Launchings

Launching Dancer, Rooster # 745, at the first annual Rooster Week, in 2014.

Lee Sandifur built KARI-SAN (15'2" x 4'10") from plans by Samuel Devlin using stitch-and-glue construction. He launched her in Olympia, WA on August 18, 2001. She carries a 13' long mast, which he built of Alaskan cedar.

I built this boat from a kit purchased from Chesapeake Light Craft. I have built 4 wood strip boats previously. I built a kayak, a canoe, a row boat and a sail boat. My saying is “never build your last boat”.

Just completed this is a Duck Trap Wherry, designed by Walt Simmons. Purchased as a stalled project off Craigslist the purchase included plans, a set of forms, a keel with stem and transom attached and four sheets of plywood.

Zack Taylor features this duckboat design on the back cover of his book "Successful Waterfowling & Customizing Small Boats." Builder and owner Wayne Graff uses her in Flathead Valley near his home in Kalispell, MT. Her sides are 1 x 10" cedar built over a framework of oak and pine.

Chesapeake Light Craft Passagemaker pram dingy, the Emily E, with her namesake, builder’s daughter, on beach on Peaks Island Me at the launch ....

Paul Clausius build DRIFTER using the book, Building the Weekend Skiff, by Richard Butz and John Montaigne. He modified it a bit from the plans in the book. Paul made the fir plywood sides slightly thicher to give the boat additional strength for the rough waters of Geneva Lake, WI.

LAURIE-ANN, a 20' cat-ketch is shown here at her launching in June 2002 on St. John's River in Palatka, FL. Pat Kelly built her from a Graham Byrnes design. He used stictch and glue construction on okoume plywood. Her shallow draft, only 8" with the board up, makes her fun and fast.

Ward Brady of Laguna Niguel, CA, built this Shearwater pulling boat from WB Plan No. 58 to bring the "idea of wooden boats to the West Coast." His assistants are rowing.

Sue Gaire’s first attempt at building a wooden boat turned out beautifully when she launched ARROW from a small beach at Ponce de Leon Park in Punta Gorda, Florida, last summer.