WoodenBoat 236 JanFeb 2014

236

Fishing blueFin tuna • a pocket cruiser • arch Davis Designs

THE MAGAZINE FOR WOODEN BOAT OWNERS, BUILDERS, AND DESIGNERS
FAST PIECE OF FURNITURE
MFV TACOMA
CONJURER

Build Phoenix III
FETCH

Arch Davis
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

FAST PIECE OF FURNITURE: A New Classic Iceboat

Aboard a Glass-Cabin Launch
How to Build a Plywood Daysailer

www.woodenboat.com

WB236-Feb13-C1A-01-r1.indd 1

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUMBER 236
$6.95
$7.95 in Canada
£3.95 in U.K.

11/25/13 9:28 AM

The Epifanes Look
Epifanes Yacht Coatings: in an unsurpassed
palette of colors and seven varnish formulas that
define exquisite brightwork worldwide. Our new
custom blended, two-part polyurethane is available
in 450 unique colors. Brushed, rolled, or sprayed,
Epifanes polyurethane delivers a durable, mirrorlike finish with tenacious resistance to
abrasion. Available in high-gloss or
satin at your local chandlery. Or visit
us online at www.epifanes.com.

Yacht Coatings
AALSMEER, HOLLAND

■

THOMASTON, MAINE

■

ABERDEEN, HONG KONG
FOLLOW US

Epifanes233.indd 2

11/22/13 7:03 AM

keywestregatta236.indd 1

11/21/13 2:53 PM

60 Aged in Wood
How SAWDUST became the legacy of
three boatbuilding generations
F. Marshall Bauer

Page 28

FEATURES
28 The Designs of Arch Davis
Classic forms for the
contemporary builder Robert W. Stephens
38 FETCH
Adapting a small daysailer
for cruising
46 The Lives of a Cat
CONJURER and her
succession of saviors

Page 84

66 Aboard EVERGLADES
A contemporary
glass-cabin launch

Maria Simpson

Tom Jackson

Skye Davis

54 FAST PIECE OF FURNITURE
From Cold War Estonia
to Maine’s cold winter
Bill Buchholz

Page 72

72 How to Build Phoenix III, Part 1
A versatile, easy-to-build
Ross Lillistone
15-footer

Page 38

84 TACOMA
How an American tuna clipper changed
the face of Australian fishing
Bruce Stannard

2 • WoodenBoat 236

TOC236_FINAL.indd 2

11/20/13 10:09 AM

Number 236
January/February 2014

READER SERVICES
104 How to Reach Us
110 Vintage Boats and Services
112 Boatbrokers
114 Boatbuilders
121 Kits and Plans
Page 46

125 Raftings
127 Classified

DEPARTMENTS

135 Index to Advertisers

5 Editor’s Page
Connection and Collaboration
6 Letters
13 Fo’c’s’le
Beware of the Butt Joint
15 Currents
80 Designs
Pleustal: A cruiser for
thin water
94 Wood Technology
Contorted Timbers
Shape the Boat

David Kasanof

Towing for the Yachtsman

Andy Chase

edited by Tom Jackson

Robert W. Stephens

Richard Jagels
Robin Jettinghoff

103 The WoodenBoat Review
• Two Films of Passion Matthew P. Murphy
• Epoxy Basics
John Brooks
• Books Received
136 Save a Classic
BACCARAT: A swift
keel cutter

Pages 16/17

Getting Started in Boats

96 Launchings…

and Relaunchings

TEAR-OUT SUPPLEMENT

Maynard Bray

Cover: On Maine’s
Chickawaukie Pond,
Bill Buchholz gets a
running start with his
Monotype XV iceboat.
He built the boat to a
design that originated
in Estonia before
World War II.

Page 54
Photograph by
Alison Langley

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

January/February 2014 • 3

TOC236_FINAL.indd 3

11/20/13 10:09 AM

WoodenBoat Magazine’s

National Maritime Museum, London

Maritime Tour of
England and Scotland

J

JUNE
16-29

oin us for two incredible weeks exploring
the finest maritime attractions in the
United Kingdom. Our tour will depart New
York City’s JFK airport on the evening of
Monday, June 16, and guests will gather in
London the following evening for a welcome
dinner. From there, we’ll embark on an exploration of museums,
vessels, cities, waterways, and towns for two unforgettable weeks.
The trip’s highlights include:

2014

■

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich

■

The newly restored clipper ship CUTTY SARK

■

The Royal Observatory

■

The Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth

■

The Steamboat Museum at Lake Windermere

■

The Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy, Scotland

■

The renowned National Small Boat Collection in Falmouth

For information, including a complete itinerary, please visit
www.woodenboat.com
To book your space or to request further details contact Linda at
Borton Overseas, 1–800–843–0602, ext 112; [email protected]

Brought to you by WoodenBoat

WBTravelEngland236.indd 4

11/22/13 2:33 PM

Connection and Collaboration
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
PUBLISHER Carl Cramer
EditorIAL
Editor Matthew P. Murphy
Senior Editor Tom Jackson
Assistant Editor Robin Jettinghoff
Technical Editor Maynard Bray
Boat Design Editor Mike O’Brien
Contributing Editors Jenny Bennett,
Harry Bryan, Greg Rössel
Copy Editor Jane Crosen
Art & PRODUCTION
Art Director Olga Lange
Advertising Art Director Blythe Heepe
Associate Art Director Phil Schirmer
Circulation
Director Richard Wasowicz
Associates Lorna Grant, Pat Hutchinson
Advertising
Director Todd Richardson
Manager Laura Sherman
Sales Administrator Whitney Thurston
Classified Wendy E. Sewall
Sales Associates

E ast Coast & M idwest:
Ray Clark, 401–247–4922; [email protected]
New England: John K. Hanson, Jr.,


207–594–8622; [email protected]

West Coast and Western Canada:
Ted Pike, 360–385–2309; [email protected]
International: 207–359–4651;


[email protected]

WoodenBoat M arketplace:

Tina Dunne, [email protected]
Research
Director Patricia J. Lown
Associate Rosemary Poole
Business
Office Manager Tina Stephens
Staff Accountant Jackie Fuller
Associate Roxanne Sherman
Reception Heidi Gommo
THE WOODENBOAT STORE
www.woodenboatstore.com
1–800–273–SHIP (7447); fax 207–359–2058
Catalog Manager Ann Neuhauser
Associates Jody Allen, Elaine Hutchinson,
Chet Staples
WOODENBOAT BOOKS
www.woodenboatbooks.com
Book Publisher Scot Bell
WoodenBoat School
Director Rich Hilsinger
Business Manager Kim Patten
website
Manager Greg Summers
Chairman & Editor-in-Chief  Jonathan A. Wilson
President and General Manager  James E. Miller
Copyright 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.

For more than 50 years, the iceboat type that appears on the
cover of this issue lay hidden from most of the world. The design,
called the Monotype XV, had been drawn in Estonia in 1932,
and its popularity had spread among the countries fringing
the Baltic Sea before World War II. With the closing of the
Iron Curtain, the boat and its drawings fell into obscurity. Bill
Buchholz explains all of this beginning on page 54 with a story
of inspiration and odyssey that led him to build his Monotype
XV iceboat, FAST PIECE OF FURNITURE.
On the other side of the planet, at the same time the
Monotype fell into obscurity, three talented and resourceful
brothers in Australia were beginning the unlikely construction
of a massive vessel that would change the fishing industry in
their area. In 1944, 26-year-old Bill Haldane had written to the
Western Boat Building Company in Tacoma, Washington, to
order plans for a new state-of-the-art fishing boat. He waited
three long months just for his letter to be delivered. The delivery
of that letter, and the plans that followed in the reply, catalyzed
the construction project in Port Fairy, Victoria. It would take
many years to build the boat, and another several to fine-tune
its fishing gear in collaboration with a pair of American tuna
fishing experts—brothers who traveled to Australia to work with
the Haldanes. Bruce Stannard tells this rare story of tenacity and
technology transfer in his article beginning on page 84.
The Haldane brothers’ experience in obtaining plans and
information stands in sharp contrast to that of Bill Buchholz,
who learned of the Monotype XV on the Internet, made his
connections there, downloaded his plans from the class’s
website (www.monotype-xv.org), and built his boat with this
readily available information. Likewise, Ross Lillistone used the
marvel of easy global communication when he wrote his article
on Phoenix III, a versatile 15' daysailer whose construction is
detailed in this issue—and two subsequent ones—beginning on
page 72. Ross took an uncommon approach to the illustration
for this series, soliciting photographs from builders on three
different continents and wrapping them together into a cohesive
whole.
It’s tempting at times to think that the allure of shiny new
technology is eclipsing interest in the time-honored skills of
good, old-fashioned wooden boat building. But when you
consider the effort required to move information around the
planet just a half century ago, as compared with today, and
then read the story of the creation of an 80-year-old iceboat
design that was nearly lost to the Cold War, it’s clear that there’s
unprecedented potential for connection and collaboration—
even in the world of traditional boats.

January/February 2014 • 5

EdPage236-FINAL.indd 5

11/20/13 10:15 AM



Why Not Hydraulic?
Dear WoodenBoat,
David Gillespie expended an enormous effort on repowering the
launch VAGABOND with an electric motor. Why didn’t he think of
hydraulic powering? This requires
installing a  fast-turning diesel
engine, such as a four-cylinder used
in pickup trucks, somewhere in the
boat. That engine turns a hydraulic pump that runs a motor that
turns the propeller shaft. The rpms
can  be adapted to the big propeller, switching from forward to neutral, and reverse is equally simple
as with the electric system, and all
the external power it depends on
is from diesel oil—which has to be
taken on anyhow for that small electric motor that was installed.
Hydraulic systems require an oil
reservoir, which could be built into
the space now taken up by the batteries. They need a cooling device
for the oil and the engine, which
now must be present anyway to run
the “emergency” diesel. All parts
are off-the-shelf except perhaps the
oil reservoir, which might have to be
custom made. Marinized engines

originally used in small trucks are
easily available.
This combination, in my judgment, would have come out much
cheaper and would be more failure-proof. There’s no need to buy
expensive new batteries after a few
years, and hydraulic systems are
long-lived. I would have loved to
have contributed to building such a
system.
Frank Sarnighausen
Itirapina, State of
São Paulo, Brazil
David Gillespie replies:
The biggest problem in the VAGABOND repower was lack of space.
The space was 23" wide and 16"
high (off the engine beds). There
was no small diesel that would fit
the boat, and, unless the diesel
needed for the hydro pump was
very small, it would not fit.  There
would be a requirement for a generator to power the rest of the boat,
so that space would have been lost
anyway.  Would a hydraulic system
have been possible? Maybe. But I
did not want to have a diesel engine
running all the time. And I did not

spend much time looking into this
idea, and would have loved to talk
with Mr. Sarnighausen earlier in
the process—but I did not know
him. His idea is a good one, which I
may try in the next project. 
BOUNTY Revisited
I am a graduate of Maine Maritime
Academy, and was there when Andy
Chase arrived. I had three classes
with him then. His article on the
sinking of the BOUNTY (WB No.
233) was thought-provoking and
interesting. I was a veteran of military service before MMA, and his
comments were applicable to that
experience, also.
Lester W. Jacobs
Fletcher Tech Com College
Houma, Louisiana
Dear WoodenBoat,
I was quite impressed by Capt.
Chase’s piece on the BOUNTY. Analysis of such events and the review of
methods for sound decision making
are priceless. I find this style of article
helps breed the introspection necessary for us to look at our personal
decision-making techniques with

­— From the WoodenBoat Forum —
The Nomans Land Boat
FAR & AWAY

Jack Dillon: WB No. 235 features Tom
Jackson’s boat FAR & AWAY on the cov-

er, and a great article entitled “Wood
in the Rigging.”
Hal Lavers: What a sweet doubleender. Anybody know who the designer is? Did Tom Jackson design
her?

Tom Jackson: FAR & AWAY’s hull is faithful to the No Mans Land boat Chapelle
documented from a Beetle builder’s
model. It’s from Plate 63 in American
Small Sailing Craft. It is a lines-only drawing, and the original boat was probably
intended for light basket construction,
using 3⁄8" lapstrake planking. I used 1⁄2".
I built it right-side up over molds, then
installed sawn, joggled frames, Scandinavian style, which was a bit like fitting
56 breasthooks. The coaming arrangement, together with the half-deck layout
and the mast partners and mast gate, are
from Bristol Bay sailing gillnetters. The

athwartships floorboards were inspired
by Swedish practice. The dipping-lug
mainsail was inspired by French practices, and I used the excellent ChasseMarée sailmaking book for many of the
sailmaking techniques.
The rig is unusual, mainly because
of the dipping lugsail. In practice,
I sail with the mainsail as a standing lug most often, especially when
short-tacking or when sailing solo. On
long boards, I’ll dip the sail and take
the tack to the stemhead, which is a
great gain in power. Some consider
the ketch rig a heresy. I actually like
having both sails in my field of vision.
I like having the mizzen sheet right
in front of me, especially because
this rig involves a lot of sheeting.
Gareth: FAR & AWAY is a great example
of a deceptively slippery boat. 
Tom Jackson: The boat has proved quite
fast—surprisingly fast. But it takes
some getting used to. My wife has

become quite a good helmsperson,
and she has come to trust the boat
quite a lot, although she does not like
heavy weather. We sail fairly conservatively. She handles the helm, and I
handle the rig. I also really enjoy sailing solo, and I have a little bit different
sheeting setup in that case, with the
sheet coming across the cockpit to a
kevel cleat on the windward side. So,
the tiller, mainsheet, and mizzen sheet
are all very close at hand. In a doubleender, mizzen sheeting is problematic.
I like a good, solid tiller, and the mizzen has the advantage of not needing a
boomkin, or an offset, or a big swoopy
tiller or a push-pull arrangement. I
entirely like the way the setup works.
Downside: my crew has been in open
mutiny about the mainsheets whipping around. You get used to that;
mostly it’s about knowing where to put
yourself and when. 
Read the complete thread at
www.woodenboat.com.

6 • WoodenBoat 236

Letters236-FINAL.indd 6

11/20/13 8:43 AM

Southern Charm
Smooth Water

STORIC
UTH &
DEN ISLES

The historic cities of the Southeast United States are

Charleston

SOUTH
CAROLINA

linked by a network of rivers and bays known as the

N

Beaufort

Hilton Head Island

finest on an 8-day cruise to the iconic cities of Charleston,
Savannah, and Jekyll Island. You will receive the finest
of everything aboard your 100-guest small ship

Savannah

GEORGIA

Intracoastal Waterway. Experience Southern charm at its

ATLANTIC
OCEAN

Sapelo Island
St. Simons Island

as we explore the beauty and diverse
wildlife of the magnificent
Old South.

Jekyll Island
Amelia Island

Jacksonville
FLORIDA

Toll-free

1-866-229-3807
Call for a free brochure. Open 7 days a week

www.americancruiselines.com

HSGI 2013 8.125x10.875 WoodenBoat
AmericanCruiseLines236.indd
7
JanFeb2014.indd 1

Small Ship Cruising Done Perfectly™

11/12/13
11/21/13 10:27
3:48 PM
AM

scrutiny. I would like to see more
articles that help us improve our
seamanship. Well done.
Tris Tarantino
via e-mail

Getting Started: Knives
Dear WoodenBoat,
I enjoyed reading your Getting Started
in Boats on knives. On GAZELA (www.
gazela.org) we do not use folders;
the lock could break at a most incon-

venient time. And we always have a
lanyard fastening the knife to us; a
knife falling from aloft is serious. 
Michael Carlsson
via e-mail
Dear Editor,
Regarding Getting Started in Boats
in the November/December issue:
I realize the picture on page 2
was to illustrate a possible use of a
knife. However, there were several
things lacking in the presentation,

or which could have been noted in
the caption in the effort to keep the
picture clear.
1. The crew does not have on
PFDs or safety lines, nor are jacklines present.
2. The captain of the boat should
have told people what to do. The
scene looks like a mad rush to do
something. I usually sail with my
wife, so do not have crew problems.
If I have other crew, I keep them in
the cockpit to help or if necessary
make sure they have a PFD and know
what to do before they go forward.
3. Cutting the starboard sheet
might not be smart. If the crew goes
over the rail, how do you know he
will remain connected to the boat?
Better to get the sheet under control by a person in the cockpit, pull
him back, lie on top of him, or get
a wrap around a stanchion, before
he goes over.
4. I do not like to sail with heavy
clothes on, particularly dungarees or similar construction-type
clothes. When it is cold I layer similar to skiing. In warm weather I like
to sail with bright orange shorts on.
A body in bright orange is a lot easier to find than one with dressy blue
or brown pants.
Tom Jackson and crew appear to
be wearing inflatable PFDs in the
cover picture. That is quite a boat,
it really looks good.
 Bill Hill
via e-mail

Erratum
In the article “Ironwoods” in WB
No. 235, the provenance of two
hardwoods was misstated. Bull oak
(Allocasuarina luehmannii) is from
Australia, and greenheart (Ocotea
rodiei) is from South America.
FOR YOUR SAFETY
Working in a boatshop requires certain considerations to ensure your
safety and health. We urge you to
exercise caution throughout the
process. Before using a power or
hand tool with which you are unfamiliar, consult operating instructions. Before using any toxic material, consult the Material Safety Data
Sheet for that substance. Above all,
protect yourself from improper use
that may lead to permanent injury
—Eds
or death.

8 • WoodenBoat 236

Letters236-FINALwADS.indd 8

11/20/13 11:07 AM

Visit e.org
m
ariti e
nwmfor mor n!
tio
rma
info

Come Visit Us!
Day-long Boating Skills Intensives
Week-long boat building classes
Largest Wooden Boat Festival on West Coast
Classic Mariners & Shipwrights regattas
Learn-to-sail youth programs
US Sailing Keelboat certification classes
Radar & Navigation classes in state-of-the-art Pilot House
Beautiful waterfront facility in historic Victorian seaport

Port Townsend, Washington

Photo by Mark Saran

Fairing compounds
Laminating compounds

Tri-Tex

co inc.

1-800-363-2660
www.tritex.com

January/February 2014 • 9

WB236_Pg9Fracts.indd 9

11/20/13 1:53 PM

Advertisement

ucina236.indd 10

11/22/13 2:38 PM

Advertisement

Though the nautical enterprises of Italy and the U.S. continue to be world leaders in the sector, it is still essential
that they increase their presence in new markets and that the industry further expand in developing countries like
India. Such an expansion would provide an opportunity for subcontracting and would allow for an increased focus
on Made in Italy and its high-quality products. The contraction of Western markets and competition from developing
countries provides the premise for initiating new partnerships between both American and Italian institutions and
companies, especially given that the United States continues to be the world’s number one market in leisure
boating. Hence the project promoted by the Ministry for Economic Development (MiSE). The ministry has appointed
UCINA Confindustria Nautica to construct the prototype for an Italian-designed vessel, built using the American
strip-planking system and equipped with products and accessories from both countries, at India’s Chantier de
Pondicherry. The prototype will then be showcased at the most important nautical trade shows in America as a prime
example of collaboration between developed and developing countries. It will also be showcased at relevant Indian
trade shows in order to stimulate interest in Italian design and Western quality. The prototype’s strong points are tied
to the fact that its production does not create competition between Italian and American companies, which build on
different scales and use different materials, and that the production is feasible and attractive to the niche market of
American wooden vessels as an example of collaboration between countries active in the nautical world. The project
will be promoted in collaboration with IBEX and Professional BoatBuilder, an American publication and the event
co-organizer for the main U.S. trade show in the nautical supplies and accessories sector and the wooden vessel
sector. Specifically, IBEX will promote this initiative via industry publications and prominent visibility at the industry’s
most important trade shows. This collaboration between Italy and the United States aims to facilitate access to the
American market and, more importantly, to third-party markets, starting of course with India.
Pietro Celi, general manager of MiSE: “We are very proud to contribute with a public investment to this project that
finds its value and strength in the collaboration among all the partners involved. Italy and the United States, the major
international players in the nautical industry, decided to approach together, among the other markets, the promising
Indian one, with a shared product that matches the best of our expertise: Italian design, American technology, and
Indian manufacturing. Moreover, Italy and the U.S. are not only skilled to maintain and expand their market shares in
the international competition, we have a plus: the common nautical passion. One of the aims of this project is also to
spread this message and ‘wave together’ with the nautical industry of newcomer countries.”
Anton Francesco Albertoni, the president of UCINA Confindustria Nautica, expressed his satisfaction with the project,
stressing the importance of the American market for the Italian nautical industry and, consequently the value of such
a collaboration. “According to the data provided by the National Marine Manufacturers Association,” he explained,
“the North American nautical industry is growing. Last year’s recovery started with outboard motor boats, while
this year is showing positive signs in cabin cruisers of up to 18 meters in length. These are comforting indications,
primarily because the American market is the third commercial outlet for the Italian nautical industry. After all,” he
emphasized, “according to the Global Order Book, published annually by ShowBoats International magazine, Italian
companies are first among the top twenty manufacturers in the world. For us this initiative is a breath of fresh air,
which encourages us to be optimistic about the sector’s future and the growth of the industry.”
The general coordinator of the project, professor Pier Federico Caliari of the Politecnico di Milano, DATSU department,
considers the experience “not only a positive one, but also one that has to have a further development of the particular
technologies applied for the construction of lightweight hulls, within the important context of international scientific
exchange.” He would also like to express the great appreciation for the project team, composed entirely from young
designers and collaborators, as follows: architects Dan Andresan and Carola Gentilini, structural engineers Marta
Giangreco and Dario Barbieri.
Professor Anantha Subramanian, Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras: “At the Indian Institute of Technology
Madras, we see this international collaborative development to have great value for the future. The fairly complex
time-consuming construction process based on an original American construction technique, the Italian design
and the Indian effort in meticulously creating the boat is indeed a unique achievement. The construction uses red
cedar wood in veneer and other forms and epoxy resin, finally resulting in a fine finish product, strongly resistant to
deterioration in the marine environment, relatively light weight and conserving valuable timber. This has been a good,
challenging project, and we look forward to future developments with highly mutual benefits.”
Carl Cramer, publisher of Professional BoatBuilder and WoodenBoat magazines: “This project is very welcome in the
U.S., as it represents a global development of the players and opportunities to enjoy the water in a wooden boat.”
The initial presentation of the project to the United States took place at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in Florida at
the Italian Pavilion. Following this, the model will be displayed from January 1–5 in the MiSE-UCINA Confindustria
Nautica space at the New York Boat Show. In terms of the Indian market, the model will subsequently be displayed
at the 2013 and/or 2014 Mumbai Show, or other relevant nautical events in India. The project will also have adequate
exposure in Italy, with particular focus on its launch and conclusion. Specifically, the project’s prototype was
displayed at Genoa’s International Boat Show in October. The Ligurian Boat Show is further testimony to the desire,
on the part of MiSE-UCINA Confindustria Nautica, to give visibility to this significant collaboration by taking advantage
of an important international platform.

ucina236.indd 11

11/22/13 3:55 PM

COMING

To a newsstand near you
(and to the WoodenBoat Store)

NOVEMBER 26
Only available for a limited time.
Order a copy of Small Boats at
www.woodenboatstore.com

or call 1-800-273-7447 and we ca

n ship it to you

circsmallboats235.indd 12

11/21/13 3:51 PM

Beware of the Butt Joint
by David Kasanof

C

eiling planking has its
advantages. It strengthens
the hull, gives the interior a
finished look, and keeps bilgewater out of your lockers. It has
its disadvantages, too: It hides
stuff—which is actually good
if you’re an 80-lb Weimaraner.
Aboard CONTENT we had two of
these highly intelligent creatures.
When I say intelligent, I mean that
if one of them had suddenly begun
to speak to me in understandable
English, I would have been startled
but not amazed.
I know you’re dying to know what
kind of stuff two large dogs would
want to hide behind a boat’s interior planking. Based on what we
found—bones, food scraps, candy
wrappers—it looked to us like they
were bringing back anything they
could steal from the garbage cans
and dumpsters around the boatyard.
It ended up on our boat, behind the
ceiling. They knew we frowned on
thievery, so they hid the proceeds of
their looting capers until they could
enjoy their booty at leisure. Our ceiling stopped short of the forepeak,
and our master criminals probably
found an opening there. At any rate,
that’s where I found most of the beef
bones. The melon rings and hardboiled eggs eventually showed up on
the bilge pump strainer.
I can’t be sure how these animals
were able to hide this stuff and then
recover it, because I was never able
to catch them in the act. In addition,
I do not have a clue, to this day, of
the solution of the Great Cherry Pie
Mystery.
It began one morning in the
anchorage in Block Island just a
morning’s sail east of Long Island’s
Montauk Point. We were anchored
there and enjoying the morning when
a Boston Whaler came alongside with
pastries for sale. We bought a whole
cherry pie, promising to return the
aluminum plate in which it had been
baked. Secure in the knowledge that
the dogs were on deck, I went below,
grabbed our favorite china plate,
returned on deck, transferred the
pie to it, and returned the aluminum

PETE GORSKI

plate. Then I took the pie below and
put it on the counter in our galley. I
was confident that the dogs were still
on deck, so I went back up topside for
some additional morning relaxation.
After all, the dogs were still on…. Oh
my God! Where are the dogs!?
I dove down through the main
hatch just in time to see the two culprits, crouched in the engineroom,
licking cherry-pie slobber from their
muzzles. Obviously, they had teleported themselves below and hidden in the engineroom before I put
the pie in the galley. But what had
they done with the plate? Even when
we looked with a mirror and flashlight, we could not find where they
must have hidden that plate behind
the ceiling. Not then. Not ever. They
couldn’t have thrown it overboard
and we never found it below. Apparently ceiling provides a better hiding
place than anyone might imagine.
Despite this disadvantage, I want
to stress another function of ceiling that one overlooks at one’s peril.
If that sounds like an exaggeration,
dear friends, just give ear to my sad
tale, which I preface with a warning:
If you intend to sleep in the fo’c’s’le
of an old wooden boat with no ceiling
in that area, keep your butt away from
the planking. I learned this decades
ago on a tired old 60' schooner on
which I had agreed to serve as one of

the deck apes. That boat was a
true floating gymnasium—
gaff-rigged on both masts
and carrying a 15' bowsprit.
(The old-timers know what
they were talking about when
they called these things “widow makers.”) By the end of my watch I had
to take the windward bunk because
the leeward one was full of gear. I
was so tired that I didn’t mind. Nor
did I mind the lack of ceiling. In
fact, I considered it a blessing in disguise because it gave me a few extra
inches into which I could wedge my
butt while bracing myself by pushing
against a pile of sail bags. I know it
sounds uncomfortable, but in
those days I was easy to please.
I must have drifted into a
half-asleep state when I became
foggishly aware that we were coming about. I also became aware of
a slightly stinging sensation in my
nether region; the sensation grew less
and less slight as the old hooker made
her stately turn onto the other tack.
The pain seemed to pulse in time
with the plunging of the bow into the
oncoming waves.
Suddenly, I realized what had happened and that realization brought
me fully awake. On the previous tack
the windward shrouds had pulled the
planks apart so as to open the seams
enough to allow a pinch of my rear
to enter that enlarged seam. I tried
to pull free but it was no dice. I was
being bitten in the ass by a 75-yearold schooner. To make matters worse,
the skipper seemed atypically obtuse
and even a little hard of hearing
when I tried to make him understand
that it was imperative that we go
about again so that the windward
seams would reopen and set me free.
Perhaps his grasp of the situation
would have been quicker if he hadn’t
been laughing so hard. When he did
release me, I had a blister the size of a
weather balloon and spent the rest of
the cruise standing up.
The incident gave me an increased
respect for ceiling planking. In addition to its aesthetic and utilitarian virtues, ceiling protects the unwary from
carnivorous hull planking.
January/February 2014 • 13

Focsle236-03.indd 13

11/22/13 11:47 AM

DIY HOW-TO DVDS
Available Exclusively at www.sailrite.com

Make Your Own: Full Boat Enclosure • Sail Pack • Dodger • Bimini • Cushions
| F R E E C ATA LO G

| www.sailrite.com | 8 0 0 . 3 4 8 . 2 7 6 9

|

14 • WoodenBoat 236

WB236_Pg14Fracts.indd 14

11/21/13 10:13 AM

CURRENTS

Edited by Tom Jackson

For generations, U.S. mariners have looked to charts printed by the Federal government, but that era ends soon. The
representative chart shown here—the waters off WoodenBoat’s headquarters in Maine—was printed from a downloaded
PDF fi le.
NOAA

End of an era in chart
making
by Tom Jackson

T

here is something endlessly satisfying about rolling out a new chart.
It’s an invitation to explore, tempered
by caution in the details. Little wonder
that mariners let out something of a collective moan when the U.S. National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in fall 2013 that lithographic printing of its navigational
charts—a tradition that dates back
to 1862—will end this April. NOAA
put the changes down to declining
demand, gains in electronic and printon-demand charts, and “federal budget
realities.”
It’s not the end of the world. Commercial mariners are still required to
carry paper charts, which will be with
us in one form or another at least as
long as those rules hold. Most prudent navigators, whether commercial
or recreational, have the good sense
to back up whatever electronic system
they’re using with traditional tools,
all of which are useless without paper
charts. NOAA lately has been experimenting with a variety of new ideas,
some of which are very interesting.
Booklet Charts for small-boat users,

for example, show some promise. Last
year, NOAA announced a nautical chart
app for Android tablets, and the idea
may resurface again. Downloadable
PDF charts are available as an experiment for a limited time, and they also
may reappear. Downloadable electronic
charts have long been available for various navigation systems used on large
boats. For printed charts, NOAA will
nudge customers toward commercial
vendors who will print them to order.
Most yacht skippers these days
wouldn’t be caught dead without a highend navigation system. I crewed on a
racing yacht that had screen displays
not only for the helmsman but also on
both sides of the binnacle, with another
at the navigation station below, where
Internet access allowed, among other
things, three-dimensional modeling
of the Gulf Stream in real time. In one
surreal moment, in a dense fog under
power, I noticed from the helm that
every face was buried in a computer
screen. One of the technical sessions at
IBEX (International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition) a couple of years ago was also an
eye-opener, showing how close we are to
wireless integration of marine electronics—and the ability to manage an entire
motoryacht from the foredeck using a
smartphone. But electronic systems can
fail, or the guy who really knows how
to use it all can be out of commission. I

know from direct evidence that a phone
can slip out of a shirt pocket and drown
in bilgewater. In a knockdown or a full
capsize, precious systems might be just a
little too “precious.”
For navigating the old way, by preference or as backup, commercial chart
book providers (such as Maptech, www.
maptech.com) will continue their publications unabated. Chartbooks can
often be a practical choice and more
convenient than large NOAA charts.
Individual fold-up charts cover popular cruising grounds succinctly, often
on both sides of water-resistant paper,
which ends up also being cheaper than
a succession of traditional charts.
For the most accurate paper charts,
print-on-demand
seems
logical.
NOAA’s argument is that such charts
are always the most up-to-date. But it
also could mean ordering charts well
ahead of departure, not swinging by
the marine supply store when the need
becomes apparent or after the dog rips
up a favorite chart. More people will
probably leave the dock without them.
Strangely, NOAA’s website steers buyers to only two providers, or “NOAA certified printers,” in the entire United
States: OceanGrafi x and East View Geospatial, both based in Minnesota. It’s
also a bit bizarre that NOAA’s announcement completely blindsided maritime
professionals. Here in Maine, Hamilton
January/February 2014 • 15

Currents236-FINALwADS.indd 15

11/20/13 11:38 AM

examined on the computer or
cropped and printed for use.
But the files are large and the
process is cumbersome. I often
plan my routes at home, then
transfer information to tighterfocus charts for use on the
boat, and for that there is no
substitute for a real chart. Even
if I have a chartbook, I usually
take folded-up charts along.
Paper charts, of course,
have a long and honored tradition. The charts and coastal
views made during Capt. James
Cook’s Pacific explorations in
the 1700s were so well done that
they were still in use during
GENIUS, a 68' purse-seiner built in 1920, is
World War II, often as the only
being brought back to life by Jason Crosby,
charts available. Chart making
whose family owned the boat for 70 years.
on that level is an art form. In
The work is being done at the Port of Port
a fine bit of irony, one of the
Townsend, Washington.
best ways to view historic paper
charts today is—where else?—online. and portions of a remarkable interior,
Browse the David Rumsey Map Collec- which includes a galley, enclosed head,
tion (www.davidrumsey.com) in Cali- and bunks for four—remember, this is
fornia or the Osher Map Library (www. the world’s biggest runabout.
oshermaps.org) in Maine for a feast of
“After much discussion between
maps, from the fabulous to the outright the museum and Brooklin Boat Yard
fraudulent. Each one is an insight into concerning the best way to restore her
the maker’s conception of the universe, originally double-planked bottom, she
or at least a corner of it.
was rebuilt with three layers of 7⁄16" sipo,
The conception of the universe that an African mahogany. The first layer
I regret is the one in which faces are was screwed to the frames and the top
all glued to computer screens. Without two layers set in epoxy. Todd Skoog,
practice, the instincts of watchfulness head carpenter on the project, says he
and listening intently are poorly honed, is delighted with the strength restored
and valuable skills can wither. In our to the 66-year-old hull and her prosconception of the universe, we are blips pects of exceeding 60-knot speeds once
on a screen. We always know precisely again.
where we are and too often have lost any “Her engine was reinstalled by
clear concept of why we’ve come there.
Brooklin Boat Yard in November, and
sea trials will be held in Maine. She
will be ready for her formal relaunching next spring in Clayton and will be
an active centerpiece for the museum’s
■ “The Antique Boat Museum of Clay- 50th anniversary Antique Boat Show in
ton, New York, is midway through the August.”
restoration of the iconic runabout Antique Boat Museum, 750 Mary St.,
Clayton, NY 13624; 315–686-4104; www.
PARDON ME at Brooklin Boat Yard in
Maine,” Doug Adkins writes after visit- abm.org. Brooklin Boat Yard, 44 Center
ing the project from Seattle, Washing- Harbor Rd., Brooklin, ME 04616; 207–
ton. “Designed by John Hacker and 359–2236; www.brooklinboatyard.com.
built by the Hutchinson Boat Works in
1947, the perfectly proportioned, mas- ■ The fishing vessel GENIUS, long
sive 48' triple-cockpit is powered by her familiar among Puget Sound’s purseoriginal, newly rebuilt 1,350-hp Pack- seining fleet, has been hauled out at
ard 4M-2500 V-12 supercharged engine. the Port of Port Townsend, WashingOriginally fitted in sets of three to ton, for significant restoration work.
World War II PT boats, the engine has The boat, built in 1920 at the Skansie
been completely restored by renowned Ship Building Company in Gig Harbor
engine rebuilder Bob Mishko of Rocky (see WB No. 204), was purchased by
Summit Performance in Bean Station, Skansie descendant Jason Crosby for
Tennessee. Brooklin Boat Yard has been $3,010 at auction in Friday Harbor in
entrusted with rebuilding the mahog- the San Juan Islands. Crosby grew up
any bottom and selected frames. For in the San Juans, where he and his twin
that task, she has been turned upside- brother, Christopher, starting fishing
down after the removal of her engine aboard GENIUS at age 12. “The boat was

JASON CROSBY

Marine, which is an excellent chandlery,
knew nothing of the pending change
until NOAA’s press releases went out.
Phil Dion, who handles charts and navigation electronics in the firm’s Searsport headquarters, said the company as
of November hadn’t had time to analyze
what the change would mean for them.
“We’re still up in the air about it, and we
haven’t had time to digest it,” he said.
One option he mentioned was investing in a large-format printer of the
store’s own. These NOAA charts, created with public financing, are absolutely in the public domain. There has
always been a public-­private symbiosis,
with the goal of disseminating accurate
charts as widely as possible. Anybody
should be able to print them.
Meanwhile, NOAA’s other options
are worth a look. During the 2013 season, I gave the new Booklet Charts a
try. I found them useful for close-up
views—supplementing my handheld
GPS. But the pages have to be kept dry,
which can be difficult on an open boat.
The binder itself has to be weatherproof. Unlike typical chartbooks, not
all of the pages have compass roses.
But what is really missing in the Booklet Chart, just as in any small handheld
GPS display and many chartbooks, is the
big picture. Something more is essential. When planning a long crossing or
strategizing routes based on wind and
weather, the traditional NOAA charts
covering a larger area really shine.
The new PDF charts—and I downloaded quite a load of them while they
were available—can help. They can be

DOUG ADKINS

Around the yards

PARDON ME, a 1947 John Hacker–

designed 48’ runabout, is being rebuilt
at Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine for the
Antique Boat Museum of Clayton,
New York. The V-12 Packard engine,
rebuilt by Bob Mishko of Rocky
Summit Performance in Tennessee,
was reinstalled in November 2013.

16 • WoodenBoat 236

Currents236-FINALwADS.indd 16

11/20/13 11:38 AM

GETTING STARTED IN BOATS
from the Editors of

Volume 44

GS-Vol44-Final.indd 1

Magazine

Towing for the Yachtsman

11/20/13 8:45 AM

— TOWING

FOR THE

YACHTSMAN —

by Andy Chase
Illustrations by Jan Adkins

O

n the following pages, we’ll examine
the fundamentals of towing a boat.
Most cruisers, whether power or
sail, have a dinghy. If it can’t be carried on
deck, that dinghy must be towed, and towing requires a bit of care and understanding or you can end up with it swamped or
capsized and lose your nice oars, life jackets, and fuel cans. On the other hand, you
might also find yourself having to tow your
larger boat. This might be from the dock
to the mooring or perhaps from the mooring to the boatyard after an engine failure.
You may also come across a fellow mariner
needing a tow. Whatever the reason, this is

a project that can go very badly if not done
right. For one thing, in a crowded anchorage there are plenty of obstacles, some of
which are very expensive, and a towed boat
doesn’t always follow obediently where you
lead it. A boat under tow doesn’t usually
stop when you want it to either, but as with
most things, a little practice before the skill
is needed will help a lot.
This primer on towing should get you
across the harbor with a relatively small
boat (say, less than 40' ). If you need to tow
a longer distance, or tow a larger boat, you’ll
need a good deal more than what we can
provide in this space.

WOODENBOAT PUBLICATIONS, INC.
P.O. Box 78 (41 WoodenBoat Ln.), Brooklin, ME 04616 • Tel. 207–359–4651
www.woodenboatstore.com/category/getting_started
Subscribe to WoodenBoat Magazine: 1–800–877–5284 (U.S. and Canada)
1–818–487–2084 (Overseas)

2 • Towing

GS-Vol44-Final.indd 2

for the Yachtsman

(SUPPLEMENT TO WoodenBoat NO. 236 )

11/20/13 8:45 AM

Towing a Dinghy

For a dinghy to tow gracefully, its forefoot
must clear the water and it must have some drag
aft and very little forward. While an effectively shaped
hull will tow with little modification, tweaks may be made by
ballasting the stern with beach stones, by leaving the outboard
motor or rudder secured in place, or by dragging a loop of line—
a “warp”—aft. A deployed centerboard will introduce too much drag
forward, causing the boat to veer off.

T

he basic goal of towing any boat is to
get more resistance aft than forward
so it will follow in a straight line. If
there is more resistance forward than aft,
the bow of the towed boat (we’ll just call
it a dinghy here, but it would apply to any
towed object) will “dig in” and cause the
dinghy to take a zigzag course. That might
be annoying at best, but it could become
severe enough to cause the dinghy to swamp
or capsize. This is why you must put a tail on
a kite to stabilize it. You need drag aft.
How do you get more drag aft? There are
many ways, and here are some:
• Any method that will lift the bow out of
the water, such as attaching the towline to
a fitting near the waterline and pulling
the dinghy up close, thereby lifting the
bow further out of the water.
• Placing some weight, such as beach stones,
in the stern, causing the same result (bow
up, stern down).
• If your dinghy has a relatively flat bottom
forward and a skeg aft, it should tow fine
without modification.

• If you have a sailing dinghy with no skeg,
you can secure the rudder amidships.
(Leaving it unsecured will actually work,
too, but it will work better if secured.) A
sailing dinghy should have its centerboard
raised; otherwise it will create drag too far
forward.
• The same effect can be accomplished in
an outboard-powered dinghy by leaving
the motor down, though it will create
more drag.
With the dinghy properly trimmed for
towing, adjust the length of the towline
so the boat is riding just up the back side of
the stern wave, with the bow over the crest.
If the dinghy can slide down the wave’s face,
it is likely to sheer off in a direction of its
choosing and potentially capsize when the
line fetches up.
And finally, if you have a boat in tow
that is just plain ornery and doesn’t want
to follow along, trail a bight (a loop) of line
(dockline or whatever) behind it. In storm
sailing this is called “towing a warp,” and is
in fact exactly like putting a tail on a kite.

Towing for the Yachtsman
GS-Vol44-Final.indd 3

(Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 236 )

•

3

11/20/13 8:45 AM

Towing a Boat Across a Harbor

Y

our first decision should be whether to
pull or push. Most tugboat operators
will push their tow in confined waters
in order to achieve the best maneuverability. They’ll then switch to towing on a short
hawser for the run out the channel, then
lengthen out to a very long towline for the
offshore run. If you are moving your powerless boat across a crowded harbor, you will
likewise be better off pushing her, and we’ll
get to how to do that shortly. If the harbor is
wide open with only a few obstacles, it will be
simpler to tow her on a fairly short line. This
will allow you some maneuverability, though
not enough for close quarters.

Preparing the Towboat
Tugboats have very long, obstacle-free aft decks
and their towing bitts are located well forward of the rudder. This allows the tug to
turn even when there is a great strain on the
towline. If you connect your towline to the
stern of your boat (anywhere near or aft of
the rudder) you will have difficulty turning,
since the towline will restrict your stern from
swinging. By towing from well forward of the
rudder, the rudder can still swing the towboat’s stern regardless of the direction of
pull of the towline. If your towboat has an
outboard motor, this may be awkward since
the towline must pass above the motor. In
that case you can station someone aft to help
pass the towline over the motor when necessary. On a small outboard-powered boat or
even a rowboat, you can tie the towline to
the middle thwart. Get all obstructions clear
of the towline and have someone standing
by to clear any snags.

Preparing the Boat to Be Towed
Your primary goal is to get the center of drag
sufficiently aft, and you can accomplish this
by several means. If the center of drag is too
far forward, the bow will dig in and the boat
will veer from side to side, like the dinghy
described on the previous page. If the center
of drag is adequately aft, the boat will follow
where the tugboat leads it.
If you can, put a person onboard the
towed boat to steer. Although the most effective, this solution is not always practical.
If you can’t provide a helmsman, you may
need to experiment a little. Try towing with
the rudder secured amidships, then with it
left free, to see which is more effective. In
the former case she will tow straighter, in the
latter she should be easier to turn. If she’s a
centerboarder, raise the board to move the
center of drag aft. If she has a deep forefoot
and her bow digs in and she veers, there may
not be much you can do about it except ballast her down by the stern a bit.
Once underway, take the advice of Capt.
Sam Teel, ship-handling instructor at Maine
Maritime Academy: “Go slow, think ahead,
and be patient.” Those are good rules to tow
by. And remember that when you slow down,
the towed vessel may catch up to, and even
pass you if you’re not careful. Then things
can get really ugly—for instance, if the towline becomes fouled around your propeller.
If there is current (or wind), it will affect
the towed vessel more and more as you slow
down. Anticipate.
In the end, if she doesn’t tow well—meaning
straight—you should probably abandon this
idea and get rigged up for pushing instead.

No matter what the towing vessel is, if the point of attachment of the towline (×) is well ahead of the
rudder, the boat can be steered effectively. In all of the scenarios we see here, if the tow point were
moved aft to the location of the rudder, the movement of the stern—and thus the ability of the boat to be
steered—would be restricted by the drag of the tow.

4 • Towing

GS-Vol44-Final.indd 4

for the Yachtsman

(Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 236 )

11/20/13 8:45 AM

Towing for the Yachtsman
GS-Vol44-Final.indd 5

(Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 236 )

•

5

11/20/13 8:46 AM

Pushing
“On
the Hip” —
—Towing
A Pair ofbyBenches
for
Handsawing

In situations that require precise
maneuverability, a boat should
be hip-towed. The towing vessel
should be secured so it does not
move relative to the tow, and it
should be set at an angle to the tow to
compensate for drag.

T

he most controllable way to tow
another vessel, whether it is a sailboat,
motorboat, barge, or floating dock,
is to push it. Tugboats do this all the time,
and while some are equipped to push their
barges directly in front of them, it is more
common for them to lash alongside the vessel
or object being towed in a configuration
referred to as “on the hip.”
Imagine lashing your towboat parallel to
the side of another vessel, and picture what
would happen when you throttle up (or reverse). You won’t be going anywhere but
around in circles. The towed vessel will create enough drag on one side of your towboat
6 • Towing

GS-Vol44-Final.indd 6

for the Yachtsman

to force you to simply pivot around
her. The solution is to get yourself way
aft on her quarter (near to the stern
on either the port or starboard side),
and then get your towboat’s bow angled well inward and your stern sticking out. You want your towboat’s centerline at a 10- to 15-degree angle to the
center­line of the towed vessel. (This angle
may vary depending on how the towed vessel behaves.) Now you are pushing the vessel
with her bow crossing your bow. If she is
on your port side, her bow will be angled
to your starboard, and she will be trying to
turn both of you to your starboard. This is
good, because if you were parallel to her all
you could do is turn to port (given her drag
on your port side). Now you can turn her either way. You will be pushing her partially
sideways, but at least you have control. In
fact, you have so much control that you can
maneuver through a crowded mooring field,
or land her nicely at almost any dock, given
some practice.
The trick to making this work is getting
the two boats tied up tight. You will do this
with three lines: a bow line, a spring line,
and a stern line. To secure these, pull up
along your chosen side, well aft. How far aft
will be determined by the shape of the towed
vessel. You’ll need a reasonably flat surface

(Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 236 )

11/20/13 8:46 AM

to lie alongside, so don’t get back under an
overhanging stern. Place some good fenders
between the two vessels.
Run a spring line from well forward on
your “tug” to well aft on the “tow.” This line
will be taking most of the load, so make sure
it goes to a stout cleat or bitt. Try to employ
a line with low stretch, like a heavy double
braid. Don’t be afraid to oversize this line;
the thicker it is, the less stretch it will have.
Now run out a bow line from your tug to
the tow, angled slightly forward. Pull this
line tight enough so the bow of the tug angles in a little more than the target 10 to 15
degrees, and secure it.
Finally run a line from your stern to the
tow’s stern and tension it (your stern may
stick out past the stern of the tow, but that’s
fine). Put all your weight into this stern line,
even using the engine of the tug to help,
perhaps. The idea here is to get it as tight
as humanly possible, as by doing so you are
also tightening the other two lines and compressing the fenders. This should flatten
your angle back to the target. When a real
tugboat does this, she uses a burst of engine
ahead and takes up on an extremely powerful winch aft, making all three lines sound
like they are nearing their breaking points.
But the more rigid the connection, the better the control you’ll have. The slightest slack
will show up immediately when you start to
maneuver.
Depending on the exact leads of the
three lines, you might choose to add another spring line running opposite to the one
described above, to handle the strain of
backing down, but in most situations three
lines will suffice.

