A Weekend with Boat People

One of the unceasing pleasures of working at Small Boats is meeting people who design, build, use, or simply love small boats. Through any given year I meet them individually in myriad places: at launching ramps, on the water, in boatyards, at gas stops on the highway, even in grocery stores far from lake, stream, or ocean. And then, from time to time, I meet many of them en masse, in one place. This past weekend was one of those latter occasions. For three days I crisscrossed Mystic Seaport Museum’s grounds and docks enjoying the company of boating enthusiasts—both amateur and professional—and soaking up the atmosphere of the 2025 WoodenBoat Show.

Photographs by the author

Ben Fuller’s boating kit: paddles, hat, PFD, and unseen but nestling within the traditional basket, a high-tech Maptattoo marine GPS

Rose Woodyard and Alan Mann of Newfound Woodworks brought a selection of their strip-planked canoes to the show and, for the sixth year in a row, won Best in Show in the Professionally Built Manually Powered Boat category.

On the water there were extraordinary yachts whose pristine varnish and high-gloss topsides gleamed in the Connecticut sun, while between them meandered the modest, unsung prams and dories, tenders and skiffs.

No matter what boat you come to the show in, sometimes the best way to get around is in a humble working skiff with a sculling oar.

AWOOGA, a Candu-EZ mini-tugboat with a light-blue hull was built by Adam Riso of Clinton, Connecticut. He was inspired in 2020 when he saw TOOT-TOOT at the show. Back at Mystic again, TOOT-TOOT, with the dark-blue hull, was built by Mike Magnant of Middleboro, Massachusetts.

On land, massive restoration projects in the Henry B. DuPont Preservation Shipyard contrasted with the exquisite craftsmanship of intricate strip-planked canoes and fine-lined daysailers. And spread out across the Village Green in the midst of it all were the amateur boatbuilders who came together to display their work in the “I Built/Restored it Myself” area. Among them, two 14′ mini tugboats sat not far from two 6′ 4″ Cape Cod Frosty sailing dinghies, which stood across from a modified Selway Fisher 14′ 6″ fantail electric launch, a Shellback Dinghy, a 14′ whitewater dory designed to run through the Grand Canyon, and a restored lateen-rigged Sailin’ Surfboard built in 1960 from plans published in the July 1958 issue of Boys’ Life magazine.

Jay Beauchemin built HEY JUDE from Richard Kolin’s 12′ Heidi design. He stretched the length to 14′ but kept the beam to the original 3′ 10 3⁄4″.

One of the Seaport’s Beetle Cats makes its way back to the boathouse. Beyond her, at the dock with her spritsail raised, is SANDY FORD, a 13′ 3″ × 5′ 11″ Woods Hole spritsail catboat.

And then there were the people: friends meeting friends; curious visitors chatting with knowledgeable exhibitors; delighted children sharing amazements with equally delighted parents. Newcomers savored words of wisdom from old hands: Roger Barnes—famed small-boat cruising sailor and author—shared small-boat cruising tips and anecdotes with a dinghy sailor yet to adventure out for an overnight onboard. Ben Fuller—frequent Small Boats contributor and one-time director of the traditional boat program at Mystic—discussed how to effectively reef a spritsail with Jay Beauchemin who finished the build of HEY JUDE in time for the show but not in time to go sailing. And Joe, a museum volunteer of many years, patiently and calmly directed from the dock as a new sailor at the helm of one of the museum’s Beetle Cats attempted to come alongside under sail—too fast, too slow, just right.

Justine and John Diamond built LARK, a 15′ strip-planked canoe designed by Bear Mountain Boats, from plans they bought in 2022. Newcomers to boatbuilding, they built her in reverse, starting with the paddles, then the seats, the gunwales, the inlay-design strips, and finally the hull. Added to their lack of boatbuilding experience, John had only ever once been in a canoe and had no idea if he’d even enjoy it once launched. “We built it on a lark,” says Justine.

During the WoodenBoat Show weekend, the Village Green at Mystic Seaport Museum is home to the “I Built/Restored it Myself” display.

To all who visited, I hope you had as much fun as I did; to everyone I failed to connect with, my apologies; to anyone unable to go this year but thinking of it for next…do it, you won’t regret it.