Fall 1999 Newsletter

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A Great Year for Boat Building
Who says people don’t want wooden boats anymore_ Mike Browne, shop manager and boatbuilder, reports that Lowell’s has been very active this year. Ten new boats have been built, and fourteen more are on order.

One of this year’s boats, a 16-foot “Old Style” skiff, won Best Hand-Powered Boat at the Boston Antique and Classic Boat Show in September. Peter Gibb built this boat for a private order using a pattern that hasn’t been built since early this century. Designed originally as a working skiff, it has straighter, cleaner lines and a more classic look than many more modern, rounder, beamier designs.

Another new boat that Peter took great pride building is “the perfect boat” a 17- foot Salisbury skiff built all in mahogany and finished with varnish. It’s a boat “out of my childhood,” says the collector who ordered this beauty.

The boat that brought the greatest pleasure to shop builders, however, was the Salisbury Point skiff with sailing rig ordered as a surprise birthday present and built this spring for Steve Powell of Enfield, New Hampshire. Steve, it seems, had many times visited the boat shop and dreamed of someday owning a Lowell’s boat. His wife, Becky, and other family members decided it would be the perfect 50th birthday present and ordered the boat earlier in the year. Under the ruse of driving to a garden tour in Newburyport this summer, they “happened” to drive past the shop, where Steve was shocked to see a beautiful new sailing skiff decorated with a big “Happy 50th Steve!” sign. What a surprise!

Builder Peter Gibb put a number of special touches on this birthday boat, including inlay in the tiller and special carvings. The Powells had ordered the boat unfinished and as of this writing were finishing up the painting together at home and looking forward to launching soon. They’ll first sail and row on Macoma Lake, but Steve is already looking forward to sailing “The Surprise” along the coast of Maine next summer.

Let People Row! Lowell’s Opens the Boat Livery
After a lot of planning and a lot more work by a lot of people, the Boat Shop’s Livery of rowing boats opened this summer. For the first time, the general public can find out what it’s like to row a wooden skiff or dory in the beautiful waters near the shop.

The idea was born well over a year ago when shop manager Mike Browne sought a way to share the pleasure of rowing a Lowell’s boat with a wider group of people. The obstacles seemed insurmountable, however: the shop didn’t have enough boats on hand for the public to use, and even if the boats were available, there was no safe, convenient way to get people in and out on the water. In addition were issues of supervision, safety, other equipment, and administrative concerns.

Not known for giving up easily, Mike enlisted the help of Lowell’s Boat Shop Trust, lined up the problems, and went after solutions. The biggest initial expense would be the cost of building new floats for accessing the Livery boats in the water. The Trust pledged a grant to purchase the building materials and raised the funds through a special “Rotten Dock Fund” appeal. Trust members joined with other volunteers in April to build the floats.

At the same time, Mike had been working with Trust members and the Newburyport Maritime Society to work through complicated issues of administration and safety. With the support of the Society’s Board, the project was cleared to open.

The Livery boats came from a number of sources. Three came from adult boatbuilding classes, three from the Turning Point classes, three from Nock Middle School classes, and one from a Amesbury Middle School class (see separate stories).

In addition, the Livery needed life jackets and oars. A big issue was the need for a chase boat with outboard motor in case someone got into trouble on the water. Like a stroke of fortune came a skiff with 30 HP outboard donated by Charley Johnson.

On Memorial Day weekend it all came together, and the Livery opened to public and members. Boats available for individual or group rowing include the 12-foot Merrimack rowing skiff, the 15-foot Salisbury Point skiff, 17-foot Atlantic skiffs, and to 19 and 20-foot Banks dories. The cost was $12/hour for the general public, and rowing club memberships were available for $100 for individuals or $175 for families. The livery was open Thursdays and Fridays from 3 to 6 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 to 3. New rowers were taught how to row, and the chase boat was always present in case someone got caught by the current and needed help getting back.

