O O D S PA R S — www.faeringdesigninc.com.
specialty. White, colors, and Egyptian Maker of fine wood products. Masts,
Dacron in stock. 1182 East Shore Dr., booms, clubs, gaffs, custom furniture, TRADITIONAL BOAT SUPPLIES
Ithaca, N Y 14850. 607–277–0041. and woodworking. MA, 508–317–3944, for traditional boats. Take a look at
[email protected]. www.tradboats.com.
[email protected].

SOFT COTTON FENDERS and classic knotwork. For catalog, send SASE
to: THE K NOTTED LINE, 9908
168th Ave. N.E., Redmond, WA 980523122, call 425–885–2457. www.the
k nottedline.com.
CANVAS FOR DECKS AND CANOES.
Natural, untreated. No. 10, 15-oz.,
96", $20/yard; 84", 16.75/yard; 72",
$13.75/yard; 60", $10.75/yard. Minimum 5 yards, prepaid only. Fabric
Works, 148 Pine St., Waltham, MA
02453, 781–642–8558.

130 • WoodenBoat 241

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CLASSIFIEDS
BOAT-QUALITY, FLITCH-SAWN,
white cedar—12–18', approximately
1,500–2,000 ft, $2.50/ft. $2.00/ft
over 500 feet. 802–888–4807, out
[email protected].

CLASSICBOATCONNECTION.COM—
Your one-stop source for all your
classic boat restoration needs. Call
507–344–8024, or e-mail mail@clas
sicboatconnection.com for free
catalog.

STOCKHOLM TAR. Genuine kiln-burnt
pine tar. It’s the Real Stuff. American
Rope & Tar, 1–877–965–1800 or tarsmell.com.
HAVEN 121⁄2 complete high-quality
bronze hardware sets. See our display
ad elsewhere in the issue. For our free
catalog, contact us at J.M. Reineck &
Son, 781–925–3312, JMRandSon@
aol.com.

THE ORIGINAL SINCE 2001. The
smallest composting toilet in the
world! EOS, P.O. Box 5, Mount Vernon, OH 43050. www.airheadtoilet.
com, 740–392–3642.

RARE WOODS—Ebony, boxwood,
rosewood, satinwood, tulipwood,
boatbuilding woods, +120 others.
207–364–1073, info@rarewoodsusa
.com, www.rarewoodsusa.com.
CEDAR BOAT PLANKING—Live
edge. Select and mill run. Clear
spruce rough, full 2". Tweedie Lumber, 207–568–3632. bruce@tweedie
lumber.com.
ATLANTIC WHITE CEDAR—Canoe
strips, bead and cove, utility fencing,
clear siding, decking and trim. Wide
board teak. 203–245–1781, armsters@
yahoo.com.
M A R I N E PLY WOOD S , S OL I D
lumber—Cypress, Douglas-fir, teak,
Philipp i ne, Mer a nt i , G enu i ne,
S a p ele, white oak, cedar, teak/holly.
Vickery, OH, 419–684–5275. Nationwide shipping. www.homesteadhard
woods.com.

“Wood Sawn by Boatbuilders for Boatbuilders”
White Oak • Atlantic White Cedar • Cypress
Longleaf Yellow Pine • Sitka Spruce
401-253-8247 NewportNauticalTimbers.com

PLANKING STOCK IN LENGTHS
to 32'—angelique, silver-balli, wana,
angelique timbers. Call for quotes. Gannon and Benjamin, 508–693–4658.
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
J ER SE Y LUM BER M A N’S I NC .,
6268 Holly St., Mays Landing, NJ
08330. 609–965–1411. www.sjlum
bermans.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].
BLOX YGEN SAV ES LEFTOV ER
finishes. Just spray, seal, and store.
www.bloxygen.com, 888–810–8311.

BANTAM AIR HAMMER
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.

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

800-521-2282

www.superiorpneumatic.com

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, November–May. Summer rate:
$125/DO (plus dinner). brooklininn
.com, ME, 207–359–2777.

W W W.DI A MONDTE A K .COM—
True teak wood. Planing, sanding
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@
dia mondteak.com.

