This section of our web site, an extension of the Launchings department of WoodenBoat magazine, is dedicated to sharing news of recently launched wooden boats built or restored by our readers. If you’ve launched a boat within the past year, please email us at launchings@woodenboat.com, or post your news here.
(All posts are subject to approval and editing before being made live.)
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Traditional wood/canvas canoe: Rollin Thurlow-designed 13 ft American Beauty. Class-built at WB School summer of 2013 and finished by owner.
Serge Larocque launched his Penobscot 14 earlier this year in July after spending 18 months building it. He chose a lug rig for its ease of use with no standing rigging to deal with. Serge reports that it’s a fun and responsive boat.
Mike Hughes had hoped to build a Columbia dinghy for himself but, "as life, family, and business crowded in I never got past the stage of milling and seasoning the keel, and laying in the New Zealand kauri." Some years late, Mark Jack contacted Mike about building a Columbia for him.
Anita Repp has a new 15' skiff, PENELOPE, built by her husband Doug, for fishing and picnicking. Doug made PENELOPE with plywood planking on pine frames, and he use fir for the keel and chines. The hull is covered in epoxy and fiberglass cloth.
Boatbuilder Douglas Brooks led eighteen students at the University of Illinois in building a 21-foot Shinano River boat, a traditional design from Niigata, Japan.
Despite choosing a career as an auto mechanic, Joseph LaBella's lifelong dream was to build a boat as a dedication to his father, who introduced Joe to boating when Joe was just 3 years old. Joe used no plans in the construction, just a scale drawing of his desired outcome.
This tunnel boat was designed and built for racing in American Powerboat Association class Sport C.Construction is skin on frame plywood using both exterior and marine grades.
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.
Nick Riggio built the GERRYLU, a Steve Redmond Whisp design, from Meranti plywood, cypress wood, and mahogany. Nick was a student at Greg Rossel's WB School Fundamentals of Boatbuilding class in the summer of 2002. GERRYLU is 15'7" x 3'6" and is used on the lakes near Webster Groves, MO.
Bob Elliott led seven students in the construction of this Merrimack Skiff built at Lowell's Boat Shop, Amesbury, Massachusetts during the winter of 2001. with a length of 13'3" and a beam of 2'6", the skiff is built of agathis planks riveted over sawn oak frames.
"Jack Tar" custom designed and built of white oak, mahogany and teak in 1961 is for sale for a "t
“Ruby Slipper” Goat Island Skiff, designed by Michael Storer. 6mm Okoume plywood hull.
Harry Bryan design. 2010 build. Very good condition. Cedar on white oak frames, knees, transom.
