Launchings

After visiting several wooden boat shows in the northeast, Andre Vachon finally built his own boat, CAP NATURE, and launched it in June 2005. CAP NATURE is a 16-foot long Stevenson Projects One Design.

OTTER’s inspiration is Philip Theil’s Escargot. She is, however, greatly modified to an “egg crate” assembly using Stitch and Glue. I had never used this method, but am SOLD!With all the plywoods used being saturated with thinned epoxy, here’s hoping for a long lasting build....

Community School of Davidson in Davidson, North Carolina launches the “Sea Spartan”, a St. Ayles Skiff designed by Iain Oughtred. Built in four months by students and teacher Jim Dumser in the Wood Arts class, the skiff is 22 feet long and rowed by a team of five.

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.

James Ford of the Madison School District in Madison, NY, wrote to announce two launchings by their high school technology class, an 8' pram and a 16' canoe. Clark Craft of Tonawanda, NY, designed the pram, while the canoe is a John Scalzo design.

Wayne Brown spent two years building this 12′6″ catboat designed by William Garden. DON GATO is a strip-planked Tom Cat design launched at Ghost Lake, Wisconsin last July. Wayne says she sails nicely with three people aboard, trails beautifully, and takes about an hour to rig and unrig.

This 30' cedar-strip 15-person canoe (C15) had its launching and inaugural paddle on May 12th of this year.

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.

This Swedish 15 square meter class yacht VIXEN was built in 1938 by Kungsfor Boatyard in Stockholm, Sweden. About 49' long, it was wrecked in 1988 on the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, before being rescued by James McIlraith of Renfrew, Scotland.

Sulkava is a two person sliding seat row boat that readily converts to a single. It is designed by Ruud Van Veelen a Dutchman living in Finland. I chose this design as I was after something that was fast and elegant but suitable for two novice rowers.