PRISTINE BOAT-GRADE LUMBER
—All-clear, old-growth, all-heart.
Custom-cut to your order. Cypress,
western red/white cedar, longleaf
yellow pine 8/4  10" and wider  30',
4,000 bf, some knots. Douglas-fi r,
Sitka spruce, southern black cherry,
and teak. 352–474–7200 or steve@ B L A C K L O C U S T L U M B E R
barberspecialtylumber.com.
and found curves. Cut to your specifications. Band-sawn. 4/4, 6/4, 8/4,
WHITE OAK (QUERCUS ALBA), and bigger. ablacklocustconnection.
up to 60' long  42" wide. Longleaf com, 413–624–0242.
pine (Pinus pilustrus) out to 50' long.
Old-growth white pine, 22'–28'. Black
locust, American elm, and larch. New
England Naval Timbers, CT, 860–480–
3402, www.newenglandnavaltimbers
.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. www.boulterply
wood.com, 888–4BOULTER.

WANTED—EXPERIENCED BOATrebuilder to restore a 36' Grand Banks
wood boat. Boat out of water! 800–
244–2966, [email protected].

November/December 2014 •

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CLASSIFIEDS
26' ELDREDGE-McINNIS SLOOP—
Cedar on oak, bronze-fastened, lead
keel. Universal diesel with less than
100 hours. Great condition. Located
in Mystic, CT. Illness forces sale. Call
201– 438 –2758, leave message or
email psv [email protected] for more
information.

FREE Classified
Writing guide
Tips on writing a ‘Boats for Sale’ ad,
and how to prepare for questions
from potential buyers. For a copy,
call us at 207–359–4651 or email
[email protected].

C H I N E S E S A I L I NG J U N K S —
MarineXO custom builds any size
and style of wooden Chinese sailing
craft. Contact Wayne Moran, +852–
948–87720, www.marinexo.com.

“JOY,” 1958 CONSTELLATION—My
buddy and I bought this beauty about
10 years ago thinking it would help
with the ladies. It did, and now we’re
both married, and don’t have enough
time for the old girl. It’s time to let her
become someone else’s dream. Photos
and specs here: http://58connie.wee
bly.com, 423–902–5645.

20 HOURS ON THIS FINE BARRELback, since completion of a full restoration in 2010. Priced at $93,500.
Contact [email protected] or
303–947–8520.
“A NA N DA ,” 45' PI LOT HOUSE
Ketch—Charles Davies designed,
1979. Professionally owned, upgraded,
and maintained. More pictures at
www.peaseboatworks.com. $89,000.
[email protected].

RHODES 24, 35' ON DECK—Beam
8', draft 5 1⁄2'. Mahogany on oak with
teak decks. Built Mystic, CT, 1949,
and extensively rebuilt by present
owner the last 10 years. A fast thoroughbred. Four-time winner at Foxy’s
Wooden Boat Regatta. Hull #1 in her
class, and one of two left. Cruise the
Caribbean this winter, and New England this summer! Serious offers near
$60,000. Plans, pictures: yankee_sailor@
1955, 19' CHRIS-CRAFT CAPRI— yahoo.com.
Pattern boat, frames good, all original hardware complete, all chrome LUDERS 16 COMPLETE BOAT, but
excellent. $7,000. 250–656 –0351, needs full restoration. Located Murphy, NC. $750. 828–644–5714, 352–
[email protected].
205–3859

1931 ALDEN YAWL, 57' LOD —
Very fast classic yawl, diesel, radar,
water heater, watermaker, gas stove,
refrigerator/freezer, 10' dinghy, rollerfurling jib, large sail inventory, new
THE WEST POINT SKIFF—Three paint/bright, sound hull. Owner will
models: 16', 18', and 20'. See our web- consider all reasonable offers. Losite, w w w.westpointskiff.com, for cated in Alameda, CA. 907–488–
8937, [email protected].
more info. 207–389–2468.

“GRANDE DAME” 1950, 34' HINCKley Sou’wester—A yachtsman’s sloop
in striking condition. Cedar on oak,
30-hp Atomic Four, teak deck and
cockpit sole, mahogany cabin. Sitkaspruce mast and boom, club jib. Lake
Champlain, VT. $29,950. grande
[email protected], 802–999–2094.

1968 GRAND BANKS 42 CLASSIC—
11⁄4" mahogany on yacal frames. Twin
Lehman 120 diesels give “Granny B”
3–4 gallon-per-hour cruising. 7.4-kW
Onan genset. Two double staterooms,
each with own head and shower. Dyer
sailing dinghy, Zodiac with brand-new
6-hp Suzuki. Ill health forces sale by
professional woodworker/owner.
Photos and specif ications upon
request. $45,000. MA, 508–737–0610,
[email protected].