Maneuvering
Once you are securely connected to your
“tow,” you’ll need to think of the two boats
(tug and tow) as one vessel. If you are
pulling your tow off the dock, you may find
it is easier to pull her off in reverse than to

try to push ahead. To do so, start by leading
a spring line aft from the boat’s bow to the
dock  and giving your towboat a brief kick
ahead with your rudder hard over toward the
dock. This will swing your stern out into the
stream. Then you can back out diago­nally
until you are far enough away to turn in the
direction you want to go. Alternatively, you
could hold a forward-leading spring line on
the stern  and pull on the tow by backing
down. This will spring your bow out into the
stream and you can steam away ahead.
When approaching a dock, again consider
using a spring line to help land. If you gently land her bow and  then secure a spring
line leading aft to the dock, you can power
ahead gently with your rudder hard over
away from the dock, which will bring your
stern in and alongside. Again, the opposite
will also work: After landing the bow,  lead
a spring line forward from the stern to the
dock and then pull gently astern against it,
which will pull your stern into the dock.
It is important to remember that you are
handling a vessel with the combined length
and weight (and thus momentum) of both
vessels. This can work for you. When approaching a dock at about a 45-degree angle, you can start backing slowly on your tug,
while the momentum of your tow continues
forward, causing the combined tug and tow
to pivot. Because your propeller is offset so
far from the centerline of the tow, you’ll
have quite a lot of turning power, so use it
sparingly.
You’ll be amazed at how much control
you have after you get used to it. Don’t be
surprised if you find out right away that you
need to tighten that stern line even more
than you thought, since all lines stretch and
fenders compress. Look at all the lines for
chafe or bad leads that might bend a stanchion or scar the varnish. Check for fenders that aren’t doing their job. Vigilance is
key. And again: Go slow, think ahead, and
be patient.

Towing for the Yachtsman
GS-Vol44-Final.indd 7

(Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 236 )

•

7

11/20/13 8:46 AM

The Tugboat Hitch

1.
2.

3.
4.

T

ugboats typically have a large set of steel
bitts at the bow and heavy, long lines for
connecting to their tows. This combination
makes it difficult to tie conventional knots or belays. The solution is to use what is known as a tugboat hitch, which allows you to secure a large line
to a post without having to find the end of the line.
It is secure, won’t slip under extreme strain, and
is always easy to untie, even with a load on it. It
can be tied around a single post (such as a samson
post), around a double set of bitts, or around virtually anything else. But its utility is not limited to big
commercial work: A recreational sailor can use this
knot to secure a line that’s been wound around a
winch or windlass drum and hove taut, and it’s very
useful for tying a mooring line to your boat or connecting a towline from another.
To describe how to tie any knot, we need a little
vocabulary. There will be a standing part, a running part, a bitter end, and a bight. In this case, the
standing part will be the part of the line coming

8 • Towing

GS-Vol44-Final.indd 8

for the Yachtsman

from the other boat, approaching the bitt. It may
or may not have a strain on it. The running part
is the part in your hand that will make the knot.
The bitter end is just that—the very end of the line
you are working with (as opposed to the end that is
aboard the other boat). A bight is formed when you
grab a line somewhere in the middle and use it,
doubled, as if it were the bitter end. You can tie any
knot using a bight instead of the bitter end.
To tie the tugboat hitch, start by (1) taking a few
turns around the bitt, post, drum, or whatever you
are using. (2) Next, grab a bight of the running
part and pass it under the standing part. Take this
bight out from under the standing part, form a
loop, and drop it over the bitt. Snug it up by pulling on the running part. (3) For more security,
repeat this process with a second bight. (4) That’s
it. It is simple and secure, and will not jam. The
first two (or more) turns around the bitt will enable you to control the line as you undo the hitch
under strain.

(Supplement to WoodenBoat No. 236 )

11/20/13 8:46 AM

WoodenBoat’s Boatbuilding & Rowing Challenge (BARC) is a grassroots effort to involve communities and,
in our specific case, high school programs, in the team-building aspects of boatbuilding and then
competitively rowing one specific boat: Iain Oughtred's 22', 330 pound St. Ayles Skiff,
with a crew of four rowers and one helmsperson (coxswain).

North American Championship

JUNE 27–29, 2014

at the WoodenBoat Show, Mystic , CT

For further information: www.woodenboat.com/BARC or www.cnc-marine-hewesco.com

CHRIS PERKINS

PETER NISBET

Creating The Ship’s Half Model ...

Since 1790 the
half-hull has
been used to
study hull design.
Today it has become
a possession to be
cherished a lifetime.
For further details
please visit our
web site.

WWW.WESTLAWN.EDU

LEARN BOAT DESIGN

W hen the artistry

becomes the mastery
of form.

AT WESTLAWN
■
■
■

9214 15th NW
Seattle, WA 98117
(206) 789-3713
www.halfhull.com

“38 ft Cutter“ • Ted Brewer • Westlawn Alumnus

Trained more practicing boat designers than any other school
Over 80 years of distance-learning education
READ OUR FREE ONLINE JOURNAL

Accredited by the Royal Institution
of Naval Architects

Accredited member DETC.

Not-for-profit educational affiliate of the American Boat & Yacht Council.
Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology • 16 Deep Cove Rd, Suite W • Eastport, ME 04631
PH: 207.853.6600 • EMAIL: [email protected]

January/February 2014 • 17

WB236_Pg17Fracts.indd 17

11/21/13 10:08 AM

■ HOLGER DANSKE , a double-ended
42' 6" ketch from Aage Nielsen’s board

2012, Philip Myer and Joy Phillips
bought the boat, which is now homeported in Kettering. “Dean Marks
Boatbuilding of Port Huon is restoring
varnish on the trunk cabin, coamings,
hatches, and masts so she is in top shape
for her 50th birthday next year,” Myer
reports. It is the boat’s first haulout
since a thorough going-over at Walsted’s in 1997.
Dean Marks Boatbuilding, +61 03–​
62971432 or [email protected].

PHILIP MYER

in my family for 70 years and got sold
out about 15 years ago,” Crosby writes.
“I grew up on the boat and fished
salmon for seven years on the GENIUS.”
His uncle, Gerald Crosby, owned the
boat since the 1940s. The boat had
undergone a reframing and refastening project during the previous owner’s
conversion for pleasure use. Ten years
later, in 2008, she was for sale again,
and by 2010 she was up for auction,
much deteriorated. With professional
help from Clint Thompson, Crosby has
replaced additional frames forward
along with numerous hull planks. The
long list of projects includes remodeling the fo’c’s’le and galley, replacing
deck planking and recaulking, upgrading electronics and power, new hydraulics controls, and repainting, among
other things. Crosby, who intends to
restore the boat to fishing condition,
is planning a film about the project. A
crowdfunding campaign is under way
to support the restoration, and a spring
2014 relaunching is anticipated.
See www.ageniusproject.com for more
information.

HOLGER DANSKE, a 42' 6" ketch

designed by Aage Nielsen, is
undergoing cosmetic restoration in
Tasmania under her new owners for
her upcoming 50th anniversary.

built in 1964 by Walsted’s Baadervaerft
in Thuro, Denmark (see WB No. 133),
has been hauled out for a thorough
cosmetic overhaul at Kettering Marina
south of Hobart, Tasmania. In August

■ A new organization has formed in Turkey to advance the cause of the nation’s
wooden boat building industry. A press
release states that Kayik Group combines
members from manufacturing, design,
and engineering to draw on the wooden
boat building traditions of various
regions of Turkey—which has coastlines
on the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara,
the Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean
Sea. “The skills and expertise garnered
over centuries and handed down from
father to son and through craftsmen’s
guilds have been transformed by modern technology in the last 30 years,” the
organization stated. The objective of
Kayik is to emphasize “the importance
of wood as a yacht-building material”

Great Lakes Boat Building School

Here today.

A job tomorrow.

Chad Buras
and Brock Tyner

Class of 2013

“I took the full 2-year program and it was outstanding. I credit
GLBBS for being where I am today, working for one of the leading
custom boat builders in the world.” Brock Tyner, Class of 2012

CLASSIC WOODWORKING
TRADITIONAL & COMPOSITE
WOODEN BOAT BUILDING PROGRAMS
YACHT JOINERY

“The staff was wonderful and went out of their way to help me from enrollment
to graduation. The instructors were amazing and passed along a wealth of
knowledge and skills needed to fulfill my dream of working for one of the preeminent wooden boat builders in the world.” Chad Buras, Class of 2013
“Excellent instruction fosters excellent students and GLBBS
delivers on both, graduating the kind of students we look to hire.”
Steve Van Dam, Van Dam Custom Boats

Les Cheneaux Islands, Michigan 906.484.1081

www.glbbs.org

18 • WoodenBoat 236

Currents236-FINALwADS-r.indd 18

11/22/13 3:42 PM

COURTESY OF ARTISAN BOATWORKS

and to “promote Turkey’s
unique craftsmanship and
accumulation of expertise”
internationally. Standardization, certification programs,
consulting on wooden boat
purchases or restorations,
historical research, and maintaining archives are among
the goals.
For more information, see www.
kayikturkiye.com, which has an
English version.

Above—VIM (ex-OWL)
is a 1957 lobster yacht
nearing the end of
a thoroughgoing
upgrade at Artisan
Boatworks in
Rockport, Maine.
Left—New electronics,
installed to a low
profile to retain
the boat’s original
character, involved
getting Timo Foster
into tight spaces.

■ Artisan Boatworks in
Rockport, Maine, has been
restoring OWL , a 36' mahogany-planked lobster yacht
built in 1957 by the Newbert & Wallace Shipyard in
Thomaston, Maine. The hull
reconstruction has involved a
complete reframing, using 60
laminated frames, with her
exterior brought to a high
degree of finish. The boat
now has a sound-insulated
working deck, new diesel and
water tanks, a redesigned
interior, and cutting-edge
mechanical and electrical

systems, mostly hidden from view
to maintain a vintage appearance.
Renamed VIM , she will debut at the
March 14–16 Maine Boatbuilders Show
before heading to her new home in
Newport, Rhode Island.
Artisan Boatworks, 410 Main St., Rockport, ME 04856; 207–236–4231; www.
artisan boatworks.com.
■ “The Spaulding Wooden Boat Center
and the Arques School of Traditional
Boatbuilding have been making good
progress toward their goal of launching
FREDA next year,” Sharon White writes
from Sausalito, California. “Several big
projects are complete: a new lead keel
was poured in a project that attracted
the interest of the entire Sausalito boatbuilding community, and is now bolted
in place. The cockpit and companionway are complete, as well as most of the
interior. FREDA has a new engine and
tanks, with some work yet to be done to
hook all of this up and get it running.
New standing rigging has been spliced,
served, and leathered. Her spars were
repaired by a team of skilled volunteers
last winter and are varnished, painted,
and ready to go back into service.
Major projects pending include trim

Natural beauty.
Use WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy Resin®
and 207 Special Clear Hardener™ for
a natural wood finish.
westsystem.com

January/February 2014 • 19

Currents236-FINALwADS.indd 19

11/20/13 11:38 AM

Scott Wall

The Spaulding
Wooden Boat
Center in Sausalito,
California, is
heading into the
home stretch on
restoring and
relaunching the
1885 sloop FREDA,
with work by the
Arques School
of Traditional
Boatbuilding.

and minor cabinetry in the interior,
repairs to the trunk cabin and decks,
fairing and finishing the hull, running
rigging, electrical work, and of course
finish painting inside and out. As in all
boat projects, lots of details remain, and
we are gearing up for a busy and productive winter. At this point our main obstacle is obtaining the necessary funding to
have this important vessel sailing on San
Francisco Bay again. We are anxious to
have her take an active part in our Youth
and Community Sails Programs.”
For more information, see the Spaulding
Wooden Boat Center website, www.spauldingcenter.

org. A crowdfunding site has been established at
www.razoo.com/story/Get-Freda-Afloat.

Offcuts

“C

reating a link between the past
and the present was my inspiration in building a Maine peapod with
150-year-old wood from buildings my
family owns,” Nicholas Cole writes.
He was 17 when he built the boat—his
second—and today he’s 19, stationed
in Southwest Harbor, Maine, with the
U.S. Coast Guard. He was 16 when he

built his first boat, and he is thinking
about what boat to build next. “My
family has owned a dry bean elevator,
King Cole Bean Company, in Avon,
New York, south of Rochester, for
three generations. In 1946, my greatgrandfather, Harold ‘King’ Cole, purchased a mill that dated to the 1800s,
and later he acquired two more mills
built in the same period. The mills
were in operation until 1991, when
they were superseded by a more modern and efficient system in nearby
York. The three mills have deep ties to
the rich history of Avon and are very
important to the community. Unfortunately, they are deteriorating, and
their state has brought us to a crossroads: we face the challenge of deciding whether to restore them or take
them down, and we are trying to find a
way to repurpose them and save them.
I decided, in the meantime, to build a
Maine peapod exclusively using wood
recovered from the three buildings
as a way of preserving the rich history
these mills represent and their ties to
my community.
“I started building the peapod during the summer of 2011, as I was going
into my senior year of high school. My

“The Rite of Spring”

THE MAINE
BOATBUILDERS SHOW
58 FORE STREET • PORTLAND, MAINE 04101
10 – 6 FRIDAY AND SATURDAY & 10 – 4 ON SUNDAY

March 14, 15 & 16, 2014

Buy
tickets on
Facebook
or at

pany.com
PortlandCom

PORTLAND YACHT SERVICES
207–774–1067

presented by:

Bill Sisson, Soundings magazine—

“Not a Tupperware party by any means.”
—Located on the Portland Waterfront off of Commercial Street—
Look for the shuttle busses along Commercial Street.
For more information and sign-up for show updates at:

www.portlandcompany.com

20 • WoodenBoat 236

Currents236-FINALwADS-r.indd 20

11/22/13 1:15 PM

COURTESY OF NICHOLAS COLE

Left—At the age of 17,
Nicholas Cole did a fine job
of building a traditionally
crafted Maine peapod, using
wood recovered from three
historic buildings (above) in
upstate New York that are
still in his family.

plan was to build it using wood from all
three mill buildings, plus pieces saved
from an old warehouse that we had to
take down some years ago. I started out
by constructing the strongback and
the forms, using store-bought lumber
since the forms wouldn’t actually be
part of the boat. Next came the forward and after stems, both made from
an ash workbench that was in what we
call the ‘black turtle soup’ building,

where black beans were processed and
polished.
“All three mills and the warehouse
were post-and-beam constructed. The
wood for the peapod’s keel, longitudinals, and planking was milled (thanks
to Tim Stapley of York) from posts that
were roughly 10" × 10", recovered from
the warehouse. I believe the wood was
hemlock, but the peapod has such a
variety of woods that it was hard to keep

track of them all. For the keel and the
longitudinals, I used boards 3⁄4" thick
milled from the posts. I had very little
trouble with the straight keel, but the
longitudinals and planks were a very
different story. After a century and a
half, the posts were very dry and thus
very stubborn in bending.
“After several frustrating weeks, a
planked hull emerged. Breasthooks
were next, made from wood from the
same bench used for the stems. Soon
after, I installed the seat beams with the
last of the wood from the warehouse
posts. At this point, I was nervous about
the strength of a hull made from such
brittle planking, so I consulted Tim
Wahl, an experienced boatbuilder in
my area. He suggested saturating the
wood with penetrating epoxy, so I used
three coats inside and outside, followed
by three coats of straight epoxy. After
this, I had no doubts in the strength of
my peapod.
“I decided to varnish the entire interior, to show the character of all the
wood used. After varnishing, the last
big project was to install the seats, drawing on many varieties of wood from all
three buildings. The side seats posed
the biggest problem, because they were

DO YOU
WANT
YOUR
OWN
COPY?
Professional BoatBuilder is the
only magazine in the world edited
for professional boatbuilders,
designers, repairers, and surveyors.
If you are one of these professionals
you may qualify for a free subscription.
For more information, write or fax us
(on your company letterhead), or
go to www.proboat.com.
If you have been receiving
Professional BoatBuilder and need
to change your address, or if you
prefer to receive the magazine at
your home address, go to our
website or photocopy the mailing
label on the magazine and send it to
us with your new address.

Professional BoatBuilder
P.O. Box 78 • Brooklin, ME 04616
F: 207-359-8920 • www.proboat.com

January/February 2014 • 21

Currents236-FINALwADS.indd 21

11/20/13 11:38 AM

11 1⁄2" wide. But I was able to recover a
beam stored in the loft of the feed mill
building that was 15" wide. I believe it
was willow. After milling, the resulting
board was long enough to get both side
seats out of it. For all but the center
piece of the after seat, I used part of a
hardwood board—I’m not sure what the
species was—that I found in the black
turtle soup building. The middle piece
of the stern seat, the middle thwart, and
the forward thwart are of poplar, from
a piece I found in the first mill building
my great-grandfather purchased. The
board was about 23" wide, 5' long, and
3⁄4" thick. I varnished all of the thwarts
and seat pieces and secured them to the
seat beams. I painted the hull exterior
with the King Cole colors—beige and
red—and finished off the work by stenciling ‘King Cole Bean Co.’ on the side,
along with ‘Avon, N.Y.’
“One hundred fi fty years of history
went into the building of this peapod.
At times, I asked myself why I had ever
started the boat. In the end, it worked
out well, and I am glad that I followed
through, no matter how frustrated I
got at times. The project has inspired
me to look deeper into the past and
develop a stronger bond with these

three buildings, which have shaped so
much of my family’s history.”

T

he 1864 composite-built British
clipper ship CITY OF ADELAIDE was
put on a barge and shipped out of England on October 21, bound for Australia. The ship had been on the brink of
destruction (see Currents, WB No. 211)
as it decayed while under the ownership
of the Scottish Maritime Museum. An
organization called Clipper Ship City of
Adelaide Ltd. was formed in Australia
to bring the ship to Adelaide as a tourist attraction. The ship is well known to
the country, having made 23 voyages to
Australia carrying immigrants and supplies. Meanwhile, a spirited group called
Sunderland City of Adelaide Recovery
Foundation (www.cityofadelaide1864.
co.uk) formed in the economically distressed English town where the ship was
built, tried to steer the ship their way.
SCARF leader Peter Maddison occupied
the hulk, Greenpeace-style, to prevent
its destruction earlier and continued
to work valiantly to keep the ship in
England—and was still trying to get
her back even after she reached Dordrecht, Holland, on October 24. English
ministerial authorities, however, long

before awarded the ship to the Australian group. In Holland, the clipper was
being readied for the voyage to Adelaide
aboard a heavy-lift vessel.
“The schedule, remarkably, is accelerating,” Peter Roberts writes from
Adelaide. “The CITY OF ADELAIDE was
originally expected to be in South Australia between February and April. Now
the second week of January is looming.”
The intention, he said, was to preserve
the ship’s original material, as has been
done with archaeological finds. One
role model has been the EDWIN FOX, an
1853 British merchantman preserved in
Picton, New Zealand. “Preserving the
ship keeps alive the opportunity for
telling the tale of the ship, crew, and
passengers for generations to come,”
Roberts wrote. “Progressive restoration
might be undertaken should there be
sufficient public and corporate support
to do so. Some representative cabins,
deckhouse, or stub masts might be in
the future—but there are no substantial goals in that regard. We can wait
and see what the future brings, now that
the clipper has a future.”
An estimated 250,000 Australians
are descended from those who arrived
aboard her. “Migrants would arrive at

Talk directly with the builder
of your next boat

on Cape Cod
February 7-9, 2014

Presented by
Laminated Sitka Spruce Oars
straight or spoon blade

Resort & Conference Center at Hyannis

for further information

35 Scudder Ave., Hyannis, MA

For details & www.boatcapecod.org
updates visit — [email protected]

www.barkleysoundoar.com

Boatbuilders Show
on Cape Cod

tel. 250–752–5115
toll free 877–752–5156
3073 Van Horne Road
Qualicum Beach, BC
Canada V9K 1X3

22 • WoodenBoat 236

Currents236-FINALwADS.indd 22

11/20/13 11:38 AM

COURTESY OF CLIPPER SHIP city of ADELAIDE LTD.

lifelong modelmaker with long involvement with the Connecticut Marine
Model Society, the Nautical Research
Guild, and other modeling organizations. BlueJacket Shipcrafters, 160 E. Main
St., Searsport, ME 04974; 207–548–9970;
www.bluejacketinc.com.

“I

The clipper ship CITY OF ADELAIDE arrived in Dordrecht, Holland, October
24, 2013, for transshipment via heavy-lift ship to Australia, where she will be
preserved and exhibited.

Semaphore, near Port Adelaide, and
then disperse around the countryside,”
Roberts wrote. “For example, my ancestors migrated from Cornwall on the
clipper in 1873 and went to work in the
Moonta copper mines. There are many
direct stories, which afford the opportunity to tell much about the history
of our state and link with other tourist
destinations intrastate.”

Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Ltd., P.O.
Box 535, Kent Town, SA 5071, Australia; +61–
(0)–419–773–332; www.cityofadelaide.org.au.

B

lueJacket Shipcrafters, which has
been supplying model ships, kits,
and accessories since 1905, has a new
owner, Nic Damuck, who bought the
company, based in Searsport, Maine,
from Jeff and Suzie Marger. Damuch is a

spent this summer in Takamatsu,
Japan, building a 20' traditional
fishing boat as part of the Setouchi
Festi­vale, a large international arts festival featuring the work of over 200 artists from 24 countries,” contributor
Douglas Brooks writes from Vermont.
“This event featured an amazing array
of art installations, mainly on seven
islands in the Seto Inland Sea. In Takamatsu, a concurrent summer festival
called Bengal Island took place, featuring Bengali craftspeople, along with
dancers and musicians. I was there to
work with Takashi Tsuda, an 84-yearold boatbuilder from Naoshima Island.
My plan was to do what I had done with
five other boatbuilders in Japan since
1996: work alongside them in order to
document their designs and techniques.
Unfortunately, last spring Tsuda’s health
took a turn for the worse and he had to
resign from the project. The Festivale

Do you know…
255 North Lincoln Avenue
Lebanon, PA 17046
Phone: (717) 270-2700
Fax: (717) 270-2702
ON THE WEB AT:
www.keystonespikes.com
BOAT/DOCK SPIKES

…if you’re as protected as you think you are?
…if you are getting the most out of your insurance dollars?

Heritage Marine Insurance understands exactly what you need to protect your boat. Compare your
policy features to those in our exclusive Classic Coverage ProgramSM and find out.

Does your policy include:
• Pollution/Fuel Spill limit of $854,400 in addition to Liability limit?
• Salvage charges to protect against further loss in addition to Hull coverage?
• Coverage for resulting damage in many cases after mechanical breakdown or latent defects?
• Boat Show & Demonstration Coverage that is automatically included?
• Watercraft Liability limits to meet your needs, among the highest amounts available?
• No charge for marinas as additional insureds?
• Marine specialists adjusting any claims you may have?
• Only experienced marine agents, classic boat enthusiasts just like you, managing your insurance?
• Special Discounts for ACBS and CYA Members?

All of this plus many other valuable protections you should expect from your classic boat specialist.

32 years as the country’s largest
producer of boat spikes in both plain
and hot dipped galvanized steel.
We pride ourselves on providing the
highest quality specialty products
available in today’s market.

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Yes

Yes
Yes

Yes
Yes

Don't guess. Contact Heritage Marine Insurance for answers!
Your source for expertise, service and tailored coverage for
your classic boat:

Program available exclusively through:

HERITAGE MARINE INSURANCE
P.O. Box 188, Mystic, CT 06355
1-800-959-3047 phone 1-860-572-5919 fax
www.heritagemarineinsurance.com

© 2014 Insurance policies issued by ACE
Recreational Marine Insurance are underwritten
by the insurance companies of ACE Group.

January/February 2014 • 23

Currents236-FINALwADS.indd 23

11/20/13 3:11 PM

DOUGLAS BROOKS (BOTH)

Left—Douglas Brooks took the
yuloh, a type of sculling oar, after
the launching of a 20' traditional
Japanese fishing boat built during
the summer Setouchi Festival.
Far left—At the same event, two
boatbuilders from Bangladesh
who work with an organization
striving to preserve traditional
boatbuilding showed their skills
by finishing off a noukka from
their country.

The

WoodenBoat

STORE
PO Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616

Calendar of Wooden Boats
Item #800-214 $16.95
(plus shipping)

To Order: Call Toll-Free
1.800.273.SHIP (7447)

Order On-line today at www.woodenboatstore.com

2014

Benjamin Mendlowitz creates yet another stunner of a wall
calendar. Amongst the dozen images is the cover shot of an
1895 Gil Smith catboat, an Abaco racing sloop, an oyster
dredger, plus Tarheel, a 32’ runabout, Aimee Leone, the 37’
pilot cutter, a modified Buzzard’s Bay 18 sloop, a Noank
schooner, and more. And to top it all off, the always enlightening captions by Maynard Bray. Opens to 12˝ x 24˝.

organizers asked me to build the boat,
and they moved the venue from
Naoshima to Bengal Island. Koji
Matano, an avid wood-and-canvas
canoe builder who was invaluable making arrangements for the project, and I
invited Takumi Suzuki and his wife
Yoshiko to join the project as my students. Suzuki had studied canoe building with Matano, and also taken one of
Jerry Stelmok’s canoe-building classes
at WoodenBoat School in Brooklin,
Maine, but he had never before built a
traditional Japanese boat.
“Our boat was built from lines provided by the Seto Nai Kai Museum of a
20' fi shing boat of the 1950s from the
Seto region. We planked with boat with
cedar, and the stem and beams were
cypress. We were fortunate enough to
get traditional boat nails donated to
us by Tengu Shibafuji, an enthusiastic
amateur boatbuilder and student of
traditional boatbuilding.
“We were very fortunate to get to
know a pair of Bengali shipwrights
who were also building a boat in the
Festivale. They brought their noukka, or
dinghy, partially assembled from Bangladesh and proceeded to take it apart
and rebuild it for visitors. The boat was
built entirely from jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), with closely spaced
sawn frames and carvel planking. The
hull is double-ended with a high stern
and fastened inside and out with small
clench nails, closely spaced, crossing
the plank seams. The nails are sheared
from soft sheet steel, and after cutting
a shallow mortise across the seam one
end of the nail is driven slightly into the
plank, then bent over and driven into
the other end of the mortise.
“The two Bengali shipwrights work
as part of a fledgling organization in
Bangladesh trying to save traditional
boatbuilding by developing a commercial shipyard where wooden vessels can
be built for the tourist trade. The organization is an offshoot of Friendship, a
hospital ship serving rural Bangladesh
(see www.friendship-bd.org) and Contic, the organization that operates traditional sailing tourist boats (www.contic.

24 • WoodenBoat 236
SO_2014_calendarisland.indd 1

Currents236-FINALwADS.indd 24

7/18/13 12:34:23 PM

11/20/13 11:38 AM

Across the bar
■ Kenny Coombs, 63, October 5, St.
Johns, Antigua. Although he died
while visiting England, Mr. Coombs
was most closely associated with Antigua, where he was the founder of the
Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta (see WB
Nos. 150 and 227). The regatta had
its first run in 1988 with seven participating boats, and today it attracts as
many as 60 classic yachts each April.
The regatta is known for grand yachts,
among them many Fifes and Herreshoffs, from around the world, but it
also brings in island-built Carriacou
sloops and pioneered the “Spirit of
Tradition” class within yacht racing.
Coombs served as the regatta chairman from 1988 through 2013. He was a
professional yacht captain, often at the
helm of large sailing yachts in Caribbean and Mediterranean classic regattas, and his pallbearers were all yacht
captains. His contributions to yachting
will be saluted during the 2014 regatta,
set for April 17–22.
■ Stan Bishoprick, 76, October 25,
2013, Washougal, Washington. Mr.
Bishoprick was a man with drive and
many passionate interests, one of
which was sailing classic yachts. He
studied forestry and business at Oregon State University in the late 1950s
and early 1960s, and went on to found
Exterior Wood Inc., in Washougal
in 1977, supplying outdoor treated
lumber for construction and fencing.
Meanwhile, he met his future wife,
Nancy McCracken, when both sang
in Aida while graduate students at the
Eastman School of Music in Rochester,
New York, in the 1960s, and he maintained his musical interest throughout

his life. He founded Windy Ridge Farm
to train and breed thoroughbred racehorses, and his later interests included
natural healing and raising Angus
beef cattle. In 1994, he founded Legendary Yachts in Washougal, where
the first project was the construction
of his own 72' ketch RADIANCE , built
to L. Francis Herreshoff’s design for
TICONDEROGA . His interest in boats
had started much earlier, when he was
a teenager helping his father build a

H

maine

net). The two shipwrights had previously
demonstrated Bengali boatbuilding in
Luxembourg and Paris.
“A rapport quickly developed
between our two teams, as we invited
one another to cross the festival
grounds and take part in key phases
of our respective projects. I invited
the Bengalis to participate in our keellaying ceremony, and they invited us to
offer a Shinto prayer at the launching
of their boat, which took place three
weeks before our launching. Sadly, the
two shipwrights left as soon as their
boat was finished, but the Bengali musicians and other craftspeople did attend
our launch, and we were all proud to
call them friends.”
For more information about the festival, and
about Douglas Brooks’s boatbuilding, see his
website, www.douglasbrooksboatbuilding.com.

hamilton

marine

52-footer, also to a Herreshoff design.
Legendary Yachts went on to build a
succession of sailing yachts, all to the
Herreshoff designs that Mr. Bishoprick
greatly admired. He led RADIANCE in
a three-year family voyage, joining the
fleet of the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta
and Antigua Race Week, among others, and the boat was shown at the Port
Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. The
company continues with his son-in-law,
Will Pollard, at the helm.

Great Prices
Great stUFF
FREE CATALOG!
800-639-2715 hamiltonmarine.com
Coosa Structural Panels

Structural Shapes & Plates
Lightweight, UV and
corrosion-resistant,
non-magnetic.
High strength, low
maintenenance.
Available in more
than 100 shapes.

High-density polyurethane
foam, reinforced
with layers of fiberglass. Lightweight,
non-rotting, an
excellent wood
replacement.

SafPLank™ Composite Planking

Caulking Cotton 1 lb

A high strength system
of fiberglass planks
designed to interlock
and form a continuous
solid surface. Use as
temporary flooring,
dock surfacing, roofing
walkways & more!

List 22.50
MAS-CC
Order# 121852

Caulking Irons

Le Tonkinois Varnish

Owatrol Marine Oil

1799

Polished blade with
Size Order#
SELL black Japanned shank.
00 126222 20.99
1 126223 26.99

An all-natural, environmentally
friendly tung oil & linseed oil
based varnish. Deep, rich finish
is strong and durable.
Type
Order# Litre Order#
Original 729008 34.99 740560
Gloss
164366 34.99 740503

2.5 Litre
63.99
63.99

Premium Varnish

Highly penetrating, airdrying oil. Drives out moisture, stops rust, pervents
paint from peeling. Use
alone or add to paint.
Size
Order#
SELL
1 Liter 731922 28.49
5 Liter 731921 114.99

Replaces
Penetrol!

Yacht Enamels

Extremely high solids content
and a perfect balance of UV
inhibitors. 1000 ml.

Type
Clear
Woodfinish (No Sand)

$

Order#
109982
110044

SELL
34.99
40.99

Expertly formulated
from the finest raw
materials for the best
flowing and covering
properties possible.

Typographical errors are unintentional and subject to correction.

January/February 2014 • 25

Currents236-FINALwADS.indd 25

11/20/13 11:38 AM

WOODENBOAT SCHOOL
2014 Schedule at a Glance
MAY

JUNE

ALUMNI WORK WEEK

ALUMNI WORK WEEK

18–24 / 25–31

JULY

1–7

15 – 21

8 – 14

Fundamentals of Boatbuilding
with Greg Rössel

22 – 28

29 – 5

Fundamentals of Boatbuilding
with Wade Smith

Fundamentals of Boatbuilding
with Greg Rössel

Making Friends with
Your Marine Diesel
Engine with Jon Bardo

Fine Strip-Planked
Boat Construction
with Nick Schade

Build Your Own
Annapolis Wherry
with Geoff Kerr

Build Your Own
Greenland-Style Kayak
with Mark Kaufman

Glued-Lapstrake
Plywood Construction
with John Brooks

Introduction to
Boatbuilding
with Bill Thomas

Boatbuilder’s
Hand Tools
with Harry Bryan

Build Your Own Plank
Traditional and Modern
Building a Nordic Pram
Constructed Pond Yachts
Oarmaking
with F. Jay Smith
with Thom McLaughlin
with Clint Chase

Blacksmithing for
Boatbuilders
with Doug Wilson

Lofting
with Greg Rössel

Coastwise Navigation
with Jane Ahlfeld

Elements of Sailing with
Jane Ahlfeld &
Annie Nixon

Traditional Wood-andCanvas Canoe Construction
with Rollin Thurlow

Vintage Pond Yachts
Part II
with Thom McLaughlin

tes
Gift certifica
all
r
fo
e
bl
availa
urses!
co
t
oa
B
en
Wood

20 – 26

13 – 19

6 – 12

Fundamentals of
with

Sparmaking
with Jeremy Gage

Building the Caledonia Yawl
with Geoff Kerr

Build Your Own
Stitch-and-Glue Kayak
with Eric Schade
Building the
with

Building Half Models
with Mark Sutherland

Seascape/Landscape
in Watercolor
with Paul Trowbridge

Carving Waterfowl
with Jerry Cumbo

Elements of
Boat Design
with John Brooks

Elements of Sailing
with Jane Ahlfeld &
Annie Nixon

Elements of Sailing for
Women with
Jane Ahlfeld & Sue LaVoie

Elements of Sailing
with Martin Gardner &
Sue LaVoie

Skills of
Coastal Seamanship
with Andy Oldman

Craft of Sail on MISTY
with Queene Foster

Sailing Traditional Daysailers
& Beach Cruisers with
Al Fletcher & Mike O’Brien

Elements of
Coastal Kayaking
with Bill Thomas

Craft of Sail on
TAMMY NORIE
with Joel Rowland
Coastal Cruising
Seamanship on ABIGAIL
with Hans Vierthaler

Can’t make it to Brooklin, Maine?
Try our courses at Chesapeake Light Craft Shop in Annapolis, Maryland:
We’re very excited to be working
with John Harris and the good folks
at CHESAPEAKE LIGHT CRAFT in
Annapolis, Maryland, and, once
again, to be able to offer courses
at their excellent facility.

WBSchool236.indd 26

MARCH 24-29 BUILD YOUR OWN ANNAPOLIS WHERRY
With Geoff Kerr
APRIL 7-12

BUILD YOUR OWN NORTHEASTER DORY
With David Fawley

APRIL 14-19

BUILD YOUR OWN SASSAFRAS CANOE
With Bill Cave

MAY 5-10

BUILD YOUR OWN STITCH-AND-GLUE KAYAK
With Eric Schade

11/21/13 3:38 PM

ACC E S S TO E X P E R I E N C E
The finest instructors available and a beautiful location on the coast of Maine make
WoodenBoat School an exciting learning experience for amateurs and professionals alike.
This season, our 34th, we are offering over 90 one- and two-week courses in
various facets of boatbuilding, as well as, seamanship and related crafts.

SEPTEMBER

AUGUST
17 – 23

24 – 30

31 – 6

7 – 13

14 – 20

3–9

10 – 16

FAMILY WEEK

Buiding a Sharpie Skiff
with Thad Danielson

Build Your Own Fox
Canoe with Bill Thomas

Build Your Own
Jimmy Skiff
with David Fawley

Introduction to ColdMolded Construction
with Mike Moros

Stitch-and-Glue
Boatbuilding
with John Harris

Fine Strip-Planked
Boat Construction
with Nick Schade

Build Your Own
Northeaster Dory
with David Fawley

Penobscot 13
Arch Davis

Build Your Own
DrangonFlyer
with John Brooks

Build Your Own
Mastermyr Tool Chest
with Don Weber

Introduction to
Boatbuilding
with John Karbott

Woodcarving
with Reed Hayden

Introduction to
Boatbuilding
with Bill Thomas

Building the
16’ Gardner Semi-Dory
with Walt Ansel

Finishing Out
Small Boats
with John Brooks

Metalworking for the Boatbuilder & Woodworker
with Erica Moody

Build Your Own
Chuckanut Kayak
with Dave Gentry

Painting the
Downeast Coast in Oils
with Jerry Rose

The Art of Woodcuts
with Gene Shaw

Lofting
with Greg Rössel

Coastal Maine
in Watercolor
with Amy Hosa

Marine Photography
with Jon Strout &
Jane Peterson

Introduction to
Canvas Work
with Ann Brayton

Rigging
with
Myles Thurlow

Learn to Sail
with Jane Ahlfeld &
Gretchen Snyder

Introduction to Small
Boat Racing with
Dave Gentry and Milo Stanley

Bronze Casting for
Boatbuilders
with Michael Saari

Elements of Sailing II
with Martin Gardner &
David Bill

Craft of Sail on
BELFORD GRAY
with David Bill

The Catboat with
Martin Gardner

Elements of Sailing
with Martin Gardner &
Robin Lincoln

Elements of Sailing II
with Jane Ahlfeld &
Eric Blake

Open Boat Cruising
with Geoff Kerr

Sailing Downeast
with Andy Oldman

Craft of Sail on MISTY
with Queene Foster

Craft of Sail on ABIGAIL
with Hans Vierthaler

Craft of Sail on MISTY
with Queene Foster

Sea Sense Under Sail
with Havilah Hawkins

Tallship Sailing and
Seamanship with Capt.
Barry King & Jane Ahlfeld

Coastal Touring &
Camping
with Bill Thomas

Elements of Coastal
Kayaking (over 40)
with Mike O’Brien

27 – 2
Boatbuilding
Warren Barker

Traditional Lapstrake Construction
with Geoff Burke

Advanced Fundamentals of Boatbuilding
with Greg Rössel

Cruising through the
Watches on ABIGAIL
with Hans Vierthaler

Fundamentals of Boatbuilding
with Wade Smith

Runabout Repair & Restoration
with Gary Lowell

Wooden Boat Restoration Methods
with Walt Ansel

21 – 27

Making Friends with
Your Marine Diesel
Engine with Jon Bardo
Building Half Models
with Eric Dow

Sea Sense Under Sail
with Havilah Hawkins

Coastal Cruising
Seamanship on ABIGAIL
with Hans Vierthaler
Advanced Coastal
Kayaking
with Stan Wass

For additional information
SEPT. 15-20

BUILD YOUR OWN ANNAPOLIS WHERRY
With Geoff Kerr

SEPT. 22-27

BUILD YOUR OWN SKERRY DAYSAILER
With David Fawley

OCT. 13-18

BUILD YOUR OWN PETREL/PETREL PLAY
With Nick Schade

OCT. 20-25

BUILD YOUR OWN NORTHEASTER DORY
With David Fawley

WBSchool236.indd 27

Check our website for our entire 2014 program:

www.woodenboat.com

or call Kim or Rich at 207–359–4651
To order a complete course catalog, call toll-free

1-800-273-SHIP (7447)
WOODENBOAT SCHOOL

P.O. Box 78, Brooklin, Maine 04616-0078

11/21/13 3:39 PM

ALISON LANGLEY

The Designs of Arch Davis

Classic forms for the contemporary builder
by Robert W. Stephens

A

s I first pulled into Arch Davis’s driveway, the
ambience of his place struck me as quite unlike
the typical Maine boatbuilder’s shop. I’m a
veteran of this sort of visit, having launched my own
career in the early 1980s by banging on doors until
someone would hire me despite my lack of skills. As a
builder and designer, I’ve made many a boatyard pilgrimage over the years. The approaches to these places vary
from bushwhacking your way down rutted dirt roads to
a shingled shop mostly hidden by unruly stacks of liveedge lumber, to a genteel swing into a monumentally
large yard with a real parking lot, a business sign, and
even insulation and heat in the shops.
Arch’s operation is not like these. He does business

in a compact, neatly manicured home just a mile outside of Belfast, Maine, set slightly back off a suburban
road. The first impression is of familial comfort and
pride: nicely tended shrubs and flower beds, a tidy lawn,
basketball hoop, small attached garage, and paved
driveway. There were no stacks of wood or boatbuilding
debris in evidence when Arch casually greeted me at
the kitchen door and invited me upstairs to his office.
As he explained in his broad Kiwi accent, maintained
despite decades of travel and 20 years in the United
States, he splits his time between office and shop.
Settled in the office space, I realized that Arch has
shaped his family’s home with the same careful intent
that shows in his designs. The space is a loft open to

Above—Designer-builder Arch Davis, a native New Zealander living in Maine, has spent the past 20 years developing plans
for a good-looking boat meant for amateur construction. Here he enjoys an outing aboard GRACE EILEEN (see page 30), a
30-footer he designed and built for himself. Contact him at Arch Davis Design, 37 Doak Rd., Belfast, ME 04915; 207-930-9873;
www.archdavisdesign.com.

28 • WoodenBoat 236

ArchDavis-FINAL-03wADS.indd 28

11/22/13 1:09 PM

Alison Langley

GRACE EILEEN ’s tidy, symmetrical cabin includes a galley that spans the width of the boat, and a narrow passage for safe and
easy work in a seaway.

the living room below, so he can stay in touch with family while corresponding with his customers. Under the
eaves, lit by skylights and sheathed with wood paneling,
the room feels warm, cozy, and spacious all at once. Surrounded by hand-built flat files of plans and large-scale
boat models, we talked about his life and travels.
Arch’s manner is both quiet and effusive—an
unusual juxtaposition, and a pleasant one. He’s frank
and unassuming as he talks matter-of-factly about how
he found himself selling stock boat plans and kits halfway around the world from his place of birth. He is compact in stature and wiry at 69 years of age, and his eyes
sparkle in a face framed by a full beard and curly white
hair as he recounts his school days in New Zealand.
Arch grew up in the 1950s and ’60s in Whangarei,
a town of about 12,000 at that time, up the coast from
the big city of Auckland. As with seemingly everyone
in New Zealand, boats were a natural part of his childhood, and he spent time knocking around in sailboats
on the bay. At age 17 he headed to the University of
Auckland to study classical piano, keeping expenses
low and the fun factor high by sharing a liveaboard
with a high-school friend. “Rex sold his 16' boat, and
we pooled our slender resources to buy a 22' Bluebird,
a plywood sloop...a poorly built, neglected little thing,
from which we were constantly excising rotten chunks
of wood. However, we sailed her quite adventurously,
and had some memorable adventures in her.”

