Launchings

Rowboat #17 was developed over the course of 5 years. I had built 16 models to evaluate performance and ease of building. The main purpose was for pleasure rowing with my dogs Rowdy & Nala.

Growler is our new, highly versatile transom-stern cruising canoe, and “big sister” to our popular and highly acclaimed 12 ft. solo canoe, Newt.

William Leake likes the look of strip-built canoes but his wife prefers the look of lapstrake canoes. He thought a hybrid model—strip-planked on the bottom half and lapstrake above that—might be the solution to both of them getting what they want.

Paul Marshall of Granite Falls, Washington, was very proud on September 1, 2013, when he launched his Yankee Tender after 30 years of (as he says) working on it in "fits and starts." She is the 12′6″ × 4′6″ design from WoodenBoat based on an Asa Thompson skiff design.

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.

Lofting the plans from Nick Schade's book, The Strip-Built Sea Kayak, Kevin Rautio built this 17′ Guillemot Sea Kayak from Spanish cedar. He spent about a year building it, including the lofting and scratch-building everything, even the strips.

Geoff and Jean Lee wanted a boat that they could row and sail with equal ease in the open waters of Biscayne Bay, Florida. They found the design for this 18' William Chamberlain Gunning Dory in John Gardner's book The Dory Book.

Cedric Brannen built this skiff for Rob McCauley over the winter of 2002-2003, using the same molds he used to build two skiffs for Rob's father 30 years ago.

I fell in love with the Biscayne Bay 14 when I first came to Woodenboat School 30 years ago. Life intervened, and it took nearly 30 years before I built a boat from the plans I bought way back when. She is largely built according to the how-to articles in WoodenBoat issues 96-98.

Here is a Jeff Spira designed Pescadero I recently completed. It was designed as a light tackle tarpon hunter for the central gulf coast of Florida. The boat performs better than expected and makes an ideal fishing platform.