Launchings

Ken and Deb LaPorte recently finished building their first boat, a Melonseed skiff named TIME OUT. The design is by Marc Barto and available from The WoodenBoat Store. The hull is built from strips of sapele.

When Bill Short designed the San Francisco Pelican in the 1970s, he made it 12′ long; later he stretched it to 17′ long, and called that version the Great Pelican. Brooke Elgie of Tenakee Springs, Alaska, extended Short's design still farther, to 19′6″, what he calls the Great Alaskan Pelican.

Relaunched after nearly 30 years. The boat has been refinished, the engine has been thoroughly serviced and a fuel pump added. What a sweet little boat, they just don't build them like this anymore. The hull is molded birch and as sound as new.

David Russell, David Russell, Jr., and James Brownlee built this modified 16′ Catfish Beachcruiser over the summer of 2007, and launched her in August 2007 in Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. The design is by Phil Bolger.

Took the ERIE FEELING (Jeff Spira’s Clemente design) for a maiden voyage. Almost 2 1/2 years making. It was an outdoor summertime weekend family project. Still needs finishing touches but it performed well. This is build #2. Number 1 was Jeff's same smaller Hatteras version.

Ray Gray of Newport, North Carolina, has loved boats for a long time but did not build one until recently. After months of research Ray Gray relied on issues 116, 117, and 118 of WoodenBoat magazine to build a Shellback designed by Joel White.

Students Sheldon Patterson, Ross Melhorn, and Andrew Dingledine built this Jon boat at Edgewood High School in Trenton, Ohio, under the instruction of Mark Schallip. They found plans for the 12′ x 4′ hull online and then modified those plans to create this design.

Bill Bornemann writes that he "built this 9' long, 4' beam, plywood skiff inspired by Howard Chapelle's description of the flat iron skiffs in his book, Small American Sailing Craft. She was assembled and painted in one day as part of his 50th birthday celebration.

Sometimes it is fun to put together a boat that takes little time to build and has a wealth of uses. Last winter at the Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre and Wooden Boat Society in Cowichan Bay we downloaded from the internet a set of plans for a small dinghy that is stitch and glue.

The classic lines and pedigree was Bob Luckraft’s inspiration to saving this 15′ x 8′ catboat. MARGARET was built in 1920, by Manuel Swartz Roberts.