"Mystery" Guideboat

I call this the mystery guideboat because although it is by a sure hand, we don't know the builder. Even the famed Dr. Sulavik, a man who has studied more guideboats than anyone else has, and has particularly studied the identifying signs of each builder, doesn't know the builder of this one. But it is a solid workmanlike guideboat in workboat finish and ready to go, needing no restoration. This is an unusual thing to be able to say of a boat offered for only $8000.

 

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Guideboat 2

An untypical, mint guideboat. I'm not yet sure of the builder of this one either. It is very likely a Hanmer, whether pere or fils I dunno. It has the varicolored decks, the unrecurved ribs, and the characteristic oarlock straps of Hanmers. But it is short, 13 feet and a little. It is light, being made of red cedar rather than pine (it's reddish in color for the same reason), and it is astonishingly unworn -- inused, virtually, the story being that it wasbuilt for the builder's daughter as a wedding present, and she capsized it right away and never used it again. Second owners hardly used it either, and not at all since 1970 or so. It has light spruce oars, no kickplates, and definitely needs to be stripped and varnished, a matter of $2500 or so at my shop.

Motivated sellers, price best offer over $10,000, and I think that would be a rare bargain. New guideboats cost $25000 or more and it is strange that such marvelous antiques cost so much less than "replacement" cost.

  

  

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Rushton Vesper #10

This is a very, very rare thing, a Rushton Vesper No. 10, a longer, wider, stronger version of the most famous decked sailing canoe from the 1880s and 1890s. I have never heard of another, and the No. 10 appears only in 2 of the Rushton catalogs, that of 1895 and the next. Whereas the usual Vesper, as spectacularly seen at Mystic Seaport and the Adirondack Museum, is 16' x 30", and could have cat ketch sail plans of up to 140 square feet, the No. 10 is 18' x 36" and (relatively speaking) bulletproof, with 3/8" planking and 5/8" ribs, and Rushton alloowed that it could carry up to 200 sq. feet of sail.

This one has no spars or sails. Douglas Fowler is keen to make the new suit. The spars are easily made, and Bob LaVertue (Springfield Fan Centerboard Co.) could make the appropriate replica hardware and perhaps provide a fan centerboard. This boat has a centerboard trunk, for a plate centerboard, but the original brass board probably went into the wartime melting-pot.

The steering arrangements are here, and good, as you see -- ll but the chains and S-hooks going to the rudder.The sliding seat is only partially origiinal. I think this boat was used plenty, long ago, but it was also carefully sheltered and it was built to take the use. It must have been spectacular, and it will be again. The mahogany decking will be gorgeous, and the Spanish cedar and white cedar siding still have great color. No broken ribs, no cracked planks, and only two garboard repairs, well done, have ever been needed. The coaming is cracked, not too badly, the cockpit covers are badly split but unimportant. The centerboard trunk must have spit a lot: it has been raised 3". Floorboards are good. Interior has been thickly painted, light gray. The old varnish on the outside is quite thick and intact. It would be nice to take off the decks and thoroughly strip her, in and out, and refinish; but you could put sails and a centerboard in this boat and sail it today, I do believe.

Myself, I'd have to sell the Micro, following, to finance that. And I may, though we all love the Micro.

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Modern Guideboat

This is a 10 year-old, virtually unused guideboat built by an admired contemporary builder, Joe Rector, and for sale at less than half the price of most new guideboats. More pictures are avilable.

 

Bolger Micro

This is a Bolger Micro, a trailer-sailer with a shallow ballast keel, which gives the boat great stability and leaves the cuddy completely clear of obstruction. I acquired this boat nearly new but without its spars, sails, or keel, without some of its flotation, and with a companionway and hatch not according to plan. I have built the keel, with 420 lbs of lead in it, made a new hatch and slide, put in the flotation, provided spars, and had Douglas Fowler make new sails.

Moreover, I put a drop-axle on the trailer, lowering the trailer frame a full 8", so now this boat launches and retrieves as easily and shallowly as the centerboard and leeboard Bolger sailboats I have had. It floats on and off the trailer just before my car's rear wheels touch the water. These boats have been built all over the world. The sailing shot below is of a Micro sailing in South Australia. The shot of my daughter cutting up an apple in the cabin is meant to suggest how roomy the cabin is, with sitting headroom for tall people on two long wide berths, ample space between, and no obstructions. Boat comes with an 8-horse Honda 4-stroke running perfectly. I think this is a good deal at $7000, about half what it would cost to build one and finish and equip it as well. But I have found that the market thinks otherwise. Your problem, if you want this boat, is this: It's certainly going to cost you more than $5000, and how much more will depend on the state of my affections, and those of my family. If you will take it to St. John, USVI (where it would be a blast), and make it available to me for 10 days each April, $4000.