FLEA

In the late 1950’s, my younger brother and I spent summers at our grandparents’ cottage on the Winnipeg River in northwestern Ontario, fishing and exploring in a small squat wooden rowboat called the Flea. I have long wanted to build a cedar strip rowboat for my own family cottage a few miles downstream, and was finally inspired by the Lawton Tender design from Newfound Woodworks, which held hints of that stout rowboat from the past. The new FLEA launched after two winters of work in Minnesota, my first boat building effort helped by a good home woodshop, molds and advice from Newfound, and Susan Van Leuven’s book, Woodstrip Rowing Craft. FLEA is a hard-working fly fishing boat and a delight to row. More important, our first grandchild will soon be old enough to start Canadian rowboat adventures of her own.