Launchings

Eric Blumhagen writes "I built SOLACE with the able assistance of my wife, my idea woman. After a year and a half of work, I launched it on November 12, 2000. It now hangs from our living room ceiling when not being used on Washington lakes.

Launched my Skunk Island Skiff sailing version built from plywood and pine. Douglas fir mast, spars and oats. Stainless steel fasteners and hardware.

Randy Bond built this 18' skin-on-frame canoe from plans of the MicMac model by David Hazen. The wales, keel, and stems are made from ironwood. The frames and stringers are white cedar. The skin is ballistic nylon coated with polyurethane varnish.

Dale Austin launched this little dinghy in the fall of 2002. She is a Chuck Merrell Apple Pie design (Merrell Watercraft, chuck@boatdesign.com). Using the stitch-and-tape method, she is constructed from plywood and oak covered with epoxy.

Kevin Moroney of Cape Coral, Florida, was building an 18′ modified sharpie skiff when his grandson, Colin, was born in Denver, Colorado, last year.

Despite working at times “at a glacial pace” for two years, Stirling Cummings of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, finshed and launched his 18′ Night Heron kayak on a cold windy day in February 2012 on Jordan Lake, near Chapel Hill.

Instructor Larry Benjamin of the Adirondack Folk School led students in the construction of these Wee Lassie canoes. They are slight revisions of the classic Wee Lassie on permanent display at the Adirondack Museum.

Duncan Burns writes of his 13' peapod, SWEET PEA, “Built to the Doug Hylan design and launched in February 1998, this peapod has logged better than 2,000 nautical miles in Long Island Sound between City Island, NY and Stamford, CT.

Inspired by Philip Rhodes’ Bantam and Uffa Fox’s Jolly Boat, Corsair has a Suicide sail plan with a wishbone boom. The current mainsail was donated from Suicide #8, Joker. The underbody of the boat has a fine, deep entry with a long flat run which should plane easily.

MALUHIA means safety, serenity, and peace in Hawaiian. She is a John Gardner designed Carolina Dory, 19′8″ x 8′6″. Russell Durler of Layton, Utah built her using Douglas fir and white oak, and launched her in July 2000.