Launchings

How to Spend One's Summer Vacation...

George Dyson of Bellingham, Washington designed this skin-on-frame kayak. His design called for aluminum tubing for the frames. When Alex Zimmerman built this kayak, he modified the planking to a marine plywood and cedar sandwich.

Today (7-26-20) is the day after many hours and years of life, that I get to finally launch my new canoe.It is a 13′ 7″ MACGREGOR canoe designed by Iain Oughtred.

I built this slightly stretched version (9 1/2 to 11 ft) of Paul Butler’s Montana Pram for my son, his wife and 2 daughters (2 and 7) exploring for ducks, frogs, and adventure on a small pond adjoining their back yard.  We launched it on my granddaughter’s 7th birthday in July 2024.

BULLFROG is a Sam Devlin Godzilla 22′ tug boat design built by Denman Marine Tasmania, Australia. She was constructed from Lloyd’s certified Okoume plywood, fibregalss and WEST System epoxy resins.

I built this boat in 1985 for my mother, and this past year did extensive rebuilding of bottom, transom, and converted it to a sprit rigged sailing skiff with a daggerboard. It sails well!

Tom Hardison spent 7-+ years building this 24' yawl, LITTLE WOODY. The hull is from a modified Glen-L plan. He added a bowsprit, keel, and made the hull thicker, using two layers of 1/4" laminated plywood. Everything other than the hull was of the builder's design.

Jim Hammond built this 15'6" double-ended rowing skiff from a mold found in the shop of the late Harold "Bones" Bulmer of Ontario, Canada. Jim calls this the first 'modern' version of a boat built by Mason Boatworks in St. Williams and Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada.

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.

Glassy water is pretty easy in a 1960s fiberglass Alden rowing shell, but when the afternoon southwesterly comes up the New Meadows River in West Bath, Maine, the flat bottom craft wants to surf, yaw and roll as she’s headed downwind for home, John Van Orden went searching for a more sea kindly s