Classical piano, however, wasn’t going so well. After
three years of “less than successful study,” Arch took a
break from school and went to work at a boatshop. “New
Zealand was at full employment in those days,” he told
me, “and anyone could get a job. If you walked down
the streets with your hands in your pockets, you’d get
three offers.” Arch found himself working for Jim
Young, an innovative designer and builder specializing
in lightweight cold-molded construction. Showing a
talent for drawing, Arch landed in Young’s drafting
office. After two years he was ready to go back to complete his studies, finishing with a degree in psychology,
then taking a teaching job in middle school.
But the boats and the liveaboard lifestyle had set
their hook, and he found himself in 1972 leaving his
steady job for a simpler, lower-impact life, cruising the
coast and earning a living making engravings and selling prints. To supplement this income he would take
short-term work building or repairing boats, at yards or
solo. The transitory nature of the work fit well with his
mobile life—he could earn good money on a project,
then move on with no commitments.
In 1979 Arch extended his wandering to Europe,
traveling light by bicycle and staying in youth hostels
when not visiting family in Germany. It was in a hostel in
Spain the following year where he met Amy Fradel, the
American woman who would eventually lure him to the
U.S. After several years of the longest of long-distance
January/February 2014 • 29

ArchDavis-FINAL-02wADS.indd 29

11/21/13 10:20 AM

GRACE EILEEN

GRACE EILEEN

Particulars

LOA
LWL
Beam
Draft
Displacement
Sail area

A

30'
25' 5"
9' 3"
5'
7,000 lbs
425 sq ft

fter two decades of designing small rowingand-sailing skiffs and power craft, Arch Davis
returned to larger cruising sailboats. GRACE
EILEEN blends his construction experience in smaller
craft with his liveaboard experience in New Zealand.
At 30' long, she’s a light-displacement sloop of only
7,000 lbs. She’s built like a big skiff, with 12mm plywood planks over frames and stringers, just as in Arch’s
smaller boats. Massive laminated floor timbers help
secure the fin keel and lead ballast to the hull.
Arch has drawn a profile that perfectly captures the
style of cruising boats of the mid-20th century, while
delivering modern comfort and convenience. GRACE
EILEEN’s coach roof and doghouse are elegantly proportioned, providing standing headroom where it’s
needed, in the galley and at the foot of the companionway. Symmetry rules below, conveying a sense of calm
and order. The roomy galley spans both sides under the
doghouse. A snug saloon is forward under the coach
roof, with the head in the forepeak. Dual quarter
berths round out the accommodations. The result is an
airy interior with elbowroom galore for a 30-footer.
On deck, the cockpit is open to a sugar-scoop

boarding platform, which is tremendously convenient
and instantly self-bailing. It’s nothing short of remarkable that Arch can pull off such a modern detail
without compromising the retro style of the boat—
but it really works. The sweep of her sheer and planks,
the simple detail of rubrails and cabin trunk trim, the
careful shaping of windows: she’s a cohesive whole.
GRACE EILEEN’s three-quarter rig contains plenty of
sail to help her slip along in all but the lightest breezes.
When even that fails, a small outboard can get you
home—although Arch’s boat is equipped with a yulohstyle sweep and sculling notch on the sugar scoop. An
inboard engine is allowed for in the plans, nestled
beneath the cockpit and between the quarter berths.
With her simple construction, light weight, and
roomy interior, GRACE EILEEN makes a fantastic cruiser
for a family to explore the coast. She’s able enough to
handle seriously squally weather, although her light
weight and relatively small capacity for stores will limit
any long-distance crossings, and her scantlings will feel
delicate offshore. On the plus side, the same light weight
makes trailering to a distant destination a real option for
extending her cruising range.
—RWS

relationships, and several extended visits by each partner to the other’s home country, the two were wed in
Auckland in 1983.
Shortly thereafter, Arch confessed with a wry smile, “I
did a very stupid thing.” Amy had returned to the States,
and Arch had sold his 32' boat-home and had money
burning a hole in his pocket, so he did what any builder
would. He “bought a pile of timber.” Next he designed
a boat to suit the timber, a serious cruising boat eventually christened MARISA , Amy’s middle name(see sidebar, page 35). Christening would have to wait, though,
through the extended building process. Over the next
ten years, punctuated by two-year sojourns with Amy in
the U.S., Arch completed his labor of love, persevering
even though each time he left New Zealand he needed

to dismantle the temporary shop, only to reassemble it
on his return. “I built and knocked down that silly roof
four times,” he said.
During his time in the U.S., Arch was earning a living while Amy pursued her career in medicine. He built
canoes and repaired Chris-Crafts in Minnesota; built
custom cabinets in North Carolina, where he also created his first stock boat, the ACE 14 performance daysailer. After a move to Maine in 1988, he wrote articles
and sketched design concepts for National Fisherman
magazine.
In 1994, Arch finally completed and launched
MARISA , and the family (Arch, Amy, and three-yearold son Jack) spent several months living and cruising
aboard her in New Zealand before being driven to

30 • WoodenBoat 236

ArchDavis-FINAL-02wADS.indd 30

11/21/13 10:20 AM

a harsh decision. “I had dreams of sailing her to the
U.S., but reality intervened, and I sold her, which I have
regretted ever since, although GRACE EILEEN (see sidebar) makes a great consolation prize.” MARISA went
to a cruising couple, and Arch has had the bittersweet
privilege of staying in touch to learn what a great boat
she has been for them.

B

ack in Maine and boatless, Arch was eager to get
his family on the water again, so he worked up a
simple but elegant little sailing-rowing skiff with
a classic look and of straightforward construction using
modern materials. Realizing the advantages of using
good-quality marine plywood and epoxy glue, Arch
simplified the construction by backing each lap with a
substantial stringer. This delivered several plusses, all
of which made the process more accessible to the amateur builder: The stringers allowed the boat to be “lined
off” before planking began, so the builder would know
how good she looked before cutting up good plywood;
the laps were well supported, which eased the beveling
process; and fastenings could be driven
directly into the stringer instead of being
installed temporarily and their holes
plugged with putty after they’d been withdrawn. The Penobscot 14 was an instant
hit following the publication of a threepart “How to Build” article in WoodenBoat
(see Nos. 138–140), and Arch was able
to commit himself “full-time” to his own
boatbuilding and design business.
Arch places “full-time” in quotations,
because he recognizes that one of the
biggest benefits of his chosen career is
the freedom it gives him to set his own
Arch Davis and daughter Grace aboard
GRACE EILEEN. Grace worked with her
father for the entire construction of this
boat, and several others.

schedule and do the things he wants to
when he wants to—like building his own
house, working with his two children in
the boatshop, or helping out with community projects like the rowing gig built
on the waterfront in his adopted town of
Belfast a few years ago. Arch told me his
secret to happiness is “Change—you’re
not doing the same thing all the time!”
When he has had enough of correspondence each morning, he leaves his office
and moves out to his shop where he might
put together a kit for one of his many stock designs, or
hang a plank on a Penobscot 13 (the latest addition to
his Penobscot line, which also includes a 17 as well as
the original 14; see sidebar), or build a set of spars. Or
he might mess around with a new design concept.
Arch’s designing begins on paper, drawing lines and
construction details the old-fashioned way, with drafting tools and pencil. Following his initial pencil sketch,
he will often build a large-scale model, at say 3" to the
foot—big enough to really see the fairness of the plank
lines and prove the construction method. He allows,
though, that building the model is often a bigger challenge than building the real thing. While driving a
well-placed screw might suffice to hold pieces together
at full scale, ingenuity must be applied at quarter scale.
During the model-building phase, he may adjust the
sweep of the stringers for easier assembly or a sweeter
look, or he may discover that he can eliminate some
structure and thus simplify the build.
While ease of construction is something Arch
is always striving for, it’s not his primary goal. He

Alison Langley

Alison Langley

Light weight and ample sail area allow
GRACE EILEEN to ghost along in the lightest
of breezes. When the wind fails altogether,
the options include an outboard motor or a
Chinese sculling oar called a yuloh (see WB
No. 101).

January/February 2014 • 31

ArchDavis-FINAL-02wADS.indd 31

11/21/13 10:20 AM

THE MAGAZINE FOR WOODEN BOAT OWNERS, BUILDERS, AND DESIGNERS

Whether you are
rebuilding, repairing or
starting from scratch,
WoodenBoat Magazine
will be there to offer
advice, instruction, and
encouragement.

Subscribe today

1–800–877–5284

www.woodenboat.com

What is that boat?

wbcirc236.indd 32

11/21/13 3:49 PM

The Penobscot Series: 14, 17, and 13

recognizes that even a small skiff can represent a big
investment for his customers in terms of time, money,
and emotional commitment. For an amateur builder to
continue investing months or years of valuable leisure
time, the boat must inspire. So while Arch is constantly
working to make building his boats easier and more
straightforward, it’s never at the expense of their good
looks. Some distinctive touches that are signature Arch
Davis details:
• Capped gunwales—Inwale and gunwale are covered with sawn hardwood, giving a finished appearance
and adding substantial stiffness to an open boat.
• Half-round rubrail—Arch places a nicely proportioned protective rail along the lower edge of the
sheerstrake. This calls greater attention to the graceful

COURTESY OF ARCH DAVIS

T

he Penobscot 14 is the centerpiece of Arch’s
portfolio; she was the first of his designs to
“make it big,” and has been his best seller since
the mid-1990s. It’s easy to see why. She has the graceful
lines of a classic Whitehall, a traditional working boat
of the 19th century renowned for seakeeping and easy
rowing. But Arch’s signature modifications for contemporary construction have resulted in a boat that goes
together easily, is robust enough for a family to use, is
lighter-weight and more maneuverable, and stays tight
on a trailer.
Three sailing-rig options allow configuring the boat
to suit your needs and style: sprit rig for the true traditionalist who’ll row more than sail, lug rig for a European flair, and gunter rig with jib for those who’ll value
sailing over rowing.
Inspired by customers who kept asking for a larger,
more able boat, Arch developed the Penobscot 17—
longer, proportionally leaner, roomy enough for campcruising. The extra length also provides an opportunity
to play with even more rig options, including ketch
and schooner—true little ships. Like all his boats, full
flotation is provided for safety and confidence.
Arch is always striving for simpler construction

while upholding his standards of beauty and utility,
and he proudly showed me some details on the prototype of the latest member of the Penobscot line, the
13, which maintains the attractive appearance and
good performance of the 14 while being even easier for
the amateur to build through a few simple changes in
construction.
—RWS
sweep of the sheerstrake, introduces a strong shadow
line, and protects the vulnerable plywood edge from
abuse around floating docks and other boats.
• Sheer details at bow and stern— At each end
of the sheerstrake, thin wood panels are applied to the
strake, creating shapely details and a sense of “heft.”
Sweeping ogees add a traditional flair, whether painted
a contrasting paint color, or left to let the shadow speak
for itself. The rubrail conceals the additional thickness
of material, leaving only a sense of handmade elegance.
From the Penobscot 14, Arch’s line of designs for
the home builder has expanded to include an array of
rowing-sailing skiffs as well as several powerboats for
clamp-on outboard motors. He offers kits for several
of his designs, developing production techniques in
January/February 2014 • 33

ArchDavis-FINAL-02wADS.indd 33

11/21/13 10:20 AM

his compact shop behind his house that allow him to
produce hull plank panels and other components with
rapid repeatability without sacrificing hand-built craftsmanship. These kits ease the building process for clients who lack time or confidence to start from scratch.
He also builds spars to order for his boats, and provides
hard-to-find supplies like glue, fastenings, and even
sails. He’s created a business that really eases the anxieties of a first-time builder by assuring his customers
that he’ll be there for them when they run into difficulties. And he has minimized those difficulties by developing comprehensive instruction booklets, written in
his characteristically self-deprecating and encouraging

style, and thorough how-to videos for several of his
designs.

A

rch’s latest design brings him full circle, back to
the kind of boats he was drawing in New Zealand:
a practical, graceful cruising boat, capable of
caring for a family during an extended coastal cruise.
GRACE EILEEN (see sidebar) is a 30' sloop launched
from Arch’s shop in 2012 after several years of construction. His teenage daughter Grace worked alongside her
father throughout the project. While the two enjoy sailing together aboard her, there’s wistfulness in both of
their faces as they recall the time building her.

Two Powerboats

Jiff y-V22

hese two powerboats show the breadth of Arch’s
talent to draw a simple, good-looking boat. More
utilitarian than his elegant rowing-sailing skiffs,
they are still striking to look at, and sensible to build
and to own.
The Jiffy-V 22 is an uncommonly good-looking small
Maine lobsterboat. For a boat that’s under about 25',
it’s really hard to draw a good-looking pilothouse with
full standing headroom, and there are legions of quickand-dirty fishing boats all along the coast to prove this.
Arch has beaten the odds with the Jiffy-V 22.
The Bay Pilot 18 is more versatile in her layout,
offering three configurations. Less conventional in
appearance, she uses lapstrake-plywood planking in
the topsides over a V bottom. The lapstrake planking
will be a bit easier for a builder working solo, as each
plank is smaller and easier to handle than a big sheet of

plywood. The plank lines also add distinctive shadows
and help to mask a proportionally higher freeboard.
The raised-deck configuration offers real cruising
accommodations in a tiny trailerable cruiser. A tumblehome top plank and a break in the sheer recall the
burly boats responsible for putting pilots aboard ships
at the mouths of large harbors.
Both boats share a bottom construction in which
frames and bulkheads are notched for closely spaced
plywood longitudinal girders; the bottom planking is
applied over this “egg-crate” structure for outstanding
rigidity. The self-bailing cockpit sole lands on top of the
girders, without need of additional framing. A shallow V
bottom delivers good deadrise in the forefoot for cutting
through a chop without pounding, and a seven-degree
V at the transom gives the boat fuel-sipping economy
with a moderate-sized outboard motor.
—RWS

COURTESY OF ARCH DAVIS (BOTH)

The Bay Pilot 18

T

34 • WoodenBoat 236

ArchDavis-FINAL-02wADS.indd 34

11/21/13 10:20 AM

As Arch looks back on his career to date, he muses
about the choices he’s made and the turns he’s taken.
He recognizes it’s been a path without big financial
rewards, and he’s struggled over the years to keep the
household in sound shape. But he also recognizes the
rewards he has accrued, some intangible, and some very
tangible, like a beautiful cruising boat built with his own
hands and a family that has shared in its creation. He
sees with uncommon clarity how his chosen path has,
at the expense of monetary wealth, afforded him the
chance to spend each day as he wishes. He’s built things
of lasting value: his home, his boat, and a business with
thousands of customers. He’s had more flexibility than

most fathers to spend time with his children on their
schedule rather than that of his workplace. And he’s had
a career of constant variety and inspiration.
As he considers the state of the industry, he expresses
concern for where today’s youth is heading. He recalls
his own adolescence, where within his New Zealand
neighborhood of eight or ten blocks there were at least
as many boats under construction by amateur builders.
He remembers the inspiration these projects provided,
the sense of empowerment conferred by seeing ordinary folks building things with their hands every day.
He fears this is missing for today’s young people. More
and more he fears that society views something like

MARISA

MARISA

LOA
LWL
Beam
Draft
Displacement
Sail area

M

COURTESY OF ARCH DAVIS

Particulars
37' 2"
31' 3"
10' 7"
5' 7 1⁄2"
15,000 lbs
622 sq ft

ARISA is a light-displacement cold-molded sloop
in the style of British designers Laurent Giles,
Angus Primrose, and John Guzzwell. Distinctive touches link her to this school: the long coach roof
with low doghouse; the larger doghouse windows; the
long waterline, reverse transom, and short spoon bow;
the compact rig.
Her construction relies on massive laminated floor
timbers through the middle of the boat, and good support to the planking by glued-in-place interior components. A small, well-protected cockpit and a forward
well deck provide good security for serious offshore
cruising. Her outboard rudder is robust and simple.
The layout shows experience gained during Arch’s

years of living aboard a variety of boats while cruising
the New Zealand coast. With a small cockpit placed well
aft, Marisa has lots of room for a snug accommodation.
The U-shaped galley is well lighted by the doghouse
windows and benefits from the air of the companionway. Good sea berths abound: two quarter berths on
either side of the cockpit (one of them suitable for a
couple when in harbor), a pilot berth outboard of the
saloon settees, and even a forward stateroom located
near enough to amidships for tolerable motion in most
conditions. The forward head will be a challenge to use
when smashing into a head sea, but it’s by far the most
private location, and avoids breaking up the interior
with a walled-off cube in its middle.
—RWS
January/February 2014 • 35

ArchDavis-FINAL-02wADS.indd 35

11/21/13 10:21 AM

boatbuilding as out of reach for “normal” folks, and
thus we’ll be afraid to try our hands at challenges like
that. He worries that without the confidence imbued by
trying something such as this, and seeing that success is
possible, we will forget how to reach for things beyond
our grasp.
One of Arch’s continuing dreams is to work with
like-minded people to collectively inspire a community
to pull together and create together. He has worked
with local youth boatbuilding efforts, but as yet has not
found a community that has gelled to create that sense
of enduring inspiration. Through his customers, and the
experience of his own children, he has seen how the act
of putting your hands and mind to work creating an
object of lasting beauty and utility can be a transforming experience for individuals. He would like to find a
way to extend that transforming experience to a community, to inspire people to put down their smartphones, pick up hand tools, and build something
together.
Will this vision ever happen? With Arch Davis’s
understated charm and simple enthusiasm, I wouldn’t
bet against it.
Bob Stephens is a partner and designer at Stephens Waring Yacht
Design of Belfast, Maine (a neighbor of Arch’s).  Having tried his
hand long ago at designing small boats for amateur builders, he
appreciates Arch’s success in this challenging field.

T

Sand Dollar

he 11' Sand Dollar is Arch’s entry-level boat, but
she doesn’t skimp on his signature good looks.
Her simplicity of construction demands complexity of design. As Arch says, “Small craft are not the
easiest to draw if they are to look really well. With the
constraints of a flat bottom, and sides that are straight
in section, the difficulties increase.”
Following his usual method of designing, Arch used
a quarter-scale model to confirm that his design was
practical and pretty before building full size, proving
the sweep of key lines like sheer and planking, and testing construction ideas. The model demonstrated how
the stringers that back up the sheerstrakes could work
wonderfully as seat risers, and allow the thwarts to be
fitted before planking. The model also highlighted
where changes were required, as in the all-important
sheerline, which needed adjustment before the boat
passed Arch’s rigorous scrutiny.
The fine-tuned result is one of the finest-looking
flat-bottomed skiffs you’re likely to see. The sheer
exhibits just the right sauciness, the stem features a
gentle curve full of character, the transom is nicely
raked—but not so much as to prevent her from accepting a small outboard motor. Fine touches abound. For
example, instead of being simple thwarts, the bow and

WoodenBoat’s Maritime Tours presents

Sail Antigua Classics
April 16-22, 2014

J

oin the crew of the 1928, 88' Baglietto
ketch SINCERITY for six incredible
days at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta.
This world-renowned event is a meeting
ground for some of the finest sailing yachts
from Europe and North America. Your time
at the event will include a practice race, the
four days of the regatta, and an end-of-racing
onboard dinner.

The tour’s many highlights include:

• Lunch served onboard daily
• Two gourmet dinners served on deck
• Daily post-race cocktails and hors d’oeuvres
• A discussion of the Caribbean’s legendary
Carriacou sloops, featuring the photography
of Alison Langley and Alexis Andrews.
Participants will spend each night ashore, in their choice of one of several lodging options.
For further details, please visit www.woodenboat.com or call 207-359-4651.

36 • WoodenBoat 236

ArchDavis-FINAL-02wADS.indd 36

11/21/13 10:21 AM

Courtesy of Arch Davis

stern seats are made of tapered fore-and-aft planks,
nicely curved on their front and rear edges. They’re not
much more time-consuming to build than the simpler
option, especially since they are built into the setup
before the planking is installed so can be made large
and later planed to the stringer’s edge.
As with all of Arch’s boats, Sand Dollar is built in
traditional skiff style, upside down over a building
jig consisting of a strongback and several simple temporary frames. While many skiffs are built without a
jig, Arch believes strongly that the jig is an important
part of making the process easier and more accessible.
It provides a secure and stable basis for bending the
various pieces into shape. (Without a jig, boatbuilding
can become more like wrestling a boa constrictor as we
struggle to make springy pieces come together in midair, and we can never be quite sure we have it right and
that the boat won’t exhibit some horrible twist.) Arch
is thinking of the builder’s future as well: “Some kind
of a jig or strongback is an essential part of building
bigger, more elaborate craft, and I dared hope that
some builders who choose the Sand Dollar as their first
project would go on to put the skills they have learned
to use in other boats.” If so, Sand Dollar will make a
—RWS
mighty fine tender.

TWO RESINS.
THREE HARDENERS.
ONE NON-BLUSHING
SYSTEM.
NEW on

WoodenBoat.com

Launchings
Online
www.woodenboat.com/
boat-launchings
Become a WoodenBoat.com community
member today, for free.

Our trusted 2 to 1 NON-BLUSHING epoxy system consists of two
resins and three hardeners, that allows custom controlled working
times with no Amine Blush. Whether you work fast, slow or
somewhere in between, we have the formula for your project.
MAS Epoxy is great for beginners and loved by professionals.
facebook.com/masproducts

Strong. Simple. Sure

Visit masepoxies.com or call 1-800-755-8568

January/February 2014 • 37

ArchDavis-FINAL-02wADS.indd 37

11/21/13 10:21 AM

FETCH
Adapting a small
daysailer for cruising

by Tom Jackson
For solo cruising, Kees Prins of
Port Townsend, Washington,
converted an Iain Oughtred–
designed Fulmar, 16’8’ LOA, to
make the boat fully decked with
a small trunk cabin protecting
spartan accommodations
TOM JACKSON

O

ne glance at a racing yacht alongside a cruising
yacht tells a clear story of wildly different
priorities. A similar divergence is perceptible
among small craft and seems to be widening as adherents of adventure cruising turn away from the longdominant quest for speed.
One such sailor is Kees Prins of Port Townsend,
Washington, whose boat design work in recent years
has focused on cruising sailboats of glued-lapstrake
plywood construction for light weight and trailerability. His largest boat of this type was the 23' 6" LOA
Townsend Tern (see Small Boats 2011). He designed
and built that boat for clients who had specific goals in
mind, but in 2012—after a couple of life changes, as the
phrase goes—Prins began looking at boat prospects
for a different kind of client: himself. He was looking

for a just-right blend of characteristics for setting out
on the classic American road trip, nautical edition. He
wanted to simplify. He would be footloose, living out
of a van on the open road to the next cruising grounds
then out of the boat on the open water.
“That’s kind of my interest, to have these pocket
cruisers that you can voyage in,” Prins said. “That’s definitely my personal mindset, where I want to go. So far,
I haven’t done a lot, because I’ve always been working.
This is my big escape. I like going from A to B to C,
rather than making all these return trips to the same
dock. I got tired of daysailing. It was always the same
bay, always the same direction, and there’s so little time
to take longer trips.”
For this plan, the realities of time and money
imposed their usual constraints. During the year of

38 • WoodenBoat 236

FETCH-FINAL.indd 38

11/14/13 2:57 PM

Glued-lapstrake construction keeps the boat
light for trailering to distant cruising grounds. A
removable gallows frame aft, and a bracket at the
tabernacle, holds the mast and spars. Builder Kees
Prins sailed the Great Lakes, the Maine Coast, and
Cape Breton before returning to Port Townsend,
Washington.

COURTESY OF KEES PRINS

fittings, and a comparatively conservative rig
with a sliding-gunter main, a jib, and a spritboomed mizzen. Little would be left of the
original Fulmar concept, other than the shape
of the hull itself.

The Lessons of Experience

ROSEMARY W YMAN

his wanderings, he designed a new boat while
teaching at the Great Lakes Boat Building
School in Cedarville, Michigan. The design
was Loon, a 23' double-ender (see WB No.
235) that was nearly as long as the Townsend
Tern but much lighter. For a while he was
seriously tempted to build it. But he stopped
short. “It takes so many man-hours to do
that, and last June instead of being done with
school and ready to cruise I would have to
keep working on the boat another six months
at least. I would have eaten up all my savings.
I would have been back to square one. How
much is it worth to get that extra comfort?”
His inspiration for Loon was his direct
experience with a much smaller cruising boat.
Back in Port Townsend, he had confronted
similar questions about priorities. But in
that case, the boat itself imposed limitations.
He had bought an Iain Oughtred
18-footer, a Fulmar design, from a
friend, and for him the boat became
a puzzle that he began to look at
with fresh eyes.
The Fulmar was nicely built in
Seattle of mahogany plywood. But
a fast, planing daysailer was hardly
what Prins had in mind. For his
new solo adventure, the objectives were clear:
the boat must be easily trailerable, easily
launched, quick to set up, a very good sailer,
safe, and able to accept a minimalist cabin, an
auxiliary outboard motor, and enough gear
for a week or two of cruising. The only criteria
the Fulmar fully met were those for good sailing and trailerability. But adapting the existing boat might just be feasible, and the many
hours and much money saved would translate
directly into sailing time.
So Prins decided to take this glued-lapstrake, plywood, transom-sterned, fast daysailer and transform it into FETCH, a fully
decked cruising sailboat with a permanent
cabin, an outboard auxiliary, many cruising

It’s not at all unusual for someone contemplating building a boat to settle on a design and
then right away set about changing almost everything
about it. Such additions can often be inadvisable, best
left to the designer himself or at least someone with
design experience. It is also unusual for alterations to
earn the original creator’s respect—but that nevertheless seems to be the case with Prins’s adaptation. He
has developed conversion plans for a version of his boat
that even Oughtred has endorsed as a supplement to
his own original lines and construction plans for those
looking for this type of micro-cruiser.
Like a lot of sailors, Prins has firm views, shaped by
his experience and outlook, about what makes a good
boat. In developing the Townsend Tern and other
designs, he worked directly with clients to discern what
they wanted and find ways to make it all work. Design
experience and listening to what others think is itself a
valid teacher, but time at sea is another.
Prins especially recalls capsizing during heavy
weather at Raid Scotland years ago, in a light plywood
boat with a standing-lug rig.
The experience stayed with
him. “It was in Loch Ness,
with a lot of wind, and big
waves,” he said. “We were
just about dead-downwind.
The yard was forward of the
mast, and up there the forces
were to windward, and down
low the forces were to leeward. We went over to windward, real slow. If I had had
a proper response—which is
a little counter intuitive—I
would have sheeted in during the gusts.” But normally,
depowering calls for sheeting out, and that’s what
Prins found that sailing just
with the sliding-gunter mainsail
and jib worked best most of
the time, leaving the mizzen
ashore.
January/February 2014 • 39

FETCH-FINAL.indd 39

11/14/13 3:10 PM

he did. The boat was on the edge of a “death roll,”
careening wildly first to one side and then the other
with increasing severity. Sheeting out only made things
worse. “By sheeting out, the yard turned more forward,
and pushed us more to windward. So there we went, in
the water. Not good. My wife got almost hypothermic.”
This was an organized event, so help came in time. But
the long-ago episode taught Prins a lot of lessons.
His flotation chambers had screw-in hatches on
their vertical bulkheads, but they leaked, reducing the
boat’s effective flotation. Much worse, water gushing
in through the open-topped centerboard trunk overwhelmed his ability to bail. The boat reached floating
equilibrium with her gunwales just above the surface
and the centerboard trunk well below it. One person
could get aboard, but when both tried the boat rolled
again. “Capsize is no fun,” Prins said. “You hear so
many people say, ‘Ah, it’s a wooden boat, she’ll float.’
And I say, ‘Yeah, yeah, but you’ll die next to it.’ They
don’t understand what the hell I’m talking about. If
that happens and you’re by yourself out there, with your
family, people could die.” The prospect should humble
any solo sailor.
Unlike racing dinghy sailors who came up through
the ranks in the latest, hottest, one-design fleet, people
who build their own boats rarely capsize them deliberately. Although self-rescue is lesson No. 1 in dinghy
racing, it tends to be a lesson recreational sailors take
on the fly. Those who cruise extensively in small craft,
and who have either capsized or come close to it, learn
the hard way to prepare for a likelihood, not a possibility. Sailing without company and in cold waters elevates
the risk. In each phase of his conversion, Prins kept all
of these thoughts in mind.

Using Plywood
For a long time, Prins has been working in plywood
construction. He has a varied background in sailing,
extending back to his youth in Holland, in a variety of
boats and materials. “I don’t know when that plywood
affinity started,” he said. “I think it was probably driven
by my customers. They don’t come to me for a traditional boat. Who orders a traditional-built boat? On
the West Coast, it barely happens at all. I’m in the smallboat realm, and they’re all in plywood so you can put
it out in the yard, you can put a tarp over the boat, and
it’s fine. It’s lighter, and it’s very strong for its weight.”
For a trailered boat, too, plywood planking means the
boat doesn’t have to spend time in the water to “take
up” until the leaking stops. The boat can be launched,
sailed immediately, and retrieved, and the cycle can

ROSEMARY W YMAN (BOTH)

Right—The original Fulmar’s low foredeck became an
anchor well, accessed by a hatch in the new flush deck.
Below right—A crowded afterdeck has a lazarette, a fuel
tank lashed in place in the motor well, a mizzen maststep to
starboard, an outboard motor to port, a tiller working
the rudder through paired armatures, lines held by
cam cleat for raising and lowering the rudder, and an
adjustable rope traveler for the mainsheet.

repeat as frequently as desired without any regard to
the shrinking and swelling cycle. “In Port Townsend,”
Prins said, “nobody keeps a boat at a mooring. The
boats are at the dock, and it’s quite expensive,” so leaving a boat on a trailer significantly cuts costs.
The Fulmar that Prins had bought was well built,
planked with 3⁄8" mahogany plywood. It had a low deck
forward, over a watertight flotation compartment,
which he converted into an anchor well accessed by a
deck hatch. The decked flotation chamber aft became
the basis for the lazarette and outboard motor recess.
He used plywood bulkheads and frames, epoxy-filleted
to the hull, to add new structure, strengthening the hull
where necessary and keeping it as light as he dared.
He used 1⁄4" okoume plywood for the decks and cockpit seats, well supported by numerous slender spruce
beams. The cabin roof is made up of two layers of 1⁄4"
okoume, and the house sides and cockpit sole are 3⁄8".
“It was a bit of an exercise for me to go light,” he said.
All the surfaces are sheathed in fiberglass cloth set in
epoxy, with ground walnut shells added to the deck
paint for a nonskid surface. The conversion added
enough weight that the boat no longer can be considered a planing hull, and it raised the load waterline by
about an inch and a half.
Plywood-epoxy construction has revolutionized the

40 • WoodenBoat 236

FETCH-FINAL.indd 40

11/14/13 2:59 PM

design of small cruising boats. Minimal structure and
light weight have made adequate interior volume much
more feasible for boats that can be launched from a
trailer and towed by an ordinary vehicle, opening up
a whole new world. In one of life’s sweet ironies, such
boats are usually used more often than their expensive
larger counterparts and are capable of venturing much
farther: in one year, Prins sailed Puget Sound, the
Great Lakes, the Maine coast, Cape Breton, and more.

Cabin or Tent?
As far as Prins was concerned, the accommodations
decision was never in question. The boat would have
a cabin of small stature, cleverly arranged for the best
use of space.
A cabin on such a small boat often can be about as
commodious as the average coffin. Standing headroom
is impossible. The impulse to increase interior volume
for comfort has to be balanced against functionality on
deck, and good appearance isn’t entirely aesthetic—it
is a result of getting that balance right, with a proper
sense of proportion. A well-designed cabin looks like it
grew there.
“I always had a desire for a cabin, a place to crawl into
and a place to keep all my stuff dry, without having to
stuff it all in bags. You can do it in an open boat, but you
have to mess with a tent of some sort. You arrive somewhere in the rain, and you have to deal with this tent,
and everything’s wet in there. I just love being in the
cabin, and reading, going to bed. If it blows, it’s just so
cozy in there, and it can rain like hell. I love that sense
of protection, and a tent gives you that only partly.”
Interior layout choices were few. Prins chose to use
conventional V-berths forward, as opposed to the only
other viable option of quarter berths with legroom
extending under the spaces formed by the cockpit side
seats. The legroom for the V-berths extends under the
anchor well forward.

Comfortable seating in such a small cabin is problematic. His solution was to make the aft end of each
V-berth hinged. This section flips up to reveal a low,
contoured seat, and the raised section forms the seat
back. You sit facing aft, with your feet in a small well
between the seat and the companionway. The capped
centerboard trunk happens to be at a level making the
seats something like side-by-side armchairs, with a surface flat enough to set a mug on. Theoretically, the boat
can accommodate two—but they’d better be very good
friends. This boat is better envisioned as solo-sized for
a cruise of much duration, with the spare bunk used for
gear stowage.
By placing the seats alongside the centerline, Prins
took full advantage of the greatest height of the coach
roof’s camber. If they had been farther outboard, as
in facing athwartships, the cabin sides would have
required greater height. “So, that kept the house 6"
lower, which is the difference between an ugly house
and a decent house,” Prins said. “That’s kind of the
essence of this FETCH, in terms of the interior, that
whole seating arrangement.”
Horizontal longitudinal plywood stringers installed
on each side double as shelves for at-hand items, a success from Townsend Tern that Prins incorporated into
FETCH. There is no galley—if he cooks, he sets up his
stove in the cockpit. The interior space is tight: “This is
kind of verging on being too tight,” he says. “I can sleep
okay, but getting in and out of my bag is like a fight. For
cruising, the human comfort in this cabin is so small
that you say, ‘Can’t this be better?’ But, as soon as you
make it bigger, better, then you’re hauling more weight
behind you [while trailering], and launching is harder.”
More sophisticated equipment in the galley, lighting,
and so on, adds not only to weight but to cost.
For a design client in Australia, however, he has developed a “FarFetch” conversion for Fulmar, and it is this
version for which his plans are available. The boat is the

ROSEMARY W YMAN (BOTH)

Left—a contoured seat bottom faces aft in the cabin, with
the centerboard trunk cap serving as a rudimentary table
and a shelf outboard holding commonly used items. Below—
One seat is installed on each side of the centerboard trunk,
and when the seat backs are hinged down, they form a
V-berth platform.

January/February 2014 • 41

FETCH-FINAL.indd 41

11/14/13 3:00 PM

For FETCH, Prins devised a sliding gunter mainsail of smaller square-footage
than Iain Oughtred’s original Fulmar (right). A single jib, with a spritboomed mizzen, completed the rig. For his “FarFetch” revision (above),
Prins made the hull 10” wider than Oughtred’s original open daysailer. He
also made the cabin larger than FETCH’s, enlarged the cabin, omitted the
mizzen altogether, and called for two small headsails, the outer one rollerfurled, for better sail-reduction options in high wind. He is marketing plans
for the FarFetch conversion in conjunction with Oughtred’s original plans.

same hull length but adapts Oughtred’s lines plan to
widen the hull by 10", which provides room enough to
make the trunk cabin 6" longer, 3" taller, and 5" wider, a
significant gain of volume. He has revised and finalized
the plans, based on his direct experience with FETCH.
That gain in interior volume is fairly modest, resisting the ever-present temptation for more accommodation space. At some point, comfort aboard becomes
a liability on the road. “‘Trailerable’ doesn’t mean
necessarily that you can launch it,” Prins said. “The
Townsend Tern was very comfortable inside, but it’s
a bit of a beast behind a car. You need quite a good
vehicle, because it’s 8' wide, 3,500 lbs,” not including
the weight of the trailer itself. “Loon will weigh 1,500.
This FETCH is 1,200, which is quite easy—I can wheel
it around at home. For me, Townsend Tern would be
too big, a little too much boat. This FETCH is like my
minimum comfort in my maximum boat, pricewise and
what I want to haul around. ”
The conversion required a close look at every function, not just for ease of use but also for safety. That
centerboard trunk cap, for example, is far more than
a convenient surface. In the Fulmar design, the centerboard’s upper forward corner comes to a point

Iain Oughtred

KEES PRINS

extending out of the slot, allowing the attachment of
a lanyard for adjustment and a shock cord for tensioning, a typical setup for racing dinghies to permit fine
adjustments of the centerboard’s angle. The slot can,
in certain conditions, allow water to splash into the
boat, however. And in a full capsize, that water flow can
become a torrent. In Prins’s reconfiguration, any water
from the trunk would be splashing into the dry living
space. So he reconfigured the center­board’s profile,
ballasted it with 30 lbs of lead, raised the trunk sides
and ends by about 2", and installed a watertight cap.
The lanyard now runs from the centerboard to a turning block built into the inside of the trunk, then aft
through a hole in the trunk’s aft end to be secured at a
winch on the forward end of the cockpit footwell.
Prins also kept water out of the cabin by resisting
the temptation to build lockers under the cockpit seats,
accessible from above via hinged lids. He reasoned that
a small watertight lazarette under the short after deck
would provide storage for necessary sailing gear, so side
storage lockers weren’t necessary—plus, those lids can
leak and promote rot. Worse, in a full capsize, they can
leak or flip open inadvertently, downflooding the stowage area. That can be a serious flotation issue in a small

42 • WoodenBoat 236

FETCH-FINAL.indd 42

11/14/13 3:00 PM

The Lessons of Use

ROSEMARY W YMAN

When the work was finished, Prins headed east. He
wintered over in Michigan, teaching and then voyaging in the North Channel of Lake Huron. He arrived
in Brooklin, Maine, in August 2013, just in time to sail
in company (loosely) for four days to the Small Reach
Regatta, sail as crew for three days in the event (in
which cabin boats don’t qualify), then sail back for two
more days—a total of nine days living aboard. When
last seen, he was starting his drive to Cape Breton, after
which he returned to Port Townsend.
Even for a large boat, voyages of a week or more
put a premium on thoughtful planning and organization. Especially for a solo sailor, the way a boat is set up
and outfitted has everything to do with comfort and
safety on the water—and those concepts are directly
interrelated. A boat that is hard labor to sail or chronically overpowered can leave a person exhausted at the

A swivel-based mainsheet turning
block, with the sheet held by
a quick-release cam cleat, is
mounted on an athwartships
beam in the cockpit. At anchor,
the beam can be removed quickly,
by releasing a barrel-bolt latch as
shown.

end of the day, and fatigue
contributes to error. In his
revisions for FarFetch, Prins
dropped the mizzen and
called for two headsails, the
outer one roller-furling. “That
whole thing about being nervous all the time about being
overpowered, it takes a lot of
the fun away,” Prins said. “If it
wasn’t an issue, when the wind
kicked up, I would be more relaxed.” He has a storm
jib on FETCH, but “if I get caught out in the middle,
going to a storm jib is difficult.” The time to set it is
before leaving the anchorage.
The mizzen, too, provided some lessons. “When the
wind picks up, it becomes weather helm, and so I have
to take it away. It’s kind of hard to reach. I have to step
on the aft deck. I just take the snotter loose and roll it
up, but still, the boat is bouncing and you have to roll
it up and secure it, and by the time you’re done with it,
all kinds of things can happen. So after months and
months of sailing with, it, I thought, ‘Let’s just leave it
off.’ Right now, it’s tied to the side of my camper. So
far it’s been great. I haven’t missed it at all.” His Loon
design also has a mizzen, which in the larger boat he
feels might work better for sailing on just the jib and
mizzen in high winds. In FarFetch, he did away the with
the mizzen entirely.
He used to keep the mizzen set close-hauled to keep
the boat’s head to wind while reefing. Without it, he
finds that having the helm secured hard to leeward and
the jib sheeted in hard works better. “When you use the
mizzen to reef, or point into the wind, you start to drift
backwards. By the time you’re done, you’ve lost a lot
of height”—meaning progress to windward—“and if
you’re trying to get around something, now you have to
make that up.” With the jib, the boat holds its course. “It
takes me a minute, and I’m reefed. When it’s done, I go
sit down, I pull in my mainsheet, and the boat accelerates. I haven’t lost any height.”
His sliding-gunter mainsail reefs very easily. The
throat and peak halyards follow fairleads to cam cleats
at the aft corner of the cabin roof. By opening the companionway hatch, he can step forward far enough to slip
ROSEMARY W YMAN

boat, and in this case it would open the possibility of downflooding the cabin as well. “Self-rescue
is important,” Prins says. “This boat has buoyancy
in the lazarette, but it doesn’t have separate buoyancy in the cabin. My cabin is buoyancy.” Keeping
the water out is imperative. Instead, Prins made
the cockpit seats watertight to the exterior, and
they are accessed only through the cabin itself. He
stores gear in plastic totes in those compartments,
using lanyards to slide them out as needed. A portable toilet, too, stores there and can be hauled out
for use.
Prins also gave the boat a relatively conservative
sail plan, with a sliding-gunter mainsail equal to the
single-reefed mainsail in one of Oughtred’s original sail plans, with a jib hanked to the forestay and
a small sprit-boomed mizzen offset to starboard.

Key running rigging—including halyards and jibsheets—are
led to cam cleats on the aft corner of the coach roof. When
reefing, a hook at the main gooseneck fitting is within easy
reach by opening the sliding hatch and standing on the
centerboard trunk cap.
January/February 2014 • 43

FETCH-FINAL.indd 43

11/14/13 3:00 PM

the luff ring onto a hook at the gooseneck. The leech
line leads well forward on the boom, in easy reach, and
he can get away with making off just a single reef nettle.
With three reefs in the main and a storm jib set, he can
carry sail much longer in a wind that’s building.
The cockpit itself has a fairly small footwell, to minimize its water volume, and therefore weight, in a capsize. Its sole is sloped slightly forward to direct water to
drains that make the cockpit self-bailing, which is handy
not only under way but also when the boat is at a mooring or on its trailer during rainy drives. Designed to keep
crew weight comparatively far forward, the cockpit location counters the far-aft weight of the outboard motor
and fuel tank. The mainsheet reeves through a block set
on a beam that runs across the footwell, but the beam

can be easily removed
to free up space in the
cockpit while at anchor.
Prins also added 200 lbs
of inside lead ballast—
and to determine where
to put it, he outfitted the boat, took the helm, and then
had a 200-lb friend move forward until the boat’s foreand-aft trim looked right to another person watching
from the dock. The ballast ended up clustered adjacent
to the mast.
With the outboard motor within easy reach to port,
and an offset mizzenmast to starboard, Prins found he
could not use the Fulmar’s original long tiller. There
was a lot happening on that afterdeck. Instead, he

ROSEMARY W YMAN (BOTH)

Right—At the tiller head, a
steering arm made of commonly
available materials links through
a transom aperture to a matching
arm on the rudderhead. Far
right—In use, two lines led to cam
cleats on the afterdeck raise and
lower the kick-up rudder.

Joubert

marine ply

Contact
Concannon Lumber / Wolstenholme
2060 Broadway Suite 320 - Boulder CO 80302
303-530-0435 - phone - 303-530-3742 - fax
www.wolstenholme.com

(207) 236-3561 www.gambellandhunter.net
44 • WoodenBoat 236

FETCH-FINALwADS.indd 44

11/20/13 2:18 PM

rigged a short tiller forward of the outboard motor
recess. A stainless-steel rod links a steering arm off the
tiller to a matching steering arm off the rudderhead.
The arrangement not only keeps the after well clear, it
also keeps the helm responsive with minimal athwartships movement in crew weight and without the use of a
tiller extension.
For ease in setting up the rig, Prins steps the mainmast on a tabernacle, where it’s held by two simple bolts.
He can raise the mast easily himself, using the tabernacle bolts to hold it while he attaches the quick-setting
forestay. When striking the rig, the mast is supported
by a removable gallows aft. He disconnects the boom
at the gooseneck but keeps the mainsail attached, rolls
the mizzen on its mast, and stows both alongside the
mast to be supported by the gallows aft and a bracket
forward.
Long voyages thoroughly shake down every kind of
system, from sailing to navigation to shelter to personal
hygiene. The boat, more than ever, becomes an expression of the skipper’s preferences and his way of doing
things. The design and construction ideas are tested,
altered, and often improved upon with use, with safety
and function always in mind.

Comparing Notes
As Prins and I arrived serendipitously in the same harbor on the sail back from the Small Reach Regatta, we

shared observations about solo cruising tactics, and the
conversation continued in subsequent days. It occurred
to me as we talked that we had taken completely opposite approaches. He has a cabin, I use a tent. His boat
is plywood-epoxy, mine is traditionally constructed. He
has an outboard, I use oars. His rig has many modern
conveniences, mine has none. Yet time, use, and personal preferences have led each of us to devise strategies that work. During a fine day of sailing on the home
stretch to Brooklin, our boats seemed strangely compatible, both in speed and handling. We had developed
similar ideas on our hand-held GPS and radio, and we
compared notes on a dozen things, equally valid, forged
in experience and based on our own unique outlooks.
In another place, at another time, facing different circumstances, either of us might well have made choices
similar to the other’s.
As with all boats, FETCH’s design, construction, and
use were like three strands of a rope, wound into one
another, all pulling equally.
Tom Jackson is WoodenBoat’s senior editor.
Plans for Fulmar are available from Iain Oughtred, Struan Cottage,
Bearnisdale, Isle of Skye, Scotland, IV51 9NS; 011–44–1470–532–
732 or [email protected]. FarFetch conversion plans, which
can be used for new boats or interpreted for an existing Fulmar,
are available from Kees Prins; contact him at 420 Shika Rd., Port
Townsend, WA 98368 or [email protected].

Bronze cap nuts and square nuts in stock!

TOP NOTCH FASTENERS
The Highest Quality Fasteners

Many Years of Fastener Experience

Top Notch will fill your fastener needs, whether it’s high corrosion,
or just those hard to find items.
Contact us today
and start experiencing the quality of
our fasteners, the outstanding service
we offer and the value you receive
for your money.

Most of our
Fasteners are
Domestically
Made.

Silicon Bronze-Inconel-Monel-StainlessChrome, and many other alloys.
Sizes from #0 to 3" in Diameter
Lengths from 1/16" to 50"
Bolts, Screws, Nuts, and Washers

75 Navaho Ave, Suite 5, Mankato, MN 56001 T: 800 992-5151 F: 608 876-6337
Email: [email protected]
Website: tnfasteners.com

Dip Stick
Oil Change Pump
Fuel Oil Filter
Raw Water Pump
Lube Oil Filter
Fuel Lift Pump

Model Shown Beta 38

SMOOTHER…QUIETER

Our engines idle smoother and quieter
because of our high inertia flywheel.
This is one of the many Beta Marine
exclusive features that make our
diesel engines easier to live with.
Engineered to be serviced easily.

An organization dedicated to the wishing for,
researching of, locating, saving, placing, learning
about and dreaming of wooden boats.

All boats are free.
www.woodenboatrescue.org

Offering Wooden Boat Restoration Classes

• Beta Marine Superb Propulsion
Engines using Kubota Diesel
• From 14 to 150 HP including our
famous Atomic 4 replacements
• Also available:
Marine generators up to 30kW

(877) 227-2473
Phone (252) 249-2473
www.betamarinenc.com
e-mail: [email protected]
P.O. Box 5 Arapahoe, NC 28510
January/February 2014 • 45

FETCH-FINALwADS.indd 45

11/20/13 2:18 PM

The Lives of a Cat

Peter McGowan

CONJURER and her succession of saviors
by Skye Davis

A

28' catboat built by Horace Manley Crosby, one of
the acknowledged masters of catboat design and
construction, slipped into the waters of Cape
Cod for the first time in May 1909. It was the beginning of a varied life for one of the Crosby Brothers’
many creations, continuing the legacy they started in
the 19th century by perfecting their own variation on
a boat type that is an undisputed American original,
immediately recognizable by its large, single, gaffrigged sail and wide, alluring hull. More than a century
later, CONJURER continues to exercise her magic.
The thought of saving an aging catboat from the
scrap heap may appear crazy to some. The boat came to
Arey’s Pond Boat Yard, which is run by my father, Tony
Davis, in Orleans, Massachusetts, for its most recent restoration, which he describes as an effort to preserve a
significant example of America’s maritime heritage. “It
is astonishing,” he once told me, “to see what the Crosbys

could accomplish without design software, testing tanks,
and the other tools we have. There is a lot to learn from
studying this boat.”
The work is being done for Fred Villars, the latest
owner to fall under CONJURER’s spell. Villars grew up
in Philadelphia but fell in love with catboats during his
childhood summers on Cape Cod in the 1960s. “My
reaction was that of many who see these boats for the
first time,” he said. “Whether at a mooring or under
sail, the sight of the huge white sail, and white hull set
against the blue sky and blue water, stops you in your
tracks. There is something mesmerizing and dreamlike about them.” Villars scoured countless advertisements looking for an original wooden catboat but was
disappointed to find them in very rough shape. “One
of them was literally a ‘barn find,’ an original Crosby
cat stored for years in a barn,” he said. “Unfortunately,
close inspection showed that she was too far gone to

Above—Relaunched in her home waters of Cape Cod in autumn 2013, CONJURER is a 28’ LOA, 1909 Crosby catboat. First used
to convey guests to a hunting and fishing resort on Pasque Island, off Cape Cod, she has had a varied career but at key times
has had caring owners.

