Launchings

ETHEL C.

A 100-year-old corncrib provided much of the wood for this 25' Chesapeake Skipjack. The keelson, frames, centerboard, and rudder are white oak. The cabin sides and trim are solid cherry. The builder, Lynn Miller, plans to use it for extended voyaging and cruising on the Great Lakes.

This is a Phil Bolger designed catboat. I bought Dynamite Payson’s book, “Build the instant Catboat”. It only took 14 years....with the help of my daughter. I had an old Beetle cat rig that I modified for the boat. Good to finally get it wet.

I went overboard on the design, but it was great to build but it took a long time (almost a year in the making!).  I love the results.  This is a hybrid SUP, plywood on the bottom, cedar strip on the top.  The design is a random pattern with the occasional thin oak strip for stability during buil

Richard Albert built this 14' pulling boat SECOND SNAKE designed by Henry Rushton (Model 109 Pulling Boat of 1884), launch ing it on August 9, 2004. He uses it on the Delaware and Raritan Canal in New Jersey, and the Delaware River.

Richard Knight built this Sassafras 14 canoe from a kit designed by CLC using 4 mm okoume planks, which resulted in a finished weight of just over 42 pounds. He found the lapstitch construction to work well, the hull easily came together straight and true.

Rob Hess launched this Cosine Wherry designed by John Hartsock on June 30, 2002. He rows and motors WINNIE around the waters of Webster, NY.

Rick Miller of Miller Marine Systems completed this Penobscot 14 in 2003. She is a pulling version of the Arch Davis 14' x 4'6" design, using a daggerboard. LOLLYPOP was delivered to her owner, Charles Ward of Barbados, West Indies and launched on December 25, 2003.

Doug Crane spent 10 years building NOKIDO, a Lyle Hess 29.9 cutter, only to be diagnosed with terminal cancer late in the process. Friends and family helped him finish the boat just in time to spend his last summer aboard.

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.