38'' 9" SPARKMAN & STEPHENS
Loki-class yawl, “IROLITA”—Built
1953 by H. Heitmann, Hamburg, GE;
and for last 15 years under the care
of the Jensen Motorboat Company,
1417 Boat St., Seattle, WA, where
she will be moored after October 1,
2014. Call Dave at 206–853–9273,
[email protected].
Bristol. $100,000. Anne and Bill
Frame, 141 East 4th St., Apt. 1623,
St. Paul, MN, 55101, frame@augsburg.
edu, 612–803–6596.

26'' NORWALK ISLAND SHARPIE.
Bruce Kirby design. Beam 7'11",
"", Draft
12"" board up. Fast, fun boat. Easily
single-handed. Built by professional
yacht rigger. Launched 1992. Bruynzeel plywood, epoxy and glass. Fiberglass masts, aluminum booms. Fresh
53' A L DE N K ETC H BU I LT I N paint and ready to go. $28,000 or best
Mystic Shipyard in 1941. “VARUNA” offer. [email protected].
is Alden design #718 and was refit in
1988. Rare and beautiful. Loaded RESTORABLE 1966(?), 29'' (?)CHRISwith bronze, salt and history. $175,000. Craft Sea Skiff wooden boat and
Contact William at 831–840–2417 or trailer. Motor out, but goes with it.
email at [email protected]. $1,000. 802–888–4807.

132 • WoodenBoat 241

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CLASSIFIEDS
FA ER I NG BOATS WA N T ED —
Faerings or other Scandinavian traditional boats. Any shape consideredbarn finds, etc. Please call Bruce at
860–977–0334 or bioelf@mindspring.
com.

2005 HAVEN 12 1 ⁄ 2 —COLD-MOLDED,
mint condition. Good sail, winter
cover, custom trailer. $19,500. 508– CAYMAN ISLANDS: “TALISKER” IS
428–9733. Cape Cod.
a 1971 Souter 55, built by W.A. Souter
on the Isle of Wight. 2x Cats 3208 in
good condition. Last full survey 2013.
The hull is wood with a Cascover finish. She has been in the same family
since purchased at the London Boat
show in 1972. US $80,000 to fi nd a
good home. E-mail: [email protected].

“SOPHIA,” 1960 ARTHUR ROBB
yawl 38'—Handsome and seaworthy
with a Yanmar diesel. Mahogany on
oak. $35,000. Survey available. David
Jones Yacht Brokerage, 207–236 –
7048. (ME)

1988, 12' MAHOGANY ROWING/
sailing dinghy with trailer. Lapstrake
construction, gaff-rigged sail. Sails are
tanbark. Oars, all fitting and oarlocks
are bronze. Always stored indoors.
Crafted by McNulty Brothers of South
Shields, England. cmselander@gmail.
com. $5,000.

“NIRVA NA,” 1946 FELLOWS &
Stewart sloop 44'—Remarkable condition inside and out. Photos available.
Owner willing to consider offers near
$25,000. CA. David Jones Yacht Brokerage, 207–236–7048.

“MAGIC” 36' CENTERBOARD YAWL.
Aage Nielsen design. Mahogany on
oak. Built by Paul E. Luke, 1961. See
www.magicyawl.com for more infor50' MARLINEER, EQUIPPED FOR mation, or call Mike at 847–804–0901.
cr u ising t he S ea of C or tez, or
beyond—recently repowered with
twin Caterpillar diesel engines, low
hours. Ready for diving, fishing,
exploring. For details, contact lapaz
[email protected] or phone 01152–
612–1231948.

60' US ARMY QUARTERMASTER
Launch, 1918. Beam 12', Draft 5.5.
Designed and built by Luders. Liveaboard and work platform for 12
years. Detroit 6-71, Northern Light
12kw, hot water heat. $76,500. Newport, RI. 401–743–1490.

