Milford Buchanan and I had already bent the pre-made bottom of the dory into the building jig—or horse, as he called the ancient cradle on the boatshop floor at the Dory Shop Museum in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. We had wedged the flat bottom tightly in place using posts and jacks that had been used to spring more than 50,000 bottoms to the standard 31⁄2" rocker.
Among the dramatic changes during the MAYFLOWER II reconstruction has been the complete replacement of her rigging, reducing weight aloft by about one-third. The standing rigging is of Mystic Three Strand, made by New England Rope.
CAPRICE and GHOST were part of the 28-boat Sound Interclub fleet built by Henry B. Nevins during the winter of 1925–26. The class raced on Long Island Sound for more than a decade before being eclipsed by the larger International One Design.
After being fully restored to sailing condition by professionals with the help of a group of volunteers, PIRATE sails out of The Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, Washington, not far from where she was originally launched.
Even on a calm autumn morning, it’s hard to imagine that it was ever quiet at Brooklin Boat Yard. The yard has been a Maine boatbuilding institution since naval architect Joel White bought out his boatbuilding mentor, Arno Day, to found the business in 1960. Arno had found it all getting out of hand, too big, what with three employees in addition to himself and Joel. These days, the parking area fills in quickly in the morning with ten times that many boatbuilders, who nod their greetings as they arrive at work and the first machine noises inside break the morning stillness.