Launchings

Launching Renetta, Rooster # 746, at the first annual Rooster Week, in 2014.

Dan Vallerga's first adventure in boatbuilding led to this Penobscot 17 (Arch Davis design) which took just 10 months from start to its launch on Sept 6, 2004. Dan uses the boat in Humboldt Bay, Eureka, CA. Contact Dan at vallergad@sbcglobal.net.

Rod Fuqua built this 17′ Northeaster Dory with guidance from Les Chase a boatbuilding school in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The stitch-and-glue dory has a 56″ beam, and will easily hold three adults. Rod launched MARY AGNES on October 15, 2011.

The Salt Bay Skiff was the grand prize winner of the Family Boatbuilding Design Contest held by WoodenBoat in 2007. Carl Sylvester built KALOS from "Getting Started in Wooden Boats,"  the supplement in issues 199 and 200, over the course of ten months.

Taking plans and instructions from Dynamite Payson's plans and book, Build The New Instant Boats, Brendan Shea built this Diablo skiff, DY-NO-MITE, and launched her in July, 2011. The hull is 15′ LOA with a 5′ Beam, and is constructed from marine plywood with ash rails.

In July 2003, Rob Douwes launched his 17'6" Gentlemen's Runabout KNOCKABOUT on Lake Westeinder, Aalsmeer, in the Netherlands. The plans (#76 from WB), by Hacker and Zimmer, call for a 16' hull, but Rob extended the boat's length by spreading the frames apart just a little bit.

Ed Vickery helped to build and repair boats for quite a while before he built his first wooden surfboard. He built it from several woods including bamboo, black walnut, fir, aframosa, and paulownia; then covered everyting with a layer of 4-oz fiberglass.

Chuck Nagy of Burn Pile Restorations rescued a 50-year-old Wolverine, model no. 2, made by Wagemaker Boats of Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He turned a derelict hull with no transom or seats, and a five-foot crack down one side, into this beautiful fishing skiff.

First build of a Wood Duck 12 from Chesapeake Light Craft—great support from CLC, and the boat builder forum was also an excellent resource. Had a prototype launch August 2014—still needed a few final touches, but I wanted my daughter to have a ride before she left for college.

I fell in love with the Biscayne Bay 14 when I first came to Woodenboat School 30 years ago. Life intervened, and it took nearly 30 years before I built a boat from the plans I bought way back when. She is largely built according to the how-to articles in WoodenBoat issues 96-98.