SWEET REMAINS

In 2017, Alexander “Sandy” Brown was given a copy of Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard, Michael Ruhlman’s book about the construction of the schooner REBECCA at Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. In the book’s step-by-step descriptions and photographs, Sandy was inspired about boatbuilding, and his thoughts turned to the small craft he had known in the harbor at another Massachusetts island, Cuttyhunk, where he grew up in the 1940s and ’50s.

The boats that especially made an impression on him were used in the quest for striped bass; two world-record-setting fish have been caught off Cuttyhunk. A picture on the wall of his home, hiding in plain sight, brought it all back: the photo showed Capt. Louis Ramos, an islander who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role in saving the crew of the whaleship WANDERER when it ran aground on Cuttyhunk in 1924. But now, what drew Sandy’s eye was the open launch in which Ramos was shown at the tiller. He was determined to build a boat of similar design.

The photograph is the only one known to exist of Ramos’s boat. No plans were available. For Sandy, it was the beginning of a seven-year journey to find a design for a similar open launch and build it himself for use in the waters around Cuttyhunk Island and the Westport River. He envisioned an inboard engine, a full keel, shallow draft, and an outboard rudder. After much searching, he was drawn to the elegant sheer of BARBARA ANNE, a design by Robert Steward published in his book Boatbuilding Manual (International Marine, fourth edition, 1994). She was an 18' 7" carvel-planked launch that was designed to be powered by a small inboard diesel, with full plans available from The WoodenBoat Store.

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