1932, 45' ALDEN SLOOP/CUTTER.
Built by George Lawley & Sons. Estate
sale seeking offers. White oak frames
over mahogany car vel planking,
bronze fastened. Two-owner yacht
with major restorations over past 20
years. Ready to sail. On mooring in
Great Harbor, Woods Hole, MA.
“LARK” is a joy to sail. Peter Marcucci,
617–218–7253, pmarcucci@ayssales.
com. Atlantic Yacht & Ship. Inc, 1-888–
230–0439. Yachtworld ID: 2726835.

“HERITAGE,” 1983 CLASSIC schooner 145' LOA—Kept to the highest
standards and built of the finest
timbers. 30 overnight and 60 day
passengers. Survey available. $995,000.
David Jones Yacht Brokerage, 207–
236–7048. (ME)

1916 SEABRIGHT SKIFF—Cedar
on oak, copper riveted; 3" yellow pine
bottom. Original, running ZR1 Palmer
engine. Possible spare parts. Never
beached. Trailer included. 252–473–
2282; [email protected].

CLASSIC CATBOAT—A classic 22'
Mower-designed catboat ready to
sail. “CHIEF” was built in 1988 by renowned boatbuilder George Luzier in
Sarasota, FL. She has a strip-planked
hull and Dynel over plywood deck.
Spars have been recently wooded and
varnished. Universal 25-hp diesel,
recently serviced, and ready to cruise.
Edson rack-and-pinion steering and a
Benmar autopilot. $35,000. Sarasota, FL,
941–921–5674 or [email protected].

FAMOUS TED BREWER SCHOONER
“GREAT CIRCLE,” in excellent condition. 33' with good sails and good
Universal diesel. Dave Cobb, 941–504–
3380. $29,900.

“MINKE,” 1992 LYLE HESS CUTTER
30'—Proven, sound and well cared
for vessel that sails like a witch and
can go anywhere. Survey available.
$110,000. CA. David Jones Yacht
Brokerage, 207–236–7048.

“JANA,” 1947 QUINCY ADAMS 17'
responsive classic daysailer that has
been well loved. $22,000. David Jones
Yacht Brokerage, 207–236–7048. (NY)

2008, 12' 3" R IFF, LUG -R IGGED
daysailer—Gartside design. Cedar
strip, West System Epoxy. See WoodenBoat issues 189-191. No trailer or sail.
570–326–1339. (PA)
November/December 2014 •

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WoodenBoat Classified Order Form
Please circle the issue(s) in which you wish this ad to appear. Example Mar/Apr is one issue.
NOTE: Ads received after the deadline may be placed in the following issue
Issue Date — Mar/Apr May/June July/Aug Sept/Oct Nov/Dec
Jan/Feb
Deadline — Jan 6, ’14 Mar 5, ’14 May 5, ’14 Jul 7, ’14 Sept 5, ’14 Nov 5, ’14

♦ Boats advertised for sale must have wooden hulls.
♦ One boat per ad. Limit: One photo per ad.
♦ “BOATS FOR FREE” ads are FREE!
♦ All classified ads are prepaid.
TEXT: (20 word minimum or $55.00)

♦ Counted as one word = phone and fax number, email or web
address. All else: a word is a word. WoodenBoat does not use
abbreviations such as OBO, FWC, etc. Please spell out.

♦ Please print clearly—WoodenBoat is not responsible for
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134 • WoodenBoat 241

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Index to Advertisers
Adhesives & Coatings
Awlgrip- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bristol Finish- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Epifanes North America - - - - System Three Resins, Inc. - - - Tri-Texco inc.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - West System Inc.- - - - - - - - - - - -

www.awlgrip.com - - - - - - - - - - Cover IV
www.bristolfinish.com - - - - - - - - - - - 89
www.epifanes.com - - - - - - - - - -Cover II
www.systemthree.com - - - - - - - - - - - 18
www.tritex.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 21
www.westsystem.com - - - - - - - - - - - 39