46 • WoodenBoat 236

CONJURER-FINAL.indd 46

11/14/13 2:47 PM

Left—CONJURER’s enormous cockpit first accommodated
resort guests, and the same spaciousness later made the
boat attractive to scallop and oyster fishermen. Since at
least 1961, she has comfortably carried pleasure sailors.
Middle left—Rather than gaff jaws, the catboat’s boom
gooseneck fitting attaches to a metal bracket mounted on
the broad plank bowsprit. Lower left—Once cut back to
accommodate an engine, the centerboard trunk has been
restored to its original configuration in the latest restoration
at Arey’s Pond Boat Yard on Cape Cod.

grounded on a sandbar. After floating off with the rising tide and being taken in tow to the boatyard, CONJURER was the picture of defeat. “She was still in her
heart a grand and magnificent lady, but in reality a
worn-out, decrepit, 100-year-old crone,” Villars said.
“She looked shipshape but tired from the sea swells
yanking at her mast and forefoot,” said Davis, one of
the few awaiting her arrival at the boatyard. Davis met
with Villars to devise a plan. With pumps keeping her
afloat at her Arey’s Pond moorage, she spent the winter in the water, protected by a de-icing system. During that time, it became apparent that she still had a
lot of exposed, bleeding iron fastenings and deteriorating, exposed wood. She was hauled, painted, and
surveyed again. She sailed briefly during the 2009
season, but the following winter she was hauled out
once more to have her deadwood replaced and her
centerboard trunk rebuilt. After she was opened up,
as is often the case, more needs were discovered. The
project turned into a reconstruction that lasted four
years, ending in 2013.

Peter McGowan (All)

C

sail or repair.” He had become discouraged by the time
CONJURER came up for sale in 2006. Months passed
before he contacted the owner, Peter Baker.
Baker had been a loving owner of the boat for 20
years, sailing her out of Center Harbor in Brooklin,
Maine. He and his brother, Chris, maintained the boat
themselves, and their passion for her was responsible
for, among other things, a significant reconstruction
in the 1980s. Villars arranged a thorough survey and
inspection, after which he felt that he had found the
right seller and the right boat. A deal was made.
In the summer of 2007, Baker made his last voyage
aboard CONJURER , delivering her on her own bottom
from Brooklin to Pleasant Bay on Cape Cod. That season, Villars took CONJURER out for the first time, only
to find more disappointment. The steering quadrant,
weakened from the delivery trip, failed, and the boat

ONJURER began her career in the service of the
Pasque Island Fishing and Hunting Club on one
of the Elizabeth Islands of Massachusetts. She
was commissioned by the club’s owner and founder,
Clarence King, an adventurer and explorer who was
a friend of many of Boston’s elite, among them writer
Henry Adams. The club’s various buildings included a
sleeping lodge, clubhouse, dining room, and kitchen.
Affluent striped-bass fishermen arrived by rail at New
Bedford, where CONJURER met them to ferry them out
to Robinsons Hole and Pasque Island. Among the club’s
well-heeled guests, reportedly, was Teddy Roose­velt.
The Great Depression took a heavy toll on the club,
ultimately forcing it to disband. In 1931, the Forbes family bought Pasque Island, along with the club complex.
By then, other assets—including the lovely catboat—
had already been sold off. Jeb Barrington, a late-1960s
owner of CONJURER , recounted meeting a fisherman
from Martha’s Vineyard who told him that he owned
CONJURER in 1933 and used her for scallop fishing.
Such a use would have been common for catboats,
along with oyster harvesting, since their large cockpits
were perfect for handling tongs and buckets and their
hulls were stable enough to drag dredging gear.
Barrington’s account of his conversation is the last
known record of CONJURER until June 14, 1961, when
January/February 2014 • 47

CONJURER-FINAL.indd 47

11/14/13 2:47 PM

I

t appears that Morris abandoned CONJURER in a
marsh. Nantucket local Charles Sayle checked on
her periodically, noting that she needed garboards
as well as other work. Barrington undertook the challenge and got her floating again. It was Barrington’s
work that had been done—and done well—to restore
the original centerboard profile, as found by the Arey’s
Pond crew. Barrington also removed an on-deck fuel
tank and the Graymarine, which he replaced with an
Acadia one-cylinder engine that was closer to the size
of CONJURER’s original engine.
Barrington, in turn, sold CONJURER to Robert Grosvenor of New York City on June 19, 1972, thus beginning CONJURER’s career as a pleasure craft. At that
time, she still had her Egyptian cotton sail, with narrow
vertical panels and three reefs. Despite Barrington’s
care, the boat was leaking badly, as Grosvenor discovered on his voyage to New York City. But for years, the
boat was launched each May and hauled out each October at a small boatyard in the Bronx that catered to
wooden sailboats, with improvements made to CONJURER each year. After the bulk of the work was completed, Grosvenor arranged a mooring close to the city
and began hauling her each year at a boatyard in Pelham, in Westchester County. For a decade, the family
sailed CONJURER , venturing as far as Newport, down
In this 1967 photo, CONJURER lay at her mooring on
Nantucket Island, where she was used in a
daysailing livery operated by Paul Morris.

the East River, around Staten Island, and up the Hudson River to Albany. Grosvenor’s children grew up sailing the boat and have continued to be avid sailors. “My
family and friends who enjoyed the boat for so long are
happy to know that she is in such good hands,” he said.
“CONJURER played a large part in my life.”
Years later, Baker’s brother, Chris, met a boatbuilder at
Brooklin Boat Yard in Brooklin, Maine, who had worked
on CONJURER in Pelham during Grosvenor’s ownership and described using 1¼"-thick mahogany planks
to replace the original garboards, which make a difficult and pronounced twist at the stem. Grosvenor had
a new sail made by a City Island sail loft, too. This same
Caralon sail, made around 1980, is still in use. Grosvenor
also had the Acadia “one-lunger” replaced with a Universal Unimite gas engine, with a 2:1 reduction gear turning
out 70 hp.
On May 24, 1982, Grosvenor sold CONJURER to Joe
Hliva of Pemberwick, Connecticut. Hliva recalled that
his offer was way under the asking price, but with no
other offers coming in, Grosvenor relented.

T

he boat was under Hliva’s ownership when Baker
first encountered her in the fall of 1985. The
weather was still warm, and Peter, along with
his brother, Chris, took his sailing canoe for an outing. They set out from Greenwich Cove at Todds Point,
near their childhood home. During the sail, Chris had
to luff up sharply to avoid colliding with a large boat,
and after the confusion passed he looked back to see
what he believed to be a Crosby catboat. He sailed
alongside to inquire, and the man aboard confirmed
Chris’s hunch. He invited the pair aboard for a chat,
also mentioning that he had just decided to sell the
boat. “Upon stepping aboard, I knew she was the boat
I’d dreamed of sailing,” Peter said. The brothers made
arrangements to return for a better look.
The transfer occurred the next day. Peter immediately got to work tuning up the Unimite engine. Chris
moved a bandsaw aboard to rebuild the transom and
steering gear. “We could see she needed more work,”
Peter said, “but in the spring of 1986 she was sturdy
enough to sail downeast from Greenwich to Brooklin,”
where their family summer home is located. “It took
about two weeks and was a great cruise. CONJURER
exceeded my expectations as a good seaboat, handling
well under engine and sail with a good, even motion.”

yves A. Feder

owner Robert Sanborn filed documentation papers on
her. Sanborn moored her in one of Martha’s Vineyard’s
harbors, and for navigating the notorious currents
around the Elizabeth Islands and Nantucket Sound,
he removed the aft half of the centerboard trunk and
filled in the slot in the keel under it, all to make room
for a large six-cylinder Graymarine engine. During the
early phases of the most recent reconstruction, Davis’s
crew found evidence of Sanborn’s alterations: The forward half of the centerboard trunk was original, but
the after half, restored after Sanborn’s ownership, had
been replaced with oak planks and mahogany cleats to
tie the pieces together. Baker had recalled making the
same observation: “The front half of the centerboard
trunk, mostly in the cabin, I’m quite sure was planked
with pine, which appeared to be hand-planed and
edge-splined with a similar wood,” he said. “The lower
part of the trunk had a table built on top with folding
pine leaves on each side of the trunk—classic Crosby.
The leaves when raised were held up by hand-forged
iron brackets which swung out under the leaves.”
After Sanborn, the boat next went to Graeme Elliott,
on April 12, 1963. He had her for only two years before
selling her to Paul’s Boat Livery, operated by Paul Morris on Nantucket. His fleet of daysailers included spacious catboats that were chartered during the summer
and used for oystering and scalloping in the off-season.
In May 1968, Barrington acquired CONJURER from
Paul Morris. According to Baker, Barrington should be
credited with saving her from imminent demise.

48 • WoodenBoat 236

CONJURER-FINAL.indd 48

11/14/13 2:47 PM

Peter McGowan

Catboats are renowned for their vast accommodations, and CONJURER is no exception. Never lavishly appointed, her cabin
suits the boat perfectly.

Sailing out of Center Harbor, the home of Brooklin
Boat Yard and a fleet of classic wooden yachts, it didn’t
take long for her to be noticed and recognized as a rare
classic. That summer, Benjamin Mendlowitz photo­
graphed her for his annual Calendar of Wooden Boats.
By 1990, the brothers had moved into a former Odd
Fellows Hall, which they used as a warehouse, gallery,
and summer home. The three-story building stands at
the head of Center Harbor Road, a short walk to the
boatyard, from which it was a short row to CONJURER’s
mooring. They had many fond memories associated
with the boat. Peter proposed to Melissa, who became
his wife, during a moonlight cruise to Isle au Haut.
CONJURER had a key role in weddings over the years,
and funerary ashes have been scattered over the waters
from her after deck. The boat had become part of the
family.
“After careful inspection, Chris and I realized that
the deadwood was originally constructed with shaftlogs for a propeller shaft,” Peter said. “CONJURER was
most likely one of the early Crosby cats to be built with
an engine.” Originally, the only other conveniences
belowdeck were a coal stove and a head. The head had
been removed sometime before the Bakers acquired
CONJURER , probably around the time holding-tank
regulations started to be enforced in Long Island
Sound and around the Cape.
In 1986, the Bakers hauled out the boat on an old
slipway at York Island, off Isle au Haut, among the
outer­most islands of Jericho Bay. “We found lumber
and blocking on the island to get CONJURER high and
dry, and then built a boathouse framework mostly of
driftwood,” Peter recalled. “The entire thing was covered with a very heavy canvas tarp which provided very
good shelter when it was tied down. For the next two

years, using a bandsaw and hand tools, we sistered and
replaced the 2×2 oak frames as well as sheerstrakes,
sheer clamps, the entire deck and its framework,
and the mast partners, and we rebuilt the Unimite
gas engine.” They used Honduras mahogany for hull
planks as needed and deck planks, and selected white
oak for structural pieces. “We stayed in a 10' × 20' cabin
at Petes Point at the harbor entrance while our work
proceeded, mostly in warmer weather. For Chris and
me, it was a great place to live and work, with help when
needed from friends and visitors. It was surprising the
number of fishing boats and yachts that would visit and
moor in the harbor—there was always someone new to
meet and visit.”
In fall 1989, CONJURER went back in the water looking like a new boat. She stayed on a mooring off York
Island for nearly a month while gear was stowed aboard
and the hull took up. The engine wasn’t quite ready for
installation, so on a warm October day the Bakers towed
her north using Chris’s old outboard powerboat. “Way
out in the middle of Jericho Bay,” Chris said, “it seemed
we were slowing down. After checking the bilge, we
found it was filling with water.” The source of the leak
became quickly obvious: water was pouring in through
a hole in the aft end of the centerboard trunk that was
meant to receive the bilge pump outflow hose; the water
came in only while the boat was under way, not when it
was stationary at the mooring. Peter plugged the hole,
then he and Chris used 5-­gallon buckets to quickly bail
the bilge. They towed the boat into Bridges Point Boatyard in Brooklin, where the Unimite was waiting. CONJURER was soon put to bed for the winter, awaiting a
spring commissioning.
Almost a decade later, in October 1998, they had
CONJURER hauled for the winter and set up adjacent
January/February 2014 • 49

CONJURER-FINAL.indd 49

11/14/13 2:47 PM

to the Odd Fellows Hall, where Chris was living. The
boat, originally used for hauling hunting dogs, camping and fishing gear, and personal goods to Pasque
Island, had never had bunks or much else for accommodations. But this was about to change, as there was
a Herreshoff ketch being rebuilt nearby, and its bunks,
lockers, and coal stove were being removed. The brothers saw an opportunity to give these items a new home.
“There was a heavy shelf built in place of the head
on the port side against the bulkhead, and we had
set up a very old coal heating stove from a Nova Scotia schooner that I’d found,” Chris said. “It was great
for heat, but not ideal for cooking. The replacement
was designed for cooking and had a nice-sized oven.
It worked well for baking bread. We installed a nice
teak galley locker on the starboard side against the
bulkhead, which included a stainless-steel sink with an
ornate water pump and drain with a through-hull fitting. Forward of this we installed a nice, wide bunk,”
with ample stowage lockers underneath. “A matching
bunk went in on the port side forward of the cookstove.
Both bunks tapered going forward to allow access forward around the maststep, which was a great catch-all,
particularly for firewood.”
Fine materials coupled with simple design suited
the catboat’s style, while adding some class and comfort below. Chris, skilled at finishwork, completed most
of the project himself while the boat was outside the
building, just a few steps from his front porch. He set
up his workbench in the storefront-style front room.
CONJURER attracted a lot of attention that winter, and
people often stopped to look her over. One man from
Martha’s Vineyard told Chris that if she had fished commercially it couldn’t have been for very long, because
dragging was hard on the boats. His father had an oyster business at the eastern end of Long Island that used
a fleet of catboats, mostly Crosbys, which they would
use to drag for oysters downwind under sail, culling the
catch on deck. Then the crew would motor upwind to
start another drag downwind. At the time, he said, it
Peter Baker and his brother, Chris, who first encountered
the big catboat in 1985, hauled the boat out at York Island,
Maine, in 1986, under a driftwood-and-tarp shed, to
complete an extensive reconstruction of the hull.

wasn’t unusual to find big catboats like CONJURER in
the oyster fleet, because they had more power downwind than an engine could provide. Another visitor had
a relative who had written a book about the years his
family had owned and sailed a Crosby catboat.
CONJURER was relaunched the following May. “We
found her more suitable for cruising, as well as an inviting place for a quiet afternoon nap while on the mooring in Center Harbor.” By the following year’s haulout,
2003–04, Chris had purchased an old Masonic hall in
nearby Sedgwick, so the boat was set up next to his new
building, under a temporary shelter. “We went to work
removing the stem, which was difficult as the original
1 1⁄4" cypress planking was impossible to bend out of the
way after removing the fastenings. We had to cut some
of the plank ends to remove the stem, which had to be
taken out in pieces. What we found was that CONJURER
must have sustained a collision, probably with a wharf,
as a large, carefully crafted graving piece had been put
in where the fracture had occurred.”
The gripe, which connects the lower end of the
nearly vertical stem to the forward end of the nearly
horizontal keel, was next to be removed. They also
replaced the maststep—a critical piece, especially in
a catboat, which is subjected to great stress because
of the boat’s large sail. Using white oak to match the
original pieces, Chris shaped the new stem, gripe, and
maststep. The mast step proved particularly difficult, as
it was a heavy piece, almost sculptural, that had to be
fitted to several other components, and reference lines

MAYNARD BRAY

COURTESY CHRIS BAKER

Peter W. Baker owned CONJURER for 20 years, during which
several rounds of intensive restoration and maintenance
work were completed while the boat was homeported in
Brooklin, Maine.

50 • WoodenBoat 236

CONJURER-FINAL.indd 50

11/14/13 2:47 PM

Right top—The latest round of restoration, under Frederick
Villars’s ownership, has included a wide array of projects,
including steam-bending coamings and cabin sides to
a form before installation, with Arey’s Pond Boat Yard
proprietor Tony Davis leading the work. Second right—The
centerboard trunk was completely rebuilt to its original
configuration, and a new cockpit sole was installed
over new beams. Third right—What turned into a fouryear project started with the reconstruction of a rotting
deadwood and sternpost. As things were opened up, more
issues were encountered. Bottom right—The completion
of the new deadwood and sternpost marked the first
milestone, but years would pass until the boat sailed again
late in the 2013 season.

were difficult to establish. The project, including a bit
of replanking at the bow after the new stem went in,
took nearly all winter. Peter rejoined the work in time
for sanding, scraping, painting, and varnishing CONJURER to get her ready for the 2004 season. “This was
the part I was good at and enjoyed completing myself.
I think Chris was tired of the job and needed a break
from our old catboat for a while.”
By the 2004–05 haulout, still more work was needed.
Five forward frames per side, numerous butt blocks, and
some planking needed replacement. Peter and Chris
replaced planks with 11⁄4" -thick white cedar, using stainless-steel fastenings, as they had in their previous replanking. The forward portions of the garboards that had been
installed in the 1960s also needed to be replaced, using
white oak this time and replacing their galvanized fastenings with stainless-steel. That year’s haulout involved
the last major work that the Baker brothers did on CONJURER; by 2007, Peter had sold her to Villars.

W

COURTESY of AREY’S POND BOAT yard (all)

ith such an old wooden hull, there was sure
to be more work to do, however. When Tony
Davis and his crew at Arey’s Pond hauled out
CONJURER , they first focused on the deadwood and
sternpost. “Removing the 100-year-old sternpost was a
glimpse into what lay ahead,” Davis said. “Leslie Gouveia, a graduate of International Yacht Restoration
School who had worked here for six years, did most of
the work on her own. All of the deadwood was replaced
and a new transom built,” during which other problems
became evident. “It was time to tackle the centerboard
trunk, too,” he said, and so out it came, replaced with a
new one of Spanish cedar.
“We made an effort to use as little epoxy and plywood as possible, building her to the same scantlings
and methods as the Crosby yard. Much of CONJURER’s
structure was exposed. As the work was getting done,
the boat was drying out. The dry cabin sides and sole
were aching to be replaced, and the interior now looked
worn out. It was decided to continue and rebuild the
cabin, decks, and cockpit, everything from framing to
seats and steering quadrant—all on a very tight budget.
We took the 104-year-old steering quadrant to Edson
Marine. They confirmed that they had made the original and replaced it. The last major jobs were to strip
January/February 2014 • 51

CONJURER-FINAL.indd 51

11/14/13 2:48 PM

Left—At 28’, CONJURER is a large catboat, even by the standards
of her builder, the famous Horace Manley Crosby. With shallow
draft and ample capacity, such boats were a part of everyday life
in Cape Cod waters at the turn of the last century.
Opposite page—With her sweeping sheerline, powerful rig, and
spacious cockpit, it’s little wonder that CONJURER’s classic form
has captivated a succession of owners.

PETER McGOWAN

the bottom and topsides, install new garboard planks,
recaulk, refasten, install a new stern deck and coaming,
new cabin sides and cabin top, and new canvas on the
deck and cabin top. Finally, the diesel was rebuilt, and
we installed a new fuel tank, prop, and shaft.”
Thanks to people like Fred Villars, Peter Baker, and
the owners who came before, an original 1909 Crosby
catboat, with much of her original hull and all of her
original fittings intact, will sail the waters of Cape Cod
as if it were still 1909. She will no doubt become part of
yet one more family, and perhaps others to follow. With
luck, hard work—and maybe a little bit of magic—
CONJURER is nowhere near her final act.
Skye Davis grew up on Cape Cod in Massachusetts and has been
rowing and sailing wooden boats since early childhood. She is a graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, and is currently
living in New York City working for film director Minos Papas.

THE FUTURE

THE CAMPAIGN

FREE

E-Newsletter!
1. Go to
woodenboat.com

The Center for Wooden Boats champions
hands-on learning for people of all ages and
offers unique experiences on the water.
Founded over 37 years ago, CWB is now
bursting at the seams. As programs grow
to meet demand it is critical to secure more
space.
By supporting this campaign, you join the
community in building a stronger future for
programs that change lives, one boat at a
time.

T O L E A R N M O R E O R D O N AT E :
W W W. C W B . O R G / C A M PA I G N

2. Click
Stay in touch
with ALL we do!

52 • WoodenBoat 236

CONJURER-FINALwADS.indd 52

11/20/13 1:43 PM

PETER McGOWAN

Build and Sail the
Scamp Pocket Cruiser
with John Welsford and Howard Rice

March 31–April 11 & August 11–22, 2014

Photo Courtesy: Small Craft Advisor Magazine

at the Northwest Maritime Center
in Port Townsend, WA

Hard-to-find Tools.
Easy to Find.
Shelter Tools, Route 1 in Woolwich, Maine

Think.Build.Live
207.442.7938

www.shelterinstitute.com

Learn more about John Welsford and the Scamp in the
March/April 2012 issue of WoodenBoat. Howard Rice is the
famed small boat adventurer and Cape Horn solo sailor.
For more information or to register, please contact the School at
360-385-4948 or e-mail us at [email protected]
The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is hosting
several short workshops in 2014. Check out our web site
for additional classes.

www.nwboatschool.org

/NWBoatSchool
/NorthwestMaritimeCenter

January/February 2014 • 53

CONJURER-FINALwADS.indd 53

11/20/13 1:43 PM

From Cold War Estonia to Maine’s cold winter

FAST PIECE OF FURNITURE
by Bill Buchholz

I

ceboaters tend to be generous people. Aside from
a big plate of smooth ice, the one thing they want
most is to share their experience with others. Such
was the mindset of the European Class Association of
the Monotype ice yacht with the approach of the 2007
European Championships  in Sweden. The European
Monotype sailors have long dreamt of getting the class
active in the United States, so they posted a small note
on a popular American iceboating website announcing
that they would provide, to the first American team to
apply, food, drink, lodging, and a race-ready boat. The
offer was too good for me to refuse, so I corralled an
iceboating buddy to join me in signing up. But we were
too late. A couple of stern-steerer sailors from the Midwest, Erich Schloemer and Mike Peters,  had already
booked their flight.
To deal with my disappointment, I decided to build
one of these boats. For here was something unique
to Maine’s frozen lakes: twin cockpits, an intriguing
history, and a very cool steering wheel.

F

or over 50 years, the Monotype XV, named for its
15 square meters of sail, lay hidden behind the
Iron Curtain. Eric von Holst, a German sailor

Photographs by Alison Langley

living in Estonia, designed the boat in 1932, and it was
a very successful one-design racing class in the years
leading up to World War II. Von Holst competed in the
1936 Olympics in the Star class and was instrumental
in organizing the European Ice Sailing Union in 1925.
There were at least eight European Championships
held in the Monotype XV class before the war.
With the closing of the Iron Curtain after the war,
the class fell into obscurity in Western Europe but continued to thrive in the Soviet Union.  All boats were
state property, and many Monotype XVs were built
and raced. They didn’t always receive proper maintenance, but competition was lively and wrecked boats
were always repaired at the state’s expense. Estonia, on
the broad shallow bays of the Baltic Sea, was the nexus
of the sport. Because it’s nearly fresh, the Baltic often
freezes as smooth as a lake.
During the Soviet era, Velo Jurjo and Igor Bolshakof worked in the Tallinn Shipyards building tugs,
fishing boats, and Olympic and one-design sailboats
for the Soviet sailing teams. They also built iceboats—
Velo building his first Monotype XV in 1959. And he’s
been building them ever since. With the fall of the
Soviet Union in 1989 and the opening of the Eastern

Above— On Maine’s frozen Chickawaukie Pond, author Bill Buchholz sails his recently christened iceboat, FAST PIECE OF
FURNITURE . The boat is built to a design that lay hidden behind the Iron Curtain for more than 50 years.

54 • WoodenBoat 236

Iceboat-FINAL.indd 54

11/20/13 9:41 AM

WWW.MONOTYPE-XV.ORG

Above—The sport of iceboating requires patience and
flexibility, as ideal conditions are rare but rewarding. Inset—
The spokes of the steering wheel are made from a bookmatched red oak crook. Left—The plans for the “Mono XV”
are beautifully drawn and annotated in Russian. They are
available online at www.monotype-xv.org.

Bloc countries, the “Mono XV” began trickling back
to the West. Swedish and Dutch sailors bought old Russian and Polish boats, and a few sailors commissioned
new boats from Velo to be built in newly independent
Estonia, and  also from Bolshakov in St. Petersburg,
Russia. National and European Championship Regattas were organized, and a class association, IM-XVIRA ,
was formed.
Velo is a ferocious competitor, having won the European championships a number of times. Class rules have
changed very little since the beginning, but Velo enjoys
pushing the limits within those rules and has developed
a hollow, strip-built runner plank that has proven to be
very fast while still class-legal. Composite reinforcement
is strictly prohibited, so the challenge is to maximize
the structural and flexural qualities of wood alone. 
Now in his 70s, Velo has lived to see his country become
independent, his childhood home returned to his family, and his passion for the Monotype spread throughout
Europe and now to the United States.

T

wo things about the Monotype XV hooked me
when I first encountered it: the Barney Oldfield
steering wheel and the drawings, which are beautifully detailed, dimensioned in metric, and written in
Russian. How could I not build to such exotic plans?
The Maine iceboating season had just ended, and that’s
the traditional time to begin building a new iceboat. I
started with the wheel, steering gear, and some bulkheads, since I find it’s most efficient to build all the
parts first, no matter what sort of boat it is. It’s no fun
trying to work around a completed hull while building
a mast, for example.
  When the time came to actually set up the boat
and build its fuselage, I realized just how big the thing
was—more than 23' long. I got cold feet and quietly put
all the parts away.
That was 2007. But this past spring the bug bit again,
and bit hard, thanks to the Internet. There was a video,
taken from the helmsman’s vantage point, of a wonderful iceboat outing on a lake in Sweden. The action
January/February 2014 • 55

Iceboat-FINAL.indd 55

11/20/13 9:41 AM

Unless they are properly secured, iceboats will sail off by
themselves and not stop until they reach the far shore. With
a stern-steerer, the rear runner is set square to the boat to
serve as a parking brake.

of the steering wheel in conjunction with hauling on
the sheet, waving to other boats, and long easy jibes
down the lake with a few tight passages through narrow
straits all in full sunshine just did me in. There might
have been some seasonal withdrawal symptoms at play,
too. I took the steering wheel I’d made earlier down
from the wall, dusted it off, and gave it another coat of
varnish just to get started.
Most iceboats are still built with classic 1950s construction: bulkheads, stringers, and skin. It’s a delightful method in which to work, as there are lots of
rolling bevels and not too much glue, and high-quality
spruce is one of the basic materials. I just had to see
this design in the flesh and feel how it would be to sail
such a classic. 
A pair of aluminum ladders laid end-to-end on
three sawhorses, decked with ½" plywood, and leveled makes an excellent building table, and I used
such a setup for this project. Because the bottom of
Monotype is flat, its panel can be set right on the
table, with center­line and stations marked on it and
the bulkheads set up. I scarfed the four stringers to
full length from shorter stock, sprung them around
the bulkheads, and planked the sides in 1⁄4" plywood.
Then I faired the top edge of the sheer stringer and
installed the deck.
I built the deck of 1⁄8" okoume plywood with a veneer
of makore vacuum-bagged to it before attaching it to
the boat. Makore, commonly known as African cherry,
is a highly figured hardwood of rich gold and pink
hues that would inspire the new boat’s name. Getting
such thin plywood to lay uniformly on the sheer clamp,
without fastenings, is a tricky operation. The secret to
a good fit is to cut the deck plywood at least 3⁄4" oversize
all the way around, and then fasten a nice, fair batten
to the top face of the overhang so the batten clears the

side of the fuselage. Clamps can then be applied to
the batten, giving uniform pressure all along the joint.
Nails are also an option: On a fuselage like this one, a
closely spaced row of polished copper heads would be
pleasing to the eye.
Since this was to be a bright-finished boat, before
gluing I masked the top edge of the side plank to
avoid staining and to give a clean, uniform glue line.
When the glue was cured and the clamps were off, I
trimmed away the overhanging deck material with a
drawknife followed by a plane—with a piece of tape
covering the lower corner of its iron to protect the sides
of the fuselage.
When it came time for the rig, I was alerted to an old
Yankee-class iceboat languishing in a trailer behind a
barn in nearby Thomaston. Our Chickawaukie Iceboat
Club (www.iceboat.me) had been trying without luck to
find someone who would buy, fix, and sail the boat. An
inspection revealed that the mast was within an inch of
being class legal for the Mono, and the runner plank,
though not hollow like Velo Jurjo’s, would also be a perfect fit. The old Yankee was in an enclosed trailer into
which the Monotype fuselage would also fit—which was

The steering wheel pivots up and down to ease entry into the
cockpit and to haul on the sheet.

56 • WoodenBoat 236

Iceboat-FINAL.indd 56

11/20/13 9:41 AM

The runners, stiffened with aluminum angle
cheeks, are mounted in pillow-block bearings
so that even in a steep hike they are free to
articulate.

I learned that she had lugged the package across town, through the busy streets
of Tallinn. From there, I was hoping to
snake the sail in through the back door
of the tram so the driver wouldn’t notice
and, indeed, the ever-shy and polite Finns
didn’t bat an eyelash.
Iceland Air happily accepted the package, but the Trailways bus that collected
us from the airport and brought us back
to Maine would not allow the sail to rest
in the aisle, so I had to remove the battens
and leave them behind. The folded sail fit
neatly in the luggage bay. All of the pieces
were now in place for sailing that winter.
important, because a trailer is an iceboat’s off-season
home. I made a deal with the owner and towed it home.
Obtaining these parts expedited the project, and it
meant I’d be ready to sail during the coming winter. All
I needed now was a sail.

M

y wife and I are part of a large extended family that spends summers in a sprawling compound in the Finnish archipelago. We have a
small cabin there to which we’ve been going every summer for decades. It’s about a hundred miles due north
by sea from western Estonia, where Velo has his shop.
In the summer of 2012, with the nearly complete iceboat at home in my shop in Maine, I made a circuitous
land journey from Finland to visit Velo and learn what
I could about this iceboat design.
For our visit, Velo had prepared his plank-building
jig and a pile of milled lumber to give me a tutorial on
exactly how to build the hollow plank, which I’m now
doing. Most iceboat runner planks are simply built of
three or four laminates of solid spruce, with perhaps
some ash mixed in to toughen the finished piece. It’s
basically a big wooden leaf spring. But the oval, tapered,
hollow, strip-built plank is truly exotic, and Velo spent
two days going over the monotype’s every detail with
me, all through a very capable interpreter named Tiina
Motuste. It helped that she, too, sailed iceboats.
At the end of our time together, as we were having
coffee while waiting for the bus, Velo asked if I had a
sail. I told him I did not. He said there was a guy who
had just commissioned a new one, as he didn’t do very
well in last season’s racing. Then he leaned in a bit
closer and whispered that he would try to get me this
man’s old one.
Later that month when I was back in Finland, the
day before our family’s flight back to the United States,
Tiina delivered the 14'-long roll of a fully battened
iceboat sail to the ferry terminal in Helsinki. I didn’t
appreciate just how tough and dedicated she was until

T

here is a critical difference between the Monotype and a modern iceboat: The Mono is a sternsteerer. That means it has a single rear runner
that turns and steers the boat, and two runners mounted
forward on opposite ends of the runner plank.
Early iceboats evolved at the dawn of the 19th century when the Dutch simply mounted a single runner
on the bottom of a sailboat’s rudder and placed an
athwartship plank up forward for the remaining runners and to provide anchor points for the standing
rigging. From this evolved the classic stern-steerer, an
arrangement popular through the 1800s and immortalized in vintage Currier & Ives etchings. But sternsteerers have serious performance limitations that were
overcome with the bow-steerer, which by the late 1930s
had become ubiquitous. Stern-steerers suffer from
what’s called a “flicker,” in which the steering runner
loses its grip on the ice and the boat goes into a terrific
spin. In a classic iceboat, in which the crew is perched
upon a flat deck (albeit with elegant button-tufted
cushions), bodies are launched onto the ice as if from a
sling. The skipper is especially vulnerable because he’s
farthest aft and gets the best dose of centrifugal force.
In the Monotype and other early fuselage-style iceboats such as those designed by W. Starling Burgess
and L. Francis Herreshoff (see WB No. 182), the crew is
somewhat contained so they tend to stay with the boat
in a flicker, but the centrifugal force is still tremendous,
and one’s eyeballs still rattle enough to create an exciting circular blur. But here was a stern-steerer resurrected from obscurity and now the second-most-popular
racing class in Europe. How bad could its handling be?
Not bad at all, it turned out. On a fine January day last
winter at Chickawaukie Pond, my wife, Kalla, christened
the new boat FAST PIECE OF FURNITURE. While the
name alludes to the boat’s finish, it comes from a reference to loose and easy women in the 1920s. While FAST
PIECE OF FURNITURE might not be loose and easy, she
certainly can be demanding, and she imposes a price
January/February 2014 • 57

Iceboat-FINAL.indd 57

11/20/13 9:41 AM

Setting up and taking down are big parts of the sport, so
the simpler the rigging, the sooner a boat is underway. FAST
PIECE OF FURNITURE’s sheet is stored on the boom, and it’s
just a matter of securing two snapshackles to the fuselage
to reeve the hauling parts.

on her pleasure. The price is the classic iceboater’s formula for time budgeting: 50 percent spent building and
repairing boats, 40 percent spent discussing iceboating
with others (including those who have no interest; try
this at a cocktail party if you’d like to have some alone
time), 5 percent spent scouting for sailable ice, and the
remaining 5 percent spent actually sailing. 
It’s difficult to describe how it feels to sail an iceboat, because there is nothing else to compare it to.
The speed is best described as “raw,” since it isn’t the
product of noisy internal combustion. The most dramatic sensual stimuli are the low-frequency sound of
the wind and the pounding vibration of the runners.
It’s a strange sensation in our contemporary world in
which most of the noise is high frequency: the beeping of electronics and seat-belt warnings, car alarms
and alarm clocks, and backup warnings on commercial
vehicles. But on an iceboat, all one hears is a deep, slow
rumble combined with the near highway speed of a car.
Passengers in the Monotype’s forward cockpit generally face aft so they can earn their passage by tending
the sheet. This gives the skipper the opportunity to see
the grins that invariably freeze on their faces. The effect
of sheeting an iceboat is immediate: sheet harder, go
faster. As the speed increases, the apparent wind also
increases and moves forward, so you sheet in some more,
flattening the sail to reduce drag, and go faster again.
It’s an intoxicating feedback loop. The most common
comment is, “Wow! I had no idea this was so much fun!”

And then there’s the flicker. The first time I experienced one, I didn’t know what was happening. Had we
hit something? Did the steering runner fall off? There
was enough time during my circumnavigation of the
bow to ask these questions, but before I could come
up with an answer the boat had found her footing and
was gently gaining way as if nothing had happened.
Off we went again.
I’ve since learned to control the flicker as you would
in a car: Steer into the slide. But “hiking”—the lifting
of the windward runner, in iceboating parlance—is
a different story. In soft-water sailing, the instinct is
to head up when the boat is pressed too far, so that
pressure on the sail is reduced, the boat stands up,
and all is well. But on an iceboat it’s just the opposite:
The correct tactic is to bear away to reduce the apparent wind. Things then quiet down as the boat speed
drops to the true wind speed. So when the windward
runner begins to fly too high, the temptation, learned
from our summertime instincts, is to head up. But
by falling off just a little you can fly the runner for
as long as your nerve allows, or set it down gently by
falling off more.

Iceboats need a big push to get started. When racing, the
best sprinters usually get the best start.

58 • WoodenBoat 236

Iceboat-FINAL.indd 58

11/22/13 4:00 PM

A well-balanced iceboat will track with hands off the wheel and, yes, the ice really does go by in a blur.

There is also traffic to consider. My friends and I
sail in groups of 10 to 20 boats, and sometimes more.
Knowing and observing the rules of the road is critical
when sailing at 40 to 50 miles an hour. It’s easier when
racing, because then everyone knows where the other
boats are going, so implementing rules is easy. But in
addition to racing and sailing in groups on small lakes,
we also tour and explore large lakes on which staying
together as a group is important. It’s a challenge when
Monotypes never
reef or rig a storm
sail. Movable lead
ballast is generally
shipped in the
case of strong
winds; just how
much to carry is
a closely guarded
secret. But lifting
a runner, or
“hiking,” can be
fun. It’s just one
step away from
flying.

boats of different speeds sail together, but the hope is
that the slow guys improve their boats and sailing skills
while the fast guys learn patience. Typically, one keeps
the boat behind in close view. The lead boats stop when
there are navigational questions, or hazards.
After all the shop time, talking time, logistical preparation, and predawn departures, all’s that’s left are
miles and miles of clear ice, and sailing buddies all
around. When you haul in the sheet, that 95 percent of
non-sailing time quickly vanishes in the slipstream and
you are 100 percent iceboating.
FAST PIECE OF FURNITURE is, first and foremost, a
raceboat, and would like nothing more than to line up
at the start with a dozen others of her type. But it’s a
challenge to maintain the sport of iceboating even with
small boats that are easy to build and simple to store.
The time budget outlined above, and the required flexibility of schedule, make the sport a hard one to commit
to. But the rewards are unique.
Just as there will always be enthusiasm for classic
Gar Wood or Hacker runabouts, I suspect that a timeless iceboat will always tug at the heartstrings of a few
intrepid hard-water sailors like me. Why? Because it’s
simply fun to go fast in a classic beauty. Will more boats
of the Monotype XV class be built in the United States?
That, dear reader, is up to you.
Bill Buchholz runs Apache Boatworks (www.apacheboatworks.com)
in Camden, Maine, where, in addition to iceboats, he builds and
repairs soft-water boats and yachts.
For more information about the Monotype XV, visit www.
monotype-xv.org.
January/February 2014 • 59

Iceboat-FINAL.indd 59

11/20/13 9:41 AM

Aged in Wood
How SAWDUST became the legacy of
by F. Marshall Bauer
Photographs by Peter McGowan
three boatbuilding generations

I

n June 1980, Carroll Borden, a 52-year-old Haverhill, Massachusetts, firefighter, poured the lead
ballast keel for a 25' yawl. The boat, designed by
Fenwick Williams, was to have been the culmination of
a lifetime of building and sailing fine wooden boats. As
a young boy, Borden had heard the call of the sea while
watching a neighbor build a small boat. His father told
the smitten lad he would get his own boat as soon as he
learned to swim, so Borden spent a summer in the late
1920s working to meet this challenge in Rye Harbor,
New Hampshire. This was how he obtained a 12' sailing
skiff—his first boat—on graduating from eighth grade.
More boats followed. In the late 1940s he built a
sloop-rigged daysailer to plans by Fred Goeller published in The Rudder magazine, and hauled that boat

to Groton, Connecticut, where he was stationed in
the Coast Guard. In 1954, he began work on TRADE
WINDS, a 26' sloop designed by Sam Crocker. He completed that boat over the course of a year, and sailed
it on the Ipswich Bay in northern Massachusetts. Its
3 ½' draft turned out to be a limitation for that region,
so in 1961, with an eye toward shallower-draft sailing,
Borden began building a 33' Herreshoff Meadowlark.
With leeboards in lieu of a centerboard, this sharpie
ketch drew only a foot. Known simply as “The Meadowlark,” the new boat became the Borden family’s
cruiser. Carroll’s son Eric recalls those days fondly,
saying, “I didn’t know what the other kids were talking
about in the fall when they said they went to Hampton Beach and Salisbury Beach. I grew up on a boat. 

60 • WoodenBoat 236

SAWDUST-FINAL.indd 60

11/15/13 4:30 PM

Facing page—The Fenwick Williams–designed
yawl SAWDUST represents the combined energy of
three generations of the Borden family of Haverhill,
Massachusetts. Here she’s sailing her home waters of
Ipswich Bay. Left—Carroll Borden began building SAWDUST
in 1980, but the project was put on hold when he retired
to a larger cruising boat, which he’s shown aboard here
circa 1992. Below—In the mid-1980s, a nearly completed
SAWDUST was moved out of Carroll Borden’s shop in
Haverhill to another location a quarter of a mile away.

BORDEN FAMILY ARCHIVES (THIS PAGE)

We used to go beaching on sandbars at low tide.”
Anticipating retirement and thinking of a more
capable cruising boat, Borden sold the Meadowlark in
1977 and started gathering wood for yet another boat.
He cut pine from his own land, bought four locust
trees from a neighbor for $20, and obtained yellow
pine from demolished General Electric buildings in
Lynn, Massachusetts.
Anyone who’s gone through the formative stages of
building a wooden boat knows the value of intuition
and the surprising nature of serendipity, both of which
next descended on Carroll Borden. His father, also
named Carroll, then an assistant fire chief of Haverhill as well as a master carpenter, served as both mentor and partner in Borden boatbuilding projects. Both
father and son were familiar with the work of Fenwick

Williams (see sidebar), a former John Alden designer
who, under his own shingle, was known for his affordable adaptations of classic workboats—particularly catboats and yawls. While reading The Rudder magazine,
Carroll saw a Crocker design similar to his original
26-footer, TRADE WINDS. The clipper-bowed yawl,
Crocker design No. 241, was a big sister to Crocker’s
well-known Sallee Rover design, and it seemed right for
him. But his instinct told him it needed a larger sail
plan. So in March 1978, right after a legendary blizzard
had clobbered Massachusetts, he went to see Williams
in Marblehead about drawing a new sail plan for the
Crocker design.
Williams considered the proposal but instead of
sending Borden a drawing, he sent him a letter proposing an entirely new design created especially for
this builder, featuring a plumb stem, gaff main, and
a yawl rig. Borden couldn’t refuse, and the following
June he went back to Marblehead, picked up the drawings, began lofting, and poured the keel. With his solid
record of quickly completing ambitious construction
projects, he would never have imagined that it would

January/February 2014 • 61

SAWDUST-FINAL.indd 61

11/15/13 4:30 PM

Fenwick Williams:
Unruffled and Beating the Odds

Despite an eye malady that left his vision severely impaired since boyhood, designer Fenwick Williams rose to
become one of the great draftsmen of his day. He worked for the legendary John Alden before hanging out his own
shingle, and was actively designing into the 1980s. His drawings of SAWDUST are shown here.

I

never saw Fenwick Williams shaken, upset, or
angry, even though he had every reason to be
frustrated. From an early age, his passions were
boats and sailing, but by the age of 15 he was so
near-sighted that he had to read a book with his
nose pressed to the page. Today, he would be considered legally blind. Fenwick left high school in
his sophomore year and never went back to formal
education.
Rejecting the prescription glasses he had been
given because he believed they were aggravating
his condition, he adopted a lifelong practice of
eye exercises. Far from considering himself handicapped, he began drawing and painting boats—all
kinds of boats.
At the age of 22, after a series of short-term
jobs, Fenwick stood in the office of Boston naval
architect John G. Alden. The nation was on the
threshold of the Great Depression and jobs were
scarce. But Alden, a compulsive sketcher himself,
saw something in Williams’s work and offered him
a job.
So without glasses, head to the drawing board, a

man with only two years of high-school education
and an incurable addiction to boats set to work
amid the most legendary designers of the day. The
results were startling. In the words of Alden, “Williams is one draftsman I can give a job and be fully
confident that the result will be exactly as I want.”
In 1931, at the height of the Depression, Williams left Alden to join Murray Peterson in Marblehead. They concentrated on developing affordable
boat designs for niche markets. It was during this
period that Williams blossomed into his own style
of designing wholesome, economical, and beautiful
sailboats. He became best known for his catboats,
but characteristically, he joked about this association with friends: “It is extremely distressing and
embarrassing to me to be known primarily as a catboat designer. It is somewhat as if a building architect found himself advertised as one who designed
very nice one-car garages and not much else....”
He had, indeed, designed more than catboats.
He filled an 82-year lifetime with schooners, yawls,
cutters, and ketches from 18' to 52'. One might say
he had 20-20 visualization. —FMB

62 • WoodenBoat 236

SAWDUST-FINAL.indd 62

11/15/13 4:30 PM

Above­—SAWDUST’s tidy cabin offers snug comfort for cruising,
and includes ample bunks, a galley, and a centerboard-mounted
table. Right—The boat’s capacious cockpit can carry three
generations of Bordens. Eric extended the designed shaft of the
wheel to allow a comfortable seat at the helm.

take 30 years before his son Eric would eventually finish
and launch the boat.

