Launchings

Two kit boats from Chesapeake Light Craft, built from March to July, 2012. Mill Creek 16.5 and Chesapeake 17LT. Built in my shop in Points, WV, and launched at Camp Seven Lake, near Manistique, MI.

Doug Crane spent 10 years building NOKIDO, a Lyle Hess 29.9 cutter, only to be diagnosed with terminal cancer late in the process. Friends and family helped him finish the boat just in time to spend his last summer aboard.

F. Daniel Fry of Williamsport, PA, worked part-time over two years to complete his sailing dinghy from Paul Gartside's Riff design. Western red cedar strips were used to build her.

A beautifully designed Somes Sound 12 1/2 by John Brooks, of Brooks Boats Designs.I’d like to say I built it — but without the help and support of John Brooks (International help line!), friends and family and members of the WoodenBoat Forum, “PEG” as we called her would not have been launched la

This is the 53rd Prides Rock skiff built by the students of Jeremiah Riordon at Landmark School in Prides Crossing, MA. Launched in June 2001, the skiff is 10' long with a 52" beam. Jeremiah Riordon designed this model as an instructional tool.

Allen Kay and his sons (Colin on left, Ian on right) finished a 14′ Kaholo just in time for a short paddle in Maryland before hauling it to Lake Megunticook in Maine for two weeks to put it through its paces. “They love it,” Allen says.

POINTED SHOES is a Great Auk kayak built by Dave Palmer in both Michigan and Maryland. Dave used Nick Schade's book The Strip-Built Sea Kayak by Nick Schade, and recommends it highly.

Oliver Cooney's IRISH MAID won two boat-show awards in her first few months of existence. He writes that this Arch Davis design always draws a lot of interest from onlookers. Oliver found Arch's drawings and follow up to be very helpful during construction.

Bruce Porter bought the plans for this Simmons Sea Skiff from the Cape Fear Museum in North Carolina. He used marine mahogany plywood over white cedar frames, and added gunwales made of white ash and Douglas-fir.

Jeff Ennis and his four sons built this birchbark canoe (16' x 36") in the summer of 2004 in Lac St. Marie, Canada. They used birch bark, green cedar, and spruce root in the construction. The green wood can be easily split into almost paper-thin sheets for making the floorboards.