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Doubleclick enlarges. Note the NYC skyline above the Staten Island horizon to the right.
Baykeeper the organization uses this 30′ skiff made with
cedar planks over oak
frames as their patrol craft.
See the builder’s name stamped into metal on the upper left. The Pedersen family has built wooden skiffs in Keyport (pearl of the Raritan Bayshore) for three generations. This Star Ledger article from a few years back shows work in the Pedersen shop.
The top foto comes thanks to Andy Willner; the others by Will Van Dorp. NY/NJ Baykeeper has a Facebook page, as does American Littoral Society.
Related: Riverkeeper also has a wooden patrol boat, I. Ian Fletcher, which I wrote about here back in 2008.
Lots of references to Keyport and Raritan Bay can be found in Mark Kurlansky’s The Big Oyster, which I’m rereading. I’ve also recently read Jack Jeandron’s Keyport.
George Conk recently posted about Henry Hild, asking whether it was the last wooden workboat in the sixth boro. I know of at least one, R. Ian Fletcher, shown below. Fletcher has its own blog here.
What I recall from speaking with Captain John Lipscomb is that Fletcher began life on Delaware Bay as a patrol boat on commercial shellfish beds.
Anyone know of other wooden workboats?
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