Launchings

I’ve been building this auk for the last five years in my garage. The idea was that I would learn how to build a boat with this one and then move onto something a little larger, but I am not too sure how my wife will take to the news that I’m starting another one.

After forty years of building skiffs and dories, first, under the tutelage of the old timer, Fred Tarbox, at Lowell’s Boat Shop and later as Parker River Boat Works, this will be my first published launching.

Herb Pollock keeps the 9'6" Nutshell Pram he built pulled up on the beach in front of his house in Holland, MI. Named SQUAREHEAD, she is a Joel White design.

Jim Maas designed and built this 17'6" flat-bottomed skiff. Launched in the summer of 2001, it is the fourth boat he has built. He boats mostly in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River, but spent some of the summer at Lake Newboro, Ontario, where he says that wooden guide boats are not uncommon.

Ryan Dewsbury spent many hours sanding his Chesapeake Light Craft Sassafras 16 before launching it last May with Heather Bal on Lake Huron in Kincardine, Ontario.

Jason Corsini of Quiet Waters Boatworks in Riva, MD built this beautiful example of Cerny Yacht Design’s Hill 16. Using a unique strip plank method and sheathed in fiberglass, she is lightweight, dry, and seaworthy while powered with a 40 horsepower outboard.

Launched my Chesapeake Light Craft Peeler Skiff. Two and one half year build and loved every minute of it.

A four year project. Built stitch and glue using Meranti Marine Plywood. Powered by a Honda 90 Four Stroke.

David Calloway wrote that a couple of years ago, he was infected with the boatbuilding bug.  He spent many enjoyable hours looking for boats to build on the internet before he decided on Jim Michalak's QT design.

David Blake built MOLLY, a 16′ x 6′ Stevenson Weekender sloop from okoume plywood and mahogany, then covered the hull with fiberglass and epoxy. He made the mast from Sitka spruce and the boom and gaff from Douglas-fir.