Peter Ivancic joined the operation as Livery Supervisor for the season. With his expertise in emergency response and water skills, the Shop feels lucky to have found him. This fall Alan Salich took over when Peter resumed other duties.

One of the benefits of the Livery, Mike explains, is the joy of people discovering what it’s like to row a boat really designed for rowing, unlike aluminum skiffs, inflatables, and fiberglass dinghies. For being heavier and more stable, Lowell’s boats are safer, track better, and generally are more comfortable out on the water as well as a lot easier on the eyes.

One of those who took advantage of the Livery all summer long is Sally Dion (see accompanying story), who heartily agrees with Mike’s vision of what the Livery offers.

What lies ahead for the Livery_ Mike and Peter are already looking forward to next year and planning for a longer season with more hours open for rowing. Mike also hopes for expanded programming, including weekly rowing classes for kids, guided trips for kids and adults, nature- watching trips, and other special events. Stay tuned to watch this exciting program grow.

Lowell’s Boat Shop Trust: Letter from the President
All of us who have worked as Trustees or supported the Trust as members know of the extraordinary efforts that have been made to save the boat shop. First there was the purchase from the Odells which was made possible by the Trust for Public Lands. Then there was the integration into the Newburyport Maritime Society after which the shop was closed for extensive renovations. Recently, the challenge has been to resume the boat building operations and to expand our public program. As you read this newsletter, I think you will see that we have been successful in achieving this goal.

Trust members and volunteers building the floats for the boat shop livery.

Of particular note during the last year has been the pickup in the boat building business. It has often been said at Trust meetings that it is not a boat shop unless we are building boats. When we reopened the shop we picked up the slack in our new boat business by offering classes that emphasized boat building. By increasing our visibility at local boat shows and gaining greater exposure through our website, we are now increasing our orders for new boats. The entrepreneurial spirit of shop manager, Mike Browne, has been a great asset in developing this business.

The other major initiative during the past year was the new boat livery program. Getting the public out on the water in our boats has long been a major objective of the Trust. It is a key part of our educational mission and a helpful component in our marketing efforts. This would not have happened without the Trust. The Trust provided the funds needed to build new floats and to rebuild the dock. The Trustees also provided most of the labor and logistical support for the project. Many thanks are owed to Francis Culver who organized this effort.

In addition to these activities, we continued to offer adult boat building classes and programs for area schools. A particularly innovative program is a boat building class for adolescents offered in collaboration with Turning Point. We also continued the work of cataloging the collections that we received from Strawberry Banke. During the past year, the Trust has provided over $40,000 to the boat shop to help make all of this programming possible. We have also organized members’ events such as the barbecue this summer and the boat builders’ reunion this fall.

As most of our members know, the Lowell’s Boat Shop Trust is dedicated to the support of the boat shop. We raise funds from our membership and our Trustees provide operational support to the staff of the shop. The shop needs this support to continue to function as it has. If it is to expand its service to the community, it needs more support. With success there is the risk of complacency. To avoid this, we would welcome suggestions of persons who might serve on our board or become members of the Trust. I would like to thank everyone who has participated in making this a successful year for the boat shop and ask each of you to dedicate yourself to making next year even better.

-- Bill Perkins, President, LBST
To learn more about the Trust, call the boat shop at .

Frequent Rower on the Joy of Rowing
Of the many people who came to the boat shop to row the livery boats, none came more regularly than Sally Dion, who rowed virtually every day the livery was open, all summer long. An Amesbury resident who lives nearby, Sally walked to the shop and went rowing alone with her passion for the water and the boats. At an age when many others have retired and are taking it easy, Sally (who hasn’t retired yet) finds rowing a perfect way to stay athletic.

Sally Dion, frequent rower at the boat shop.

“What I like best,” she says, “is being out on the water but being in control. With no engine between you and the water, no one else running the boat, you really do become one with the water – it’s really your own experience.” And every day is different, she explains: even as you come to know the river and the shore, with the different winds and currents, everyday is unique. Special to her also is the relationship with the shop itself. “You’re not alone,” she explains, “you’re there with the boat builders and the others at the shop, you feel connected with it all, and the history.”

