Rowing isn’t like baseball or playing the piano. With only one lesson and a little time on your own, you can get the idea of it. From the perspective of about 60 years, a few thousand strokes, and more than a few stiff necks from looking over my shoulder to see where I’m going, I can now say that rowing came naturally to me not long after a nice older man named Fred, a Brit who worked as a caretaker for a number of summer families including my own, showed me the basics.
Sample Articles From WoodenBoat Magazine
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WESTER TILL, a 47′ yawl designed by Henry Rasmussen and built by Abeking & Rasmussen, was launched in 1947 when the A&R yard was struggling to recover from World War II. She was nearly destroyed on a transatlantic delivery in the early 1980s, but she was subsequently rebuilt to very high standards. -
Sakonnet One Designs are stiff, beamy, and comfortable, with high freeboard and a coaming to help keep sailors dry. They have solid spruce masts and deep, cast-iron keels. They carry a large mainsail; a small jib; and a symmetrical spinnaker. -
Roald Amundsen’s Arctic exploration ship MAUD was towed through the Northwest Passage on the historic voyage home to Norway. -
The 43′ Penbo trawler-yacht ACADIA, launched as ADAGIO in 1969, was refurbished and reconfigured by Thomas Townsend Custom Woodworking and relaunched in 2008. She evokes Townsend’s signature aesthetic: spare and clean deck and interior arrangements, with an emphasis on functionality and keeping dry. -
In the July 1904 issue of The Rudder magazine, there’s an amusing firsthand account by L.A. Dixon of the optimistic purchase of a very early gasoline-powered auto-boat somewhere on the coast of Maine. -
Italy’s oar-powered catamarans, called pattinos, first appeared as workboats. After World War II, they became popular with beachgoing tourists. “The pattino,” writes the author, “creates a delicious sense of calm and quiet.” -
Although the vast majority of lobsterboats now built in Maine are fiberglass-hulled, there are still fishermen who appreciate the feel of a wooden boat under their boots. And there are builders who appreciate working with oak timbers and cedar planks. -
A good fun boat,” very popular with younger sailors, the Starling Burgess-designed, Abeking & Rasmussen-built Atlantic Class received an added boost when parachute spinnakers were introduced in the mid-1930s. -
In August 2013, Peter Kass began building our lobsterboat, RESOLUTE.