Launchings

A 100-year-old corncrib provided much of the wood for this 25' Chesapeake Skipjack. The keelson, frames, centerboard, and rudder are white oak. The cabin sides and trim are solid cherry. The builder, Lynn Miller, plans to use it for extended voyaging and cruising on the Great Lakes.

Living by of The Gulf of Finland I wanted to have a small boat that I could easily launch in the spring and take up before the ice covers the sea in the winter. I designed and built the lapstrake boat Kjerstin, named after my grandmother.

Sundowner had her humble beginnings at the WoodenBoat School’s 2011 Glued Lapstrake class taught by Geoff Kerr. I was fortunate enough to take her home and finish the work we had started. A local mill supplied the cherry, walnut, and pine which I used to finish the hull.

Tom Hill designed this Charlotte lapstrake canoe, named FIDDLEHEAD by builder Bob MacEwen of Brunswick, ME. With a length of 11′6″ and beam of 2′4″, she weighs only 27 pounds.

Lil Tyke is a 15′4″ (on deck) x 5′ 4″ beam sloop, designed by Edwin Monk. The design and construction information was published in the 1958 issue of “Boats you can build” by Popular Mechanics, #592.Built, using fir frames, 1/4″ plywood and sheathed in Epoxy/Fiberglass.

Well, it's been about two years since I started working on the boat. Like most of my projects, it sat idle in the garage while priorities shifted and free time vanished. She's finally done, though, and we launched her at a nearby lake last weekend.

The boat was designed and built in the spring and summer of 2024. The hulls are made of 1/4 inch birch plywood. Construction is tape and glue with 4 ounce fiberglass clothe overlay. Mahogany deck is from all salvage and recycled materials. The boat paddles very easily and is also very stable.

Wood Duck 10 hybrid with cedar deck

Odessa is a gaff-rigged L.F. Herreshoff-designed Buzzards Bay 14 (17′ LOA, 3-foot draft, 5′10″ beam) sloop launched June 8 at Clark Boat Yard in Jamestown, Rhode Island.The hull for “Odessa” was built by Graves Yacht Yard, Marblehead, Mass.