Sally was on the Lowell’s team that raced against the Salisbury Rowing Club this summer, although she says she’s not as fast now as she might have been when she was younger. Not that she’s been rowing her whole life in fact, she hadn’t rowed in decades before joining the livery. She tells a lovely story of how her grandfather taught her to row as a child in Maine in a tiny child’s rowboat he built from plywood. That was a long time ago, she admits, but says it’s like riding a bike: you don’t forget.

Look for Sally on the water next summer, and if you see her, you might ask for a tip on rowing with wind and tide. Like her grandfather, she surely has much to share with those newer to the experience.

The Tale of the Muskrat Dory
This summer an old dory was donated to Lowell’s Boat Shop, returning back to where it was built almost a hundred years ago. Clifford Harrington, Jr. donated the boat, explaining that it had sat in a barn for the last 80 years or so. “When I was a very little boy, my father lifted me up to look in the boat and said, ‘We’ll go out in this together one day,’” Cliford recollected. His father, Clifford Sr., had ordered between ten and twenty dories from Lowell’s between 1903 and 1910, though it’s rather a mystery what he did with them.

The one that was donated back to the shop, however, was used for trapping muskrats and the donation came complete with a muskrat trap as well! This handsome 16-foot Banks dory is very well fitted out with decking and make-and-break engine in a wooden cabinet. It will be cleaned up but not “restored” to working condition, as the shop will keep it on display as a museum piece rather than returning it to the water.

“One thing led to another and I never got out on that boat,” Clifford says, “But I took pleasure just looking at it over the years.” His gift will let others share in that pleasure now too.

Middle School Boatbuilding
Many people know about the Amesbury and Newburyport Middle School boatbuilding classes that have been held at Lowell’s in recent years. The classes have been a great success, and students and teachers alike feel it has been an enriching experience. What not everyone realizes is how well these classes meet the objectives of educational reform in Massachusetts.

The boat building process is valuable for the sharp, concrete way in which it poses challenges and rewards solutions. Few things are as satisfying as launching a boat you have built. In addition, boat building introduces a wealth of interrelated topics in a format that is accessible and immediate in a process congruent with education reform in Massachusetts.

Both boat building and education reform emphasize:

• Student understanding and use of knowledge, ideas, and inquiry processes rather than focusing on student acquisition of information
• Guiding students in active and extended inquiry
• Providing opportunities for discussion and debate among students
• Continuous assessment of student understanding, measuring reasoning, not just knowledge
• Cooperation, shared responsibility, and respect

Boatbuilding encompasses such a rich culture and history that the program can include a multidisciplinary curriculum involving math, language arts, social studies, geography, and science.

Rowing Boston Harbor
Lowell’s boats sometimes turn up in the most unlikely places. You might be taking your niece and nephew to the Boston Children’s Museum and glance down into Fort Point Channel and see a skiff rowing by. You might be taking some landlocked friends on a Boston Harbor cruise and glance back to see someone pulling across your wake. Or you might even glance out the window of your 747 as it takes off from Logan Airport and notice what seems to be a Salisbury skiff being rowed past the end of the runway.

In all three cases you’d be right: that is a Lowell’s-built Salisbury skiff being rowed around the Boston Harbor area. Jean Eisenstadt, who’s had her 15-foot skiff for seven years, rows the harbor year round, right through the winter when so many others have pulled and covered up their boats and sit around fireplaces dreaming of spring. “It’s very easy rowing,” she says, “very peaceful out there.”

Mike Browne and Cary Meyer of the Boat Shop met Jean at the Boston Antique and Classic Boat Show, where she related her tales of rowing Boston Harbor. She’s taken family members and friends, she explains, particularly enjoying introducing children to the water, but mostly she rows alone. “It’s enabling,” she says, describing how rowing became her “peaceful escape” five years ago after her husband died. You can hear the joy in her voice as she speaks of teaching her young niece how to row.

