Launchings

Rob Caveney launched this glued-lapstrake plywood Annapolis Tandem Wherry in April this year following plans from Chesapeake Light Craft. The hull is 18′9″ long, Rob reports that,“As advertised, this boat is a real rocketship.

Built from plans by Eric Schade, sold thru Chesapeake Light Craft. Okoume plywood hull, Western red cedar and Northern white cedar deck. My grandson had outgrown his 8′ Duckling (also by Eric Schade) I made for his ninth birthday and chose this for his 15th birthday.

Constant Camber construction. Main hull has inner/outer layers of 1/14″ fir, sandwiching two layers of cedar. Amas are three layers of fir. Started building 30 years ago!!

John Laudano Jr. of Middletown, Connecticut, designed and built this 61″ model runabout, with some help from his dad, over the winter of 2014–2015. SAUNDRA MAE has sapele planking on plywood frames. John made the windscreen, steering wheel, and fittings from scrap aluminum.

John and Jonathan Aitken built two Design 80 lapstrake prams using plans from Paul Gartside. The 7' boats are built using traditional methods and materials - red cedar and mahogany fastened to oak frames using copper roves and rivets.

The Center for Wooden Boats recently launched the newly restored Blanchard Jr Knockabout (BJK) Pamela in Seattle, WA. This project focused on providing young people the opportunity to learn traditional boatbuilding skills over the span of the last two years.

Michael Goodrich has read WoodenBoat for years and always wanted to send in his own new launching. When his son and daughter-in-law were expecting their own new launching with the birth of their first child, they asked Michael if he could build a co-sleeper for them.

Wolfgang Müller of Beckdorf, Germany, recently launched this Gloucester Rocker that he built for his nephew Jannis. Though only a year old, Jannis took command of his first ship with pleasure.

FIRST TRY is constructed with yellow pine framing covered in a fiberglassed and gelcoated southern pine exterior plywood hull. The stem is ash tying into an oak keel with oak bottom rubbers. The chines, gunwale rubbers, coamings, windshield frame, etc are made of Honduran mahogany.

Shell Boats of St. Albans, VT, provided the design for this 12' Swifty built by Arnie Goodman and his son Sam, of Tampa, FL. They launched her on May 31, 2004 on Tampa Bay, FL. She is of lapstrake plywood construction with an unstayed mast and sprit boom.