After building a pair of spoon blade oars, from instructions in WB 117, Judie and Jerry Soucie felt they needed a better boat than a Dyer Dink to work those oars.
James Ford of the Madison School District in Madison, NY, wrote to announce two launchings by their high school technology class, an 8' pram and a 16' canoe. Clark Craft of Tonawanda, NY, designed the pram, while the canoe is a John Scalzo design.
CREUZA DE M+ä was based on the design of a French Gig built in 1796. She is a participant in the international Atlantic Challenge rowing contests, which bring together young people from all over the world for several days of rowing and community on the water.
RIVER PRINCESS was launched in June 2004. Builder and owner Rodney Collard writes "This design was drafted on paper from photographs from WoodenBoat magazine. We read up on stitch-and-glue construction.
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.
Dave Paquet constructed this 23'6" x 7' fantail launch using yellow cedar strip planking on the hull, and red cedar strips for the decks. This Glen-L 'Harbor master' design took Dave four winters to complete. He launched PILGRIM in May 2004.
After building a kayak for himself, and one for his son, Geoff Meissner's wife wanted him to build a canoe for her. He picked a Nipmuc kit from Newfound Woodworking. At 17' long and 35" beam, it was big enough to hold all three of them and the dog.
Jeff Spira of Spira International wrote, "Gabriele Di Marzio of Abruzzo, Italy built this 14' dory with his two sons. The modified Spira Juneau Grand Banks dory design was built with hardwood frames and covered with 5 mm beech plywood on the sides and 10 mm on the bottom.
This is the second time Rhett Riviere has owned the ocean cruising ketch FAR HORIZONS, built at Ennals W. Ives Shipyard in Taiwan in 1968. Rhett owned it at one time, sold it, and later bought it back. It needed extensive restorations before he could relaunch the ketch in May of 2004.
Doug Puckering launched two boats in May of 2004: a Steve Killing-designed 17' canoe and a Joe Greeley-designed 16'10' kayak. The canoe has a beam of 33-1/3" and weighs 50 pounds. Doug plans to use it in canoe segment of the Ski-to-Sea race on the Nooksack River.