But in busy Boston Harbor, we wondered_ She did confess that once they were almost swamped when they loaded in too many people into the skiff and got caught in a powerboat crowd roaring around the Tall Ships festival. But mostly it’s very peaceful, very safe out there, she says. She rows around the airport and as far as Deer Island Light. She’s even trailered the skiff to Hull to compete in the winter Snow Row race.

But mostly she just likes the experience of being out there and rowing. “I love all of it,” she says, “even the routine of winching the boat out of the water and launching. It’s good medicine.”

Around the Shop

Boatbuilder’s Reunion On Sunday, October 17, at 1 p.m. the Boat Shop is hosting a reunion of boatbuilders who have worked at Lowell’s in the past along with others who have been important in the shop’s history or to whom the shop is important. Former Trust member Joanie Purinton helped organize the event. Mike hopes it will bring together a variety of folks that have ben involved in Lowell’s in key ways over the years. As of this newsletter goes to print we’re not sure exactly who is planning to attend, but it should be a great way to renew old acquaintances and make some new ones.

Classic Boat Show The Boston Antique and Classic Boat Show, sponsored in part by the Newburyport Maritime Society with Lowell’s Boat Shop, was well attended again this year and offered a wide selection of beautiful boats for the viewing. Organized by Pat Wells, the show’s judges included Olin Stephens and Tom Cavanaugh. Lowell’s-built boats present at the show included the “Old Style” skiff that won Best Hand-Powered Boat, a 15-foot Atlantic rowing skiff, a 16-foot custom inboard skiff with make-and-break engine, the 20-foot ocean skiff owned by Newburyporters Nathan and Megan Felde, and a 15-foot Salisbury Point skiff rowed year round in Boston Harbor by Jean Eisenstadt.

Boat Building Classes Starting the first Tuesday in November is this fall’s boat building class taught by builder Robert Elliott. The class will meet Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 for eight weeks, finishing before the holidays. Typically up to 12 students can take the class.

The class will be building something different this time: a Norwegian pram. At 12 feet overall and weighing under 100 lb., the pram is a pretty, smaller rowboat easily handled and launched by one person but with room for two plus a lot of gear. It’s a lapstrake boat with a lot of rocker to cut easily through the water, and it makes the perfect river rowboat or tender. Robert plans for the class to build two boats, one of which will join the Livery and the other by lottery to go home with one of the students.

The next class, starting in January 2000, will build a Salisbury Point skiff, and for the spring class Robert plans a new design, his own modification of a Salisbury skiff as an outboard fishing boat for lake use. Call the shop if you’re interested in any of these classes.

As Lowell’s classes have become more well known throughout the area, a wide variety of people have signed up. Robert reports an increasing number of women as well as learners of all ages taking the course. Many students are interested in gaining the skills needed to build their own boats, and Robert stays available for later consultations if they have questions. Other students just want to work with boats or increase their skills using tools. Although some modern power tools are used for cutting and shaping the wood, most of the work is done with hand tools in the traditional way. Traditional designs are used, of course, along with copper rivet fastening.

The Boat Shop is fortunate to have Robert Elliott teaching three classes a year. Growing up and getting his start in Downeast Maine, Robert has been building boats one place or another

for over 25 years, including at the WoodenBoat school in Maine and at Strawberry Banke. He’s always been interested in dories and dory-type boats, and hundreds of past students are the beneficiaries of that interest and his teaching skills. Lowell’s Livery now boasts some of his work for the public to enjoy.

Turning Point Class For the third summer in a row, the boat shop this year ran a Turning Point class in boat building for area youths. Turning Point is a nonprofit group funded by the state Department of Training and Development to provide career-related programs to adolescents 14-18 years old. Cary Meyer taught the 7-week class this year to nine students from surrounding communities.