Boatbuilders
Adirondack Guide Boat- - - - - - www.adirondack-guide-boat.com - - - Beetle, Inc.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.beetlecat.com - - - - - - - - - - - Billings Diesel- - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.billingsmarine.com - - - - - - - -
Carpenter’s Boat Shop- - - - - - - www.carpentersboatshop.org - - - - - -
Crocker’s Boat Yard, Inc.- - - - - www.crockersboatyard.com - - - - - - -
Cutts & Case - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.cuttsandcase.com - - - - - - - - -
D.N. Hylan & Associates, Inc. - - www.dhylanboats.com - - - - - - - - - Dutch Wharf Marina - - - - - - - - www.dutchwharf.com - - - - - - - - - -
Edgecomb Boat Works- - - - - - - www.edgecombboatworks.net - - - - - Fish Brothers Marine Service - - www.fishcustomboats.com - - - - - - - Gannon & Benjamin - - - - - - - - www.gannonandbenjamin.com - - - - Guillemot Kayaks - - - - - - - - - - - www.woodenkayaks.com - - - - - - - - Haven Boatworks, LLC- - - - - - -www.havenboatworks.com - - - - - - - Jensen MotorBoat Company- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MP&G, LLC- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.mpgboats.com - - - - - - - - - - -
Pendleton Yacht Yard- - - - - - - - www.pendletonyachtyard.com - - - - -
Reuben Smith’s
Tumblehome Boats - - - - - - - www.tumblehomeboats.com - - - - - -
Seal Cove Boatyard- - - - - - - - - - www.sealcoveboatyard.com - - - - - - -
Shannon Yachts/
Schulz Boat Co.- - - - - - - - - - - www.shannonyachtrestoration.com - - -
Stonington Boat Works, LLC- - - www.stoningtonboatworks.com - - - - Traditional Boat, LLC - - - - - - - www.mainetraditionalboat.com - - - - Winchester Boatworks- - - - - - - www.winchesterboatworks.com - - - - Woodie’s Restorations - - - - - - - www.woodiesrestorations.coom - - - - YNOT Yachts- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.ynotyachts.com - - - - - - - - - - -

119
118
117
121
118
112
120
119
121
113
120
117
121
118
120
121
119
118
120
121
117
120
112
113

125
125
124
125
123
124
124
124
123
123
123

lumber
Vendia Woods- - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.vendia.fi - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 77

MuseumS
Mystic Seaport Museum- - - - - - www.mysticseaport.org - - - - - - - - - - 67
North Carolina
Maritime Museums- - - - - - - - www.ncmaritimemuseums.com - - - - - 94

Prints & Publications
Calendar of
Wooden Boats - - - - - - - - - - - - Small Boats - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Small Boats Monthly- - - - - - - - - WoodenBoat E-Newsletter - - - - WoodenBoat Subscription - - - - -

www.woodenboatstore.com - - - - - - 40-41
www.woodenboat.com - - - - - - - - - - 89
www.smallboatsmonthly.com - - - - - - - 90
www.woodenboat.com - - - - - - - - - - 121
www.woodenboat.com - - - - - - - - - - 32

Sails
E.S. Bohndell & Co.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 93
Gambell & Hunter- - - - - - - - - - www.gambellandhunter.net - - - - - - - 89
Nathaniel S. Wilson, Sailmaker - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 94
Sailrite Enterprises- - - - - - - - - - www.sailrite.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 20

Schools & Associations

Brokers
Anderson, Frederic- - - - - - - - - Bob Craven Yacht Sales - - - - - Concordia Yacht Sales - - - - - - S/V DAUNTLESS- - - - - - - - - - Devlin Designs- - - - - - - - - - - - - Hacker Boat Co., Inc.- - - - - - - S/V KHIRA- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Metinic Yacht Brokers - - - - - - Page Traditional Boats- - - - - - -

Directory of Boat
Plans and Kits - - - - - - - - - - - - www.woodenboat.com/boatplansandkits
Fiberglass Supply- - - - - - - - - - - -www.adventureboatkits.com - - - - - -
Francois Vivier
Architecte Naval- - - - - - - - - - www.vivierboats.com - - - - - - - - - - Glen-L-Marine- - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.glen-l.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hewes & Co. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.cnc-marine-hewesco.com - - - - -
Noah’s - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.noahsmarine.com - - - - - - - - -
Nutshell Pram/
WoodenBoat Store- - - - - - - - www.woodenboatstore.com - - - - - - Parker Marine Enterprises- - - - www.parker-marine.com - - - - - - - - Pygmy Boats Inc.- - - - - - - - - - - - www.pygmyboats.com - - - - - - - - - -
Tippecanoe Boats, Ltd. - - - - - - www.modelsailboat.com - - - - - - - - Waters Dancing- - - - - - - - - - - - - www.watersdancing.com - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
www.cravensells.com - - - - - - - - - - www.concordiaboats.com - - - - - - - -
www.schoonerdauntless.com - - - - - -
www.devlinboat.com - - - - - - - - - - www.hackerboat.com - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
www.sealcoveboatyard.com - - - - - - -
www.pagetraditionalboats.com - - - - -