B

y 1980, Carroll Borden had started work on the
new yawl in a shop near his house, which stood on
14 acres of woodland in Haverhill. His son Eric
helped him lay the boat’s backbone in the fall of 1981,
but Eric’s job as a pipefitter soon became so demanding that he had to stop. He’d still make frequent visits
to watch progress, often bringing his son, also named
Eric.
“One of my earliest memories of the boat was walking into the shop with my dad while my grandfather
was working—I must have been about four or five at
the time,” the younger Eric recalls. “The keel had been
laid, and not much else, no ribs or anything, just a
line of wood and lead running down the center of the
shop. I asked my grandfather what he was making. He
replied, ‘SAWDUST.’”
Progress then became almost painfully slow. Three
years later Carroll was still planking. By 1984 he was
beginning to work on the interior. But the need for
a family boat suddenly gained new urgency when he
retired in 1986. Borden realized he needed something
bigger than this boat that he’d spent four years building. The ex-fireman with saltwater in his veins dreamed

of living on the water throughout the summer, then
going south winters. What came next was totally unexpected and completely shocking to everyone who knew
him: Carroll Borden bought a 35' fiberglass Seabreeze
yawl and went sailing, putting an end to his wooden
boat building. The construction project was moved out
of the shop and enclosed in a plastic covered shed.
Christened ELIZABETH for his wife (the real Lizzie
Borden was a distant relative), the Bordens’ new cruising
January/February 2014 • 63

SAWDUST-FINAL.indd 63

11/15/13 4:30 PM

Eric Borden (left) initially helped his father with the yawl’s
construction in 1980, but professional obligations drew him
away from the job. When his father died in 2008, he was
inspired to finish the project. His son (right), also named Eric,
contributed much to the work, as did other family members.

boat took the family to Cape Cod, the Elizabeth Islands,
and Maine. The Seabreeze was roomy enough for all the
Bordens including grandchildren. At times, they would
have three boats in the water: Carroll and Elizabeth on
the Seabreeze, brother Matt in his Wianno (or later a
Sailmaster 26), and son Eric and his wife Dorothy with
their three children—Eric M., Ashley, and Jeffrey—in a
21' sailing dory and later an O’Day 23.
When Carroll Borden died in March 2008, his
son felt a strong urge to keep alive the memory of his
father’s wooden boat project. Although Eric could hear
his dad saying, “Why don’t you just cut it up and get rid
of it?” he imagined telling him, “You put so much work
into it—let’s finish it.”
The hull was complete and even the deck, cabin,
coach roof, and cockpit were in place. A little work
would finish the interior. She was in like-new condition.
All the wood had been thoroughly soaked with a mix
of kerosene and linseed oil, and the joints were sealed
with roofing tar. Then in his 50s, Eric spent most of
the next summer “ just sitting on the boat and touching every piece of wood.” His bond with the yawl was
at a high point. After 15 years of visits to the boat with
his father, discussing how to get her in the water, he
knew what to do. “Whether I wanted to or not...it was
just something that had to be done. I had to finish it.”
Eric’s son asked him what he was going to name
the boat. The answer was instantaneous: “SAWDUST.”
They shared a knowing smile. Eric went to Manchester
to consult with Skip Crocker, great-grandson of yacht
designer Sam Crocker. Crocker suggested that he talk
to boatbuilder Harold Burnham in Essex. He did.
That fall, Burnham came to Haverhill to look at the
boat. With characteristic intensity he said to Eric, “Are
you crazy? Somebody has to see and use this boat. You
can’t keep this in a shed for another 30 years.” That was
the clincher. In October 2009, Eric trucked SAWDUST
to Burnham’s barn.

I

t is somehow appropriate that SAWDUST—now the
product of three generations of Bordens—was completed and launched at the yard of a family that has
operated shipyards in Essex since 1819. Eric installed
an Edson steering system and a 12-hp Westerbeke diesel
engine. To make sure that the engine would fit, he constructed a mockup of it that Burnham calls “absolutely
beautiful.” Burnham is keeping it for future use.
The next step was rigging, and once again, a surprise
was in store. In 1932, Fenwick Williams designed a little
gem of a 24' double-ended yawl, the most famous rendition of which was built in 1980 under the supervision of
Arthur Brendze at the Arundel Shipyard in Kennebunkport. This boat’s name, ANNIE, has since become associated with the design. Years before his decision to rebuild

SAWDUST, Eric had found a classified ad in WoodenBoat
offering for free the carcass of another Annie in need
of repair. The idea of getting such a classic for free was
too much for Eric to resist, so he had her shipped to
Haverhill from Enfield, Connecticut.
Now, under the pressure of time to get SAWDUST in
the water, Eric took a serious look at her sail plan and
compared it to Annie’s. Both were yawls. Both were gaff
rigged. SAWDUST’s sail area was slightly larger, but the
difference was not significant. With Harold Burnham’s
encouragement, he restored the old Annie’s masts and
spars. The sails were in excellent condition.
At this point, SAWDUST became a true hybrid: a
Fenwick Williams–modified Sam Crocker design with
rigging from an Annie yawl. “If you see it from the
stern, all you think of is Crocker,” says Borden. “When
you get to the bow and the sail plan, you figure it’s a
Fenwick Williams design.”
On Monday, June 21, 2010, the lead story on Harold
Burnham’s blog, Boat Building with Burnham, read:
SAWDUST Splashes in Picture Perfect Time

Eric Borden and his whole family were on hand to watch the
yawl “SAWDUST” hit the water around 6 p.m. on Saturday
evening this past weekend. It was a beautiful sight to see
and their late father Carroll N. Borden, who originally
built but never actually sailed on the boat, would have
been very proud. It was a lovely and emotional moment
for the family when Eric’s sister christened the boat with
champagne and then off SAWDUST went down the rails.
The family, along with Harold, took the boat for a little
river cruise as the sun set. They will have some absolutely
awesome sailing days ahead. Congratulations!”

Burnham has high praise for SAWDUST’s construction. “He started with a Crocker and he wound up with
a Fenwick Williams. You know, the old designers would
draw a boat and then the builders would have their way
with it, but every line on that boat is just gorgeous. It’s
just nicely laid out—and really well put together. I could
say I don’t know of any boat I’ve ever seen that’s better
put together than that one. The seams were so tight that
I had to buy a special saw to open them up for caulking.”
Asked if there are any advantages to the combination

64 • WoodenBoat 236

SAWDUST-FINAL.indd 64

11/15/13 4:30 PM

SAWDUST sails on Ipswich Bay in 2013, 34 years after her keel was laid and four years after her launching.

Crocker-Williams design, Burnham says, “I don’t think
of the designers so much, it’s just a really nice boat. I’m
sure you could argue the nuances of who influenced
it, but I’m certain that the Bordens had enough sense
to know what they wanted, and build the boat they
wanted, and build it the way they wanted to.
“When I come up the river and look at it on the mooring, it’s just a work of art. Not overly fussy—not like it’s
loaded with brightwork or varnish—it’s got enough on
it so that it’s nice, but it’s not a boat that’s difficult to
maintain.”
Tied up to a dock or under sail, SAWDUST pre­
sents both stability and nimbleness that reflect Carroll
Borden’s skill as a craftsman. When you step into the
cockpit, you sense an innate firmness, almost as if the
boat were on a cradle. She combines the convenience
of a daysailer with enough comfort for weekend cruising. There’s uncommon buoyancy for a 25' boat, and
the characteristic Fenwick Williams hollow entrance
reduces pitching in a head sea. Surprisingly for a boat
with such good seakeeping ability, with the centerboard
up SAWDUST draws only 27".
Before the advent of self-steering and GPS, the yawl
rig was a favorite for circumnavigators because of its
ability to hold a course by trimming sails. While the jib
tends to pull the bow off the wind, the mizzen, stepped
aft of the rudderpost, exerts pressure the other way.
With the sails trimmed properly, a yawl can be made
to sail without constant attention to the helm. When

the need arises to quickly reduce sail, the mainsail can
simply be lowered and the boat will remain balanced
under jib and mizzen. With some pride, Eric will tell
you, “The harder it blows, the better I go. When it starts
blowing around 15 to 20, everybody’s reefing down and
heading home—that’s when this boat just thrives.”
Harold Burnham describes the Borden heritage
this way: “Eric Borden has tools and equipment that
go back to his father and grandfather. When I went up
to his shop, I was thinking I’d see an amateur shop.
He’s got everything I’ve got—and most of it sharper. All
three of them have been able to run careers that don’t
exist today—you don’t take a job and stay with it for 40
years.... To me that’s one of the problems today. People
just don’t have the time.”
SAWDUST is the legacy of a family whose members
respect each other and were inspired to find the time
for boatbuilding. Nothing says this more eloquently
than Eric’s description of the boat he finished and
launched: “She was totally hand-made. Even the nuts
and bolts that hold this boat together were cast in a
foundry, then drilled and tapped by hand. My mother
backed every one of the beryllium copper rivets. My sister fiberglassed the decks, and my grandfather made all
the blocks for the rigging.”
F. Marshall Bauer is a screenwriter and producer, and wooden-boat
enthusiast. He has owned two Fenwick Williams designed boats: an
18’ catboat and the 24’ yawl ANNIE . Now retired, he continues to
write from his home in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
January/February 2014 • 65

SAWDUST-FINAL.indd 65

11/15/13 4:31 PM

Aboard
≈

EVERGLADES

A contemporary glass-cabin launch
by Maria Simpson
Photographs by Benjamin Mendlowitz

T

he week before Labor Day, the 42' glass-cabin
launch EVERGLADES rests at the dock of the
Seal Harbor Yacht Club at Maine’s Mount Desert Island. The place is busy with club members setting
out on their last cruises before packing up and heading south for the winter. The boat’s Edwardian profile
looks unusual against the Maine backdrop of granite,
lobsterboats, and sailing yachts.
Ann and Michael Matheson, who own EVERGLADES,
seem to know every person who passes them, and they
share friendly exchanges and banter across her deck.
Someone shouts out, “Hey, nice boat!” And Mike yells
back, “Thanks, I’ll pay you later!”
Joel White designed EVERGLADES specifically
for Mike and Ann. Before building this boat, the
Mathesons had restored at least half a dozen antique
powerboats in their own small shop in North Carolina.
Michael met Joel at WoodenBoat School, a place he
jokingly refers to as “the only school I ever graduated
from.” He took a vacuum-bagging class, and afterward
approached Joel about commissioning a design.
Mike describes Joel, who died in 1997, as an excellent listener. He and Ann sent him images from old
Yachting magazines of classic glass-cabin launches, a
type frequently seen cruising in the Florida Everglades
in the early 20th century. However, the Mathesons
realized that these boats were designed for lakes and

protected waters, and they wanted to be able to travel
farther afield.
“Joel really got it the first time,” Mike said. The
designer gave the new craft a wider beam than would
have been typical to increase stability and to increase
cabin space. The original glass-cabin launches also had
a single big engine in the center of the boat, so Joel conceived of a twin-screw arrangement, with two Yanmar
diesels tucked under the aft-cabin bunks—a space that
would have been unused otherwise. This rearrangement
freed up significant cabin space.
The boat draws just 3', which is perfect for the
waters around the Matheson’s North Carolina home.
The twin propellers are protected from damage by
sturdy struts.
Bruce Mierke built EVERGLADES over a seven-year
period. He has worked as a boatbuilder for the Mathesons for 27 years, and until 2000 he split his time between
his own boatshop in Jacksonville, Florida, during the
winter, and restoring antique wooden powerboats for
Mike in North Carolina in the summers. He spent six
summers on EVERGLADES and then moved to North
Carolina full-time to finish her. He estimates that it took
him a total of 8,000 hours to build her, which is much
less than what Joel originally estimated. He describes
building EVERGLADES as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and joins the Mathesons every year for a couple of
weeks of cruising.
“This boat could have been called FRIENDSHIP,” says
Ann. “Everyone that worked on the boat already was or
became a good friend during construction.”

66 • WoodenBoat 236

Aboard EVERGLADES_FINAL-r1.indd 66

11/22/13 3:49 PM

Construction Methods
EVERGLADES’s hull is cold-molded, beginning with

strip-planking of juniper followed by three layers of 1⁄8"
veneer, and finally sheathed with a layer of cloth. The
cabin sides are constructed of foam-filled honeycomb
sandwiched between two layers of 5mm plywood, and
covered with ¼" mahogany veneer inside and out. It
was laminated in place, so Bruce could more easily
form the curve of the cabin’s forward end and roof. It
is a lightweight structure and keeps the boat extremely
well insulated. “She’s built like a Thermos bottle,”
Bruce says. Ann also added insulating plastic to the
backs of the curtains. “We can draw the curtains and
come back to the boat at night, and it will still be the
same temperature,” Ann says.

Designing for Stability
When Joel first began sketching plans for EVERGLADES,
he was adapting designs of other classic launches that were
developed for use in protected waters such as the Florida
Everglades, the Thousand Islands, and Lake Champlain.
However, those boats were very shallow and narrow, and
had heavy superstructure that made them prone to rolling.
Because Mike and Ann had set their sights on cruising more
open water, Joel took steps to make the new design more
stable. He originally drew her with a 9' beam, but expanded
it to 10'. The lightweight cabin described earlier also helps
reduce the roll.

Curved Windows
According to Bruce Mierke, the windows were “the biggest
head-scratcher.” It took him three months to build them.
“There are 13 windows, and none of them are square or quite
the same,” he says. The deck and cabintop both have camber,
so in order to keep the stiles between the windows looking
right, he had to taper each window slightly—between 3⁄8" and
3⁄4" at the top. He finished their edges with a high-density plastic so that the glass would not stick to the varnish. The forward
end of the cabin is curved and raked slightly aft, which further
complicated the geometry. “It took some fiddling to marry the
forward part of the cabinhouse to the sides, considering all the
angles involved,” Bruce says.
January/February 2014 • 67

Aboard EVERGLADES_03.indd 67

11/14/13 3:06 PM

The Pilothouse
The pilothouse is bright and comfortable,
with all controls and gauges within easy reach
of the helm. Passengers can sit on the portside bench seat and enjoy the view through
the curved forward windows. Two tidy electrical panels occupy the bulkhead behind
the helm, one for the 12-volt system and one
for the 120. There is heat and air conditioning throughout, but carefully concealed from
view. To meet the power needs of units such
as the refrigerator-freezer and microwave, the
boat has a Northern Lights generator tucked
under the foredeck behind a bulkhead, but
with ample room around it for service.

Window Detail
There are roll-down windows for the helm station. A turn of the crank operates a screw mechanism hidden in the casing below the window
that raises or lowers the glass. This type of window was often found in classic cars, trolleys, and
trains. But these mechanisms are hard to come
by now, and usually must be refurbished or completely fabricated from scratch. Mike bought his
units secondhand. In fact, he spent years collecting hardware for EVERGLADES, and now
jokes, “I always bring my screwdriver to the New
York Yacht Club.”

Saloon Paneling
Before he built EVERGLADES, Mike had secured
four big Honduras mahogany boards, each measuring approximately 2" × 48" × 15', and held on
to them for 20 years, waiting for the right project.
Although it broke his heart to cut into those magnificent pieces, he knew the wood would be perfect for
EVERGLADES after they were milled to the proper
dimensions. He used one board for each compartment, which meant that Bruce could match color
and grain perfectly. Bruce finished the interior
with an Interlux paste stain and Epifanes rubbedeffect varnish. When Joel designed the boat, he
provided only a basic layout for the interior. Bruce
figured out the rest, sketching his ideas on legal
pads to share with the Mathesons. “We filled three
or four legal pads with sketches and tacked them
on corkboards in the shop,” Bruce says.
68 • WoodenBoat 236

Aboard EVERGLADES_FINAL-r1.indd 68

11/22/13 3:38 PM

Galley
The compact, efficient galley was
designed for comfortable cruising,
and is equipped with a microwave,
combination refrigerator-freezer,
sink, and stove with an oven. Storage is located under the dinette
seats, in cupboards, and under the
countertop. The storage lockers
above the counters have doors that
open and then slide into recesses
to prevent bumped heads on their
sharp corners.

Convertible Dinette
The dinette easily converts to a roomy
bunk by dropping the tabletop to cleats
that are level with the seats. There is also
an insulated tube in the tabletop that can
be used to keep wine cool or flowers fresh.

Head
Between the stateroom and galley lies the head, split
into separate toilet and shower areas. In this photo, we
are looking across the passageway into the shower. Each
space is relatively small, so in order to gain more room,
the doors can be swung outward to close off the passageway, creating a large, athwartship changing room.
Making the doors work in both directions was especially
challenging. In contrast to the mahogany paneling of
the rest of the boat, the head is bright-finished cypress
with mahogany trim.

January/February 2014 • 69

Aboard EVERGLADES_FINAL-r1.indd 69

11/22/13 3:38 PM

Detail of Cupboards
Throughout the boat are touches that reflect
the boat’s and Mike’s Florida roots. One
example is the palm trees on the glass crystal cabinet, a detail that was hand painted
for the Mathesons by Bobby Bant.

Aft Cabin
Almost every detail aboard EVERGLADES reminds
the Mathesons of someone who worked on her or
contributed some item or story. In the aft cabin,
the camelhair blankets belonged to Mike’s grandfather, and Mike remembers sleeping under those
same blankets as a child aboard his parents’ boat.
The bunks are extra wide for comfort, and Mike
and Ann especially like that they can see out the
windows even while lying down. “At night you
can stare at the stars, or in the morning you can
observe nature from the comfort of your bunk,”
Ann says. Looking aft we see the cockpit through
the open doorway. The seats have watertight storage beneath them where an outboard motor and
gas can safely be stored. The curved cockpit echoes
EVERGLADES’s elegant fantail stern.

Port Engine Compartment
EVERGLADES’s comfortable cruising interior would

not have been possible without the pair of compact diesel engines. Compared to the centerline
location of the early glass-cabin launch engines,
her twin screws make EVERGLADES both more
maneuverable and more roomy. The two Yanmar
39-hp diesels are tucked under the aft stateroom
bunks, and the port bunk also has a built-in toolbox with all the tools one might need for tinkering. The side panels can also be removed to gain
further access. The engines are quiet and efficient,
burning fuel at a rate of 1.2 gallons per hour.

70 • WoodenBoat 236

Aboard EVERGLADES_03.indd 70

11/14/13 3:07 PM

Dinghies and Boom Lift
Bruce Mierke also built two small boats for
EVERGLADES: PALMETTO, a glued-lapstrake
plywood dinghy, and BUG, a 10' Wee Lassie
strip-planked double-paddle canoe. The dinghies are stowed on the cabintop, with BUG nestled inside PALMETTO and a custom cover over
both to keep water out. Two people can easily
lift and launch the dinghy using the boom to
hoist and maneuver the boat over the side.

Forward Deck
The Mathesons fly the Seal Harbor Yacht Club burgee from
the bow of EVERGLADES as they explore the waters around
Mount Desert Island. The small forward deck is perfect for
sightseeing or for handing off docklines.

The Mathesons
Ann and Mike have been preserving wooden boats for most of their
lives. Ann is a former president of the Antique and Classic Boat Society, and they are both still very active in the organization. They always
have one boat project underway in their North Carolina shop. But as
much as they like restoring boats, they also like to use them, taking
advantage of EVERGLADES’s shallow draft and nosing up southern
creeks and rivers. “EVERGLADES is perfect for those quiet places up
in the marshes,” Ann says. Mike comes from a sailing family and has
fond memories of cruising in Maine with his parents. Last summer
was the first season the Mathesons brought EVERGLADES to Maine,
and they look forward to doing it again next year. As Mike puts it, “We
just enjoy going.”
Maria Simpson is a regular contributor to WoodenBoat.
January/February 2014 • 71

Aboard EVERGLADES_03.indd 71

11/14/13 3:07 PM

Paul Hernes

How to Build Phoenix III
A versatile, easy-to-build 15-footer

S

ome years ago, I designed a beach cruiser for Paul
Hernes of Caloundra, in Queensland, Australia.
Paul wanted a boat that would perform well under
sail, oars, and a very small outboard motor. He was also
keen to try his hand at a round-bilged, glued-lapstrake
hull.
For many years before this request, I had been
agonizing over what I would consider to be the optimum dimensions for a boat that could be used for
serious beach-cruising but also suitable for casual
daysailing. Such a boat usually would be cruised solo
but occasionally with two. Good performance under
oars was a high priority, so I envisioned a fairly slim
boat with a fine entry for a good motion in head
seas. My inclinations were in line with Paul’s, and the

Part 1
by Ross Lillistone

final design for his boat was 15' LOA , with a beam of
4' 6" to the inside of planking and a draft of about 6"
(4.57m × 1.37m × 15.24cm). Paul’s boat, which is shown
in the photo above, proved exceptionally successful.
The design—named Phoenix III in honor of a boat
from my family’s past—sails well, has proved able under
oars, and easily carries her outboard motor. The interior layout works extremely well. The boat’s light weight
makes it easy to launch from a trailer. The plans now
include several rig variations, all of which use a common mast partner and step. Such versatility has made
the design a popular one, and the original boat now
has many sisters sailing the waters of the world. Plus,
with only five planks per side, the boat is simple to build
using glued-lapstrake plywood construction.

Above—Glued-lapstrake plywood construction makes the author’s Phoenix III design easy to build. The 15’ LOA boat handles
well under sail, but when the wind fails the oars move her nicely—and a small outboard motor can also be fitted.

72 • WoodenBoat 236

Phoenix-Part1-FINAL.indd 72

11/19/13 1:34 PM

Notes (referring to boxed numerals above):
1—Aft deck and sternsheets are installed over longitudinal framing, as described in this series’ forthcoming Section 4:
Finishing the Interior.
2—The kingplank is of 2 5⁄8” x 3⁄4” stock, also described in Section 4.
3—Additional 1 1⁄2” x 3⁄4” longitudinal carlins to support the foredeck sides are optional, but recommended. Like the kingplank,
they are notched into bulkhead No. 1 and its deckbeam. At bulkhead No. 2, they notch into the deckbeam only.
(In the station lines shown in the plans, numerals standing alone indicate design stations.
Numerals with “M” indicate mold stations; those with “B” indicate bulkhead stations.)

Keelson expansion: Starting with 3 3⁄4” x 3⁄4” (95mm x 19mm) stock, shape the keelson as shown, leaving the
aft end long. The measurements shown will accommodate the curvature, or rocker, of the hull. Mark the slot
profile on the interior, but cut the slot only after the planking is completed and the boat is turned right-side up.

ROSS LILLISTONE

(Design station spacing is 1' 6".)

Top—The inboard elevation and plan view (top) show “the big picture” of the boat’s straightforward
building method. Individual components are shown in greater detail elsewhere in the plans. Above—The
lines plan gives a good overall view of the hull shape. Because the individual molds and bulkheads are
dimensioned in detail (see page 75), no lofting is required to build the boat.

January/February 2014 • 73

Phoenix-Part1-FINAL.indd 73

11/19/13 1:34 PM

1. SETUP
The strongback can be made from a variety of materials, as long as it ends up level, straight, and strong. The
height can also be altered, but access to the interior to clean up epoxy will be needed. The builders whose
photographs appear in these pages used several different methods of strongback construction. Suitable
materials include 2x4 (38mm x 75mm) house framing studs. Deeper side beams of about 6” (150mm) work
better to prevent sagging, and laminated beams work well for the purpose. All of the bulkheads and molds
(except for two optional molds shown below) are shown in detail on page 75.
Strongback dimensions shown are approximate, and can be varied to suit available materials and preferred working height.

Transom
details,
page 77

Stem
details,
page 76

Important: Mount bulkheads and molds carefully. For bulkheads Nos. 1 and 2 and molds Nos. 1, 2, and 3, the forward faces
line up with the corresponding station lines on the strongback. For molds Nos. 4 and 5 and bulkheads Nos. 3 and 4, the aft
faces align with station lines. Note the corresponding alignment of strongback crosspieces. This alignment eliminates any
need to bevel the bulkheads or molds.

Optional mold, station No. 1

Optional mold, station No. 2

JONATHAN McNALLY

of a long, straight plywood box, an excellent choice
because it is dimensionally stable and resists twisting.
Whatever method you use, make the strongback
strong, straight, and level. Variations show up in
photos throughout this article, which draws from three
Phoenix III builders: Jonathan McNally, who lives
in Maine and whose strongback is shown in Photo 1;
Vincent Drane, of New Zealand; and Byron Bennett, of
Australia.

1

VINCENT DRANE

Strongback Construction
Hours spent making a solid strongback will save much
time later. For a typical ladder-frame strongback, I use
laminated floor-joist I-beams, which are cheap, lightweight, and extremely stiff. For legs, cross pieces, and
bracing, common 2×4 house studs work well. Within
the dimensions shown on the drawing (see top of this
page), you can use your own judgment about how to
build it. The version pictured here consists primarily

2

Laying Out Molds and Bulkheads
Full-sized paper patterns can shrink and expand with
humidity variations, so for accuracy in making molds

74 • WoodenBoat 236

Phoenix-Part1-FINAL-r2.indd 74

11/19/13 5:29 PM

Bulkheads and Transom
–Bulkheads Nos. 1 and 2 have deckbeams 2 1⁄2” x 1⁄2” glued to their
forward faces. Deckbeams should extend slightly higher than the
bulkheads, for fairing later.
–BHD No. 4 has deckbeams glued to both forward and after faces, as
shown.
–Limber holes, small passages allowing water to pass, should be cut in
bulkhead No. 1, the ’midship frames, the partial bulkhead at station
No. 2, and bulkhead No. 4. The series of holes in bulkhead No 4 are
lightening holes.
—Numbers along the upper right curve of each bulkhead show the deck
camber, indicated in heights above the sheer line.

Transom details, page 77

–Note that bulkhead No. 3 is a later
plan revision that incorporates side deck
knees, which differs from some of the
construction photos shown later in this
series of articles.
–The partial bulkhead (upper right)
has a deckbeam glued to its forward
face as shown and is installed after
the planking is completed and molds
removed, with its aft face aligned
with the station line for mold No. 1.
The half-frames at station No. 6 also
have deckbeams glued in place. The
installation of these pieces will be taken
up in detail in this series in Section 4:
Finishing the Interior.

Molds

Molds can be made of 5⁄8” medium-density
fiberboard or plywood. No beveling is necessary.
Molds can be made of 4⁄8” medium-density
fiberboard or plywood. No beveling is necessary.
The dashed camber lines are not essential for
cutting the molds, and are only included to
illustrate the location of the side-deck hanging
knees. The plans include full-sized patterns for the
knees; in their absence, fair the knee top edges to
the camber indicated.
January/February 2014 • 75

Phoenix-Part1-FINAL.indd 75

11/19/13 1:34 PM

3A

provide positive flotation during a
capsize. If you vary the hatch size or
type, take pains to assure that they
are watertight.

BYRON BENNETT INSET: JONATHAN McNALLY

Setting Up Molds
and Bulkheads

3B

and bulkheads I prefer to provide dimensioned drawings of components (shown on page 75), with no lofting required. These measurements, taken from a
computer-aided drafting program, are displayed as x
and y coordinates, referenced to the centerline and a
baseline (as fully illustrated in the plan sheet covering frames, bulkheads, and molds). The heights of the
molds and bulkheads are all referenced to a common
datum, which in this case is the designed waterline
(DWL). All of the mold and bulkhead drawings show
the distance from the DWL to the strongback and from
the DWL to the previously mentioned baseline. Note
that the bulkheads have deckbeams alongside their top
edges, glued with epoxy.
Here, and in all subsequent descriptions through
this series, the technique for epoxy-gluing pieces
together should be to prime the surfaces with mixed,
but unthickened, epoxy first; then, thicken the epoxy
with adhesive fillers and apply it to one side
before final installation. This technique is used
often.
After the layouts are completed, the pieces
must be cut out accurately. Their edges need
only be square, not beveled.
I make molds out of medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and extend each of them down to
the line representing the top of the strongback.
For plywood bulkheads, which differ from
molds by being permanent parts of the boat, I
suggest attaching temporary legs, with a cross
spall spanning them. Use your imagination in
choosing a system—all that matters is that the
component be accurately and firmly located
above the strongback.
As shown in photographs throughout this
series, individual builders often vary the design
of the hatches in the bulkheads. Be aware that
the hatches shown in the design are intended
to be waterproof, since the areas they cover

With the strongback straight and
level, both fore-and-aft and side-toside, the molds and bulkheads can
be set up.
An accurate centerline reference
is essential. I normally run a string
line the full length of the strongback, just underneath the cross
spalls on the molds and bulkheads.
Mark the mold locations (as shown
in the drawing on page 74) accurately and make them square to the
centerline. As shown in photo 3A,
Byron simply screwed his molds to
2×4 crosspieces. Jonathan elevated
his molds using blocks (photo 3B) so
that the centerline string, which is visible in the photo,
could run under the molds for accurate centering.
My preferred method for attaching molds and bulkheads to the strongback is to use right-angle brackets,
as shown in Jonathan’s photo (above left, inset). These
are secure yet can be shimmed as required to adjust the
final heights and locations of the molds.
The molds must be perfectly level and plumb. Be
sure, also, to position each mold and bulkhead so that
its correct face (as shown in the plans) is aligned with
the station line as marked on the strongback. Forward
of amidships, the forward face lines up with the station
lines; aft of amidships, the aft face lines up.

Making and Setting the Stem
The inner stem is a simple lamination of five layers of 1⁄4"
(6mm) plywood on the flat (photo 4A), and it does not
require any bending of material. The shape is marked

76 • WoodenBoat 236

Phoenix-Part1-FINAL.indd 76

11/19/13 1:34 PM

BYRON BENNETT

VINCENT DRANE

4A

4B

in exactly the same way as the molds and bulkheads.
Don’t bother with the bevels at this stage. Erect the
inner stem with its head resting on the forward part of
the strongback and its heel fitted to a cutout in bulkhead No. 1 as illustrated in the plans (photo 4B). Take
careful note of the positioning of the inner stem in the
drawings (page 75).

Setting Up the Transom
The plans detail dimensions for two simple braces that
hold the transom in position at the correct height and
rake. Normally, this positioning is tricky, but these

braces make it easy. In
photo 5, one of the two
MDF braces is visible.
Note that the aft edge
of each brace must be
notched to clear the
crosspieces and framing
on the inside face of the
transom.
The transom edge,
like the bulkheads, is
simply cut square, relieving the builder of the
tricky process of cutting compound bevels
Two transom braces are needed,
made from medium-density
on its edges. The plankfiberboard or scrap plywood. Mount
ing will contact only the
them so that the dotted line matches
outer corner of the tranthe top of the strongback, with the
vertical forward edge (at right above)
som. This is no cause for
butted against bulkhead No. 4. Cut
worry, since the gap will
out as needed to clear the bulkhead
be filled with thickened
crosspiece and the transom doubler.
epoxy when the hull is
being planked. After the planking is completed and
the hull turned upright, this joint will be further reinforced with a large-radius epoxy fillet and double-bias
’glass tape, making it exceptionally strong.

Notes (referring to boxed numerals above):
1–Transom expanded (true shape of section as laid down).
2–Transom plywood doubler (glued to transom’s inside face).
3–Cleats 3⁄4” x 3⁄4” glued to forward face of transom to carry the 1⁄2”
plywood sides of the outboard well (to be described further in
Section 4: Finishing the Interior).
4–Profile of the outboard well, also to be described in Section 4.
5–Line on inside transom face to coincides with the top edge of the
strongback transom braces, shown in the next drawing.

BYRON BENNETT

Transom and doubler
of 1⁄2" plywood

5
January/February 2014 • 77

Phoenix-Part1-FINAL.indd 77

11/19/13 1:35 PM

JONATHAN McNALLY

7

6

Fairing the Entire Building Jig
If the strongback, molds, and bulkheads have been
accurately made and properly set up, very little adjustment should be needed to fair the building jig. Sight
along the centerlines marked on each of the stations
(photo 6) to make sure they are aligned. Use a goodquality spirit level to check the molds both horizontally
and vertically. Double-check the heights. Use a plumb
bob to confirm that the stem is vertical. Once the positions are verified, brace all components firmly.
Despite your best efforts, minor adjustments will be
required. Trust your eyes to be the final arbiter, and
bend battens of various lengths over the setup, tacking
or stapling them in place. Spend plenty of time viewing
the setup from various angles and distances.

A Word about Safety
Many of the materials used in boat construction
are considered toxic. Wood dust, for example, is
classified as a carcinogen. Equip yourself with
a high-quality dual-cartridge respirator with
cartridges rated for organic vapors. I use my
respirators whenever dust, solvent vapors, or
powdered epoxy additives are present.
Purchase plenty of disposable gloves. I buy a
half dozen boxes of a hundred at a time, and
will frequently change gloves four or five times
in a session of work.
I understand that a long list of warnings can
be tedious, but this advice is based on years of
experience—mine and that of many others.
Look after your body, so that you can live to
enjoy using the boat for many years!
—RL

Beveling the Keelson
Glued-lapstrake construction involves a lot of beveling,
which can seem intimidating to anyone attempting it for
the first time. Don’t be too afraid of making mistakes,
because epoxy readily fills any gaps.

8

ROSS LILLISTONE

VINCENT DRANE

Fitting the Keelson
The keelson is made from solid wood, 3 3⁄4"× 3⁄4"
(95mm×19mm), as detailed in the plans (page 73),
and it fairs into the heel of the stem (photo 7). First,
bevel the aft end of the keelson to fit neatly against the
inner face of the transom (visible in photo 5). There is
no need for a traditional transom knee, because the
epoxy bonding of the planking to the transom and to
the keelson results in a strong and unified structure.
However, to make the keelson easier to position during
construction, you may prefer to notch the transom and
simply run the keelson past the transom’s after face to
be trimmed later. Photo 5 shows Byron’s choice of butting the keelson to the transom and supporting it with
a plywood cleat.
It is a good idea, before installation, to round-over
the corners of the keelson that will be visible from
inside the boat.
At the forward end, fit the keelson to the notch in
the after end of the stem and epoxy it in place. The
pieces shown (photo 7) have been beveled, which is the
next step.

78 • WoodenBoat 236

Phoenix-Part1-FINAL.indd 78

11/19/13 1:35 PM

measurements, are available from Ross Lillistone, P.O. Box
152, Esk, QLD 4312, Australia. The designer may also be contacted directly at [email protected]. For additional information, see his website, www.baysidewoodenboats.com.au.

Series Notes

Recommended Reading

For ideas on glued-lapstrake boatbuilding methods, see
Clinker Plywood Boatbuilding Manual by Iain Oughtred,
Ultralight Boatbuilding by Tom Hill, and How to Build
Glued-Lapstrake Wooden Boats by John Brooks and Ruth
Ann Hill. All are available from the WoodenBoat Store,
www.woodenboat.com.
VINCENT DRANE

Materials

9

With the right setup, however, it is easy to get perfect “rolling” bevels every time. The trick is to modify a
standard low-angle block plane, as shown in photo 8. I
drill holes in the sides of a plane to allow a short length
of smooth metal rod to slide through easily. The holes
must be carefully located so that the distance from the
bottom of the rod to the bottom of the plane’s sole
equals the thickness of the lining-off battens you are
using. (I use 11mm battens, a little less than 1⁄2"; whatever dimension you choose, be consistent.) In use, the
rod rides on the batten that coincides with the outer
edge of the plank, automatically setting the correct
angle for the plane.
Continue beveling the keelson until its outer edges
corners are flush with the molds and bulkheads. The
bevels will meet at or very near the centerline, but don’t
worry if there are minor variations.

Beveling the Stem
I use a spokeshave and block plane to bevel the stem.
Mark two lines on the forward face of the stem, each
1⁄4" (6mm) outboard of the centerline. The wood is cut
away until it reaches the marked lines, resulting in the
face of the stem being 1⁄2" wide (12mm).
The angle of bevel on the stem varies considerably from top to bottom. Patience and a good eye are
required. Bend battens or thin sheet material around
the first two bulkheads and forward to the stem; this
will allow you to gauge the necessary angle. As with the
keelson bevel, minor errors are of no concern since
thickened epoxy will fill any gaps.
With the stem and keelson beveled, the setup is
complete and you are ready for planking, which will be
taken up in Section 2: Planking.
Although efforts have been taken to assure that a full-scale boat
can be built from the information presented in these pages, the
editors strongly suggest that full plans sets be purchased from
the designer. Phoenix III plans, which include a 60-page illustrated manual and are printed in either imperial or metric

All plywood must be marine grade. In the United States
and many other countries, British Standard 1088 is recognized; in Australia and New Zealand, the standard
is AS/NZ2272. Check the standards for your country.
For the construction described here, five sheets of 1⁄4"
(6mm) marine plywood are needed. This thickness is
minimum; thicker is acceptable, within reason, and
at least one builder has used 3⁄8" (9mm) with success.
In addition, one sheet of 1⁄2" (12mm) marine plywood
is needed. For deckbeams, keelson, outer keel, stem
laminations, and other wooden pieces Douglas-fir, or
a comparable alternative, would be a good choice. The
3⁄4" (19mm) thicknesses are commonly available in lumberyards. Lengths and widths vary; consult the plans
for details in each case.
Marine plywood of 3⁄4" thickness (18mm) is specified
for the rudder blade and filler, but these may be glued
up from two pieces of 1⁄ 2" (12mm) or three pieces of 1⁄4"
(6mm).
The quantity of epoxy resin required is about a gallon, with hardener to match, plus adhesive and filleting
additives. This volume will vary considerably depending on the builder; be prepared to purchase more as
required.
The choice of wood for the spars is left to the builder,
but I would recommend Douglas-fir, hoop pine (in Australia), or spruce. Be careful with spruce, because it can
be a bit too flexible unless you get very good-quality
material. The lengths are specified in the plans and
later in this series. Note that the full set of plans also
includes standing lugsail and Bermudan knockabout
rig alternatives.
Fittings can be purchased or made. The rig is simple, and many people choose to make their own fittings
(see WB No. 235, for example), which are described for
the spritsail-sloop rig in Section 7: Rigging and Rig Fittings. With a suitable sewing machine, the sails, too,
could be made by the builder, or sail plans could be
presented to a qualified sailmaker. Some companies
produce sailmaking kits; see www.sailrite.com for one
such alternative.
Braided Dacron rope can be used for most of the
rigging: 1⁄4" or 3⁄8" (6mm or 8mm) for the main halyard
and downhaul, 3⁄8" (10mm) for the main and jib sheets.
Low-stretch 1⁄4" (6mm) Spectra would be a good choice
for the jib halyard and the snotter. Sail lacing is commonly available as 1⁄8" (3mm) Venetian blind cord.
January/February 2014 • 79

Phoenix-Part1-FINAL.indd 79

11/19/13 1:35 PM

DESIGNS

Pleustal

Pleustal
Particulars
LOA
LWL
Beam
Draft
cb up
cb down
Displacement
Sail area

A cruiser for
thin water

33' 3"
28' 7"
9' 2"
1' 2"
6' 9"
7,296 lbs
497 sq ft

Design by
David Arnold
Commentary
by Robert W.
Stephens

D

avid Arnold grew up messing about in boats in Florida,
where he fell in love with the
state’s shallows, barrier islands, mangrove swamps, and coral reefs. Years
of cruising the “Big Bend” region of
her west coast, where the peninsula
meets the panhandle, have highlighted for him the virtues of shallow draft. “The rule of thumb is one
foot of added depth for every mile
off the coastline,” he tells us. “Even
with a foot of draft, it’s entirely possible to run aground or hit a rock a
mile or two offshore—I can confirm
this from many firsthand incidents
compiled over the years!”
The challenges of cruising such
waters, as well as the desire to poke

into narrow, winding creeks and
swamps, informed his dream cruiser.
Pleustal is a coastal cruising ketch
intended to float in not much more
than a heavy dew, sustain a couple
for a week or two at a stretch, welcome additional guests for brief
periods, and safely manage an offshore passage now and again, when
more distant waters like the Dry Tortugas (about 60 miles west of Key
West) or the Bahamas beckon. No
mean feat—and let’s throw into the
mix the idea that we’d like her to be
built by a small crew of amateurs—
like Arnold and his wife!
Arnold has attacked this daunting
list of requirements by artfully combining elements seen in a number

of designs through the years, choosing carefully from the same palette
dipped into by such talents as Commodore Ralph Munro, L. Francis
Herreshoff, and Philip C. Bolger,
mixing judiciously to create his own
tone and style. Pleustal is attractive,
straightforward of construction, and
able-bodied, and while she reminds
us of other boats of years past, she is
her own creature.
Pleustal’s hull owes much to
Munro’s groundbreaking work in
shallow-draft cruising safety—the
Commodore was the first to study
and prove the concept that a light,
shallow craft could be at least as
seaworthy as a deep, heavily ballasted
boat, if carefully designed. In the

80 • WoodenBoat 236

Designs236-FINAL-r1.indd 80

11/20/13 1:13 PM

When designing Pleustal’s shoal-draft hull, David Arnold visited the classic work
of Ralph Munro, L. Francis Herreshoff, and Philip C. Bolger. He then went on to
create his own distinctive theme.

late 19th and early 20th century, he
combined light displacement, gen­
er­
ous freeboard—usually achieved
by the use of a raised deck, as in
Pleustal’s case—and moderately sized
but carefully placed ballast in boats
of extremely little draft and excep­
tional ultimate stability. Typi­cal sail­
boats of that era were either easily
capsized non-ballasted “skim­
ming
dishes” or deep, narrow, lowfreeboard “lead mines”; a vitriolic
campaign was waged for years in
the yachting press by adherents of
each camp, while Munro proved
both camps wrong with his Presto:
roomier, drier, and more buoyant
than the lead mines, and self-­­righting

unlike the skimming-dishes. Pleustal
is a direct descendant of the Presto
type.
The classic Presto type would have
been built plank-on-frame, with
flaring topsides and rather slack
rounded bilges. To ease the task
of an amateur builder, Arnold has
elected to employ hard chines and
an arc-bottom shape. L. Francis Her­
reshoff employed a similar technique
with his beloved Meadowlark, a boat
of similar size, shape, and mission.
Pleustal shows important differences,
though, in both shape and construc­
tion, which widen her abilities and
make her easier to build in today’s
world and longer lasting, too.

Herreshoff’s Meadowlark features
a true arc-bottom, with constantradius bottom framing dictating a
gently rockered keel and a hard
knuckle at the bottom of the stem.
This shape facilitates carvel or
double-­carvel planking, as the planks
can be straight (or nearly so), and
easy to join and caulk. It’s also a
pretty speedy shape, at least in flat
January/February 2014 • 81

Designs236-FINAL-r1.indd 81

11/20/13 1:13 PM

DESIGNS

The raised-deck configuration provides good space on deck and below. It also contributes to Pleustal’s surprisingly high
ultimate stability.

water. Pleustal shows a more shapely
bottom, especially in the forefoot,
where Arnold has sharply tightened
the curvature of the bottom to give
it a sharper entry. There’ll likely be a
small sacrifice in boat speed in
smooth water, but in any sea the bow
will be much less prone to uncomfortable, speed-robbing pounding, a
trait perfectly in keeping with Pleustal’s ambitions of farther horizons.
Arnold handles the more complex
bottom shape by leaning on some
developments in materials that have
occurred since Meadowlark’s time.
He calls for the hull to be stripplanked, then sheathed with fiberglass cloth and epoxy. While tedious
and messy, the method has a crucial
advantage for the short-handed amateur: any one piece of wood is easily
handled by a single person, and each
component is small enough to be

installed in a short time period—say,
bang on a plank after the evening
commute and before a late dinner.
Arnold suggests the boat might be
built right-side up, inside female
station molds. I’m not sure I’d try
it that way—I find trying to force a
plank inside something is more of a
challenge than wrapping it around
outside something. But his method
would allow most of the structure
and interior to be completed without disturbing the setup by rolling
the boat.
To maximize interior space and
headroom, Arnold has eliminated
permanent framing for much of
the interior. He’s replaced its structure by adding substantial diagonal
cold-molded sheathing in the areas
without framing—primarily the
hull bottom in the central part of
the accommodation, and the hull

topsides in way of the berths. Thickness in the bottom is increased from
the standard 7⁄8" cedar strip planking
to those strips plus 11⁄8" of alternating
layers of plywood, for a total thickness of about 2", while the topsides
are beefed up by the addition of two
layers of double-diagonal cedar, to a
total thickness of 13⁄8".
While frameless construction gives
a nice clean interior surface and
quite a bit more room, it’s not without its issues. Headroom is gained by
using the inner surface of the hull
bottom as a gently curving cabin
sole. This solution will require constant vigilance to be livable. Even the
slightest water leak, whether down
the mast wires or through a skylight
or porthole, will need instant sponging, or it will become a puddle on
the saloon sole. There’s no place to
locate a bilge pump, and no sump to

82 • WoodenBoat 236

Designs236-FINAL-r1.indd 82

11/20/13 1:14 PM

DESIGNS

These sections describe a clean structure. We’ll strip-plank this hull, and then sheathe it with fiberglass cloth set in epoxy.
The designer suggests that we build the boat right-side up, inside female station molds.

collect water—before an automatic
pump can begin picking up the
water, we’ll be wading around with
our ankles wet.
The raised deck is a great solution,
delivering at once a roomy flush
deck, lots of interior room, a simple
and sturdy structure, and surprising ultimate stability. Even with only
1,400 lbs of lead ballast (in a simple
straight shoe on the skeg), Pleustal’s
high center of buoyancy when on her
beam ends results in positive stability well past a 90-degree knockdown.
Arnold calculates her point of vanishing stability to be at 101 degrees,
and 127 degrees when her wooden
masts are included in the equation.

With her generous freeboard and a
shape that will respond well to running off before a gale, I would feel
just fine about taking the jump across
a hundred miles of open water.
Pleustal’s ketch rig is a good match
with the hull—it looks right and is
easy to manage for a cruising couple. Her flattish hull means a pretty
high proportion of wetted surface to
sail area—she won’t be at her best
in light air. And a ketch is never the
most weatherly of boats, especially
a light and shallow one. But we’re
cruising—we need not be in a hurry
if the wind’s not blowing or isn’t in
our favor. And when we do get a
fresh breeze off our quarter, the flat

bottom and a mizzen staysail will
make up for lost time.
David Arnold tells us, “The
design’s name comes from marine
biology, ‘Pleustal’ being an ecological division between the sea surface
and atmosphere, where organisms
drift on the sea surface.” What a perfect description of life aboard this
engaging cruiser, shallow enough
so we need not worry much about
what’s beneath the surface.
Bob Stephens is a principal at Stephens Waring Yacht Design, in Belfast, Maine.
Plans from David Arnold, 8328 Driftwood
Dr., Weeki Wachee, FL 34607.

January/February 2014 • 83

Designs236-FINAL-r1.indd 83

11/20/13 1:14 PM

TACOMA

How an American
tuna clipper changed
the face of Australian
fishing
by Bruce Stannard

I

n 1944, Bill Haldane, a 26-year-old Australian boatbuilder and fisherman and the eldest son of the
lighthouse keeper at Port Fairy on Victoria’s Bass
Strait coast, pecked away at an old upright typewriter
composing the first of many letters destined to go by
sea to Tacoma, Washington. Written on behalf of the
Haldane family and addressed to Hervey Petrich, chairman of the Western Boat Building Company, the letter
took three hazardous months to be delivered to the far
side of the world.

