A winter boat: a boat for simple, rugged exercise that’s able to live with snow and ice inside and forgive the dents of the wooden snow shovel / bailer in getting it out. The Piscataqua River Wherry that I used to row with Bill Gribbel was about perfect. An easy 4-knot boat when two are rowing, with a center removable seat forrowing single. Finished in oil with substantial dory-type framing, you did not have to baby the interior. Those cleats and dory frames that cross the bottom gave you good traction even with snow aboard. Removable seats made it easy to swing the snow shovel. Inside the harbor on a calm day after a nor’wester blew through. you could lean on the oars and make the boat fly. She was narrow enough to require good seamanship, but outside the sheltered harbor, she’d ride up and down the southern swells sweeping in up Penobscot Bay. A heavy sweater, lined boots, wool trousers, leather chopper mitts and a wind smock were what you needed on such a day when the glinting seawater froze on your oar looms.
. . . sign up to the right to get immediate access to this full post,
plus you'll get 10 of our best videos for free.
Get Free Videos& Learn More Join Now!!for Full Access Members Sign In
randall saunders says:
I was just in the bvi’s and in a harbor filled with multi-multi million dollar boats owned by the wealthiest people on earth…over in one corner near Biras creek there were three trimarans – one of them a Newick 50 now called Lucky Strike … May be the most beautiful boat I have ever seen.
Marty Heyman says:
After Mystic2013, RanTan! Got a chance to go out for a spin on the river practising “crew overboard drills” with Charles Wright on RanTan (the “beach cruiser” … which is more of a “beach screamer” I think.) Thanks, Ben.
Ben Fuller says:
Its about time to add a hard water boat to the list. DN’s are good and standard and fast, but there are others. Go back in time and find a big stern steerer and jump on with friends. Find out what a flicker is……. or go look at one of the highly customized modern boats that don’t require the driver to get a crick in their neck. Finest I have seen is one with a cockpit forward of the mast, like a fighter and about as fast.