114
114
114
115
113
116
116
116
114

Events
Ocean Reef Club- - - - - - - - - - - - www.oceanreef.com - - - - - - - - - - - - 29
The WoodenBoat Show- - - - - - www.woodenboat.com - - - - - - - - - - 31
WoodenBoat Tour of the Nile- - - www.woodenboat.com - - - - - - - - - - 75

hardware & accessories
Atlas Metal Sales- - - - - - - - - - - - www.atlasmetal.com - - - - - - - - - - - - 74
Barkley Sound
Oar & Paddle Ltd. - - - - - - - - www.barkleysoundoar.com - - - - - - - - 74
Canadian Tack and Nail- - - - - - www.canadiantackandnail.ca - - - - - - - 93
Hamilton Marine - - - - - - - - - - - www.hamiltonmarine.com - - - - - - - - 23
J.M. Reineck & Son- - - - - - - - - - www.bronzeblocks.com - - - - - - - - - - 95
JBC Yacht Engineering- - - - - - - www.hydralignprop.com - - - - - - - - 111
Keystone Spike Corporation- - -www.keystonespikes.com - - - - - - - - - 64
Oneida Air Systems- - - - - - - - - - www.oneida-air.com - - - - - - - - - - - - 63
R&W Traditional
Rigging & Outfitting - - - - - - www.rwrope.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - 93
Red Hill Corp.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.supergrit.com - - - - - - - - - - - - 92
Sailing Services Inc. - - - - - - - - - www.sailingservices.com - - - - - - - - - 63
Strong Fire Arms- - - - - - - - - - - - www.strongfirearms.com - - - - - - - - - 65
Top Notch Fasteners- - - - - - - - - www.tnfasteners.com - - - - - - - - - - - 63

Kits & Plans
Arch Davis Design- - - - - - - - - - - www.archdavisdesigns.com - - - - - - - 124
Chesapeake Light Craft, LLC - - www.clcboats.com - - - - - - - - - - - - 122
Devlin Designs- - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.devlinboat.com - - - - - - - - - - - 123

Antique & Classic
Boat Society- - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.acbs.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - 22, 112
Apprenticeshop
of Nobleboro- - - - - - - - - - - - - www.scholarshipwrights.org - - - - - - - 109
Cape Fear
Community College- - - - - - - www.cfcc.edu - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 89
Great Lakes Boat
Building School - - - - - - - - - - www.glbbs.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 63
HCC METC- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.honolulu.hawaii.edu - - - - - - - - 91
The Landing School- - - - - - - - - www.landingschool.edu - - - - - - - - - - 64
Northwest School of
Wooden Boatbuilding - - - - - www.nwboatschool.org - - - - - - - - - - 95
Westlawn Institute of
Marine Technology- - - - - - - -www.westlawn.edu - - - - - - - - - - - - - 76
WoodenBoat School- - - - - - - - - www.woodenboat.com - - - - - - - - - - - 4

Tools
Shelter Institute - - - - - - - - - - - - www.shelterinstitute.com - - - - - - - - - 76

Miscellaneous
American Cruise Lines- - - - - - Beta Marine US Ltd- - - - - - - - Christopher Ward
(London) Limited - - - - - - - Connor Wood Bicycles, LLC - First Harbor Company- - - - - - Half-Hull Classics - - - - - - - - - - Pearl Sea Cruises- - - - - - - - - - - People’s United Bank- - - - - - - The Real McCoy- - - - - - - - - - - Schooner Heron- - - - - - - - - - - U.S. Bells - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Weems & Plath - - - - - - - - - - - - Wooden Boat
Rescue Foundation- - - - - - - WoodenBoat Store- - - - - - - - - -

www.americancruiselines.com - - - - - - - 1
www.betamarinenc.com - - - - - - - - - 65
www.christopherward.co.uk - - - Cover III
www.connorcycles.com - - - - - - - - - - 63
www.firstharborcompany.com - - - - - - 19
www.halfhull.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - 91
www.pearlseacruises.com - - - - - - - - - 17
www.peoples.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - 38
www.realmccoyspirits.com - - - - - - - - - 7
www.sailheron.com - - - - - - - - - - - - 92
www.usbells.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 94
www.weems-plath.com - - - - - - - - - - 77
www.woodenboatrescue.org - - - - - - - 65
www.woodenboatstore.com - - - - - - - 8-13

