This section of our web site, an extension of the Launchings department of WoodenBoat magazine, is dedicated to sharing news of recently launched wooden boats built or restored by our readers.
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Participants in the spring boatbuilding class at The Dory Shop in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, celebrate the launch of the as-yet-unnamed Banks dory they built under the tutelage of master dory builder Jay Langford May 7-18.
The Lowell Town Class was originally designed in 1932 as a safe children’s training boat. Today they are raced by Town Class Association enthusiasts in MA and RI.The Landing School undertook to build three of these boats in the 2019-2020 school year but only one was completed due to COVID-19.
Dale Edward Smith owns this lovely Penobscot 14, designed by Arch Davis, and built at the Andaman Boatyard in Thailand. The boat is gaff-rigged and weighs about 170 pounds. Dale uses TIDAK APA-APA at his home in Singapore.
This heavy duty version of the Digger 17 skiff adds 6 inches of freeboard and optional self-bailing in addition to modified Bosworth check valves installed on the transom. Marine grade plywood, mahogany, cedar, douglas fir, and brazilian cherry used in the build.
Skeena is a 20 foot cat ketch rigged trailer sailor. She weighs about 700 pounds and draws 9″ board up and 42″ with the board down. Water ballast adds another 400+ pounds. We sail her on the finger lakes, 1000 Islands and Chesapeake bay with plans for plenty of other spots by trailer.
Willow, a 25 ft strip planked sloop, is the third sailboat designed and built by Matt Greytak, after a 15 ft sloop and a 14 ft catamaran. It is constructed with ½″ x 1 ½″ cedar strips sheathed in epoxy over plywood bulkheads. The deck is plywood sheathed in epoxy with Interdeck non-skid paint.
"A delight to row, and fast" is how Stuart Pettingell describes his L.F. Herreshoff 17 pulling boat modified by John Gardner (found in "Building Classic Small Craft"). Stuart spent 11 months on the construction, launching the boat in July of 2001.
Robert Johnston gave this 17' Redbird canoe that he built to his brother, James Johnston, for James' 50th birthday. Robert used bead-and-cove cedar strips for the hull, then covered them with two coats of epoxy.
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.
Rod's daughter Emma Grace Rishel co-owns this Alpha Dory with her dad. He build it using natural crook live oak frames, planking from a Douglas-fir log in Long Beach, Mississippi. The coamings, wales, and rails are from reclaimed longleaf yellow pine.
Master craftsman glued 1 “ strips over form, epoxied, varnished this strong but lightweight 50 lb
