Years ago, in the midst of a difficult reframing job, I came across Barry Thomas’s excellent book, Building the Crosby Catboat. In it, Thomas describes his research into the Crosby method for fitting thick steam-bent frames into very tight bilges. He had had the good fortune to meet Horace Manley Crosby, Jr. aka “Bunk,” right when he needed him. Thomas tells of Bunk showing him and his team the tools and method for picking up the shape of a frame using a wooden chain-like “timber mold,” transferring the shape to a bending jig, and bending the frame away from the boat with the aid of a compression strap.
ST. LOUIS is a 36' Elco fantail electric launch from 1896. She has her original motor, much of her brightwork is original oak, and she has been housed in the same sublime boathouse, and owned by the same family, since 1900. She’s a bit of a local legend in Bolton Landing, on the western shore of Lake George, New York. Over the past year and a half, she has undergone a complete structural rebuild of her hull.
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.
Rowing isn’t like baseball or playing the piano. With only one lesson and a little time on your own, you can get the idea of it. From the perspective of about 60 years, a few thousand strokes, and more than a few stiff necks from looking over my shoulder to see where I’m going, I can now say that rowing came naturally to me not long after a nice older man named Fred, a Brit who worked as a caretaker for a number of summer families including my own, showed me the basics.
A good fun boat,” very popular with younger sailors, the Starling Burgess-designed, Abeking & Rasmussen-built Atlantic Class received an added boost when parachute spinnakers were introduced in the mid-1930s.