Launchings

How to Spend One's Summer Vacation...

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.

Jim Maas designed and built this 17'6" flat-bottomed skiff. Launched in the summer of 2001, it is the fourth boat he has built. He boats mostly in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River, but spent some of the summer at Lake Newboro, Ontario, where he says that wooden guide boats are not uncommon.

These two boats were built at Boston Family Boat Building by 5th graders from the Boston Public Schools during the 2011/12 school year. We relaunched them on April 10 for the Boston Tea Party Ship Museum. They will use them as work boats to maintain the ships at the museum.

Bill Bornemann writes that he "built this 9' long, 4' beam, plywood skiff inspired by Howard Chapelle's description of the flat iron skiffs in his book, Small American Sailing Craft. She was assembled and painted in one day as part of his 50th birthday celebration.

BLACKFIN is a Pilgrim Pride 16 center console skiff designed by Paul Bennett of Shoe String Shipyard. Brothers Michael and David Hitt built it at David's home in Annapolis, MD, and launched BLACKFIN in October of 2001. The construction is of epoxy-covered plywood.

Richard Hudak, of Hilo, Hawaii, built this gleaming canoe from sugi cedar.  He cut the tree down and milled the  wood himself. He made the paddle from koa wood.  This photograph was taken on New Year's Eve at Reeds Bay on the Big Island in Hawaii.

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.

Classic 17′ Whitehall pulling boat. Her lines are based on boat nearly 150 years old. Glued lapstrake, planking made of Vendia Marine Plank. She has two Alden Drop in Row Wings and three places for those. So she can be rowed as a double or a single.

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.