Launchings

Bob Bramble designed and built this 13′ sailboat, which he calls LITTLE BOAT to sail in the lower Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia.

River Wrights Boat Builders in Hartford, CT is a no-profit program that teaches career skills and life skills to at-risk teens. Vi Beaudreau oversees the project, which was started by a graduate of the Apprentice Shop in Rockport, ME.

The MARY OLIVER, built for photographer Amy Melious, is named for the poet, and for all poems inspired by nature. The designer and builder, Martin Herbert, looked hard at the work of J. Henry Rushton as well as commentaries on the type by Iain Oughtred.

On 8/13/2016, Suzanne Nye launched her Bjorn Thomasson Design Frej kayak in Fleming Island, Florida. Her husband Mark, built the kayak using western red/Alaskan yellow cedar strips for the hull/deck and sapelle plywood for the cockpit coaming and bulkheads.

Don Don was designed and built by Van Dam Custom Boats, and launched in the summer of 2011. The boat is 28′-7″ long, and 8′ 6″ beam, and speed comes from a 375 h.p. engine. More information from  Van Dam Custom Boats, 970 E. Division St., Boyne City, MI 49712. 231-582-2323.

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.

EMMA is a 10′ Chaisson Semi-Dory, which I named after my favorite niece.Her hull was partially constructed there at the WoodenBoat School and I completed her over the next few winters.

Over 40 years ago, boatbuilder Ray Speck drew the lines for the Sid skiff. He was living in Sausalito, California, at the time and admired JAYNE, a skiff owned by the harbormaster, Sid Foster.

This 20′ Ashitenma boat was built from the lines of a 1950s net-fishing boat from the Inland Sea region of Japan. Douglas Brooks and his apprentice Takumi Suzuki, with assistance from Koji Matano, built her from cedar and cypress in Takamatsu, Japan.

I wanted to share with you a couple photographs of my Night Heron kayak (LOA 18′, beam of 20″), designed by Nick Shade of Guillemot Kayaks . The boat took nearly two years of weekends and evenings to complete, with work proceeding at a glacial pace during some periods.