Launchings

Brian and Brenda Isaacs built this Melonseed skiff in the early 1990s. They used the information in Howard Chapelle's book "American Small Sailing Craft," extending the length by 18" to make room for their cargo of children and dogs.

John Rhyne launched this Great Auk design kayak on August 31, 2003 near his home in Tennessee. The design is from Nick Schade's book, "The Strip-Built Sea Kayak." John used pine and Western red cedar in the construction.

My Doug Hylan designed 13′ Beach Pea is the first wooden boat I have built from scratch. She is made from okoume ply, Douglas Fir, with utile mahogany thwarts and knees and Sitka spruce spars.

Chris DeFirmian is a woodworker in Santa Barbara, CA who uses his dinghy LARK to transport himself and his tools to jobs about the harbor. LARK is equipped with a center-lifting hatch to keep his tools dry.

Using 4mm okoume plywood over a skeleton of poplar, Ed Neal built PICKEREL according to Michael Alford's plans, purchased from the WoodenBoat store, www.woodenboatstore.com.

Ken Spring writes "Keith Matlack uses his 15'7" x 41" sharpie skiff, SQUALICORAX (Latin name of an extinct shark) for fossil hunting along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.

Red Davis, of King & Davis, Port Townsend, Washington designed this Norwegian pram for the Gougeon Brothers as a boat intended for plywood-epoxy construction. Gougeon still carries the plans. Jim Van Horn started this hull in 1986, and then stored the boat for 20 years.

Donald Melick built a 14'2 x 4'6" Cosine Wherry in 1992. He added a sailing rig in 2002. It has 90 square feet of sail, and is a standing lug rig with a sprit boom. He used a sail plan from Phil Bolger's book 103 Sailing Rigs.

Philip Rhodes designed the Penguin Class dinghy in 1939. Fred Kaiser of Clinton, NY, built this particular Penguin (#7990) from a kit in 1966 for his daughters to use. Richard Ellers of Warren, OH, restored the dinghy and re-launched her in the summer of 2003.