I wanted to spotlight a blogpost that raises the interesting question that I’ve used in my title. And I’ll limit my answer to small boats: it’s about aesthetics.
The sleek launch Suwanee below (31′ loa x 4′ beam!!) (Notice Elizabeth standing waaay back by the stern.) celebrates a century since launch this year. Built in Clayton, NY, where it now resides at the Antique Boat Museum, Suwanee carries a four-cylinder Volvo engine. Could this design possess the same beauty if it were built of anything but wood? Frogma might think it a large kayak sporting a Volvo.
More wood: Chasseur, tender on Pride of Baltimore II, shows its intrinsic beauty, especially here juxtaposed with the versatile inflatable piled inside.
Next exhibit: Grayling lives a new life (built in 1915 in Boothbay 64′ loa x 12′ beam) after a career as a Downeast seiner and sardine carrier. I may have seen her pre-conversion 20+ years ago in Massachusetts.
Below, also in the museum up in Clayton is an Algonquin birch bark canoe built along the St. Lawrence in the 1890s. If I could spend a few months learning to build one of these, ah, …contentment. In 1975 John McPhee wrote a good book on a traditional canoe builder in New Hampshire/Maine.
I’ve owned a wooden boat and enjoyed every minute working on the wood, but I admit eventually, my coins were all spent and my friends thought me a fraud for never leaving the dock, and someone paid me to take possession.
All fotos here by Will Van Dorp. If you see a stunning wooden boat, send me a foto. From me, more wood later.
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March 21, 2009 at 12:08 am
thomas armstrong
nice
March 21, 2009 at 8:39 am
Soundbounder
beautiful boats!!!
March 22, 2009 at 11:27 pm
bonnie
That’s funny, that boat does look like it was built off of a blown-up kayak design!
March 26, 2009 at 7:48 pm
George Conk
It is about the aesthetics, and the sound of water on the hull as it cuts through the water.
I love having boats that people walk down the dock to admire. If you don’t mind sanding, wiping, and varnishing (it’s a great spring activity). And if you’re grateful that you are able to pay the craftsmen who love your boat and are happy to paint it and fix it (much less than people think) it is the way to go.
Remember that everything runs by the foot – haul out, summer storage, winter storage, painting.) Keep it small (mine are 17′, 18′, and 11′) and you can have a sparkling classic for less upkeep than a 28 footer.