Founded by the Petrich family in Tacoma in 1917,
the Western Boat Building Company was highly
regarded for a succession of smart, safe, and seaworthy
fishing vessels. In 1937 their 122nd boat was the 71'
WESTERN FLYER , the seiner immortalized in the journal of science, philosophy, and adventure that became
John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez. After
the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, the company
ramped up around-the-clock production, building
scores of wooden-hulled minesweepers, patrol boats,
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE HALDANE FAMILY ARCHIVE

Top—The fishing vessel TACOMA, launched in 1952, was the first purpose-built tuna boat in Australia. Her design was by the
Western Boat Building Company in Tacoma, Washington, and she was built by three enterprising Australian brothers who
ranged in age from 25 to 31 years. She’s shown here in 1971 rigged as a shrimp trawler. Above—While TACOMA was originally
built for purse seining, she soon converted to pole fishing. In this method, fish are attracted by chumming the water with bait
fish. They are then drawn to polished barbless hooks slung from bamboo poles, and hauled aboard. Here we see Bill Haldane
and his brother Hugh in 1956, alongside the Bellamy twins (see sidebar, page 92).

84 • WoodenBoat 236

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 84

11/19/13 4:27 PM

The Haldane brothers handselected TACOMA’s timbers
and spent more than seven
years on her construction. Here
they are adzing the mast, with
Bill’s three-year-old son Ross
observing. Bill was very skilled
with the adze; brother Hughie’s
left hand had only two fingers,
the result of a childhood accident
while playing with explosive
detonators.

sub-chasers, and tugs. In 1943 they built six 114' coastal
freighters for the U.S. Army and, in 1944, completed
19 fast patrol boats for the Navy. The tide of war had
turned decisively in the Allies’ favor that year as the U.S.
Navy routed Japanese forces throughout the Pacific
while, in the Atlantic, devastating losses were inflicted
upon Germany’s destroyers and U-boats. In Europe the
Red Army drove the Nazis out of Soviet Russia and the
Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy.
Bill Haldane and his brothers, Hughie and Alan,
were visionaries and idealists who looked beyond the
appalling carnage of war to a time of peace when the
world’s population would be crying out to be fed.
Their ambition was to tap the teeming and apparently

inexhaustible riches of the ocean, and their dream was
to build a boat big enough to catch fish on an industrial scale. Bill’s correspondence with the Western Boat
Building Company was the beginning of a construction process that would eventually pave the way for the
multi-million-dollar seafood industry now based at Port
Lincoln, South Australia.
The Western Boat Building Company had developed precisely the right style of vessel for the Haldanes:
a powerful purse seiner known as a tuna clipper. The
brothers had seen a striking black-and-white photograph of the splendid 80' WESTERN EXPLORER on the
cover of Pacific Fisherman, and in the same magazine
an advertisement offering for sale the lines of Western
Boat Building’s big purse seiners, and they decided this
was the way to go. Bill wrote his letter to Hervey Petrich,
enclosed a check for $500, and requested the lines of
an 84-footer designed to carry a catch of 120 tons.
Hervey Petrich, the son of Dalmatian immigrants,
may well have been taken aback by the young Australians’ bold and direct approach, but he probably also
sensed that they were kindred spirits, Aussies who
shared his energy and unshakable conviction that the
sea’s resources were part of mankind’s domain, pre­
ordained to be exploited for his benefit. Neither Petrich
nor the Haldane brothers could have had any inkling
that, in the span of only eight decades, our overfished
seas would be in ecological meltdown, plundered to the
point of exhaustion by what the distinguished oceanographer Sylvia Earle has called “the greatest environmental tragedy of our time: the relentless, wholesale
extraction of ocean wildlife” (see sidebar, page 90).
Petrich was keen to encourage the Haldane brothers but reluctant to sell plans. In his reply he generously
Brothers Roger and Clyde Haldane, with their uncle Hugh in
the middle, pole a 110-lb southern bluefin. When TACOMA
was launched, southern bluefin brought only a fraction of the
price of shark. Through the vessel’s 52-year career, the tuna
fishery grew into a multi-million-dollar market with Japan.
January/February 2014 • 85

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 85

11/19/13 4:27 PM

enclosed a complete set of very detailed plans and a note
explaining that there would be no charge. “Perhaps,” he
wrote, “you will be in a position to do something for us
one day.”
Hervey Petrich retained the Haldane family’s check
but never cashed it.

I

n Port Fairy, a tiny hamlet on the Bass Strait coast of
western Victoria, the five Haldane children, three
boys and two girls, lived with their parents in the
lighthouse keeper’s cottage on Griffith Island, a kelpfringed, black basalt outcrop at the mouth of the River
Moyne and facing the full force of the Southern Ocean.
Bill, the eldest son, was a skilled carpenter, and the
younger boys, Hughie and Alan, were fishermen. At the
turn of the 20th century the boys’ father, Hugh Haldane, a Scottish shipwright, had already served his time
at the A & J Inglis yard on the Clyde. There he helped
to build the handsome paddle-wheeler WEEROONA in
which he sailed as ship’s carpenter on her 1910 maiden
voyage to Port Phillip Bay.
Hugh left the ship in Melbourne, worked briefly for
the Harbor Trust, and finally settled at Port Fairy where
he became harbor master and lighthouse keeper—twin
posts in which he served from 1929 to 1951. Both of

Hugh Haldane’s brothers were shipwrights: his younger
brother, Billy, emigrated to the U.S. to work at the
Graves Yacht Yard in Marblehead, Massachusetts, while
the older brother, James, went to the Whyalla Shipyards
in South Australia. Once he was established, Hugh
brought his 19-year-old fiancée Rebecca Hamilton out
from Scotland.
Hughie and Alan Haldane had been fishermen from
their early teens, and Hughie first braved the treacherous coastal waters around Port Fairy in PETREL, an open
24' couta boat with a loose-footed standing lugsail. Using
handlines, the brothers caught barracouta and gummy
shark, which were then the staples in Melbourne’s ubiquitous fried fish and chip shops. Bill Haldane joined
them in fishing when the Great Depression put an end
to his construction career. Using only rudimentary hand
tools, he and his brothers worked with their father to
build two 40' cutters, AMARYLLIS and DOLPHIN, on
Griffith Island. These smacks, the former gaff rigged
and the latter Bermudan, were fitted with wet wells and
were designed for shark fishing, and each took two years
to build; AMARYLLIS, the first, was launched in 1934.
They were the first boats in Victoria to be powered by
diesel engines, and also the first with wheelhouses.

Below—In 1951, TACOMA, with her building shed dismantled,
sits ready for her November launching that year. Right—
Sisters  Rhonda and Rhoena with cousin Ross the day after
launching. The ways are weighted to prevent them from
floating with the rising tide; they lead through a hand-dug
slipway, with the newly launched TACOMA snug in her berth
at the other end.

86 • WoodenBoat 236

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 86

11/19/13 4:28 PM

The brothers Haldane (from
left): Hughie, Alan, and Bill, with
TACOMA’s binnacle in 1952.

The Haldane boys worked as a close-knit team. They
were doing well, but believed they could do much better if they had a substantially bigger vessel. Poring over
the Western Boat Building Company’s ad in Pacific Fisherman, they hit upon the idea of building the 150-ton
TACOMA , which remains the biggest vessel ever built
at Port Fairy. With youthful enthusiasm, the brothers
figured they could complete her in just four years. But
perhaps there was a touch of naïveté back then, for
they had very little capital and not much in the way of
income from their part-time fishing.
The first task was to obtain hardwood logs from
the Otway Ranges in southwestern Victoria. All three
boys journeyed there together and with the aid of men
from the Armstrong Mill, they selected six of the tallest, straightest bluegums in the old-growth forest. With
so many mill workers away at war, it was six months
before a steam train was able to haul the enormous
logs, weighing a total of 25 tons, to Port Fairy. The logs
were about 70' long, with the biggest measuring 3' at
the butt and weighing eight tons. They were so heavy
that no crane in Port Fairy was able to lift them. Using
block-and-tackles and old crab winches, the Haldanes
carefully coaxed the logs off a flatbed freight car and
rolled them on to jinkers and trucks to be hauled down
to the family’s vacant waterfront land on the west bank
of the River Moyne. There, under their father’s guidance, the boys set to work squaring up the logs using
only the time-honored broadaxe and adze along with a
hefty cross-cut saw.
Bill Haldane specified the finest timbers for TACOMA,
and to ensure that he obtained nothing but the best, he
cut a quiet little deal with his supplier, the manager of
Millar’s Timber Company in South Melbourne. Every
now and then he sent the manager a 60-lb bag of freshly
caught live crayfish (rock lobsters). The result was that
the finest-quality clear-grained, quarter-sawn Douglasfir was set aside, chalk-marked “ TACOMA.” Bill Haldane
carefully recorded every detail of the ship’s construction
in a blue-lined notebook. It is among many thousands
of documents now digitized in the TACOMA archives,

which include all correspondence relating to the vessel’s 52
years of operation.
In his construction book,
Bill Haldane recorded the massive dimensions of the bluegum
keel (68' 12" × 12"), the keelson (64' 14" × 16"), the jarrah
planking below the waterline
(6" × 2 ¼" ), and the topside
planking of Oregon pine—aka
Douglas-fir (2,000 board feet,
6" × 2 ¼" ). The frames were
steam-bent 3 ½" × 3" spotted
gum on 10" centers, and the fastenings included thousands of galvanized steel spikes.
TACOMA was incredibly strong—so strong that, according to Bill Haldane’s son, Ross, his father and brothers
saw no need to insure her. “Having built the boat with
their own hands,” he said, “they had absolute faith in
her. They went to sea in her and they expected her to
carry them safely home again.”
The Western Boat Building Company’s larger tuna
clippers were lavishly fitted out with the latest conveniences. Some vessels with Italian and Portuguese crews
were even fitted with their own chapels and religious
shrines. TACOMA followed their lead with pale pink
Queensland maple and beautiful blond French-polished
silky oak in the 12-berth crew’s quarters, and in the galley
where meals were prepared on a cream-enameled cokefired AGA stove—the classic slow-combustion cooker
normally associated with well-appointed British country
homes. The non-religious Haldanes had no need for an
onboard chapel, but for practical reasons they did ban
the use of alcohol and tobacco at sea.
After the war the Haldane boys were forced to concede that they would need financial help to finish the
boat, but in the immediate postwar years bank funds
were tight and the Victorian state government turned a
deaf ear to pleas for support. Australia’s biggest bank,
the Commonwealth, refused because of “the experimental nature of the venture.” Australia’s federal government said no because it saw “no defense value in the
boat.” Frank Moorhouse, the chief fisheries officer in
the South Australian state government, was one of the
few who knew of the work being done by purse seiners on America’s northwest coast. In that light, he saw
the potential in TACOMA and recommended that the
South Australian government loan £20,000 to finish
the boat.

A

t that stage Australia, the island continent with
one of the world’s longest coastlines, was
importing more than half its seafood. Some
saw its waters as a marine desert. But in the mid-1940s
Australia’s peak scientific body, the Commonwealth
January/February 2014 • 87

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 87

11/19/13 4:28 PM

TACOMA arrives at Adelaide in January 1952. She’d

left Port Fairy two days earlier with all of the
Haldane family and their belongings—and arrived
with a litter of kittens born aboard during the trip.

TACOMA Particulars
LOA 84'

Beam 21' 6"
Draft 8' 6"
Displacement 150 tons

Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), proved otherwise when one of its
researchers, Stanley Fowler, flew over the clear,
cobalt waters of the Great Australian Bight and
looked down on an astonishing spectacle as vast
shoals of tuna, mackerel, and pilchards made
the surface boil. The southern bluefin tuna
were migrating east-bound across the Bight
from their Indian Ocean spawning grounds,
southeast of Java, to the Tasman Sea. With
masterful understatement Fowler described
his discovery as “a significant untapped pelagic
resource.” When the Haldane boys heard of
this discovery, it ignited their tuna fever.
The Haldanes’ loan was duly approved on
September 7, 1948, but it came with a raft of
conditions including the stipulation that, on
completion, TACOMA and the three Haldane
families would have to be based 700 miles to
the west of Port Fairy at Port Lincoln, a sleepy
country town of 5,000 at the foot of South
Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, and used to catch
pelagic species such as garfish, pilchards, and
tommy ruffs, which would be processed in
South Australia. The vessel was also to be used
for fisheries research. The Haldanes had no
choice but to accept. They had no sooner done
so when the Victorian government stepped in
with a belated attempt to keep TACOMA in her home
waters. But that bid came too late.
The loan meant that the Haldane boys could now
afford to work on TACOMA full time. Although they finished construction early in September 1951, seven-anda-half years after beginning, the boys had to spend the
following two months digging, by hand, a 53' channel
sloping from the stern of the vessel down to the river.
This meant shoveling 200 tons of sand and demolishing a bluestone seawall before they had the pleasure of
watching saltwater wash over the hardwood planks of
their makeshift slipway.
At high water, 3:30 a.m. on November 5, 1951, their
mother, Rebecca, broke a bottle of Port Lincoln seawater
over TACOMA’s stem, sending her down tallow-greased
ways and into the River Moyne. Loading aboard the
possessions of the three families took the better part of
a month. The furniture was stored below in the hold,
while three Haldane-family boats made the trip on the
net turntable aft. Also aboard were nine bicycles, the
family’s German Shepherd watchdog, Wolf, and a gray
Manx cat with a powder-puff stump of a tail. The cat
was to deliver a litter of six kittens as TACOMA steamed
west toward Adelaide.
TACOMA’s log for Sunday, January 6, 1952, betrays
no hint of the excitement the nine adults and seven
children must have felt as they cast off their docklines

and slipped quietly away from their hometown. Skipper
Bill Haldane simply wrote: “Left Port Fairy for Adelaide
6pm. Wind south west with moderate seas.” TACOMA
was powered by a massive four-cylinder Atlas Imperial
salvaged from a U.S. Navy barge that had seen active
duty in the Pacific war. The 240-hp, 275-rpm diesel was
built in Oakland, California in the 1940s. It weighed
19 tons and was so big that it had to be disassembled,
taken aboard in pieces, and then reassembled in the
engineroom. Although the Atlas was huge for its power,
it sent TACOMA chugging along at a steady 8.5 knots.
She arrived at Port Adelaide in 48 hours.
TACOMA left for Port Lincoln 10 days later and
arrived there on January 18 to a mixed reception from
the local fishermen, many of whom had never set eyes
on a vessel of her size and power. Most of them fished
for shark, which was then fetching around 13 pence
per pound. Few bothered with tuna, worth only six
cents per pound. The local fishermen, who worked
with hand­lines from a ragtag fleet of boats, were worried that the ultra-modern TACOMA , equipped with
an echo-sounder, a diesel-powered Northern Dragger
winch, and a cotton-mesh net capable of catching 200
tons at a haul, would soon scoop all the fish from the
sea, leaving none for them.
They need not have worried, for early on things did
not go smoothly for the Haldanes. They were unfamiliar

88 • WoodenBoat 236

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 88

11/19/13 4:28 PM

Above—Australian salmon netted from a Bondi-type
surfboat (aka “banana boat”) are loaded aboard TACOMA
by Clyde Haldane and crew. Left—Cousins Robin, Roger,
and Andrew triple-poling in the mid-1960s. Tuna poling is
often likened to sheep shearing: A good Australian shearer
averages 200 per day, and success is more about technique
than muscle. Left, bottom—Local tommy roughs (aka
“Australian herring” ) were caught during hard times and
sold smoked in local hotels.

with the heavy, experimental cotton net, and their initial efforts with it produced little more than holes—
damage that cost them six weeks and that had to be
repaired at their own expense. They tried fishing with
troll lines but had little success. On one occasion they
steamed 190 miles southeast to Kangaroo Island where
they caught only 40 scattered individual tuna. After
four days at sea they came home and sold the meager
haul to the cannery for just £50. The Haldanes’ financial resources were at a low ebb. Bill Haldane wrote to
Hervey Petrich, “After 25 years in this business we are
now worse off than we have ever been.”
On Wednesday, February 25, 1953, TACOMA’s luck

began to change when, off the northern end of Boston
Bay, she ran her purse seine around a small school of
tuna. In two shots they hauled 14 tons of tuna onboard,
the first southern bluefin ever to be captured in Australian waters using a purse seine. They also seined 20
tons of Australian salmon just outside the bay. Their
triumphal return to Port Lincoln was short-lived when
they found that the local cannery lacked the capacity to
process all the catch. Half their haul of tuna had to be
buried by a bulldozer.
The three Haldane brothers and their families were
each provided with newly built state-government rental
housing in Port Lincoln, and they soon fitted well into
the local community. But, in TACOMA’s first four years
of operation, they struggled to pay the interest on their
government loan. The boys paid themselves a meager
£5 a week, which was scarcely enough to put food on
the table, let alone pay for the boat’s maintenance.
They very nearly went broke. The Haldane women grew
the family’s fruit and vegetables and earned money
teaching in the local schools. By sticking together they
managed to scrape by.
Twenty years would pass before the technique of
purse seining, for which TACOMA was designed, was
deemed a success in Australia. The Haldanes didn’t
stick with seining for that long, though; instead, they
switched to bamboo poling. Bill Haldane had read
about this method of fishing and its success in the U.S.
tuna fishery. He wrote dozens of letters to South Australian Premier Tom Playford pleading for the government’s assistance in bringing experienced American
tuna fishermen to Port Lincoln to demonstrate the
technique. Finally, in 1956, the Jangaard brothers,
Chris and Sven, flew from San Diego to show them how
it was done.
January/February 2014 • 89

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 89

11/19/13 4:28 PM

The Sad State of Southern Bluefin Tuna

L

ike the northern bluefin tuna fisheries in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans,
the lamentable history of the southern bluefin is characterized by the worst
aspects of industrial-scale overfishing. Insatiable demand from Japan has resulted in
fish stocks plummeting to an estimated 5
percent of the virgin biomass. Australian
analysts now use independent scientific evidence to back their claims that tuna stocks
are recovering. On the other hand, marine
conservationists and industry critics are
concerned that the predicted recovery may
never happen.
In 1985, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand agreed to restrict their catches through
voluntary quotas, but the continuing fall
in stocks saw Japanese and Australian quotas slashed by 67 percent in 1990. By 1992,
60 percent of the Australian industry was
in receivership with most of the remainder
under bank control. An Australian government investigation in 2006 discovered that
since 1984, Japanese fishermen, acting with
the knowledge and acquiescence of scientists
and government, had illegally caught over
100,000 tons of southern bluefin tuna. The
public humiliation following that embarrassing disclosure saw Japan punished with
a further severe cut in its quota. In 2010
the global quota was again reduced by 20
percent—from 11,810 tons to 9,449 tons.
Thanks to rigorous controls, the Australian
quota is now on the increase.
At Port Lincoln, the fishery has pioneered the farming of wild-caught tuna. A young fisherman-farmer with a southern bluefin for the Japanese market.
Pre-spawning three-, four-, and five-year-old The population of this magnificent species is estimated to have dropped
tuna are caught in purse seines which are to 5 percent of its 1960s biomass. Some researchers predict a substantial
very slowly towed to holding cages anchored recovery over the next few decades, but an insatiable demand keeps the
some 20 miles offshore. These 30- to 60-lb fish’s value high and the resulting pressure from international fleets intense.
juveniles are fed live bait, mostly locally
caught pilchards, for three or four months
until they grow to between 60 lbs and 120 lbs. Although The harvest-ready tuna are so docile and sluggish that
critics say the removal of so many pre-spawning juve- divers are easily able to hold them by the gills and genniles is bound to have a significant negative impact on tly steer them toward conveyor belts that lift them out
the species’ ability to recover, the Australian Fisheries of the water to be killed and flash-frozen.
Management Authority insists that it is on-track for a
In late June each year, two Japanese factory ships
20% recovery by the year 2035.
berth in Port Lincoln where, for six weeks using their
With a feed conversion ratio of 14:1 (14 kilos of pil- own generators for power, they freeze and store 2,000
chards are needed to create one kilo of tuna), some tons each. The frozen tuna is then shipped direct to
60,000 tons of pilchards are required to feed the cap- Japan. Around 96 percent of Australia’s southern bluetive tuna each year. Half the pilchards are caught in fin ends up in Tokyo’s wholesale Tsukjii Market, the
South Australian waters and the remainder are shipped world’s biggest, where it is worth around $50 million a
frozen from California. Thus some 4,500 tons of wild- year. There, Japanese buyers routinely pay $100,000 for a
caught tuna become around 9,000 tons of fattened single tuna, whose value more than doubles by the time
tuna, which are ready for harvesting in July each year. it ends up in restaurants as finely sliced sashimi. —BS
90 • WoodenBoat 236

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 90

11/19/13 4:28 PM

Six months before their arrival, the Jangaards sent
plans for TACOMA’s conversion from a purse seiner to
a pole boat. These included detailed drawings of plywood bait tanks, steel fishing racks, and the fishing
poles and other gear required. The bamboo poles were
12' long and topped by 3' of hempen line which was
spliced to a 3' wire trace ending in a strange barbless
squid-shaped hook surrounded by a tuft of fluffy white
feathers from a bantam rooster. The heel of the pole fitted snugly into a stout leather pouch slung around the
fisherman’s waist.
According to Alan Haldane’s boatbuilder son, Andy,
the Jangaards were pleasantly surprised to find a boat
so familiar to them. “They did mention after some
time that TACOMA didn’t creak as much as the boats
back home,” he said. “They were very practical, handson guys. Their idea of a stability test was to load the
boat with gear, plus bait and water, open her up to fullspeed, and then throw the wheel hard over. TACOMA
stayed upright, so I guess she passed the test.”
According to Andy Haldane, their biggest test was
to catch live bait. “In the Pacific all live bait was caught
during the daylight hours,” he said, “but off Port Lincoln they had to adapt to night baiting with lights to
attract the fish. This proved difficult, and the early
lights even included oil-soaked rags set alight. These
techniques proved useless and until bright 240-volt
lights were used, baiting was always problematical.”
The Jangaard brothers were experienced fishermen and extremely generous in sharing their knowledge. They explained how live bait like pilchards could
quickly send tuna into a feeding frenzy once it was
tossed into the sea as chum. On their recommendation,
the specified bait tanks were installed on TACOMA’s
afterdeck and 30 tons of crushed ice was stored in the
hold. They taught TACOMA’s crew how to use the tuna’s
aggressive forward momentum—speeds of up to 30
miles per hour—to help lift the charging fish onboard.
Steel racks rigged over the stern put the fishermen
close to the water and reduced the effort needed to lift
the poled fish. With no safety gear other than a hardhat, no flotation devices, and no tethering lifelines, the

poling fishermen relied entirely on their sea legs and
their agility—which were fallible (see sidebar page 92).
On Thursday March 15, 1956, South Australian Premier Playford went for a 36-hour trip in TACOMA during which he poled one very large tuna. The Jangaard
brothers outdid him, though, poling 25 tons of tuna
that day. TACOMA’s decks were piled high with pounding, blood-spattered fish. The first of the South Australian tuna booms was underway.
During their three months in Port Lincoln, the Jangaard brothers caught 93 tons of tuna. Their shared
experience greatly accelerated the development of
the South Australian tuna fishery, but in their final
report written for the South Australian government,
they issued a timely warning that this was a relatively
small fishery which would need careful management.
“A good little fishery for ten boats,” they called it. The
government ignored their warning, and the result was
an open slaughter. By the time the Jangaard brothers
flew home, word of their success saw a host of fishermen
eager to cash in on the boom.

P

ort Lincoln, hitherto known as a grain region
and called “Sleepy Town,” soon had the anythinggoes look of a frontier town in the grip of gold
fever. A ramshackle fleet of more than 30 boats peppered the blue waters of Boston Bay, poling over 100
tons of tuna a week. In the early 1960s TACOMA’s crew
established their own record catch, poling 40 tons of
tuna in four frenzied hours. With the local cannery’s
capacity at only a little more than 20 tons a week, much
of the catch had to be iced and shipped to canneries in
Adelaide, 156 miles to the east.
As more and more boats joined the tuna rush, the
catch went up at an exponential rate, helped by the 13
light aircraft that were chartered to fly west, deep into
the Great Australian Bight, where they could spot and
report the progress of the east-bound tuna schools. A
seasonal pattern became established in which boats,
including TACOMA , worked the east coast from Eden
to Sydney from September to December and worked in
the Great Australian Bight from January to May.
In 1968, the year that marked
the first big crash, the tuna
catch suddenly plummeted to
1,700 tons. With too many boats
and too few tuna, many of the
blow-in boats quit Port Lincoln
to take part in the new northern Australian prawn boom.
The Haldane brothers came
TACOMA with Haldane cousins
Andrew and Ross at the Boston
Marine slip Port Lincoln preparing for
the 2,500 mile round trip to the 2011
Australian Wooden Boat Festival in
Hobart, Tasmania. TACOMA retired
from active fishing in 2003. Her bow
has just been refastened with 4"
silicon-bronze screws.

January/February 2014 • 91

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 91

11/19/13 4:28 PM

The Cruel Sea

T

he identical Bellamy twins, Keith and Jack,
were Port Fairy schoolboys when the Haldane
brothers started TACOMA’s construction in
the 1940s. During the seven-and-a-half-years it took
to build her, the boys dashed home from school each
day to make themselves useful at the Moyne River
shipyard which was just a few doors up from their
home. Keith eventually served an apprenticeship as
a baker while Jack became a butcher, but deep down
the inseparable twins always knew they would end
up as fishermen.
When TACOMA left for Port Lincoln in 1952, the
17-year-old Bellamy boys went with her as members of
her crew. They lived onboard, Jack in the top bunk aft
on the starboard side and Keith in the bunk below.
Keith was the ship’s cook and in the slow-combustion
AGA he baked crusty fresh bread and served up a
steady stream of wholesome 1950s food: meat and
three vegetables with trifle or pudding for dessert.
The lives of the Bellamy twins revolved around
fishing and this boat. They both became expert tuna
polers and always fished in tandem. On one trip,
Jack and Keith, with four others, set the world’s poling record when they hauled 40 tons of tuna aboard
TACOMA in just four-and-a-half hours, a rate that
saw one fish flung aboard every four seconds. The
biggest was more than 80 lbs. “There were so many
fish onboard,” Jack recalled, “that every time she
rolled, some of them went over, but nobody wanted
to get off the poles to put them away. All we wanted
to do was fish, fish, fish.”
In February 1959, TACOMA was fishing south
of Coffin Bay, and the Bellamy boys were working

The Bellamy twins, Jack (left) and Keith, in 1956.

side-by-side as usual, double-poling from
the racks outboard on the starboard
side aft. Neither of them wore safety harnesses. The crystal-clear cobalt blue sea
was calm, the day fine and sunny with a
light southeasterly sea breeze. A big tuna,
perhaps 50 or 60 lbs, came up under the
boat and leapt at their lure. The sudden
impact caught Keith off balance and he
fell overboard, still clutching his bamboo
pole. He held on for dear life and was, for
a few moments, towed astern as TACOMA
moved ahead at perhaps three knots. High
up in the wheelhouse skipper Bill Haldane
remained unaware of the drama at the
stern. Off the starboard bow he had spotted a ripple of tuna. He turned toward it
and increased speed. Keith Bellamy’s combination gray rubber seaboots and biband-brace overalls filled with water and
dragged him under. The chinstrap fastening his
helmet was choking him. In a few brief moments
he lost consciousness, released his grip on the pole,
and raised both arms above his head—the classic
reflex action of a drowning man. Slowly he began
to slip away.
When Bill Haldane realized what was happening
he put the boat hard about, but by the time they completed the circle Keith was sinking. Bill scrambled
down the ship’s ladder to the afterdeck, stripped off,
and dived overboard. Although he was a powerful
swimmer, he failed to reach the stricken fisherman.
Bill’s son, Ross, says the whole thing took less than
three minutes. “By the time my father dived in and
swam down,” he said, “it was already too late. Out
there the water is crystal clear and deep blue. You
can see into the huge depths, so everyone on deck
saw Keith slipping away. Keith’s death had an impact
not only on my father, but the whole family. All seamen know that once you lose your nerve, you’re
never the same. I think that day my father lost his
nerve. He was never the bold young sailor again. He
was a broken man. Overnight he became an old man
of the sea.”
Jack Bellamy bears no grudges. “When you’ve
been so close to someone, when you’ve shared so
much, when that suddenly ends, you’re in shock,” he
said, “a state of disbelief. I sat down by the bait box
and just stared at the water for a few hours. A kind of
numbness set in when I realized Keith was lost. Then
you just accept: he’s not coming back. That’s part of
life at sea. That’s the chance you take when you go
—BS
fishing.”

92 • WoodenBoat 236

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 92

11/19/13 4:28 PM

Tacoma is now the centerpiece of the Tacoma Preservation Society in Port Lincoln. Here she is ready for her annual late-

summer tuna-poling trip during the southern bluefin migration through the Great Australian Bight.

to regard South Australia’s high-risk tuna fishery as a
basket case, and in 1968 they turned their attention
toward the nascent Spencer Gulf prawn fishery, a local
industry that was, from its inception, tightly managed
by the Port Lincoln fishermen themselves. TACOMA
was given an extensive refit for prawn trawling, with
onboard refrigeration, double-rigged booms, and a
new engine—a 500-hp Danish-built Grenaa diesel, half
the size of the old Atlas but with twice the power.
While prawning may have been regarded as dull factory fishing as compared with fighting wild tuna, it did
deliver a much-needed steady income. Two generations
of the Haldane family kept TACOMA busy in what is
today regarded as the world’s most sustainable prawn
fishery.
In 2003, after a fishing career spanning 52 years,
TACOMA was retired. Her replacement, the 72' steelhulled prawn trawler ATLAS, was designed by boatbuilders Andy Haldane and his cousin, Rob. TACOMA
is now on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels,
and is based in Port Lincoln under the care of the
TACOMA Preservation Society, where she serves as a
museum ship.

I

t is a rare thing for the fate of any town to be so inextricably linked to the working life of a single boat, but
that is precisely the case for Port Lincoln. TACOMA
pioneered the lucrative tuna industry in this town, which

as a result is now one of the wealthiest in Australia.
Ross Haldane, Bill’s son, is keen to preserve his family’s legacy, and serves as president of the TACOMA Preservation Society (www.TACOMA .org.au). Members of
the Haldane family endowed the vessel and gifted her
to the Society, a community-based organization whose
volunteers keep her in working order. She now goes to
sea twice a year with 12 guests who pay $1,500 each for
the privilege of a weeklong cruise on which they are
licensed to catch six southern bluefin tuna and enjoy
the ambience aboard a genuine old-style tuna clipper.
Unlike John Steinbeck’s WESTERN FLYER , which
has sunk twice in recent years and now lies on the
hard, encrusted in dried weed and barnacles in Port
Townsend, Washington, TACOMA is kept in immaculate condition. Everything about this vessel—the
homey smell of the AGA cooker; the unmistakable
odor of masculinity in the crew’s quarters; the paper
charts, brass dividers, cedar parallel rules, and the late
Bill Haldane’s smudged spectacles in the pilothouse—
are exactly as they were when her working crew last
stepped ashore. On the Port Lincoln waterfront,
where huge steel purse seiners and prawning boats
lie cheek-by-jowl, TACOMA’s white-painted wooden
hull still turns heads with her striking good looks and
extraordinary story.
Bruce Stannard is a regular contributor to WoodenBoat.
January/February 2014 • 93

Tacoma-FINAL.indd 93

11/19/13 4:28 PM

Contorted Timbers Shape the Boat
by Richard Jagels
2

3

RICHARD JAGELS (all)

1

Photo 1—The contorted branches of this Scots pine are the result of an earlier infestation of pine weevils. The natural
curves may be tempting for boatbuilding uses, but the compression wood found on the lower side of the branch is a
serious defect. Photo 2—A cross-section of compression wood, which forms in curved stems like the ones shown in photo
1, is typically reddish in color and has wide growth rings. It is comparatively weak and shrinks and swells longitudinally,
making it useless for boatbuilding. Photo 3—Many examples of natural growth are highly valued in boatbuilding; for
example, hardwood branching that produces equal arms is ideal for breasthooks.

S

weep, curves, and angles define a
boat. Before thin laminations and
composite construction—or even
before extensive steam-bending—boat­
builders relied on natural shapes produced in the forest. I recall several years
ago visiting the museum in Stockholm,
Sweden, where the recovered hull of the
warship VASA is displayed. Foundering
and sinking in 1628 on her maiden voyage within sight of the crowds on shore,
she was raised in 1961, and has undergone conservation ever since. Although
VASA herself was regally imposing, what
caught my attention was a museum side
display that documented the elaborate,
detailed plans contrived to obtain all
the natural trunk and branch shapes
from nearby or distant forests—an enterprise involving hundreds of men
armed with patterns who scoured the
woods, marking, cutting, and hauling
variously contorted timbers destined for
key components of VASA. Very little, if
any, steam-bending was involved in the
16th- and 17th-century Euro­pean ships.
Natural crooks—or compass timbers—
provided the shapes needed.
For sweeping or gentle curves, dry
planks—or better still, green planks—
can be coaxed into position. For greater
curves, steam-bending of solid wood

or built-up laminated strips are now
employed. But sharp angles are still
best dealt with using the shapes nature
produces in living trees.

Sources of Crooks
Plant biologists describe two fundamental controlling responses for tree
stems and branches: first, a tendency to
grow toward light (phototropism) and,
second, a negative response to gravity
(negative geotropism). The main tree
stem responds primarily to a negative
geotropism while branches respond
phototropically. Together, this produces a main, upright stem with lateral
branches that maximize the ability of
leaves to intercept light.
However, this basic tree form can
be modified by natural events such as
shading by other trees or damage by
wind or ice, or predation by insects.
Add to this human intervention, and
it is evident that a tree’s shape can be
dramatically changed. Pruning of fruit
trees, pollarding, coppicing, and severe
topping or pruning of roadside trees
for utility line clearance all modify
branching patterns and may produce
unusual shapes—some of which can be
useful for boatbuilders.
Pruning is the cutting of dead or

living branches. Pollarding is the practice of cutting upper branches back
to the trunk to encourage a dense
growth of new shoots, and coppicing
involves cutting back to near ground
level for the same reason. Pollarding
and coppicing are not practiced much
in the United States, and the practices
have disappeared in much of Europe.
But fruit trees such as apple, pear, and
peach are often vigorously pruned
to enhance fruit production and
improve air circulation in the crown,
thus reducing insect and disease problems. Also, since fruit trees have a
finite productive life, they are periodically replaced. Both annual prunings
and freshly felled trees can be useful
sources of wood for breasthooks, quarter knees, thwart knees, cabin hooks,
and even old-style boom goosenecks.
In his Building Classic Small Craft, John
Gardner comments, “In the past, the
finest light tenders often had their
knees made from apple limb crooks.”
If you have access to orchard prunings, the advice still holds.
Roots, particularly of conifers like
tamarack (Larix laricina) and spruce
(Picea sp.), have been traditional
sources of wood for knees, stems, and
ribs for Adirondack guideboats and

94 • WoodenBoat 236

WoodTech236-FINAL-wAd.indd 94

11/20/13 3:08 PM

other small rowing and sailing craft.
Grubbing out roots, especially from
rocky soil where the best shapes can be
found, is, to say the least, not a pleasant job. Chainsaws will likely be dulled,
and heavy come-alongs or some kind of
motive power will be needed to release
the stump from its earthbound hold.
Because of the tendency to avoid this
huge investment of labor, laminated
frames are now the norm. Tamarack
(hackmatack) crooks were commercially available for many years from a
fellow here in Maine; unfortunately he
passed over the bar several years ago.
However, land clearing for development is sometimes an opportunity to
scrounge some stumps with attached
roots. Hosed down to remove mineral
soil, these can be chainsawed to produce variously shaped crooks.

are ideal for many kinds of knees.
Open-grown trees will have larger
branches, and these will be closer to
the ground compared to forest-grown
trees. Most crook wood, which originates from the outer growth layers of
stem and branch, will be all sapwood,
so regardless of wood species it should
be treated to lessen decay hazard.
As I travel about, either in the woods
or along the highway, I often keep an

eye out for potential crook material to
collect. I toss the finds on my wood pile,
out of the weather, and let them dry
until I find a suitable use.
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].

Meet the Readers of

Reaction Wood
The main trunk of a tree growing at
right angles to the earth’s surface on
level ground is perfectly balanced for
tensile and compressive forces. However, leaning stems and all branches
are out of balance and, therefore, produce a reaction wood to compensate for
asymmetric loading. In broad-leaved
hardwoods, the reaction wood is called
tension wood and occurs on the upper
side of a leaning stem or branch. In
coniferous softwoods the reaction wood
occurs on the lower side and is called
compression wood. Of the two abnormal
woods, compression wood is, by far, the
more serious defect. It is weaker than
normal wood and shrinks and swells
longitudinally with moisture changes.
It should be avoided for boatbuilding.
Photo 1 shows some tempting crook timber in a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) tree
that developed as a result of pine weevil damage. However, photo 2 reveals
a cross-section from a similar curved
stem that is loaded with compression
wood, making this kind of crook timber
a poor candidate for boatbuilding.
Fortunately, compression wood is
absent in conifer roots. Thus, crooks for
boatbuilding should be selected from
either hardwood branches or conifer
roots (see Wood Technology in WB No.
40 for more details on reaction wood).
Tension wood in hardwoods doesn’t
have a major effect on strength or
dimensional changes; in any case,
crook wood is normally selected from
the lower side of a branch where tension wood is absent. A dichotomous
division that produces two equal
branches (photo 3) often produces the
best material for breasthooks, while
horizontal branches off the main trunk

Jerry Bohannon
Jerry Bohannon has been a wooden-boat owner, and a WoodenBoat reader,
for a long time. Back in 1978, he purchased an Owens Cutter named
FALCON—a pedigreed and smart-sailing 40-footer in need of structural
attention. The magazine had just published an article on the then-new
idea of sheathing old hulls in wood veneers. That caught Jerry’s eye. He
called the magazine’s office and talked the idea over with technical
editor Maynard Bray, and then proceeded with the job. Bent Jespersen
did the work in British Columbia, and Bray wrote a detailed article about
the process for WB No. 61. Jerry couldn’t have been happier with the
stunning result, which gave him many years of fine sailing.
“The magazine for me is a resource,” says Jerry, who sold FALCON in
1990 and purchased his current boat, the 36’ wooden Grand Banks
trawler VIRGINIA CARY. “I called the magazine and got a great response.
WoodenBoat gives me great ideas, and when I have a problem, I have a
source for answers.

WoodenBoat. Your source for answers.
Subscribe today.

Call 1-800-877-5284
If outside of the U.S. or Canada, call 1-818-487-2084

www.woodenboat.com
January/February 2014 • 95

WoodTech236-FINAL-wAd.indd 95

11/20/13 3:08 PM

LAUNCHINGS

T

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 write us at Launchings, WoodenBoat, P.O.
Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616 or email us at launchings@
woodenboat.com.
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. We
prefer digital jpeg images at 300 dpi. Please send no
more than five photographs and enclose a SASE if you
want anything returned.

Below—The Lewes Historical Society Wooden Boat Crew of
Lewes, Delaware, builds several Bevins Skiff kits through the
year for their annual Family Boat Building Weekend held
in June. In 2013, eight teams—Buckley, Campbell, Daffern,
DiSabatino, Edgell, Rosenberg, Taney, and the Society’s
Wooden Boat Crew—each constructed one of these kits,
launching it Sunday afternoon. The Society had support
from many sponsors and volunteers.
Courtesy of Lewes Historical Society

Edited by Robin Jettinghoff

Lili Hall

Left— LARRYN MARIE is an Adirondack
guideboat built by Don Hall of Edmonds,
Washington. The 13' cedar -stripped boat is
the first boat Don has built. The frames are
of laminated spruce and the seats are cherry.
Don will be rowing it on Puget Sound and
other waters near his home. He purchased the
kit from Steve Kaulback, Adirondack Guide
Boat, www.adirondack-guide-boat.com.

Sue Holm

Shelly Dunford

Below—Using offsets from Willets Ansel’s book, The Whaleboat
(available from www.woodenboatstore.com), Craig Hohm
built this epoxy-lapstrake version of the Charles Beetle whaleboat on display at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News,
Virginia. The 28' 5" KEUKA WHALER is a community rowing
and sailing boat for Craig’s town of Penn Yan, New York. Craig
added the ketch rig to make the boat more versatile.

Above—This 17' 2" Cirrus Greenland stitch-and-glue
kayak was built with mahogany and ribbed poplar, by Ben
Bienvenu of St. Martinville, Louisiana. He added trim in
cherry and Spanish cedar and strengthened the high-stress
areas on the deck, coaming, and hull with carbon fiber. The
hatches are sealed with rare earth magnets. Ben named his
kayak PASSE PARTOUT, or “passes everywhere.” Contact the
designer, Vaclav Stejskal, at www.oneoceankayaks.com.

96 • WoodenBoat 236

Launchings236_05.indd 96

11/14/13 10:29 AM

Bryan Lee

Below—The Lee family frequently sail their 1964, 32'
sloop, LILO, in Puget Sound and beyond. Needing a
suitable dinghy that would fit on deck, they chose an 11'
Spindrift nesting dinghy designed by Graham Byrnes (www.
bandbyachtdesigns.com). With their two daughters, ages
seven and nine, they built the plywood SPLIT PEA in just a
few months. The family recently set out on a year-long cruise. 

John Gremer

Below—Seeking a tender for their Friendship sloop, BLACK
STAR , Ted Walsh and Judy Heininger of Conway, New
Hampshire, built the 16' FEE-FIE . An Iain Oughtred Penny
Fee design, FEE-FIE is built with glued plywood over a white
oak backbone. Her transom and seats are of Spanish cedar.
Contact Iain Oughtred at [email protected].

John Mitchell

Above—After 40 years as a family doctor, John Gremer built
this 25' lug-rigged schooner as a retirement project. He was
inspired by Phil Bolger’s St. Valery design in WB No. 157.
The schooner’s hull is built of okoume plywood, the interior
of Honduras mahogany, and exterior trim of teak. The spars
are Douglas-fir and the sails were sewn by HT Sails. John
sails SARABAND in Chesapeake Bay.

Above—Under direction from Eliot Spalding, Alex Hadden
took the lines from Vinnie Cavanaugh’s MARIAH WILLO
and, from them, built JUDY SUE . She is a 36' lobsterboat
traditionally built of cedar on oak with bronze fastenings.
Powered by a 265-hp Yanmar, she cruises easily at 14
knots and will make 20 knots wide open. Contact Alex at
[email protected] for more information.

Johnny K adlik

Joel Page

Below— On Star Island in New Hampshire, Marshall Frye
and Johnny Kadlik built a 12' traditional dory over the
summer of 2012. They started with free plans from the
Internet that they decided weren’t particularly good, but
found real help from John Gardner’s The Dory Book (available
at www.woodenboatstore.com). The oak frames and pine
planks on JOLLY BEGGAR’s hull are fastened with copper
rivets and bronze screws.

January/February 2014 • 97

Launchings236_05.indd 97

11/14/13 10:29 AM

LAUNCHINGS

Latrelle Meyer

Julie Geldard

Below—The Peeler Skiff is a new kit designed by John Harris
of Chesapeake Light Craft (www.clcboats.com). Bob Meyer
of Bloomingdale, Georgia, built this 15' 2" Peeler named
LILAH last winter. Bob reports that it was an easy construction, since the kit parts fit together perfectly. Bob uses
LILAH, powered by a 15-hp outboard, for fishing on Lake
Sinclair and the Georgia coast near his home.

Above— Gilbert Ford of Bilambil, Australia, is the proud
owner of BRIGHT EYES, a George Stadel–designed 26'
schooner recently launched in Moreton Bay, near Brisbane.
Underground Boats (www.undergroundboats.com.au) spent
four years on the project. She is built of Indonesian amoora,
with a teak deck and masts of hoop pine. A Yanmar twocylinder provides auxiliary power. Order plans from
www.woodenboatstore.com.

Peter Kurki

Below—Having already built three Iain Oughtred–designed
boats himself, Mikhail Markov of Klamila, Finland, asked
Bert Van Baar, who ran the De Bootbouwschool, in Uitgeest,
Netherlands, to build the latest one. This glued-lap-plywood
craft is a 21' 7" version of the Wee Seal, a new design
called Kotik. Launched last July, WHITE FANG has since
participated in Raid Finland. Contact Iain Oughtred at
[email protected].

John Brice

Photo by Konrad Pyzel

Above—John Olsen and Larry Heckner established their new
boatyard, the Masonboro Skiff Company, in Wilmington,
North Carolina, with the construction of a Macomber
15. They built this Westport River skiff, designed by Scott
Gifford, from cypress, white oak, and sapele, all fastened
with silicon-bronze. Contact John and Larry at www.
masonboroskiffcompany.com for completed boats. Email
Scott for plans at [email protected].

Above—William Atkin designed his 14' 10" Sprite flatbottomed skiff in 1953. This year, brewer and beekeeper
John Brice built his own Sprite from catalpa and sassafras
with a walnut transom. He used epoxy to fasten BRUZNBS
together, omitting metal fastenings except in the rails and
seats. John also made the oars from sassafras. Plans are
available at www.atkinboatplans.com.

98 • WoodenBoat 236

Launchings236_05.indd 98

11/14/13 10:29 AM

...AND RELAUNCHINGS
K atlyn Armand, J’Adore Photography

Left—Keith Dupuy recently rescued this
14' cypress dugout pirogue, cut from a tree
over 800 years old. With ratcheting straps
and temporary bulkheads, Keith worked the
100-year-old cracked and split hull back to its
original shape. Next he filled the cracks with
epoxied strips of cypress, then coated the boat
in epoxy. Keith and his fiancé, Amy Normand,
enjoy paddling the pirogue in Spring Bayou, in
Marksville, Louisiana.

Reed Feuster

Rian McNamara

Below—MYSTEREED is a 1955 Old Town lapstrake runabout
recently restored by Reed Feuster of Manasquan, New Jersey.
Reed found her rotting away in a boatyard in Mantoloking,
New Jersey, and spent 20 months on her repair. The 15'
MYSTEREED is powered by a 1946, 5-hp Johnson Sea-Horse
outboard that Reed also restored. Contact Reed at
[email protected].

