Editor's Page

The Art of Visual Storytelling

Nic Compton’s article about the French boat restorer Benoît Cayla and his gang of itinerant colleagues, beginning on page 60, is a fascinating study of possibility—of what can happen when a group of skilled people unite around a common cause. Here’s Nic’s introduction to the group: “In Lerwick, on the Scottish isle of Shetland, during the summer of 2022, as many as 15 people at a time worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, to restore the 1904 Zulu-class fishing boat MAGGIE HELEN. … They worked for free because they believed passionately in the project and wanted to see the vessel sailing again. Some hoped to join her at sea; others were just passing through and enjoyed working with a group of like-minded people.”

Nic’s initial description of this story, when he pitched it to us, was compelling enough in its originality. Then he introduced me to the stunning work of the photographer Nedjma Berder, who has been following Benoît and his colleagues through several projects and voyages, and that sealed the deal. These images were a sublimely evocative and thorough piece of photojournalism. They were a perfect complement to Nic’s words. One of them appears on the cover of this issue.

Benjamin Mendlowitz’s wonderful portrait of KATIE with Harry Bryan at the helm.

Photojournalism is the art and process of storytelling through photography, and Nedjma’s images indeed tell a story. So do Peter Brauné’s photographs accompanying Pat Mundus’s account of the exquisite pocket cruiser DATESY built by Donn Costanzo—a renowned boatbuilder who built the boat for his own retirement. In her article, Pat examines the question, “How does a lifetime of experience with exquisite yachts influence the choice and construction of a 20-footer?” She answers that question in prose; Peter does so in photographs. He does this so thoroughly that, when reviewing the layout, we were hard-pressed to delete even one of his images to make room for one of KATIE, the design’s namesake, which the designer-builder Harry Bryan built for his own retirement. In the spirit of completing the visuals of this remarkable project, I’ll stop here to make space for Benjamin Mendlowitz’s wonderful portrait of KATIE (above), with Harry at the helm.

Matt Murphy

Editor of WoodenBoat Magazine

DATESY
Page 24

DATESY

by Pat Mundus • Photographs by Peter Brauné

Donn Costanzo is a highly evolved wooden-boat expert. He has built, restored, and become an authority on an impressive array of yachts since launching his career five decades ago. So when the decision to retire from the company he founded, Wooden Boatworks in Greenport, New York, began to occupy his attention, the search for a suitable boat to build for himself began in earnest. Harry Bryan, a regular contributor to this magazine, soon rose to the top of Donn’s short list of designers. Harry’s 20' pocket cruiser KATIE, which he had designed for his own retirement, captivated Donn.

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Biloxi luggers continue a heritage that began with sailing vessels in the middle of the 19th century. FRANKA, based in Bayou la Loutre, Louisiana, was built in 1950 at a Biloxi, Mississippi, boatyard established in 1896 by Jacky Jack Covacevich, one of the region’s many Croatian immigrants. The boat was built for the grandfather of her current owner, Randy Slavich.
Page 40

Biloxi Luggers

by Randall Peffer

You can still find the old girls, though their numbers—once in the hundreds—have dwindled to a few dozen. South of New Orleans, Louisiana, traditional wooden luggers tie up at Empire, Buras, St. Bernard Parish, and other oystering ports deep down in the Mississippi River Delta in shrimpers’ enclaves from Bayou Lafourche east to Biloxi, Mississippi, and you see them in yacht marinas along the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico.

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Cam clamp
Page 50

A Deep-Reach Cam Clamp

by Text and photographs by Mikkel Pagh

Toolmaking is a key part of boatbuilding. Many of the specialized devices we need can’t be bought off the shelf; they must be made by the builder. Lapstrake planking provides an excellent example: the builder must temporarily hold overlapping planks in place so they can be riveted, clench-nailed, or glued together.

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The Lawley tender
Page 54

A Lawley Tender

by Text and photographs by Harry Bryan

Many of us who love small boats hope someday to come upon a real gem, stored and all but forgotten in the loft of a barn or shed. This happened to me, although I was slow to realize what I was looking at. I had known where this boat was stored and several times had climbed a rickety ladder to give her a quick look. It was only when she was brought out for display that I realized how fine she was.

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Breton shipwright Benoît Cayla
Page 60

Free as the Wind

by Nic Compton • Photographs by Nedjma Berder

To an outside observer, it might all have seemed a bit chaotic, anarchic even. In Lerwick, on the Scottish isle of Shetland, during the summer of 2022, as many as 15 people at a time worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, to restore the 1904 Zulu-class fishing boat MAGGIE HELEN. They came from all over Europe—France, Holland, Italy, the U.K. They were boatbuilders, riggers, and mechanics, all with varying degrees of skill. They worked for free because they believed passionately in the project and wanted to see the vessel sailing again. Some hoped to join her at sea; others were just passing through and enjoyed working with a group of like-minded people.

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Rowing craft in the upper Great Lakes.
Page 70

Windows on a Lost World

by Owen Cecil

Generations ago, boats such as those on the waterfront at Birch Hill Hotel in Grand Lake, Michigan, shown in the photograph above, could be found at almost any lake across the Midwest. Today’s diligent seeker of small historic boats might find a weathered pair of oars at an out-of-the-way antique barn near Grand Lake, but finding one of the boats would be a far greater challenge. Unfortunately, little has been done in the upper Lakes region to preserve and document these craft; we have no counterpart to the historian John Gardner or to Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport Museum to celebrate the glory days of such boats.

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GREMLIN
Page 78

GREMLIN

by Jay Panetta

On a fine morning in early November 2024, Kathy and Ray Anderson arrived at the harbor in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. They were there to enjoy a cherished custom, a day outing aboard GREMLIN, a converted U.S. Navy motor whaleboat that has been owned in their family for many decades. GREMLIN is a unique and quite distinctive small vessel, and getting her underway involves certain time-honored rituals.

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