SOLD – 18′ Noman’s Land Boat Email Listing to a Friend

Noman’s Land Island boat with galvanized L’il Rider trailer with spare tire and rim. 18+ feet overall length. Designed 1978 by F. Spaulding Dunbar of Chatham, Massachusetts. Built 1978/79 by The Apprenticeshop (when the Apprenticeshop was located in Bath, Maine, before moving to Rockland). Lapstrake cedar planking copper riveted to steambent oak frames on oak deadwood and keel, with mahogany brightwork trim and accents. Two rowing stations with oak thole pins and varnished, spruce oars. Ketch rigged with tanbark-colored dacron sails (each sail having a set of reef points) of an unusual, “Standing Lug” design, with solid spruce masts, booms and gaffs. White topsides, green bottom paint, gray interior. Two lockers with doors/covers, one aft, one forward in the peak. Flotation underneath seats on each side.

Always stored inside and professionally maintained.

There are three positions in which the masts can be stepped. The standard arrangement is for the mainmast to be stepped in the farthest forward position through the foredeck and the mizzen in the farthest aft position through the aft thwart. But there is another stepping position through the forward thwart where either of the two masts may be stepped, depending on the strength of the wind and the intentions of the person sailing the boat. This allows for the ultimate in versatility of rig.

A full set of construction plans including all detailed drawings and sailplan drawn by F. Spaulding Dunbar are available with the boat, which would allow future repairs to conform to the original design. This is a one of a kind, custom-built boat, designed and built to the highest standards, which would cost in the neighborhood of $70,000 to have built today. She has been cherished and meticulously cared for through the years, but is now in need of a new owner who will appreciate her pedigree. She may be inspected at the home of the present owner, whose address and contact information are given herein.

This boat was designed to be a replica of the boats developed and used for many years by the inhabitants of Noman’s Land Island, which is located just south of Martha’s Vineyard. Noman’s Land is no longer inhabited and was used as a bombing and strafing target by the U.S. Military for training troops for World War II. However, during the many years when people still lived on the island, they built, used and gradually refined the design of boats like this to fish and to transport themselves and their supplies to and fro between the island and the mainland, which lies on the opposite side of Buzzard’s Bay, where lie towns such as New Bedford and South Dartmouth (also known as Padanaram, which was home to an early Quaker settlement and is the home of the famous Concordia Company, known for its Concordia Yawls. 

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