Below—Mary Ann and Rob Roark of Harpswell, Maine,
relaunched their 33' sloop MOONBEAM last summer after a
four-year restoration. They replaced some of the copper rivets
holding her mahogany planking to her oak frames. They also
renewed the canvas-covered deck, wiring and plumbing systems,
and much of the interior of the Robert Clarke–designed sloop.
The Roarks plan to explore the Maine coast with MOONBEAM.

Above—Wanting to fit a 7' sofa and an easy chair onto a 40'
trawler of his own design, Bill McNamara cut SHUNDA in
half and added 8' to her length. Bill spent 16 months on
this project, fitting a “get-home” 30-hp diesel in the hull as
well. Reporting no change in the boat’s performance, Bill is
spending his retirement cruising between the Caribbean and
Ontario, Canada. 

Hints for taking good photos of your boat:
1. Pictures need to be at 300 dpi or larger to be printed in the
magazine. Send no more than five unretouched jpgs. We also
accept transparencies and high-quality prints.
2. Clean the boat. Stow fenders and extraneous gear below.
Properly ship or stow oars, and give the sails a good harbor
furl if you’re at anchor.
3. Schedule the photo session for early, or late, in the day to
take advantage of low-angle sunlight. Avoid shooting at high
noon and on overcast days.

Courtesy of the Roark Family

4. Be certain that the horizon appears level in your viewfinder.
5.  Keep the background simple and scenic. On a flat page,
objects in the middle distance can appear to become part of
your boat. Take care that it doesn’t sprout trees, flagpoles,
smokestacks, or additional masts and crew members.
6. Take many photos, and send us no more than five. Include
some action shots and some of the boat at rest. Pictures in a
vertical format are also welcome.

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

January/February 2014 • 99

Launchings236_05.indd 99

11/14/13 10:30 AM

NEWEST PRINT BOOKS
The Wianno Senior Story

Order via 1800.273.7447 or www.woodenboatstore.com

Another very thorough job by
author/historian Stan Grayson
about this 100+ year old class. 248
pp., hardcover, #300-821 $49.95

International One Design

Celebrates the 75th anniversary of
this elegant class in this large-format book with many lush photos.
208 pp., hardcover, #300-807
$65.00

Workboats of Core Sound
Photographic treat of these hardworking boats of the Carolinas.
166 pp., hardcover, #300-815
$35.00

Great American
Schooner Yachts

In-depth look at these boats via
drawings as well as current and
historical photos. 230 pp.,
hardcover, #300-800 $49.95

Working Sail

The revival of the traditional pilot cut
cutters of the UK, particularly Cornwall,
as told by one who was in large part
responsible for the revival. Beautifully
produced book.
240 pp., hardcover, #300-801 $70.00

Deer Isle’s Undefeated
America’s Cup Crews

Packed with historical photos, the crews
from this small island (near WoodenBoat
offices) were a force to be reckoned with.
176 pp., softcover, #300-814 $19.95

Boys in the Boat

Good read, described as “Chariots of Fire,
with oars” it’s the story of the 1936 quest
for Olympic gold.
432 pp., hardcover, #300-808 $28.95

Gear List of the Golden Moon

Travel from Alaska to Seattle under row
and sail means planning well. Although
anyone can make lists, this is a story well
told. 84 pp., softcover, #300-822 $16.00

What’s in Your Boat House?

Subtitled “Amazing Stories of Nautical
Archaeology”, you’ll read about discoveries, special finds, and boats brought
back from the brink.
104 pp., softcover, #300-820 $21.95

Why We Make Things
and Why it Matters

A hands-on craftsman explores why one
gains satisfaction from making things.
176 pp., hardcover, #300-823 $24.95

Making Wood Tools

Well executed book packed full of tips
and advice on making your own tools, as
well as sharpening them.
244 pp., hardcover, #300-805 $39.95

Mastering Hand Tool Techniques
Handsome book clearly explains how to
get the most from your tools.
144 pp., softcover, #300-810 $19.95

The Big Book
of Wooden Boat Restoration

The book focuses on techniques, main
maintenance, and repair, as well as having a
section on purchasing a wooden boat.
240 pp., hardcover, #300-803 $24.95

The Art of Wooden Boat Repair
Over forty years of experience shine
through by highly regarded Allen
Taube. 184 pp., softcover, #300-809
$19.95

Complete Guide to Sailing
and Seamanship

Blend of captivating sea stories and
essential, basic instructional methods
for anyone wanting to sail. Topped-off
with Sam Manning drawings.
189 pp., softcover, #300-806 $16.95

Reeds Knot Handbook

This is a handy little book, packed with
color photos and illustrations of knots,
hitches, and bends. Pocket-sized at 4” x
6.25”, and wallet-friendly priced.
128 pp., softcover, #300-816 $9.95

My First Book of Knots

Attention holding drawings of knots, in
their “setting”, from old-time ships to
modern marinas, campgrounds and tree
forts, the old wild west, and more.
45 pp., hardcover, #300-811 $12.95

Marlinspike Sailor’s Knots /Crafts
Subtitled “A Step-by-Step Guide
to Tying Classic Sailor’s Knots to
Create, Adorn, and Show Off.” The
black and white photos are greatly
enhanced by drawings to explain the
steps. 102 pp., softcover, #300-819
$18.00

For tables of contents and more info about the books, please visit our Site.
wb236wbstorepg100.indd 100
236.indd 4

11/21/13 3:45 PM
11/15/13 3:07:30 PM

DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS
Download these PDF files
instantly... no waiting for the
post office to deliver. Choose
from over 500 of our digital
publications.
Each digital issue of the magazine is a
full color PDF file, true to the original.
Choose from any of the 230+ back issues. $3.95 to $6.95 (Flash drive, all
back issues $160)

Professional BoatBuilder

It’s the trade magazine in the industry,
and we have all issues available. Select
from over 140+ magazines. $5.95
AND... you can now download
1-90, or 91 thru current, for $80.00
each

Maritime Life & Traditions

This joint venture between Le Chasse
Maree in France, and WoodenBoat
in the US resulted in Maritime Life,
which was published for nine years. We
have all 34 issues as digipubs. $3.95
or download all 34 issues $50.00

The WoodenBoat Index

Our up-to-date Index is oh-so handy
to use. Keyword search, or peruse the
pages just as you would a print book.
And, after you download, you can use
even if you’re not on-line. We’ve made
it so price-friendly, you won’t mind
updating every twice in awhile. Covers
1974’s first issue through “current.”
300+ pages $1.95

Lapstrake Plywood Boat
Design Catalogue

Study plans for 40+ of Iain Oughtred
designs. The print version has not been
available for several years. $9.95

Getting Started in Boats

Popular series of 8-page inserts bound
into WoodenBoat magazine. They cover a
wide variety of topics, and are especially
helpful to those new to the world of
boating. There are now over forty issues in
the series. $1.95 each
Or, we also have 1-20 or 21-40 as
group downloads, for $35 each

WoodenBoat

STORE

www.woodenboatstore.com

Mail Order Since 1975 • Web Orders Since 1994
Epoxy Basics

Subtitled “Working with Epoxy
Cleanly & Efficiently.” If you
thought you could do a better job
with your epoxy work, you’ll no
doubt find more than enough info
within these 42 pages to help out.
The focus is on gluing, filleting,
as well as glassing and coating.
The tips and techniques are from
Russell Brown, a person with
experience at doing this type
of thing in a very tidy fashion.
Several folks have taken the time
to write to us, saying this is one
of the best pieces they’ve read
on the topic. Not exactly faint
praise. $5.99

Building Plans
from Simon Watts

Choose from several proven
designs. You can print-out the
plans. Includes instruction books.
$30.00

Build a Boat

Kind of a pre-curser to the
successful Small Boats. It features
three boats: Martha’s Tender,
a strip canoe, and the
Gloucester Dory. $3.95

Small Boats

This special annual hits the
newsstand in November, and
sells-out quickly. Published
since 2007 by WoodenBoat,
it always features an awesome
mix of wooden boats. We
now have eight issues. $3.95
to $6.95

Order Digitals via www.woodenboatstore.com

WoodenBoat

The

MotorBoats magazine

Annual, first published 2012,
the 2013 edition is also now
available. That’s a Van Dam
skiff on the handsome cover of
the 2013 issue. $6.95

Digital Files are Available by Downloading to Your Computer
wb236wbstorepg101.indd 101
236.indd 5

11/21/13 3:45 PM
11/8/13 4:52:50 PM

CANVAS ITEMS

The

STORE

www.woodenboatstore.com

Mail Order Since 1975 • Web Orders Since 1994
Rigger’s Bags

Handy way to carry shop or garden tools.
6”x12.5”x 8.5” tall. Ringed with 24 pockets.
Regular: #840-003 $29.95
Leather trimmed: 840-003L $33.95

Shipping is Calculated When You Order

Order Toll-Free 1800.273.7447 or www.woodenboatstore.com

WoodenBoat

Tote Bags

Natural color canvas trimmed in blue,
has shoulder-strap length handles, and
an outside pocket dressed-up with the
WoodenBoat logo embroidered in red
thread. “Built” in North Carolina.
Medium: 6”x12”x13.5” tall
840-008 $29.95
Large: 8”x17”x17” tall
840-007 $42.95

Tool Roll-ups

Ideal for chisels, screwdrivers, and
special tool sets. 22 tool slots plus
three pouches to toss bits and
bobbles. Measures 14.5” x 26.5”
$15.95

Water Buckets

Ideal for not marking your deck, folks use
them not only for water, but holding tools,
gear, and as quickie coolers. Top rim is ropelined to stay open.
1.5 gal. #840-013 $11.95
3 gal. #840-014 $14.95
3 gal. (long strap) #840-015 $15.95

Builder’s Apron

Our custom-built apron has proven itself for
several years. Made of heavy canvas duck, it has
gusseted pockets, and adjustable shoulder straps
which criss-cross over your back so no weight
tugs on your neck. #550-003 $24.95

Tool Totes

Waxed

We’re very pleased to offer these rugged tool
totes, made of heavyweight canvas, rein
reinforced by rivets, super-duty bridle leather
handles, and extra layered bottoms. The interior
is tall and spacious, the exterior ringed with
8 pockets of various widths. “Built” in North
Carolina. Measures approximately 6” deep x
13” wide x 11.5” tall.
Natural Canvas #840-005 $89.00
Waxed Canvas #840-006 $135.00

The WoodenBoat Store, Naskeag Road, PO Box 78, Brooklin, Maine 04616 USA
wb236wbstorepg102.indd 102
236.indd 6

11/21/13 3:46 PM
11/8/13 4:58:56 PM

REVIEW

PRODUCTS • BOOKS • VIDEOS • STUFF

Two Films of Passion
Wood Sails Dreams, written, directed, and produced by
John Stanton, Shouldered Oar Films, www.shouldered
oarfilms.net. 56 minutes; $19.95. Available from The
WoodenBoat Store, www.woodenboatstore.com.
RAW FAITH, directed by Gregory Roscoe. Seaworthy
Productions, www.rawfaithmovie.com. DVD $18; highdefinition downloads $12.99

Reviewed by Matthew P. Murphy

W

hy does wooden boat building matter? Steve
White, proprietor of Brooklin Boat Yard in
Brooklin, Maine, answers that question in an
interview in the new film, Wood Sails Dreams, when he
acknowledges that many observers might see the profession as insignificant when it’s compared with so much
else in the world. White, who has employed hundreds
of boatbuilders over the years, has a unique perspective
on the personalities drawn to the field. They are “truly

engaged and passionate,” he says. “That’s the kind of
people we want to have in the world.”
White is one of many wooden boat luminaries interviewed in the film, which chronicles the revival of
wooden yachts in the Northeast since the early 1970s.
Nantucket’s annual Opera House Cup serves as a backdrop against which is set the story of a ragtag fleet of
tired old yachts that, over four decades, have become
highly valued, high-priced, and highly restored objects.
Binding it all together is the narration of Jon Wilson,
founding editor of this magazine, who still speaks in
tones of absolute amazement at the level to which classic
yachting has risen in four decades. One observer notes
that the early Opera House skippers were “beatniks, hippies, or trust fund guys. The one thing they had in common was that they loved their boats.” The racing then,
unlike now, was more for the camaraderie than for the
Cup—a silver wine cooler pulled from service at the
restaurant for which the regatta is named.
The lineup of interviewees in the film is a veritable
January/February 2014 • 103

Review236-FINALwADS.indd 103

11/20/13 10:18 AM

HOW TO
REACH US
TO ORDER FROM OUR STORE:

To order back issues, books, plans, model kits, clothing, or our
catalog, call The WoodenBoat Store, Toll-Free, Monday through
Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST (Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m. EST.)

1-800-273-SHIP (7447) (U.S. & CANADA)
207-359-4647 (Overseas)
24-Hour FAX 207-359-2058
Internet: http://www.woodenboatstore.com
Email: [email protected]

ON-LINE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES:
Internet: http://www.woodenboat.com
At www.woodenboat.com follow the link to WoodenBoat Subscriptions to order, give a gift, renew, change address, or check
your subscription status (payment, expiration date).

TO ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION:
To order a subscription (new, renewal,
gift) call Toll-Free, Monday through
Friday, 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., PT:

1-800-877-5284 (U.S. and Canada)
1-818-487-2084 (Overseas)
Internet: http://www.woodenboat.com

WoodenBoat is now
available in digital format.
Go to
www.woodenboat.com

TO CALL ABOUT YOUR SUBSCRIPTION:

If you have a question about your subscription, an address
change, or a missing or damaged issue, call Toll-Free,
Monday through Friday, 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., PT:

1-800-877-5284 (U.S. & CANADA)
1-818-487-2084 (Overseas)

TO CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS:
Either call 1-800-877-5284 or write to our subscription department (address below) AS SOON AS YOU KNOW YOUR NEW
ADDRESS. Please don’t depend on your post office to notify
us. Please give us your old address as well as your new when you
notify us, and the date your new address becomes effective.

TO CALL OUR EDITORIAL, ADVERTISING,
AND BOAT SCHOOL OFFICES:
Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., EST:
207-359-4651; FAX 207-359-8920

TO WRITE:
For subscriptions:

For anything else:

WoodenBoat
Subscription Dept.
P.O. Box 16958
N. Hollywood, CA 91615-6958

WoodenBoat
P.O. Box 78, 41 WoodenBoat Lane
Brooklin, ME 04616
<[email protected]>

OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION OFFICES:
Australia and New Zealand

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

Europe

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

1 yr
2 yrs
3 yrs

Holland/
Germany
EUR 39.50
EUR 75.00
EUR 107.50

United
Kingdom
GBP 35.50
GBP 66.00
GBP 96.50

(CE tax included)

Woodenboat Review

Who’s Who of the pioneers of the classic yachting movement. And they each have a story that could fill a feature-length film itself. There’s Bob Tiedemann, who at
the time of his death in 2006 had built a small navy of
classic yachts that included the 12-Meters GLEAM and
NORTHERN LIGHT. Tiedemann pulled NORTHERN
LIGHT from the bottom of Lake Michigan and reunited
her with her original hardware after purchasing it from
ignominious display in a Michigan bar. GLEAM was only
slightly better off when he found her in New Jersey.
Another 12-Meter devotee, George Hill, purchased the
Rhodes-designed WEATHERLY on the West Coast and
sailed her home, through the Panama Canal, on a wing
and a prayer. She was damaged in a Travelift accident en
route (as was the operator), but survived (as did the operator) and today sails as part of a fleet of thoroughbred
Twelves operating in the charter trade from Newport,
Rhode Island.
Nat Benjamin and Ross Gannon speak eloquently of
their now-legendary beachfront boatbuilding shop on
the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Gary Gregory speaks
of his 12-Meter, VALIANT, and his friendship with her
designer Olin Stephens, who likened the Opera House
Cup and other classic yacht regattas to the bygone days
of yachting. The iconic 72' ketch TICONDEROGA makes
an appearance, as does the Buzzards Bay 30 QUAKERESS,
the New York 50 SPARTAN, the W-class sloop WILD
HORSES, and the Alden schooner WHEN AND IF.
Why should we care about these boats? Steve White, as
noted earlier, finds the work rich and rewarding—and the
practitioners passionate and engaged. Jon Wilson questions whether the average American really understands the
depth of genius that
went into the creation of these boats,
and thinks they deserve the same level
of reverence as architectural
icons.
Bill Sauerbrey, boatbuilder of Wareham’s Beetle, Inc., has devoted his professional life to the craft, and notes how builders learn to
trust their eye. Who could argue with any of this?
But my four-year-old son may have brought some wisdom to the answer, too, when he walked through the
room while I was watching the film. In one particularly
breathtaking scene, SPARTAN was charging along under a press of sail, her crew lined up on the weather
rail. “Why aren’t they wearing helmets on that boat?”
he asked, the memory of the AMERICA’s Cup videos I’d
shown him a few weeks before still fresh in his mind. The
world is changing, and changing quickly, and we forget,
at our own peril, the beauty and practicality of what was.
I think of Wood Sails Dreams not as a documentary but
rather as visual poetry—an impressionistic film that reveals not so much the deep histories of classic yachts
themselves, but instead the histories of the passionate
people who saved them.

104 • WoodenBoat 236

Review236-FINALwADS.indd 104

11/20/13 10:18 AM

Woodenboat Review

A

las, passion can run amok. Greg Roscoe’s new
film, RAW FAITH, is an exploration of the humanity behind an epic failure. The film opens with
soft, grainy footage of a galleon—or galleonish vessel—of all things, wallowing in a seaway, with a Coast
Guard helicopter hovering nearby. It then flashes back
to an idyllically crisp Maine day, with the same vessel
plodding along the spruce-clad coast, a perky acoustic
guitar riff playing in
the background.
One can only wonder what Roscoe antici­
pated when he began
this film project, for
the construction of that
galleon, RAW FAITH, began back in 1999 and
Roscoe, when he began
paying attention to it a
few years later, could not have had an inkling of what
would unfold over the next decade.
The controversy began early. RAW FAITH’s construction was of pallet-grade oak—short lengths of it laminated in roofing tar and spiked together with galvanized
nails. George McKay, whose vision brought the ship to
life Downeast in Addison, Maine, began it with the intention of taking wheelchair-bound people on sailing
adventures. His inspiration was his daughter, Elizabeth,
who suffers from the connective tissue disorder
Marfan’s Syndrome, and is herself wheelchair bound.
Early in the film, McKay announces that he’s never built
anything in his life, and had had no inclination to sail
until this time. “I checked out a dozen books from the
Maine State Library to learn how to do this,” he proudly
announced in a scene shot during construction.
He derides formal education as a waste of money for
many students, and a title block in the film notes that he
had become a successful designer of electrical hardware
with only a high-school education. Early on, he built a
community around the building project, and its quasireligious theme brought funding. His family—sons
Aaron, Tom, and Robert, daughter Elizabeth, and wife
Joanne—bought into it early on. “My biggest fear,” said
Aaron, “was the toll it was going to take on the family.”
He later noted, with unintended lyricism, that his father
“kept working faster and faster, and no one is in synch
with him.”
And take its toll, it did. George had sold the family
house to finance the project, which was a full-time obsession for the family, for a while. But one by one they
departed. Aaron went to Rutgers. Elizabeth, who announced that she actually had no interest in sailing,
moved into a community in Virginia. Joann moved near
her daughter. Tom moved into a camper behind a manufacturing facility in Bangor before venturing out in his
own small sailboat. And Rob, who’d grown up smeared
in roofing tar and pounding spikes, stood by his father,
spending several winters in the confines of the nowlaunched vessel before breaking the gravity of it in his
early 20s.

Traditional Products for
Shipwrights and Riggers
Since the age of sail, chandleries have supplied ships in port with everything needed to sail across the seas or complete their upcoming refit.
With its good anchorage at the entrance of the Puget Sound, the Port
Townsend waterfront has been home to a number of chandleries since it
was founded in 1851. In the same tradition the Wooden Boat Chandlery
offers traditional fittings, rope and marine products for shipwrights,
riggers, and boat builders of all stripes.

TOWNSEND BLOCKS™

Strength and Beauty Combined!
Wood shell blocks crafted in a traditional
design. Available in singles, doubles
and triples in a range of sizes.

Purveyor of Quality
Products for the Marine Trade
Bronze Hardware
Copper Nails
Tufnol Blocks
Hemp & Traditional Rope
including Posh, DoubleBraid, and Hempex
Oakum, Pine Tar

Tarred Marline
Ports & Lights
Shipwright tools made by
USA craftsmen including
caulking mallets, reefing
hooks

Distributor for Davey & Company
Shipmate Stoves • Langman Rope
Fasco Fastener • E.S. Sorensen

FREE SHIPPING with
your first $250 order.

VOLUME DISCOUNTS
1.855.556.1535
www.woodenboatchandlery.org

Strong Saluting Cannons:
J Muller (4, 8,10 ga), 21 Inch
Strong (8,10), Sundancer (10 ga )
and Herreshoff (10ga). clockwise
from upper left.

Call or email us today to order
your saluting cannon.
203 283-1826
www.strongfirearms.com
[email protected]

Yacht Sails
Rigging
BUILDERS OF HIGH-QUALITY HAND-FINISHED SAILS
Full-service sail and rigging loft
P.O. Box 71, Lincoln St., East Boothbay, Maine 04544
(207) 633-5071
January/February 2014 • 105

Review236-FINALwADS.indd 105

11/20/13 10:18 AM

Woodenboat Review

EXCLUSIVE LIMITED EDITION

Dorade The History of an Ocean Racing Yacht
by Douglas D. Adkins

has garnered praise from critics as diverse as
WoodenBoat and the Wall Street Journal.
The trade edition has
long since sold out
and the Exclusive
Limited Edition
of 250 copies is
nearly sold as well.
However, a few
copies of the signed
and numbered
Limited Edition
remain at the original
price of $250 plus
$15.00 shipping and
handling (in the US
only.) Washington
State residents should
add sales tax of $23.75. To purchase send payment by check
or money order, including shipping and applicable tax, to:
1200 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1725
Seattle, WA 98101

Please link to www.DoradeHistory.com to learn more.

RAW FAITH was, by 2006, stuck in Rockland Harbor
(Maine) after being towed there by the Coast Guard
upon dismasting en route to New Jersey. A second dismasting followed, and on the heels of this
came a “captain of the port order” requiring certain
deficiencies to be remedied before the boat could sail.
The vessel eventually went to Portland, Maine, where
McKay enjoyed the sympathies of yard and marina
owner Phineas Sprague. But the Portland waterfront
bureaucracy was not nearly as lenient, and McKay, for
reasons that aren’t clear, saw Boston as his salvation.
He sailed there, and later found a temporary berth in
nearby Salem to take advantage of the city’s legendary
Halloween tourism. Overstaying his welcome there,
Bermuda, despite its tight immigration policies, became
his next inexplicable goal. He departed in December,
with one crewman and a gale forecast.
This story, of course, is familiar to many readers of
this magazine. There was a long thread about it on
WoodenBoat’s online Forum. “Hubris,” “stubbornness,”
and “ignorance” are some of the words associated with
the tones of those posts. And indeed, it’s hard to defend
such a derailed and vague ambition as the RAW FAITH
project. But Roscoe does a masterful job of capturing
McKay’s humanity and vulnerability—both in words and
in visuals. In one particularly poignant scene, when a
son has just decided to leave him, the camera lingers
for just a moment longer than it seems it should, as if
it is anticipating something. McKay has just spoken of
his disappointment, and is now quiet. He sniffs. Seconds
pass. And then he wipes his eye.
It was likewise hard to not feel some emotion when the
fuzzy, barely visible Gumby suit–clad figure of George
McKay dropped to the water from the sterncastle of RAW
FAITH, the sea raging and a Coast Guard helicopter hovering overhead to extract him from the decade-long
nightmare of his own making.

Matthew P. Murphy is editor of WoodenBoat.

Epoxy Basics
Epoxy Basics, by Russell Brown. Port Townsend Watercraft,
P.O. Box 1875, Port Townsend, WA 98368; www.ptwater
craft.com. 42 pp., Printed book, $18.95; Digital download, $5.99. Available from The WoodenBoat Store, www.
woodenboatstore.com.

Reviewed by John Brooks

E

poxy has become as essential in most boatbuilding shops as hand planes, bandsaws, and paint.
No matter what kind of boat is under construction or what material it is being built of, you’re likely to
find jugs of the stuff somewhere in the shop. Knowing

106 • WoodenBoat 236

Review236-FINALwADS.indd 106

11/20/13 10:18 AM

WOODENBOAT REVIEW

Supplier of
Davey & Co
Bronze Hardware
Ording Wooden Blocks
Hempex, Posh, Vintage
Synthetic and
Natural Hemp Rope

how to properly use it has become as important a skill
in building a boat as knowing what a fair curve is or
how to drive screws.
Access to thorough and accurate information on
how to use epoxy is essential to successful boatbuilding, whether the project is a megayacht or a kayak kit.
This is particularly true for the home builder. In a professional shop, information is shared among builders
all the time. For the amateur learning while building,
books often serve as the main source of information
and the place to go (quickly, in the case of epoxy) for
experienced help. So those who write for the home
builder must be particularly vigilant and kind.
As I thumbed through Russell Brown’s new booklet,
Epoxy Basics (published in both traditional paper and
digital format), it was clear from the numerous photographs that he does very nice work with epoxy and knows
what he is talking about. His main focus is on stitch-andglue and similar designs that require fillets, sheathing in
fiberglass cloth, and clear-coating. Reading through the
book, I found many tips and techniques that are helpful
and useful, some even for seasoned pros.
Brown clearly has his own preferred methods, some
of which vary from my own. For example, he primarily
uses a roller to wet out fiberglass cloth, while I prefer
a squeegee; he uses flat filleting sticks with curved tips,
while I prefer to use short lengths of dowel or pipe.
Still, Brown’s techniques for fiberglassing and coating boats are efficient, effective, and tidy; his recommendation to use a heat gun to thin epoxy for flowing
was a new approach for me. His carefully shop-made

Marine Education
and Training Center
Where Craftmanship
meets the 21st Century
The Honolulu CC Marine Education and Training
Center ranks as one of the premiere training
facilities in the United States and is a Marine
League School through the American
Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC)
Associate in Applied Science
Degree Program:
• Marine Manufacturing and Tooling
• Electrical, Plumbing, Rigging and
Propulsion Systems
• Composite Repair
• Marina Operations
• Yacht Journey
• Lofting

10 Sand Island Parkway
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96819
Phone: 808-832-3682
TM

http://tech.honolulu.hawaii.edu/marr
January/February 2014 • 107

Review236-FINALwADS.indd 107

11/20/13 10:18 AM

DOMESTIC FASTENERS

C C FA S T E N E R S
ReliaBle Quality FaSteneRS

BOLTS – Our Silicon Bronze Carriage Bolts
and Slotted Flat Head Machine Bolts are
domestic made from 655 alloy, all full
body, cut thread, partially threaded for
that tight seal.

SCREWS – Our Silicon Bronze wood

screws are full body, cut thread for that
tight seal. Domestic made wood screws
are available.
Material:
Silicon Bronze 651, 655 Stainless 304, 316
Monel 400, K500
Brass
inconel 600, 625
Chrome Plated

T: 800–315–8808
T: 716–873–2640
F: 716–873–2651
Online Store: www.ccfasteners.com
Email: [email protected]

High Performance
Marine Wood Coatings

855-423-8009 – www.bristolfinish.com – [email protected]

The Northwest School of Wooden
Boatbuilding is located on
Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
We’re celebrating our
33rd year in 2014!
We teach adult students a wide
range of traditional and modern
boatbuilding skills, and build both
commissioned and speculative
boats for sale.

We are proud to introduce the first boat in the
SENTINEL-24 CLASS designed by Stephens Waring
Yacht Design of Belfast, Maine (www.stephenswaring.com).
AZULITA is a distinctive, fun, and high performance sloop
with more than a touch of historic grace.

Contact the School for a current price for the boat or for
commissioning the next boat in the series. You can find us
on the web at www.nwboatschool.org. Reach us by e-mail
at [email protected], or by phone at 360-385-4948.

Woodenboat Review

filleting sticks have their tips honed to a precise edge for
crisp tooling of thickened epoxy. Clearly, his methods
work just fine, as shown in the excellent workmanship
in the booklet’s many photographs.
Speaking of which: Those photographs were useably
sharp in the printed book and in the digital version on
some computers, but they had resolution problems on my
iPad. The publisher is reportedly addressing this, and expects that future digital editions will feature images that
render well on all platforms, giving a good clear view of the
excellent epoxy workmanship shown. It would be ideal if
these also can be enlarged on all platforms for close inspection of details—one of the great advantages of an e-book.
I deeply appreciate Brown’s emphasis on working
cleanly, for it takes ten times longer to clean up epoxy
when it is cured hard than while it is still wet. Brown
cuts roller covers barely bigger than what he is gluing so
epoxy doesn’t end up slathered everywhere. His shopmade “sharpened chisel sticks” clean up every bit of epoxy
residue—so much so that it appears as if he doesn’t
need to use alcohol and rags for a final cleanup. He
uses modified Ziploc-style bags to apply a bead of thickened epoxy cake-decorator style, exactly where he wants
it and in just the amount he needs, and no more. And
the photo series showing the technique for filling those
bags is illuminating. Learn to use the methods shown in
this booklet, and you won’t go wrong.
As I read through Epoxy Basics for the first time, I kept
wondering if Brown was going to address the safety issues
of working with epoxy, which are serious and important.
They appeared at the book’s end. Likewise, some tools
and techniques that appear early in the book are not explained until much later; this happens with the aforementioned squeeze bags and nifty chisel sticks, and with the
handy shop-trimmed brushes that Brown uses. I’d have
liked to see such tools explained up front, before they’re
put to use, but a thorough reading of the book will ultimately reveal these details. Perhaps another round of
refinement will make an even more useful future volume.
Although this book is called Epoxy Basics, it is not comprehensive. Brown, for example, emphasizes the need to
carefully meter and mix the two parts of epoxy, but I wish
he’d explained, in layman’s terms, the chemical reason
why this is critical. And I wish he’d offered specific advice
on how to do it, rather than simply calling attention to commercially available metering pumps and graduated cylinders. Understanding exactly how, and why, epoxy behaves
the way it does and the importance of doing (and not doing) certain things are the keys to working safely and efficiently. Epoxy Basics is a deliberately compact, shop-friendly
guide, 42 pages long. Taken together with other works on
the subject, such as the Gougeon Brothers’ now-classic
lengthy tome The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction,
Epoxy Basics offers the valuable perspective of a true epoxy
craftsman, on some of the most common operations with
epoxy. Brown does us a great service in telling us about his
successful methods. Epoxy Basics is a fine companion and a
useful addition to the boatshop bookshelf.
John Brooks designs and builds boats in Brooklin, Maine.
Port Townsend Watercraft has just released a four-page addendum to
this book covering the tricky work of fiberglassing corners and edges.

108 • WoodenBoat 236

Review236-FINALwADS.indd 108

11/20/13 10:18 AM

WOODENBOAT REVIEW

t Oval head brass canOe tacks

BOOKS RECEIVED

t ring thread silicOn brOnze nails
t cOpper clOut nails
t cOpper canOe nails

Thursday’s Storm: The August Gale of 1927, by Darrell
Duke. Flanker Press, P.O. Box 2522, Station C, St. John’s,
NL, A1C 6K1, Canada. 248 pp., paperback, $19.95. ISBN:
978–1–77117–274–5. After a hurricane resulted in a devastating tragedy for the people of Placentia Bay, the community
united to keep their town alive.
Old Sea Dogs of Tasmania: Stories and Photographs from
the Southern Seas, by Andrew Wilson. Sunny South
Publishing, www.oldseadogs.com.au. 240 pp, hardbound, AU$49.95. ISBN: 978–0–9806355–0–8. A volume
of striking black-and-white photographs by Andrew Wilson,
enhanced with stories of the waters, boats, and sailors of
Tasmania.

t brass escutcheOn pins

canadian tack and nail (2003) ltd.
431 Dundas St., Cambridge,
Ontario N1R 5R5 CANADA
Phone 519-622-0400
Fax 519-621-2098
www.canadiantackandnail.ca
E-mail [email protected]

Views from the Yardarm and Cockpit, by David. D. Allyn.
Sunstone Press, P.O. Box 2321, Santa Fe, NM 87504–
2321, www.sunstonepress.com. 410 pp., paperback,
$39.95, ISBN: 978–0–86534–923–0. Two books in one:
Yardarm describes the author’s time aboard Irving and Exy
Johnson’s brigantine YANKEE as it made its final world voyage,
while Cockpit describes his 65 years flying vintage aircraft.
*Gear List of the GOLDEN MOON, by Dick Callahan.
Harbor Seal Press, 3321 Foster Ave., Juneau, AK 99801.
84 pp., paperback, $16.00. ISBN: 978–0–9788953–3–4.
The subtitle is “What to Pack for Coastal Travel in an
Open Boat with Notes on Anchoring, Hazards, Money,
and Other Helpful Things,” and it’s based on experience
gained on a rowing and sailing voyage from Seattle to Alaska
in an 18' dory.
PUFFIN’s Log, by Jocelyn M. Greenaway. Delfryn
Publications, Delfryn, Borth y Gest, Porthmadog, North
Wales LL49 9TW, U.K.; www.delfrynpublications.co.uk.
112 pp., paperback, £10. ISBN: 978–0–9561469–0–8.
When Jocelyn Greenaway and her husband took their three children voyaging around Britain and Holland in their 22' sloop
PUFFIN in the 1950s, she kept detailed accounts of their travels;
her daughter gathered those writings into this book, which reads
a bit like Swallows and Amazons.

East Coast Oysters and a Few Whelks: Photographs from
West Mersea and Whitstable, by Mervyn Maggs. Jardine
Press, Ltd, 20 St. Johns Rd. Wivenhoe, Colchester, Essex
CO7 9DR, U.K. 42 pp., paperback, £12. ISBN: 978–0–
9565495–6–3. Black-and-white photographs of the mudflats
and shellfish of England’s east coast, and the human impact
upon them.
Ship Models, Math Models & Yacht Design: Math Model &
Cyber-Sail Your Own Design, by David E. Martin. Sail Tech
Press, P.O. Box 3391, Farmington Hills, MI 48333; www.
sailtechpress.com. 304 pp., hardbound, $85.00 ISBN:
978–0–9860245–0–4. Encourages readers to explore computer-aided yacht design; enclosed CD includes programs for development of lines and sail plans.
*Available from The WoodenBoat Store, www.wooden
boatstore.com

NEW on
WoodenBoat.com
Photos & Videos Gallery
www.woodenboat.com/photo-video-gallery
Become a WoodenBoat.com community member today, for free.

January/February 2014 • 109

Review236-FINALwADS.indd 109

11/20/13 10:19 AM

VINTAGE BOATS
and&SERVICES
KITS
PLANS

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

110 • WoodenBoat 236

WB236Vintage.indd 110

11/21/13 10:26 AM

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

Available: Ventnor K-Class Raceboat

Available: Miss Crude - Gold Cup Hisso V8

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

Available: 1996 GarWood 33’ Replica

Available: Chris-Craft 26’ Special Racer

S

Available: 1930 Hacker-Craft 30’ Triple Cockpit

Available: 1929 Chris-Craft Upswept

Available: 1932 GarWood 25’ Triple

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

989-686-7353

Check our website for a complete list of vintage boats and engines

www.morinboats.com

[email protected]
January/February 2014 • 111

WB236Vintage.indd 111

11/21/13 1:05 PM

BOATBROKERS
FREE E-Newsletter!
Photo: Kai Greiser - yachtbild.de

1. Go to www.woodenboat.com
2. Click

MISTR AL FOR SALE

see: www.mistral-yacht.com

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

DESIGN

Stay in
touch
with ALL
we do!

R E S TO R AT I O N

B RO K E R AG E

2009, Gannon & Benjamin Sloop, 29' 1999, Center Harbor 35, 35'

1972, Robert Rich Cruiser, 34'

2010, W-Class 37, 37'

1996, Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 25, 33' 2003, Gannon & Benjamin Sloop, 28'

Nat Benjamin Design
Built by Brooklin Boat Yard
Excellent condition
Located: NE Harbor, ME. Asking: $165,000 Located: Brooklin, ME. Asking: $145,000 Located: MA. Asking: $47,500

Built by Brooklin Boat Yard
Located: FL and RI. Asking: $599,000

2010, Sparkman & Stephens
NY32, 45'
Asking: €390,000 EU

Built by Brooklin Boat Yard
Located: Mystic, CT. Asking: $159,000

1996, Tripp/DeDood 1-Tonner, 37' (ME) Asking $55,000 1967, S&S Molich Sloop, 36' (FR) Asking $115,000
1971, Crocker Ketch, 36' (MA) Asking $88,000
1948, Aage Nielsen Sloop, 18' (ME) Asking $12,000

SERVICE

207-359-2236
[email protected]

Complete Restoration 2002–03
Located: ME. Reduced Asking $75,000

Nat Benjamin Design
Located: Martha’s Vineyard. Asking: $59,900

2006, Haven 12 1/2 w/trailer (ME) Asking $32,000
1990, Goeller Tender w/trailer (ME) Asking $7,500

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

1946, Sam Crocker Yawl, 36'

BROKERAGE

207-359-2193
[email protected]

P.O. Box 143, Center Harbor • Brooklin, ME 04616 USA • www.brooklinboatyard.com
112 • WoodenBoat 236

WB236Brokers.indd 112

11/21/13 10:40 AM

BOATBROKERS

NEW on
WoodenBoat.com

Bonus Content
www.woodenboat.com/bonus-content
Become a WoodenBoat.com community member today, for free.

FOR SALE: One of a kind, topsail schooner
Designed by Murray G. Peterson and built
by Elmer Collemer of Camden, Maine in 1964

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

GLORY

rob 35, cheoy Lee built,
1963. new Yanmar engine,
nearly new sails, good
condition.
$39,500

Restored to like new by Farrins Boatshop in 1999
including 27HP Yanmar diesel. LOA 29', LWL 23',
Beam 9'4", Draft 4'8". Cedar planking on oak frames
with teak deck and mahogany joinerwork.
Owner has cruised coast of Maine, Nova Scotia
and Newfoundland each summer since 2000.
Full survey completed November 2013. Price $75,000
Brochure available from Peterson Associates, Inc.,
P. O. Box 836, Brunswick, Maine 04011,
207-644-8100, [email protected]

JAVA

concordia 39, hull no. 1,
rebuilt as new in 2003.
owner has to let water
into the bilges to keep
them sweet.
$165,000

36' Al Mason cold-molded custom. Very well built. Very good
condition. $42,500
January/February 2014 • 113

WB236Brokers.indd 113

11/21/13 10:40 AM

BOATBUILDERS
Featured BoatBuilder

Seal Cove Boatyard
Harborside, Maine

Seal Cove Boatyard has been owned by the Vaughn
Family since 1936. They have gained a reputation for
being efficient, resourceful, and for creative solutions
that also meet a high aesthetic standard.
Seal Cove Boatyard specializes in systems, mechanics,
carpentry, traditional finishes, spray finishes, rigging,
brokering, and storage. With over 200 boats in storage
ranging from 14 to 57 feet, their clients demand a broad
spectrum of craftsmanship from this prestigious yard.
PHALAROPE, Concordia 39 Yawl. Replaced the deck covering and toerails.  

www.sealcoveboatyard.com 

114 • WoodenBoat 236

WB236Builders.indd 114

11/21/13 12:51 PM

W- CLASS W. 37
The W-Class Yacht Company builds fast and elegant boats that race hard and
consistently win within the “Spirit of Tradition” class in Classic Yacht Regattas.
Summers in New England or the Western Mediterranean. Winters in the Caribbean.
For over 15 years the W-Class Yachts have competed and won in all of
the major Classic Yacht Regattas in the “Spirit of Tradition” class.
In New England:
The Tiedemann Classics, Newport, RI
Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, Brooklin, ME
Corinthian YC Classics, Marblehead, MA
Opera House Cup, Nantucket, MA
MoY/IYRS Classics, Newport, RI
In the Caribbean:
Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, Antigua

In the Western Med:
Les Regates Imperiales, Corsica, France
Les Voiles d’Antibes, France
Argentario Sailing Week, Tuscany, Italy
Conde de Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca
Copa del Rey, Mahon, Spain
Veteran Boat Rally, Porto Cervo, Sardinia
Vela d’Epoca, Imperia, Italy
Regates Royales, Cannes, France
Les Voiles de St. Tropez, France
Photo by Cory Silken

The W-Class W.37 “Race Horse” is
now seriously for sale. The newest of
the cold-molded wood W-Class Racing
Yachts. She’ll be in Florida this winter.
Let us help you plan your own victory
tour. Or we can build you a brand new
W.37 in Downeast Maine, USA. Either
way “Yachting is the Winner”™ and
you will be a winner too!

Contact Donald Tofias, yacht developer, at 617-901-5242.
www.w-class.com
115
January/February 2014 •

WB236Builders.indd 115

11/21/13 12:51 PM

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

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

BOATBUILDERS

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

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

Boat.

DESPERATE LARK - Herreshoff, 1903.
In Our Care for Over 40 Years

www.vandamboats.com

E-mail: [email protected] • www.sealcoveboatyard.com

The Goal — Bring new people to wooden boats!

The Solution —
GETTING STARTED

IN

BOATS,

a removable supplement included in
every issue of WoodenBoat.

This publication is produced for the
absolute beginner; for your family,
friends, and neighbors, members of local
community groups, colleagues at work—
the people you know who should be
inspired into boats and boating.
Share your passion!
To download previous issues of Getting Started that you might
have missed, please visit www.woodenboatstore.com.

WoodenBoat Publications
41 WoodenBoat Lane, Brooklin, ME 04616
207–359–4651 • www.woodenboat.com

116 • WoodenBoat 236

WB236Builders.indd 116

11/21/13 12:51 PM

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

Rumery’s Boat Yard

Rumery’s 38

Biddeford, Maine 04005
(207)282-0408
www.rumerys.com
A full service boatyard
Heated storage, custom construction
Repairs & restoration of wooden &
composite boats to 60 feet

P

E N D L E T O

YACHT•YARD

N

Laughing Loon
Custom Canoes & Kayaks

Boats • Paddles • Plans • Kits •Classes
Building Instruction Books & Videos

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

Dark Star
Baidarka style

LaughingLoon.com

On Portage Bay since 1927

Jensen
Motorboat Corp.

1417 NE Boat St.
Seattle, WA 98105

www.adirondack-guide-boat.com

BOATBUILDERS

Disko Bay
Greenland style

“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
Phone: 206-632-7888

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

Free DVD
on request

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

January/February 2014 • 117

WB236Builders.indd 117

11/21/13 12:58 PM

Celebrating 65 Years

32' Noank Schooner Restoration

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

Sole Builder of the Beetle Cat Boat

Celebrating 65 Years
New 12' Onset Island Skiff

We offer

BOATBUILDERS

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

Beetle, Inc.

Beetle Cat — Celebrating 91 Years

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

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

Please Visit Our W
Register Your Cr
www.crockersboatya

Manchester, Massachusetts

118 • WoodenBoat 236

WB236Builders.indd 118

11/21/13 12:52 PM

H I S T O R I C

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

RESTORING AND CONSTRUCTING
HISTORIC AND CLASSIC WOODEN BOATS

www.tumblehomeboats.com
518.623.5050

C UTTS & C ASE
S HIPYARD

BOATBUILDERS

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

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]

NEW on
WoodenBoat.com

Build
This Boat!

www.woodenboat.com/build-boat
Become a WoodenBoat.com community member today, for free.

January/February 2014 • 119

WB236Builders.indd 119

11/21/13 12:52 PM

Maine’s Premier Wooden Boat
pulsiferhampton.com
LLC

MP&G

WOOD BOATBUILDING
YACHT RESTORATION
AMORITA
NY-30

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

SallyAnne Santos

BOATBUILDERS

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

Structural work on
Watch Hill 15 VIKING #885

929 FLANDERS ROAD, MYSTIC CT 06355
TEL

Traditional Boat, LLC
Give your wooden boat the care she deserves
Our specialty is wooden boat
construction, restoration
and repair.
We are a full service
wooden boat yard.
Our reasonable rates
($38/hr) make it all
possible.

860–572–7710

www.mpgboats.com

!"#$%&'(#)*#'+,$-.&*$/".($
0$).)1('.23*4$5.667)3*819&,#:$;..:#)$9.&*$$
973<:3)=$$&(('#)*35#$('.='&6$

• Monhegan
Island Skiffs

$

!
r n ext se a so n
O r d er n o w f o

Recent Project:
Restoration of 56' Nimphius
Schooner Sadie G Thomas

www.mainetraditionalboat.com

ABYC Certified Marine Systems (207) 322-0157 Unity, Maine

• Peapods and Dories
• Catspaw Dinghies
www.carpentersboatshop.org

207/677-2614
Building boats, Nurturing lives, Helping others

Boat Schools
List Your Programs With Our Online Service
WoodenBoat has launched a free
listing program for boat schools.
Simply go to www.woodenboat.com/boatschools and
follow the instructions in the FAQ.
Readers are welcome to join the site at any time to
search for programs of interest to them.
WoodenBoat Publications
41 WoodenBoat Lane, Brooklin, Maine 04616
207-359-4651 www.woodenboat.com

120 • WoodenBoat 236

WB236Builders.indd 120

11/21/13 12:52 PM

KITS & PLANS

January/February 2014 • 121

WB236Kits.indd 121

11/21/13 2:43 PM

FiberglassSupply.com

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

System Three®
• 18’ Hollow Wooden Unlimited

WEST System®
Paddleboard, Kit or Plans

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

Fiberglass Cloths
• And More!!!

Carbon Fiber
Check us out at:

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

S

KITS & PLANS

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.

“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

122 • WoodenBoat 236

WB236Kits.indd 122

11/21/13 2:25 PM

KITS & PLANS
January/February 2014 • 123

WB236Kits.indd 123

11/25/13 9:35 AM

OUGHTRED
Skiff Kits for
St. Ayles Racing

scottishcoastalrowing.org

Blue Hill, Maine

PRICING & ORDERING: [email protected]
1-207-460-1178 • www.cnc-marine-hewesco.com

T37s Racing at Seattle Yacht Club
over 1800 T37s sailing today

www.modelsailboat.com

Tippecanoe Boats
the finest wooden model sailboats

Welcome to
WoodenBoat’s Directory
of Boat Plans & Kits

www.woodenboat.com/boatplansandkits
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.

