Launchings

In the late 1950’s, my younger brother and I spent summers at our grandparents’ cottage on the Winnipeg River in northwestern Ontario, fishing and exploring in a small squat wooden rowboat called the Flea.

After building a kayak for himself, and one for his son, Geoff Meissner's wife wanted him to build a canoe for her. He picked a Nipmuc kit from Newfound Woodworking. At 17' long and 35" beam, it was big enough to hold all three of them and the dog.

EL GATO is a 12'6" Phil Bolger designed catboat built by Ross Mason between May 2002 and October 2003. Ross launched EL GATO on November 25, 2003. He used 1/4" plywood covered with epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth. He built the hollow 16' mast from 8 staves as described in WB issue XXXX.

Here is our Prudence restored. She was built in 1947 in Maine and we found her in need of a total restoration in Marblehead. She was a lot of fun for our young boatbuilders. We also got a list of all the previous owners and contacted them. They thought she was long gone.

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.

Hank Stoltz began building this 14' Sassafras Canoe as a member of Bill Thomas' class at WoodenBoat School. He didn't finish it until he got home. Designed by CLC as a tandem boat, this lapstrake stitch-and-glue boat, can also be built as a solo.

Donal O'Callaghan writes that his boat is "one of those boats that whenever you row it, you should allow a few minutes to answer questions, because people are attracted to it like a magnet." He built this sleek beauty from plans by Graeme King of Putney, Vermont.

Cristobal Verde, a shipwright from Sarteneja, Belize, started building this 16′ sailboat for an American living in New York City. Midway through the job, the boat was abandoned and left unfinished for three years.

13 year old Hannah Dumser of Davidson, North Carolina and her dad Jim finished and launched their Jericho Bay Skiff (WB No. 210, 211) named Juniper. Built out of Atlantic White Cedar and trimmed in Okoume.

Wolfgang Müller of Beckdorf, Germany, recently launched this Gloucester Rocker that he built for his nephew Jannis. Though only a year old, Jannis took command of his first ship with pleasure.