News, Stories & Photos

The sails were make by a small local sailmaker, Voilerie le Bihen from Bainbridge “écru” sailcloth – “classic cream” in English. They certainly complement the boat.

Erwan is hoping that Phine will be the subject of an article in the French journal “Le Chasse-marée”, which specializes in wooden boats and nautical activities in France. He is also planning to build another Penobscot 17 for a customer of his carpentry shop.

Our congratulations to Erwan on a beautiful boat.

The boat is in Whitehall, Michigan. You can contact Graydon at gmegan433@gmail.com or 630-303-1490.

“Finally Marsha and I are using the boat to offer weekly evening cruises and a picnic where we charge a couple $150 for 2 hours with all proceeds going to the local foodbank. We are booked for the entire summer. Thanks for everything.”

Congratulations, Jeff. We hope you and your clients have good weather and fair winds!

Chris Cunningham, the editor, has expressed interest in articles on the Bay Pilot 18, and the Jiffy 22 and Jiffy V-22. If you have built one of these boat, or have one, and would like to write a review article, please contact Chris at chris.cunningham@woodenboat.com.

I have attached a copy of the guidelines for writing an article. You will see that you get paid!

Take care in these difficult times.

I will be mostly out of touch while I am away. I will be back on November 18, when I will catch up on answering queries and filling orders.

Built using the West epoxy system. Extra heavy duty trailer with rollers. Maroon bimini top and enclosure. Custom swim platform. New Mercury 150 horse outboard motor. Boat and motor only has 1 hour of dealer testing and preparation run time. Owner never put boat in water thereafter due to health which forces sale. Boat has been tarp covered in garage since completion. Owner has dozens of construction pictures for viewing, wood samples, etc. for serious inquiries.

You can contact Paul at (989) 734-2393, or rspens@sbcglobal.net.

These two boats are the last at the price I have been offering. I keep a log when I am building them, and the time is surprisingly consistent from one boat to the next – always within a couple of hours. Although the work is mostly very pleasant, I feel that I need to do better. I have increased the price for a basic finished boat to $5,175.00, an increase of 12%. I realize that it’s quite a jump, but I think that it is still very good value for the money. I have kept the price for a bare hull at $2,550.00. The issue is that a lot of time goes into sanding and painting and varnishing on a finished boat. With a bare hull it’s a lot more obvious where the time goes, and easier to justify the price. I hope to be able to keep these prices for the foreseable future.

Last year’s resolution was to keep up my Facebook page. It didn’t last long – I just don’t relate well to Facebook. This year I have started a newsletter, which I plan to send out every two months or so. I think that this will be easier for me to keep up. If you would like to receive the newsletter, send me an e-mail at archhdavis@gmail.com. If you would like to contribute materials or have an idea for the newletter, let me know.

“That one sailing experience was in very light winds — I am a devotee of heavy winds from my days in Northern Ohio, so 4-8 knot winds were frustrating me. The thing is, though, that in those winds the boat sails very quietly. I was taken aback by how far we got on very light winds. We are going back to the coast in November in search of better winds.

“Mackeys Marina experienced something that none of the local crabbers could remember: a cloudburst that poured 8” of rain in one hour in the middle of the night. Some crabbing boats actually sank in shallow water. We got a nervous call from the marina that they were afraid the boat was going to sink. I explained that it had two flotation chambers, Styrofoam under the seats, and in any case it was a wooden boat. We went to the marina and found the boat floating just above the rubrail, afloat and with water draining out over the rail cap! The nice people at the marina had big bilge pumps; they had started to use one on the P17 but pulled it to save the (fiberglass) crabbers, as our boat was clearly not sinking. Part of what had happened is that our boat was next to a Tiiki Hut and water from the roof had come cascading into the boat. You can see the hut roof in the pics...”