Launchings

This section of our web site, an extension of the Launchings department of WoodenBoat magazine, is dedicated to sharing news of recently launched wooden boats built or restored by our readers. If you’ve launched a boat within the past year, please email us at launchings@woodenboat.com, or post your news here.
(All posts are subject to approval and editing before being made live.)

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1351 Results

DUNWERKIN

Builder Name:

Kevin Stevens

Dunwerkin is our first wooden boat. It’s a 14′ square stern kayak made of cedar. Runs like a dream. I am proud of it although I just paddle. I didn't build it. That job was left to a friend.

KINGFISHER

Builder Name:

Joe McAuliffe

Steve Redmond's Whisp design provided the inspiration for Joe McAuliffe's KINGFISHER rowing skiff.

Brooks and students aboard the boat in the Japan House pond.

Honryousen

Builder Name:

Douglas Brooks, Dean Raffaelli, and University of Illinois students

Boatbuilder Douglas Brooks led eighteen students at the University of Illinois in building a 21-foot Shinano River boat, a traditional design from Niigata, Japan.

Andala

Builder Name:

Ross Lillistone

Designed by Mike Roberts of Headland Bay Boats in Brisbane, Australia. This is the Eve (short for “Evolution”) 16, a strip plank bottom and glued lapstrake sides, based on the same designers Green Island 15 Stitch and Glue version.Sail area is a gunter rig of about 106 sq. ft.

FLORA B.

Builder Name:

Flora and Andrew Cole

We launched FLORA B., a Chesapeake Light Craft Wood Duckling kayak built from a kit, on August 20, 2016, with great fanfare. Flora and her father built her over the course of a year of part-time (very part time) construction and finishing.

WREN

Builder Name:

Andy Bradbury

WREN was built on our patio in Chapel Hill, NC. It only took about 20 months longer then the 2 months I originally promised my wife. This was my first attempt at boat building and now I'm ready to leave my job as a nurse, head back to school, and figure out how to make a livelihood of it.

BLUEBIRD II

Builder Name:

Wayne Mueller

The Launchings section of WoodenBoat No. 225 featured Wayne Mueller's skiff BLUEBIRD, a 17′ 6″ design that Wayne based on Tom Hill’s Long Point skiff and Mark Murray's Sea Hoss skiff. BLUEBIRD was built from meranti and sapele marine plywood on sawn elm frames.

POMONA

Builder Name:

Nicholas Tonello, Kate Slocum, Leo Boivin

The Lowell Town Class was originally designed in 1932 as a safe children’s training boat. Today they are raced by Town Class Association enthusiasts in MA and RI.The Landing School undertook to build three of these boats in the 2019-2020 school year but only one was completed due to COVID-19.

BACK BAY PRAM

Builder Name:

Mike Spiridonov

Jeff Spira of Spira International wrote in to say that, “Mike Spiridonov just completed this 7′6″ pram to fish the many lakes he has up in his neighborhood. It was built using the stitch-and-glue technique [with] 1/4″ plywood, somewhat thicker than the plans originally called for.

EMMA

Builder Name:

Andrew Hamilton

EMMA is a 10′ Chaisson Semi-Dory, which I named after my favorite niece.Her hull was partially constructed there at the WoodenBoat School and I completed her over the next few winters.