Launchings

Fifth Graders Launch Handmade BoatFive adventurous 5th graders unveiled the fruits of their labors as they took their maiden voyage in a hand-made boat they helped design and build in the waters off Fan Pier.www.bosto

Roger McKay built this sprit-rigged, beach cruiser designed by Jordan Wood Boats of South Beach, Oregon. The Footloose design is 15'2" long with a 56" beam. Roger writes that the boat sails and motors well. He uses THE ARC on the Columbia River and in the lakes and bays near his home.

Eric Russell first launched DAMFINO in October 2003 to be used as a touring canoe. He added the sail rig over the winter and relaunched her in April 2004, recycling an old Dyer Dink Sail. Don Meisner is the designer, he began construction in 1999.

Thomas Mayenburg built this 12' 8" car-top Modified McInnis Bateau with his brother and a friend. The design is from John Gardner's Building Classic Small Craft, Vol. 2. They used 3/8" plywood on the bottom, and 3/8" red cedar strakes.

DEDE is an epoxy-glued lapstrake Penobscot 17 designed by Arch Davis, and built by Ed Titus, an alumnus of the WoodenBoat School. Ed built DEDE from meranti  plywood and Douglas-fir, and trimmed her with ipe.  She has a gunter rig with tanbark sails.   DEDE is 17′ long with a 5′ beam.

The Boy Scouts of Camp Wah Tut Ca in Northwood, New Hampshire just launched a new sailing surf dory built by Graham McKay of Lowell’s Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Modified from Lowell's standard surf dory design, the 27′ x 7′ ketch will also serve as a pulling boat.

Richard Hudak, of Hilo, Hawaii, built this gleaming canoe from sugi cedar.  He cut the tree down and milled the  wood himself. He made the paddle from koa wood.  This photograph was taken on New Year's Eve at Reeds Bay on the Big Island in Hawaii.

Hugh Groth has built seven canoes but this is the first strip-built one, and the first one he designed himself. He designed it specifically for he and his wife to use together, moving the stern seat forward to improve balance.

THE OTHER SIDE is a 16 foot drift boat built to fish the upper Kenai river for trophy rainbow trout. She is built on a Don Hill design and constructed primarily of clear fir by Sailor Ellison, and Bill Blanas in Nikiski Alaska.

Brian Emblin used several sources for help in the construction of his skin-on-frame kayak: "Wood and Canvas Kayak Building" by George Putz, "The Wood and Canvas Canoe" by Jerry Stelmok and Rollin Thurlow, and a video from North Bay Canoe Company in North Bay Ontario, Canada.