Launchings

Eric Blumhagen writes "I built SOLACE with the able assistance of my wife, my idea woman. After a year and a half of work, I launched it on November 12, 2000. It now hangs from our living room ceiling when not being used on Washington lakes.

Hands-on learning through the Wisdom of the Hands program at Clear Spring (AR) School resulted in BLUE WHALE, a boat designed by students to hold the 10-member high school class.

Hope is a semi-dory built according to plans supplied by John Karbott. She will be rowed and powered by a 5hp outboard on the Westport and Sakonnet rivers. This is my first boat. It took six months to complete, and was a perfect complement to my work as a psychologist!

Walter graduated from Westlawn Institute and now has his own business designing yachts now. He launched this boat in July of 2005 and it is used as a yacht tender. He writes, "She can carry 3 adults comfortably in protected waters.

FIRST TRY is constructed with yellow pine framing covered in a fiberglassed and gelcoated southern pine exterior plywood hull. The stem is ash tying into an oak keel with oak bottom rubbers. The chines, gunwale rubbers, coamings, windshield frame, etc are made of Honduran mahogany.

Landlocked in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, we built our Skerry in spare time over four years from a Chesapeake Light Craft kit. The only stitch and glue boat we’ve ever seen is the one we built. Still don’t know if she’s right, but she seems to sail and row just fine.

The Richmond Yacht Club of San Francisco, CA designed this 8' El Toro sailing pram in 1936. The current owner, Jeff Brous, writes "This boat was built in 1966 by my father as a tender for our family cabin cruiser.

Scott Gifford's BLACK DUCK runabout can handle both the rough waters of Buzzards Bay and the shallows of the Westport River in Massachusetts. He framed the hull with white oak, then double-planked the bottom with eastern white cedar.

CLC designed this touring Chesapeake 17LT kayak (16'11" x 231/4"), which was built by Boone Brewer of Smyrna, GA. He plans to use it in the Gulf of Mexico near St. Theresa, FL. Boone used stitch-and-glue construction of okoume plywood, covering the hull and decks with fiberglass cloth and epoxy.