November/December 2014 •

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135

10/1/14 1:42 PM

BLACKJACK
A genuine Friendship sloop
by Maynard Bray

WILLIAM KELLY MAGEE

hy should an ancient old-fashioned Friendship
sloop like BLACKJACK appeal to anyone? The
lovely hull shape is among the most beautiful ever created in a workboat. The high clipper bow, the trailboards, the long bowsprit, the elliptical stern, and the
springy sheer give Friendship sloops (also called Maine
sloop boats, or simply sloop boats) a “ just right” look
that even captures the hearts of non-sailors. In their
day, lobstermen appreciated how they behaved under
sail and loved how they looked. These engineless boats
would stay put by themselves while hauling a lobster trap
if you knew what you were doing with the sails and their
sheets. They spread enough canvas to move in light air,
yet would always get you back home in a big breeze of
wind. Their owners took pride in them, and they filled
Maine’s fishing harbors in the 1880s and ’90s.
Lobstering under sail ended a century ago after pure
powerboats driven by automobile-type engines proved
themselves, and this left a glut of Friendship sloops like
BLACKJACK for sale at bargain prices. She and others
like her were bought up and converted. Enlarge their
cabins, give them accommodations down below, maybe
even add an auxiliary engine, and you had a great lowcost cruiser. Eventually, a group of these converted
boats became the basis for The Friendship Sloop Society, an organization that’s still going strong after more
than 50 years with some 280 sloops in its registry.
As new members joined and original boats were
abandoned and gradually disappeared, a switch to
replica sloops occurred. While it’s wonderful that, as
a type, Friendship sloops are still celebrated for their
worthwhile attributes, it’s sad that so few genuine
Friendships remain.

MAYNARD BRAY

W

BLACK JACK Particulars
BLACKJACK is one

of the few original
Friendship sloops
still in existence.
Her builder, Wilbur
Morse, built many of
them.

LOA
LWL
Beam
Draft
Power

33'
24' 8"
10'4"
5' 5"
25-hp Atomic Four
gas engine
Built by Wilbur Morse, Friendship,
Maine, ca 1900

BLACKJACK is genuine, all right: built for lobstering
by Wilbur Morse, the man whose name is most closely
associated with the type because he built so many of
them and because his shop was located in Friendship.
She later became a yacht that was owned for years by the
Society’s sixth president, Bill Pendleton, and assigned
sail number 19. Around 1977 she went commercial
again, taking out paying passengers from Mount Desert Island, which lasted until 2009. Since then BLACKJACK was transported to Bristol, Rhode Island, to start
a new life on Narragansett Bay. She is now hauled out,
as her new owner discovered that she will require more
work than he thought. He doesn’t have enough time to
complete her work and has decided to find a new home
for her.
I haven’t inspected BLACKJACK , but there’s no doubt
she’ll need a good deal of work despite having been
substantially reframed and replanked not long ago.
Being a Maine native and having been hooked on
Friendship sloops for as long as I can remember, I feel
we can’t just let this one go. Do right by her, but don’t
overdo it, and I know she’ll reciprocate.
BLACKJACK is lying in Rhode Island. For more information,
contact owner William Kelly Magee by email at [email protected], or
phone, 401–441–7606.

136 • WoodenBoat 241

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ChrisWard-241.indd 3

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The Awlwood finish is the best I have ever
seen on a varnished hull sailing yacht – the
looks and comments of admiration we get,
wherever we sail, are incredible.
ARGAN BAILEY
CAPTAIN, TEMPUS FUGIT

Image © 2014 Humphreys Yacht Design

AWLWOOD

TM

Awlwood gives an exceptional finish lasting four times longer than a
traditional premium yacht varnish*. Based on a proprietary formulation,
this clear coat finish combines science and nature to yield stunning
results, beyond a traditional varnish, beyond compare.
www.awlgrip.com

facebook.com/awlgripfinishfirst

twitter.com/awlgrip

* Following application and maintenance instructions. For professional use only. Awlgrip and the AkzoNobel logo are trademarks of AkzoNobel. © AkzoNobel 2014.

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