PO Box 78 • Brooklin, ME 04616

207-359-4651

www.woodenboat.com

We hope to include as many boats as
possible, and boats of all hull materials.

Another service for you, from WoodenBoat.

124 • WoodenBoat 236

WB236Kits.indd 124

11/21/13 2:26 PM

RAFTINGS
Weekly Waterfront

VACATION RENTALS
Mid Coast & Down East, Maine
Several listings in WoodenBoat’s vicinity

1–800–996–5655
Order online at

www.nauticalantiques.com

(207) 374-3500

www.vacationcottages.com
[email protected]
PO Box 1600
Blue Hill, ME 04614

Aurora
Sails &
Canvas
Full service sail and canvas loft. Outfitting your
boat both inside and out. Highest quality design,
workmanship and friendly service.
255 Molyneaux Road, Camden, ME 04843 • 207-230-0288

AD
HEAD
NATURE’S
Self-Contained Composting Toilet
Better. By Design.
Welcome to

ISLAND FALLS CANOE

ear
eY
Fiv rranty
Wa

“Real Canoes, Built Right”
Experience the grace and beauty of a
custom-built wood and canvas canoe.

 US Coast Guard Approved
 Compact
 No Odor
 Self-Contained
 Urine Diverting
 Exceptional Holding Capacity
 All Stainless Steel Hardware

251-295-3043

www.islandfallscanoe.com
Made in USA

NaturesHead.net

January/February 2014 • 125

Raftings236.indd 125

11/22/13 3:10 PM

RAFTINGS (continued)
2 Scotland Bridge Road
York, Maine 03909

Commodore Telltale Compass
Our Commodore Telltale Compass
gives you an eye on the boat’s
heading, even from your bunk.

617–482–8460

Celebrating 35 Years
of Boat Building & Restoration
207–351–7609 www.paulrollinsboatbuilder.com

See online at

www.robertwhite.com

Robert E. White Instruments, Inc.
Top Quality Weather & Nautical Instruments Since 1961

$300/issue

Drop anchor...
Join the group!

(with one-year (6×) contract)

YOUR AD HERE

(individually)

$350/issue
Email [email protected],
or call 207–359–7714

DON’T MISS
THE BOAT
Complement your print ad
with a listing in our Online
MarketPlace Classifieds!
Easy, Affordable, Effective!  
Contact Tina for details: 
[email protected]

www.woodenboat.com
126 • WoodenBoat 236

Raftings236.indd 126

11/22/13 10:09 AM

CLASSIFIED

To place a Classified Ad: visit our website www.woodenboat.com; email [email protected];
or call our Classified Ad Manager at (207) 359–7714.

Deadline for the March/April issue: January 6, 2014

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

MCLAUGHL
AN
IN
MI
EST.

CO

.

THE SCHOLARSHIPWRIGHTS OF
Rockland seeks apprentices to construct a Hampton boat using traditional building methods of salt-water
farmers, live as a community in Nobleboro, Maine, and write a publication.
Begins March 15, 2014. Lance Lee,
207–596 –7390, w w w.scholarship
wrights.org.

1970

.
JR

S.N. SMITH & SON, BOATWRIGHT/
timber framer. Annual maintenance,
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.

DA

VINTAGE CRAFT BOATS, BUILT
by Classic Restoration and Supply—
All our runabouts are cold-molded,
using white oak for the framework,
and 1⁄2" African mahogany for the
planking, giving our boats low maintenance for years to come. Our models include the 19' Custom (pictured),
the 23' Custom, and the 25' Sportsman. All use chrome-plated bronze
hardware, and period-correct gauges
and interiors. Show-quality restorations are also available, from runabouts to cruisers, complete or partial.
215–805–4933 or at www.vintage
watercraft.com.

RPORATIO N

.

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

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.

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, w w w.by-the-sea.com/
karbottboatbuilding.

June–September

—Offsite winter courses also offered—
For a complete catalog:
WoodenBoat School, P.o. Box 78,
Brooklin, ME 04616, Tel: 207–359–4651

MI A MI, FORT L AUDER DA L E,
Florida Keys—30+ years experience
building, repairing, and restoring
boats. Quality workmanship, with
composite construction expertise.
References. Call 305 – 634 – 4263,
305–498–1049. rmiller35@bellsouth.
net, www.millermarinesystems.com.
REPAIR, RESTORATION, STORAGE,
and Surveys. Low overhead and low
rates, 35 years experience. MICHAEL
WARR BOATWORKS, Stonington,
ME, 207–367–2360.

School
one- and Two-week courses in
Boatbuilding, Seamanship, and
Related crafts

LOW ELL BOATS — COMPLETE
wooden boat restoration services and
marine surveying. GARY LOWELL,
Greensboro, NC, 336 –274 – 0892.
www.lowell.to/boats.

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.

NAVTECH MARINE SURVEYORS’
Course—Surveying recreational/
commercial vessels. U.S. Surveyors
Association, Master Marine Surveyor
program. FL, 800–245–4425.

or view the online catalog at

www.woodenboat.com

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

The 23rdAnnual

June 27-29, 2014 • Mystic, CT
www.thewoodenboatshow.com
January/February 2014 •

WBClass236Final.indd 127

127

11/22/13 10:11 AM

CLASSIFIEDS
CATALOG OF 40 SIMPLE PLYWOOD
boats, $4. JIM MICHALAK, 118 E.
Randle, Lebanon, IL 62254. www.
jimsboats.com.
LEARN HOW TO BUILD your own
cedar-stripped boat. Plans for dinghies, canoes, row, sail, paddle, outboard. www.compumarine.com. AZ,
520–604–6700.

ATKIN ILLUSTRATED CATALOG—
135 pages, with more than 300 Atkin
designs. Famed Atkin double-enders,
rowing/sailing dinghies, houseboats,
and more. $15 U.S. and Canada ($22
US for overseas orders). Payment:
U.S. dollars payable through a U.S.
bank. ATKIN BOAT PLANS, P.O.
Box 3005WB, Noroton, CT 06820.
[email protected], www.atkinboat
plans.com.

THE FINEST Wooden Pond Sailers.
Free brochure: 1–800–206 –0006.
www.modelsailboat.com.
ELEGANT SCALE MODELS. Individually handcrafted custom scale
model boats. JEAN PRECKEL, www.
preckelboats.com, 304–432–7202.

REBUILT CHRIS-CRAFT 6-cylinder
engines: K, KL, KBL, KFL, KLC, M,
ML, MBL, MCL. Assorted V8s. Mitch
LaPointe’s, www.classicboat.com.
952–471–3300.

28 DESIGNS IN OUR $12 BROCHURE
—Boats 10–16'. S&H: $4 U.S., and
Canada; $10 overseas. Ken Swan,
P.O. Box 6647, San Jose, CA 95150.
408–300–1903, www.swanboatdesign
.com.

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

HERCANO PROPULSION, LLC

Glen-L.com

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

8' DINGHY FROM NEW ZEALAND
—Teach yourself boat-building, and
learn to sail. Easy-build plywood.
Hundreds of boats in 25 countries.
Sails fast with one or two kids or an
adult. All details at w w w.firebug
.co.nz.

W W W.MODELBOAT.COM H A S
decorative sailing models and precision kits and tools. This is the best
place for high quality model ships.

Jordan Wood Boats
541–867–3141

www.jordanwoodboats.com

Distinctive Boat Designs
Meticulously Developed and Drawn
For the Amateur Builder

OUR FRIENDSHIP SLOOP MODELS
are accurate replicas of the elegant,
seaworthy crafts built in Friendship,
Maine. Based on a 1900 design, our
kits are available in two sizes. Both kits
are plank on bulkhead, and contain
many laser-cut parts. BlueJacket Shipcrafters, 160 E. Main St., Searsport,
ME 04974. 1–800–448–5567, www.
bluejacketinc.com.

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

CrADle BoAt
BABy tenDer

SNOWSHOE 12—A fast, straight
tracking solo canoe with great performance. Weight: 13 lbs. Capacity:
175 –190 lbs. Monfort Associates.
207–882–5504, www.gaboats.com.

BeACh Cruiser
Footloose

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

■ 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
catalogs).

WOODENBOAT SCHOOL STAFF—
Currently accepting resumes from
individuals interested in joining our
2014 staff. Shop, waterfront, and
kitchen positions available. Season
extends from May to early October.
Looking for individuals with experience, dedication, strong people skills,
and enthusiasm. EOE. Contact: Director, WoodenBoat School, P.O. Box
78, Brooklin, ME 04616 or school@
woodenboat.com.

128 • WoodenBoat 236

WBClass236Final.indd 128

11/22/13 3:26 PM

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

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

STAPLES  NAILS  BRADS
 Completely non-metal
 No need to remove

TARPON HOUSE—A CARIBBEAN
dream property with 120' of ocean
front is now for sale on the island of
Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras. Have
a look at: tarponhouse.blogspot.com
or contact danaholmberg@gmail.
com for more info.

CLASSIC BOATING MAGAZINE—The
most popular and complete publication on antique and classic boats.
Subscription $28, Canada $36 USD,
overseas $78. Samples $5, Canada
$7.50, overseas $12.50. CLASSIC BOATING, 280-D Lac La Belle Dr., Oconomowoc, WI 53066. www.classicboat
ingmagazine.net.

The magazine for those working in
design, construction, and repair.

Subscriptions:

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

MAINE BOAT-SHOP ON 14 ACRES—
All three-phase stationary machines.
Good well, steam boiler, greenhouse.
Storage for at least 12 boats. Surveyed.
H AV E TOOLS W IL L TR AV EL .
Good opportunity for co-op. Owner
Wooden boat builder will build,
financing a possibility. For more info,
rebuild, or repair your project on
[email protected].
site or in my shop. $25/hour. VT,
802–365–7823.

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

STOCKHOLM TAR. Genuine kilnburnt pine tar. It’s the Real Stuff.
American Rope & Tar, 1–877–965–
1800 or tarsmell.com.

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

CEDAR-STRIP BOAT-BUILDING
Supplies—Long ash for rails, strips,
epoxy, seats. Or get a complete kit.
Check out the website, www.newfound.
com or call 603–744–6872. The Newfound Woodworks, Inc., Bristol, NH
THOMSON WOOD SPARS—Maker
03222.
of fine wood products. Masts, booms,
clubs, gaffs, custom furniture, and
woodworking. 508–317–3944, thom
[email protected].

One year (6 issues) $35.95 (US)
Canada: $52 (US funds) (airmail)
Overseas: $68 (US funds) (airmail)

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

www.proboat.com

COTTAGE NEAR WOODENBOAT
School—Now taking 2014 reservations. There is a lot less snow in the
summer. One-bedroom cottage, suitable for two, $500/week. Brooklin,
ME. Contact todderichardson@gmail
.com.

JASPER & BAILEY SAILMAKERS.
Established 1972. Offshore, onedesign, and traditional sails. Sail
repairs, recuts, conversions, washing
and storage. Used-sail brokers. 64
Halsey St., P.O. Box 852, Newport,
RI 02840; 401–847–8796. www.jasper
andbailey.com.
SHAW & TENNEY, Orono, Maine—
Traditionally handcrafted spruce
masts and spars since 1858. 1–800–
240–4867, www.shawandtenney.com.

BLOX YGEN SAV ES LEFTOV ER
Finishes. Just spray, seal, and store.
www.bloxygen.com, 888–810–8311. BRONZE CAM CLEAT with plastic
ball bearings and 11⁄2" fastening cenVACUUM-BAGGING SUPPLIES— ter distance. BRONZE WING -TIP
W W W.DA BBLER SA ILS.COM— Fiberglass cloth, epoxy resins, water- NAVIGATION LIGHTS with glass
Tr aditional small-craft sails. P.O. b a s ed L PU p a i nt s , a nd more. globe. Side mount, stern and steamBox 235, Wicomico Church, VA, Technical support and fast service. ing. For our free catalog, contact us
22 579. Ph/f a x 8 0 4 – 5 8 0 – 8723, www.fiberglasssupply.com or toll free: at J.M. Reineck & Son, 781–925–3312,
877–493–5333.
[email protected].
[email protected].
January/February 2014 •

WBClass236Final.indd 129

129

11/22/13 10:11 AM

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

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.
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.

PUZZLE JOINT JIG—SAVE TIME
and energy, do the “Puzzle Joint”
with any handheld router. Fast and
easy. Similar to a dovetail jig. $75.00
+ shipping, guaranteed. Call at 805–
207–7448, or email to fishbonesupply@
gmail.com, www.fishbonesupply.com.

CLASSICBOATCONNECTION.COM
—Your one-stop source for all your
classic boat restoration needs. Call
507–344–8024, or e-mail mail@classic
boatconnection.com for free catalog.
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-touse 1:1 mix. Free Catalog. Clark Craft,
716–873–2640, www.clarkcraft.com.

LeTONK INOIS. ALL-NATUR AL
varnish. Centuries-old formula. Longlasting, beautiful finish. Extremely
user-friendly. American Rope & Tar,
877–965–1800 or tarsmell.com.

FeatherBow

NEW

®

Magnetic
Featherbow
Mag-Featherbow $41.95
FeatherBow® $29.95
FeatherBow® Jr. $17.95

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

CANOE HARDWARE: 1⁄2", 11⁄16", 7⁄8"
canoe tacks; 3⁄8" oval brass stembands;
clenching irons; 3⁄16" bronze carriage
bolts; canoe plans; clear white cedar.
Catalog $1. NORTHWOODS CANOE
CO., 336 Range Rd., Atkinson, ME
04426. Order, phone 888–564–2710,
fax 207–564–3667.
ROPE FOR OLD SHIPS—Spunflex
(previously Roblon). Durable, U.V.
treated, acid and alkali resistant.
Check www.shipsofwood.com.

TARRED HEMP MARLINE. Several
styles; hanks, balls, spools. American
Rope & Tar, 1– 877–965 –1800 or
tarsmell.com.

BANTAM AIR HAMMER

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

800-521-2282

www.superiorpneumatic.com

TRADITIONAL BOAT SUPPLIES
for traditional boats. Take a look at
www.tradboats.com.
MODERN MANILA. New Leoflex-X.
The latest rope technology. Looks
great, works hard. American Rope
& Tar, 1–877–965–1800 or tarsmell
.com.
E XC E P T ION A L BRON Z E 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. www.tendercraftboats.com. Toll-free phone:
800–588–4682.

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

MACHINERY AND KEEL—Shipbuilding machinery: shipsaw, -L.
Power 36"; table saw-16" Tannewitz;
thickness planer-24" Oliver Model
299: $8,500. Keel timber: purpleheart,
12 • 12 • 50, aged: $5,900. All f.o.b.
Bradshaw, MD 21087. Allen C. Rawl,
LLC, [email protected].

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.

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–
THREE-SPINDLE CLAMP—DON’T
6006, www.brewerbanner.com.
let your reach exceed your grasp!
SUNBRELLA/MARINE FABRICS— Large, three-spindle clamp solves
Supplies for canvas-work, and boat many work-holding problems. 5" •
interiors. FR EE catalog. Beacon 161⁄2" capacity. Custom sizes available.
Fabric & Notions, www.beaconfabric Call 970–433–6032, or email jpwood
[email protected].
.com, 800–713–8157.

130 • WoodenBoat 236

WBClass236Final.indd 130

11/22/13 10:36 AM

CLASSIFIEDS

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—Unique and
friendly. Clean, and comfortable
one-bedroom apartment in suburban
Sydney, close to harbor, city, and all
amenities. Tastefully decorated,
modern kitchen, bathroom and sitting room. Minimum four days. Email
Kerry at [email protected],
or phone +61–2–9555–1494.

BOULTER PLY WOOD —Marine
plywood 4'  8' to 16', 5'  10' to 20'
— 1⁄8" to 1" okoume, sapele, meranti,
teak, ash, khaya, teak and holly, teak
and rubber. Lumber—Sitka spruce,
teak, mahogany, green oak, ash,
cypress, fir, Spanish and red cedar,
teak decking—lengths up to 20'.
Milling services. Nationwide delivery.
w w w.boulterply wood.com, 888 –
4BOULTER.

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: SLOW-GROWING, OLD-GROWTH
$125/DO (plus dinner). brooklininn white oak (Quercus alba), up to 50'
.com, ME, 207–359–2777.
long and 42" wide. Longleaf pine
(Pinus pilustrus) out to 50' long. Oldgrowth white pine, 22'–28'. Black
locust, American elm, and larch.
NEW ENGLAND NAVAL TIMBERS,
CT, 860–480–3402.

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

FREE Classified
Writing guide

2000 REDWING, 18'6"—CUSTOMbuilt in New Bedford, MA. Mercury
15-hp, four-stroke outboard, special
shop-made trailer. Top deck, extra
mahogany on framework, cockpit,
and stern. Little use, good condition.
$9,800. 413–531–3444.

Tips on writing a ‘Boats for Sale’ ad,
and how to prepare for questions
from potential buyers. For a copy,
call Wendy, 207–359–7714 or email
[email protected].

THE WEST POINT SKIFF—Three
models: 16', 18', and 20'. See our
website w w w.westpointskiff.com,
for more info. 207–389–2468.

OLD WOODWORKER LOOKING
for wooden boat to restore. Call old
Lou, 513–310–2052.
“SUVA,” 1925 STAYSAIL SCHOONER
designed by Ted Geary. A gorgeous
and sound classic yacht. Burmese
teak. $159,000. Financing available.
Port Townsend, 360–643–3840. See
specs w w w.schoonerforsale.com.
Email [email protected].

ATLANTIC WHITE CEDAR—Wide
12"–16", canoe strips, 2"x stock teak,
new or reclaimed; utility fencing. 203–
245–1781 or [email protected].
WWW.DIAMONDTEAK.COM—True
teak wood. Planing, sanding avail“Wood Sawn for Better Boatbuilders”
able. Quarter-sawn teak for decking;
White Oak • Atlantic White Cedar • Cypress
tongue-and-groove; veneer; custom
Longleaf Yellow Pine • Sitka Spruce
work. Also mahogany and Spanish
401-253-8247 NewportNauticalTimbers.com
cedar. Highest quality. We ship worldwide. 215–453–2196, info@diamond 16' LOWELL’S BOAT SHOP SAILRARE WOODS—Ebony, boxwood, teak.com.
boat—Traditionally built 1987, a
rosewood, satinwood, tulipwood,
classic in excellent condition. Trailer,
boatbuilding woods, +120 others. BL ACK LOCUST LUMBER and Shaw & Tenney oars, full set of sails,
207–364–1073, info@rarewoodsusa found curves. Cut to your specifica- 90cc Mercury Sailpower outboard,
.com, www.rarewoodsusa.com.
tions. Band-sawn. 4/4, 6/4, 8/4, and full custom canvas cover. $6,500 firm.
bigger. ablacklocustconnection.com, MA, [email protected].
2,500 BF OLD GROWTH HEART 413–624–0242.
Cypress—All clear, 13" and wider.
8-16', heavy to 16'. White cedar, long- PLANKING STOCK IN LENGTHS
leaf yellow pine, old growth Douglas to 32'—angelique, silver balli, wana,
fir, western red cedar, Sitka spruce. angelique timbers. Call for quotes.
352–474–7200, steve.tillman@cox Gannon and Benjamin, 508–693–
.net.
4658.
CEDAR BOAT PLANKING—Live
edge. Select and mill run. Clear
spruce rough, full 2". Tweedie Lumber, 207–568–3632. bruce@tweedie
lumber.com.

TEAK LUMBER FROM $7.50/bf,
and teak decking from $0.99/lf. Call
ASI, 800–677–1614 or e-mail your
requirements to rogerstevens@asi
hardwood.com.

33' FRIENDSHIP SLOOP—45' LOA,
c.1900, Wilbur Morse–built “Blackjack.”
Carvel cedar on oak frame, replanked
2001. Full iron-shoe exterior ballast,
mahogany trunk cabin/cockpit, Edson
worm-gear/wheel steering. Gaff-rigged,
spruce spars, Dacron sails (main,
staysail, jib). Needs restoration. $13,500
or best offer, RI. 401–441–7606, wkm@
cox.net.

1953, 27' SHEPHERD—Completely
rebuilt in 2006. Chrysler M47Ss,
freshwater cooled, bronze-rubber
impeller water pumps, electronic
ignition. Low hours since rebuild.
Varnish stripped, recoated, 15 coats
hi-gloss. Hardware rechromed. Bimini
top enclosure, isinglass panels. Full
“SUMOR I A,”1929 CUSTOM 60' boat storage cover. Jupiter, FL ,
William Atkin motoryacht—Full $118,750. Doug, 954 –303 – 4349,
details at www.sumoria.com. Serious [email protected], www.photobucket.
inquiries only. Minimum $25,000. com/babalu_photoshoot.
January/February 2014 •

WBClass236Final.indd 131

131

11/22/13 10:11 AM

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.

1939 HACKERCRAFT 19.’ THIS IS
a winner! Original to factory hardware, rebuilt engine, steering, four
factory options. Very complete. Needs
varnish and upholstery. $29,900.
With or without engine, trailer. Pictures, video. 704–588–4372.
“BLUE GOOSE,” 28' CATBOAT—
6' bowsprit, 4' rudder, 12' beam, 4'
draft. Built 1928 by Brown, Taunton,
MA, with no centerboard, 6' headroom, oak frames, cedar planking.
Rebuilt 1992, Pease Brothers, Chatham. 50-hp BMW diesel, new 1992.
Fully found, ready to sail. Beaufort,
NC. $34,500. Tom Harper, harpoon1@
bellsouth.net, 336–227–1153.

1928 LAKE UNION “DREAMBOAT”
—Restored to excellent condition
(mechanical and structural). 86-hp
Isuzu (400 hrs). Garman nav. plotter.
VHF radio. New wiring/fixtures/
water system throughout. This rare,
classic yacht is the true Dreamboat
from Lake Union Dry Dock; a beautiful part of history. Motivated seller
asking $67,000. Details at www.oursunshineboats.com. Call Bill, 206–
445–2099.
“A M E R I C A N E A G L E ,” 1 9 3 0
Gloucester Schooner, 125'—CGI 56day, 28 overnight. National Historic
Landmark. $750,000. David Jones
Yachts, 207–236 –7048, classics@
midcoast.com.

36' HINCKLEY YAWL, 1954—25-hp
rebuilt Westerbeke diesel. New main
sail and cover, bottom ’glassed. Photos available. $9,500. 410–957–1011.
ROZINANTE—L. FR ANCIS Herreshoff ’s design No. 98, 28' lightd isplacement ca noe - y awl. New
traditional construction by professional shop. Please call for details
and specifications. 860–535–0332,
LUDERS 16, “GOD’S POCKET”—26'
www.stoningtonboatworks.com.
LOA, 4' draft, excellent condition.
Originally 1950s Northeast Harbor
fleet #12. Mahogany hull completely
restored, bottom fiberglassed, 2013.
New keel-bolts. Spruce spars. Jib,
genoa, 2010 main, boom tent, seat
cushions, two pipe berths. Located
in Southwest Harbor, ME. $20,000.
207–244–7697, jsnider@midmaine
.com.
“PROTEUS,” 1929 ELCO HARDTOP
Commuter, 50'—Very well-kept with
stunning interior. $185,000. David
Jones Yachts, 207–236–7048, classics@
midcoast.com.
GAFF-RIGGED 42  12  5.5 Schooner
—Fir on oak. Colvin-design, 40-hp
Yanmar diesel. Launched 2005.
$49,000 or best offer. 360–697–3367.
ASSEMBLED SCAMP KIT—EPOXYcoated. Rudder and centerboard
built. 200 hours invested. Ready for
you to paint/varnish, rig, and sail
away. $7,200. HookedOnWoodenBoats.com/SCAMPForSale. 425 –
319–7800.
LUDERS 16, RECENT RENOVATION
—New deck, new sails, AwlGrip flag
blue hull 2013; original wooden spar;
custom bronze, removable engine
mount; 6 -hp Mercury four-stroke
engine; B&G speed and depth; new
autohelm tiller, autopilot. Sleek, fast,
and beautiful. $19,500. Jim, 914–213–
36' MAYS CRAFT, 1998, BUILT BY 1028 or [email protected].
Mayea Boat and Aeroplane Works—
All wood/epoxy. A modern classic.
Mercury power, low hours, and in
exceptional condition. See more at
www.galatiyachts.com, and call Rob
at 248–881–7124.
1946 HINCK LEY 21, 28.5'  8' 
4.5'—Exterior restoration 2011. New
sails 2011. All original except for
engine and toilet. Sleeps three. Yanmar 3GM30F. Airhead toilet. Located
in CT. Call Rob, 914–393–0295.

“WINFIELD LASH,” 2000 ATKIN
Schooner, 38'—Handsome vessel
with unique features. Survey available.
David Jones Yachts, 207–236–7048,
[email protected].
GRAND BANKS 1973, 32' SEDAN.
Lake St. Clair, Michigan. Needs wood
repairs, refinishing and sweat equity
for a great cruising boat. Excellent
equipment. $21,500. Call Tony Peot
920–746–6236.

16' WHITEHALL—Double-planked
on oak. Built 1979. New spritsail, new
trailer, and new boat cover. Immaculate. John Gardner design. Seattle.
$9,000. [email protected].

BIMINI BONEFISHER CUSTOM
Wood Flats Boat/Runabout—Hull
#19, 16'. Mercury 2011 40-hp fourstroke with under 12 hours, with
extended warranty purchased. Trailer
is custom with chrome rims and spare
tire. Asking $29,999 or best offer.
Call JC at 786–508–2224.

“PENTIMENTO,” 2005 CHUCK
Paine Sloop, 26'—Electric inboard
engine, sleeps two, trailer. Sailaway
condition. $75,000. David Jones Yachts,
207–236 –7048, classics@midcoast
.com.

ICONIC 1932 STEPHENS 55' motor
yacht—Total rebuild 2009. New
engines, genset, electronics, mechanical, electrical, etc. Lying Seattle area.
Price negotiable. See photos, history,
complete details, and contact information at www.seadog.yachtf lyers
.com.

2009, 11'3" ASA THOMSON SKIFF—
A 1927 classic built to modern, professional standards. Copper/bronze
fastened, fine condition. $1,300.
Marshfield, MA. 781–834–2979.

132 • WoodenBoat 236

WBClass236Final.indd 132

11/22/13 10:36 AM

CLASSIFIEDS
KEN SWAN-DESIGN, LITTLE GEM
rowboat—Kirby paint, two oarlock
positions, bronze oarlocks, Shaw
&Tenney oars with leathers. Shorelander galvanized trailer dolly, custom
cover, trolling motor, sail rig. Lawrence, Kansas, make offer. 785–864–
3287 [email protected].

2004, 26' SEABIRD YAWL with 10-hp
Yanmar diesel—Excellent condition,
with trailer. Stored inside at Eric Dow
Boat Shop, Brooklin, ME. $10,000
negotiable. Call 201–569–3787.

1940 CHRIS-CRAFT 22' SEDAN—
With modern power V8 Crusader
350 engine. MBBW premium restoration. Completely restored from the
keel up, including new 3M-5200 no
soak bottom with new chines, keel,
stem, frames, knees, frame tie, okoume
inner bottom, solid African outer
bottom, new mahogany hull sides-all
attached with 3M-5200. New linoleum
f looring, show quality paint and
varnish, modern classic gauges,
restored steering wheel, new chrome,
new German hartz cloth tan canvas
top, new head liner, leather upholstery,
cabin top cover, matching MBBW
Classic Trail custom, inboard trailer.
Total my cost $85,000. Bid wantedmotivated seller. 860–671–0846.

2008, 34' TRADITIONAL GAFF-RIG
Yawl —Ver y ha nd some T homa s
Gillmer Blue Moon design, crafted
in Maine. Bronze fastened cedar on
oak frames. 23' LOD, 8'6" beam, 4'
draft, teak cockpit and foredeck, two
large berths, marine head with holding tank, water tank, 14-hp Yanmar,
Garmin, depth. Cutts & Case maintained, properly stored for the season
in Oxford, MD. $39,900. 609–876–
9507, [email protected].

“ARGONAUT II,” EDSON SCHOCK
73' canoe stern—Built in 1922 for a
Canadian logging company. Very
heavily built with extensive upgrades.
Sleeps nine, two heads, one shower.
In Seattle, in freshwater, has Jones
Act Exemption. http://argoleeb.wix.
com/argonaut-ii-for-sale. Call 206–
313–0223.

18 1⁄2' EEL—WILLIAM GARDEN–
design; Gordon Swift built (2000).
Gunter-rigged yawl. Needs a younger
captain. $5,000. 941–964 –2049,
[email protected].

“ZAIDA,” 1937 ALDEN CUTTER,
60'—Strong pedigree and worthy
candidate for some needed work.
$139,000. David Jones Yachts, 207– DOUBLE OR SINGLE SCULL AND
236–7048, [email protected]. Kayak—Versatile and beautiful. Pictures available. Location southeast
Virginia. Contact Mike at 757–775–
7696, or [email protected].

4 1' C U S T O M S PA R K M A N &
Stephens Bermuda Cutter— Beautiful yacht with amazing history, in
perfect condition. Full professional
renovation completed in 2006. Ready
for day cruise or racing. On Lake
Ontario since 1947. 905–891–8207,
[email protected].

38' LUDERS 24, 1947—38  24  6 
5, laminated mahogany, new Sitka
mast plus aluminum, good sails,
totally rebuilt. $95,000. cutwater@
earthlink.net, 516–639–1033.

30' ELDRED-COOPER CUSTOM
runabout, 2009—White cedar planking, varnished teak trim, V-berth
forward with a Porta-Potti, four-cycle
Yanmar diesel. Very well built and
SWIFTY 14 SHELL BOATS DESIGN maintained. $185,000, Ballentine’s
14  7—Excellent example of this Boat Shop, MA, [email protected],
beamy, responsive, traditionally rigged 508–563–2800.
daysailer. Red sail. Central Kentucky.
$1,950, [email protected].

1967, 45' MATTHEWS—Last of company’s famed wooden vessels. Twin
Detroit diesel 8V-53s. Restored in
1997. Storm damage to upper deck.
Seniors must let go. Louisiana, 985–
640–8674.
1947, 34' CHRIS-CRAFT—Has had
some work done; three-axle trailer.
Most hardware, no motors. N Y,
607–216–7355.

Want Boats?

“RETTA,” 2008 TOPSAIL FRIENDship, 24'—Designed and built by
David Westphal. $35,000. David Jones
Yachts, 207–236 –7048, classics@
midcoast.com.

UNFINISHED, PROFESSIONALLY
built 35.5' ‘xpress’ cruiser—Hull,
bulkheads, frames, and cabin sides
completed. Approximately 95% of
all materials; various foundry parts;
including machinery and running
gear available; with engineering data
and drawings included. Not a project
for amateurs. For detailed information, 859–266–6903, seacoyacht@
yahoo.com.

We’ve got more!
See

1957 CHRIS-CRAFT 18' SEA SKIFF
lapstrake utility—New cushions,
folding top and side curtains. Original 95-hp K engine, runs strong.
Hull in excellent condition, and ready
to go, with custom cover, and tandem
trailer. $9,000. 905 –727–8671 or
[email protected].

BOATBROKERS
in this issue...
...and the online

MarketPlace

‘Boats for Sale’
listings at
woodenboat.com/boats-sale
January/February 2014 •

WBClass236Final.indd 133

133

11/22/13 10:33 AM

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
errors due to illegible copy.

Suggested Category ____________________________

1_______________________ 2_________________________ 3__________________________ 4________________________
5_______________________ 6_________________________ 7__________________________ 8________________________
9_______________________ 10________________________ 11________________________ 12________________________
13______________________ 14________________________ 15________________________ 16________________________
17______________________ 18________________________ 19________________________ 20________________________
21______________________ 22________________________ 23________________________ 24________________________
25______________________ 26________________________ 27________________________ 28________________________
29______________________ 30________________________ 31________________________ 32________________________
33______________________ 34________________________ 35________________________ 36________________________
37______________________ 38________________________ 39________________________ 40________________________
41______________________ 42________________________

. . . . Attach sheet for additional words . . . .

Word Count ______ x $2.75 = $__________ + Photo ($75) = $__________ = $__________Total
(20 words minimum = $55.00 /issue)

(Payment must be in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank).

Date ____________________
NAME ___________________________________________________________________________________
Address __________________________________________________________________________________
Telephone _______________________________

Email __________________________________________

PAYMENT METHOD
• Check • Money Order • MC / VISA / AMEX / DISCOVER # _____________________________ Exp. Date_________

Signature______________________________________________________________________

Rates expire November 5, 2014

[email protected] ♦ Tel: 207-359-7714

134 • WoodenBoat 236

WBClass236Final.indd 134

11/22/13 10:12 AM

Index to Advertisers
Adhesives & Coatings
Bristol Finish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Endurance Technologies/
MAS Epoxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Epifanes North America . . . . . . .
Interlux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
System Three Resins, Inc. . . . . . .
Tri-Texco inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
West System Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

www.bristolfinish.com . . . . . . . . . 108
www.masepoxies.com/challenge . 37
www.epifanes.com . . . . . . . . Cover II
www.yachtpaint.com . . . . . . Cover IV
www.systemthree.com . . . . . . . . . . 14
www.tritex.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
www.westsystem.com . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Boatbuilders
Adirondack Guide Boat . . . . . . . .
Arey’s Pond Boatyard . . . . . . . . . .
Beetle, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Billings Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Carpenter’s Boat Shop . . . . . . . . .
Choptank Boatworks . . . . . . . . . .
Crocker’s Boat Yard, Inc. . . . . . . .
Cutts & Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Edgecomb Boat Works . . . . . . . . .
Fish Brothers Marine Service . . .
Gannon & Benjamin . . . . . . . . . .
Haven Boatworks, LLC . . . . . . . .
Jensen MotorBoat Company . . . .
Laughing Loon . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MP&G, L.L.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pendleton Yacht Yard . . . . . . . . . .
Reuben Smith’s Tumblehome
Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Richard S. Pulsifer, Boatbuilder .
Rumery’s Boat Yard . . . . . . . . . . .
Seal Cove Boatyard . . . . . . . . . . .
Stonington Boat Works, LLC . . .
Traditional Boat, LLC . . . . . . . . .
Van Dam Custom Boats . . . . . . . .
W-Class Yacht Company, LLC . . .
Woodie’s Restorations . . . . . . . . .
Woodwind Yachts . . . . . . . . . . . . .

www.adirondack-guide-boat.com 117
www.areyspondboatyard.com . . . 120
www.beetlecat.com . . . . . . . . . . . 118
www.billingsmarine.com . . . . . . . 114
www.carpentersboatshop.org . . . 120
www.choptankboatworks.com . . 120
www.crockersboatyard.com . . . . 118
www.cuttsandcase.com . . . . . . . . 119
www.edgecombboatworks.net . . 119
www.fishcustomboats.com . . . . . 110
www.gannonandbenjamin.com . 118
www.havenboatworks.com . . . . . 119
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
www.laughingloon.com . . . . . . . . 117
www.mpgboats.com . . . . . . . . . . . 120
www.pendletonyachtyard.com . . 117
www.tumblehomeboats.com . . . . 119
www.pulsiferhampton.com . . . . . 120
www.rumerys.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
www.sealcoveboatyard.com . . 114,116
www.stoningtonboatworks.com . 119
www.mainetraditionalboat.com . 120
www.vandamboats.com . . . . . . . . 116
www.w-class.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
www.woodiesrestorations.com . . 111
www.woodwindyachts.com . . . . . 118

Brokers
Brooklin Boat Yard . . . . . . . . . . . .
Concordia Yacht Sales . . . . . . . . .
Metinic Yacht Brokers . . . . . . . . .
Morin Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Peterson Associates . . . . . . . . . . .
S/V Mistral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

www.brooklinboatyard.com . . . . 112
www.concordiaboats.com . . . . . . 113
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
www.morinboats.com . . . . . . . . . 111
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
www.mistral-yacht.com . . . . . . . . 112

Events
Boatbuilders Show on Cape Cod . .
Boatbuilding & Rowing
Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Key West Classic Regatta . . . . . . .
Maine Boatbuilders Show . . . . . .
Ucina Confindustria Nautica . . .
WoodenBoat Show . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sail Antigua Classics . . . . . . . . . . .
Maritime Tour of England
and Scotland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

www.boatcapecod.org . . . . . . . . . . 22
www.woodenboat.com/barc . . . . . 17
www.keywestclassicregatta.com . . . . 1
www.portlandcompany.com . . . . . 20
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11
www.thewoodenboatshow.com Cover III
www.woodenboat.com . . . . . . . . . 36
www.woodenboat.com . . . . . . . . . . 4

hardware & accessories
Atlas Metal Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Barkley Sound Oar &
Paddle Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Canadian Tack and Nail . . . . . . .
CC Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hamilton Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . .
J.M. Reineck & Son . . . . . . . . . . .
Keystone Spike Corporation . . . .
R&W Traditional Rigging &
Outfitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

www.atlasmetal.com . . . . . . . . . . . 52
www.barkleysoundoar.com . . . . . . 22
www.canadiantackandnail.com . 109
www.ccfasteners.com . . . . . . . . . . 108
www.hamiltonmarine.com . . . . . . 25
www.bronzeblocks.com . . . . . . . . . 20
www.keystonespikes.com . . . . . . . . 23
www.rwrope.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Top Notch Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . www.tnfasteners.com . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Wooden Boat Chandlery . . . . . . . www.shop.woodenboat.org . . . . . 105

Insurance
Heritage Marine Insurance . . . . . www.heritagemarineinsurance.com 23

Kits & Plans
Arch Davis Design . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chesapeake Light Craft, LLC . . .
Devlin Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Directory of Boat Kits and Plans .
Fiberglass Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Francois Vivier Architecte Naval .
Glen-L Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Guillemot Kayaks . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hewes & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Noah’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Parker Marine Enterprises . . . . .
Pygmy Boats Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tippecanoe Boats, Ltd. . . . . . . . .
Waters Dancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

www.archdavisdesigns.com . . . . .
www.clcboats.com . . . . . . . . . . . .
www.devlinboat.com . . . . . . . . . .
www.woodenboat.com . . . . . . . .
www.fiberglasssupply.com . . . . . .
www.vivierboats.com . . . . . . . . . .
www.glen-l.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
www.kayakplans.com . . . . . . . . . .
www.cnc-marine-hewesco.com . .
www.noahsmarine.com . . . . . . . .
www.parker-marine.com . . . . . . .
www.pygmyboats.com . . . . . . . . .
www.modelsailboat.com . . . . . . .
www.watersdancing.com . . . . . . .

Lumber
Wolstenholme International . . . . www.joubert-group.com . . . . . . . . 44

Prints & Publications
Calendar of Wooden Boats . . . . . . . .
Dorade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Getting Started In Boats . . . . . . . . .
Professional BoatBuilder
Subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Small Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
WoodenBoat E-Newsletter . . . . . . .
WoodenBoat Subscriptions . . . . . .

www.woodenboatstore.com . . . . . 24
www.doradehistory.com . . . . . . . 106
www.woodenboat.com . . . . . . . . 116
www.proboat.com . . . . . . . . . . . . .
www.woodenboat.com . . . . . . . . .
www.woodenboat.com . . . . . . . . .
www.woodenboat.com . . . . . . . . .

21
12
52
32

Sails
E.S. Bohndell & Co. . . . . . . . . . . .
Gambell & Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nathaniel S. Wilson, Sailmaker . .
Sailrite Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sperry Sails, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
www.gambellandhunter.net . . . . . 44
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
www.sailrite.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
www.sperrysails.com . . . . . . . . . . 106

Schools & Associations
Antique & Classic Boat Society . . www.acbs.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
The Apprenticeshop . . . . . . . . . . www.apprenticeshop.org . . . . . . . . 8
Center for Wooden Boats . . . . . . www.cwb.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Directory of Boat Schools . . . . . . www.woodenboat.com . . . . . . . . 120
Great Lakes Boat Building
School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.glbbs.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
HCC METC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tech.honolulu.hawaii.edu/marr . 107
Northwest Maritime Center . . . . www.nwmaritime.org . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Northwest School of Wooden
Boatbuilding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.nwboatschool.org . . 21, 53, 108
Westlawn Institute of Marine
Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.westlawn.edu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
WoodenBoat School . . . . . . . . . . www.woodenboat.com . . . . . . . 26-27

Tools
Shelter Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.shelterinstitute.com . . . . . . . 53

Miscellaneous
American Cruise Lines . . . . . . . .
Beta Marine US Ltd. . . . . . . . . . .
J.J. Best Banc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Half-Hull Classics . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Strong Fire Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Graphix Garage . . . . . . . . . .
U.S. Bells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wooden Boat Rescue
Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
WoodenBoat Store . . . . . . . . . . . .

www.americancruiselines.com . . . . 7
www.betamarinenc.com . . . . . . . . 45
www.jjbest.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
www.halfhull.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
www.strongfirearms.com . . . . . . . 105
www.thegraphixgarage.com . . . . 110
www.usbells.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
www.woodenboatrescue.org . . . . . 45
www.woodenboatstore.com . 100-102
January/February 2014 •

WBClass236Final.indd 135

123
121
122
124
122
124
123
124
124
122
123
123
124
122

135

11/26/13 9:28 AM

BACCARAT

BACCARAT

Particulars

LOA
LWL

A swift keel cutter

MAYNARD BRAY (BOTH)

Beam
Draft
Doc. No.
Designed by Russell J. Pouliot.
Built by Russell J. Pouliot, Inc.,
Detroit, Michigan, 1933

46' 4"
33' 3"
11'
6'
283375

For nearly 40 years, Skip Green sailed BACCARAT all summer long
from his home on the Maine coast. He kept her in good shape while
he could, but his recent death means she needs a new owner to look
after her and bring her back to her former glory.

L

aunched in 1933 into Detroit’s St. Clair River
from the designer’s boatyard, BACCARAT proved
fast right from the beginning. In her first year,
she won the 235-mile Port Huron–Mackinac Race and
repeated this same win for the next three years. In between, she got her first taste of salt water and to everyone’s surprise took Class B honors in the 1934 Bermuda
Race. Not bad for this young seat-of-the-pants designer
and the boat he built named BACCARAT, because its
performance was considered a gamble.
Russell Pouliot’s father, Joseph, also built boats, but
this eldest son was a sailor and knew about racing—
before age 30 having won the same race from Port
Huron to Mackinac Island in his own boat BERNIDA,
a George Owen–designed R-class sloop. BACCARAT, in
fact, looks a little like a big R-boat: slim and low, with
generous overhangs and a big rig.
Around World War II, BACCARAT moved permanently from fresh water to salt—home-ported first
in City Island, then for many years on Buzzards Bay.
Skip Green and his then-wife, Lucy McCarthy, acquired BACCARAT in Mattapoisett in 1975. After a
few years sailing and living aboard, they parked her
ashore in Brooks, Maine, which is a few miles inland
from Belfast. They were partway through a structural,
leak-fixing refit when Anne and I met them through
Joel White, whom they’d enlisted to help guide the
repair. In the late 1980s when the boat was once again
in commission, we often sailed our own yawl AIDA

in company with this big, swift engineless sloop.
Skip Green’s life took many turns, but BACCARAT remained always at its core. He sailed her often, and frequently all by himself. She’s big for singlehanding, but
despite Skip’s poor vision (he read a chart with a magnifying glass and could see buoys only with binoculars),
he managed a solo cruise to Nova Scotia one summer
without incident. How he loved that boat!
Skip’s repair and maintenance has always been of
a utilitarian variety; he did everything himself without
boatyard assistance but not to high-end yacht standards.
Strength and performance were what he sought—along
with a passably decent appearance. In recent years, his
failing health put an end to all of it, and for the past
three years, BACCARAT has lived ashore under a temporary shed where she’s begun to dry out. Skip Green
kept this love of his life going for as long as he was able,
but now that he’s gone (Skip died in October 2013), the
boat needs another owner with the same good sense and
energy to patch her up and get her in commission again.
BACCARAT is still in Maine, located next to Skip’s
shop at the north end of Islesboro—a ferry ride from
Lincolnville Beach, then a drive. To learn more or to
arrange for an inspection, contact Karen Betts by email
at [email protected].
Maynard Bray is WoodenBoat’s technical editor.
Send candidates for Save a Classic to Maynard Bray, WoodenBoat,
P.O. Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616.

136 • WoodenBoat 236

SAC236-FINAL.indd 136

11/19/13 2:03 PM

The 23rdAnnual

One Admission Price
Something for every wooden boat enthusiast!

•

Expert Skill Demonstrations • Family BoatBuilding • Skua Racing • I Built It Myself Reader-Built Boats
• New! Design-Build Competition • Mystic Seaport’s 19th Century Seafaring Village
• In-Water and On-Land Boat Displays • Boatbuilding & Rowing Championship
• Marine Accessories, Books, Art, Tools, Kits, and so much more!
TM

Join the Celebration!
WoodenBoat Magazine’s 40th Anniversary
At The WoodenBoat Show
Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT, June 27-29, 2014
www.TheWoodenBoatShow.com for information and tickets.

wbshow235-02.indd 3

11/22/13 7:05 AM

Generations of boaters can’t be wrong
Passing down the lessons from years of experience is invaluable. Technique,
discipline and a trust in the right materials are essential for great results you
can be proud of.
But taking a leap of faith to a different product can be the hardest part.
With over 100 years experience in the science of boat care, our varnishes have
been specially formulated to provide the best treatments available for your boat.
So that leap of faith is really just one small step - towards the fantastic finish
and high level of protection you demand.
Whether traditional tung oil varnish, urethane alkyd or extended performance
with two-part polyurethane, we have a range of options. Contact us today or
visit www.yachtpaint.com
Apply the Interlux heritage to the whole of your boat. No matter how big or small.
Interlux Varnish – be more than proud.
, Interlux® the AkzoNobel logo and all products mentioned are trademarks of, or licensed to, AkzoNobel. © Akzo Nobel N.V. 2012.

®

Interlux234.indd 4

11/22/13 6:59 AM