Launchings

I started building my Melonseed Skiff in 2017 and finished it in 2021. Because I do not have a garage or large shed, I did work outdoors from May to November (living in Sherbrooke, Québec).

Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts, offers a one-semester "Practical Ship and Boat Design" course that "aims to get students comfortable with lines drawings by lofting a sailing model full scale," writes instructor David Bill.

Ray Gray of Newport, North Carolina, has loved boats for a long time but did not build one until recently. After months of research Ray Gray relied on issues 116, 117, and 118 of WoodenBoat magazine to build a Shellback designed by Joel White.

Paul Wagstaff's catboat was two decades in the designing and building. He was attracted to catboats because of their stability and he wanted a boat that could be built in his garage, trailered easily, and could be single-handed.

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.

Michael Goodrich has read WoodenBoat for years and always wanted to send in his own new launching. When his son and daughter-in-law were expecting their own new launching with the birth of their first child, they asked Michael if he could build a co-sleeper for them.

Cosine Wherry. John Hartsock designed it, Bob and Erica Pickett promoted it, J. D. Brown wrote the book (Rip, Strip, and Row).

MISTY is a 19'6" gentleman's runabout, designed and built by Tony Beeftink over the course of two years. Tony spent a lot of time studying classic runabouts as he was designing her, attending boat shows and reading WoodenBoat.

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.

Bev and Frank Salomonsen of Rochester, Minnesota, built this balanced-lug sailboat from plans of the Tirrik design by Iain Oughtred. They built the 16′10″ hull from okoume plywood planking, with stem and keel of white oak.