The fishing vessel SKIPPER was launched in 1941 as a “party boat,” carrying deckloads of anglers on “deep sea” fishing expeditions from northern New Jersey. She continues in that role today, but now hails from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Because of careful attention for six decades by Dr. George Gilbert, her only previous owner, the 1954 Newbert & Wallace lobster yacht ALBATROSS only needed deck, cabin top, and cockpit sole resheathing when she came to a new owner last year.
Milford Buchanan and I had already bent the pre-made bottom of the dory into the building jig—or horse, as he called the ancient cradle on the boatshop floor at the Dory Shop Museum in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. We had wedged the flat bottom tightly in place using posts and jacks that had been used to spring more than 50,000 bottoms to the standard 31⁄2" rocker.
VERA LEE—née FANCY STUFF—is one of a handful of Bunker and Ellis–built wide-body lobsterboats. She was transformed into a luxury powerboat. Built in 1974, FANCY STUFF was restored and re-outfitted by Jarvis Newman and Ed Gray at their boatshop on Great Cranberry Island, Maine.
After her restoration, the immaculate gaff cutter MERLIN, at 85 years old, sails on a cloudless autumn morning on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, Australia.
It is always deceiving when you have her in the barn. It’s hard to tell how the boat will look and sit in the water,” said Millard. Launching, in late May of 2016, became the most nerve-wracking moment for the father-and-son team.
BLACKJACK, a 33′ Friendship sloop built in 1900 by Wilbur Morse, sails in her home waters of Rockland, Maine. She was extensively restored by professionals and volunteers at the Sail, Power & Steam Museum, which is her new home.