The course focuses on career-related skills as well as boatbuilding, including responsibility, teamwork, and employment skills. Cary was pleased the kids were able to complete two 16-foot Merrimack skiffs in such a short time. These two are the blue skiffs you can row from the shop’s livery.

At the end of the course, a grant from the Mifflin Foundation provided funds to these youths to spend another week at the shop rowing and getting to know their boats better. Showing their enthusiasm and happiness with the program, six of the students came back for this voluntary extra week. “They get a lot more from the experience than just boatbuilding,” Cary says. “It can change a person’s life.”

Strawberry Banke Artifacts Two decades ago Ralph Lowell took to the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth hundreds of old patterns and jigs for boatbuilding. These historical artifacts have been returned to the boat shop, where a grant from Lowell’s Boat Shop Trust made possible their systematic cataloguing and storage. Peter Gibb has worked on this project through the year, which is nearing completion. This information is valuable for historical research and will eventually contribute to historical exhibits.

Thanks to Volunteers! Every year, it seems more people are stopping by to visit the Boat Shop, and often it’s a volunteer who provides visitors a tour of the shop. Mike Browne says they couldn’t run the shop and keep their focus on building boats without the valuable services such volunteers so generously provide. In addition to giving tours, volunteers occasionally help in the shop office, help move or launch boats, and help out in myriad other ways. Many volunteers joined Lowell’s Boat Shop Trust members earlier this year in building the new floats you see now in the water behind the shop.

Volunteers are needed in the future as well, Mike says, and may be involved in additional projects such as the bulkhead restoration or a planned oral history project. Please get in touch with the shop if you can lend a few hours.

Thanks to these volunteers who have helped so much this year: Pat Bashford, Ken Bass, Glenn Brenner, Bob Brown, Gail Browne, Tom Chamberlin, Jake Carnell, John Clemmons, Francis Culver, Ray Davis, Pam Elias, Kathy Flanagan, Herb Fowler, Chris Gwinn, Barbara Keeler, Bob Kellard, Ken Kuster, Clive Lee, Dan Lesser, Tom Lochhaas, Sam Locker, Hugh McCabe, Malcolm and Sally McKay, David McKinney, Eugene O’Connor, Bill Perkins, Laura Preston, Alan Salich, Jeff Samiljan, and David Terry. Sally McKay and Kathy Lowell helped organize and train volunteers for giving tours. (Forgive us if we’ve left anyone else out!)

Who’s Who at the Shop If you haven’t been to the Boat Shop in a while, you might not recognize everyone there:
Mike Browne, boatbuilder, came to Lowell’s first in July 1997, teaching a class and helping build boats. In July 1998 he was hired as shop manager. Mike’s contributions include getting the Livery started (see cover story). Mike got his start building boats at the Apprentice Shop in Rockland, Maine.
Peter Gibb, master boatbuilder, has been at Lowell’s since the early 1980s, building boats and teaching an occasional class. An expert in all phases of construction, Peter is also very knowledgeable about the history of the shop and building techniques. He also has been working on cataloguing the artifacts from Strawberry Banke.
Matt Billey trained at the Apprentice Shop in Rockland, where he built his own Peapod that he sailed up and down the Maine coast. He’s also worked in Rockland as a boatbuilder. He’s recently joined the boatbuilding crew at Lowell’s.
Robert Elliott has been a boat builder at the shop as well as at the WoodenBoat School. Presently he teaches the adult boatbuilding classes.
Peter Ivancic is supervisor of the boat livery. A member of a ski patrol, Peter has emergency response skills as well as extensive water skills.
Alan Salich, a naval architect, took over supervising the livery in the fall and is also doing volunteer work at the shop with the bulkhead repair and oral history project.

Inboard Skiff for Sale
Lowell’s is offering for sale a custom 16-foot inboard skiff with 3 HP make-and-break engine. With foredeck, mooring cover, and haul-up prop, this skiff is both beautiful and practical for anyone who needs to go farther than they can row. Built by Lowell’s, it was recently donated back to the shop. $6500 or best offer. See it at the shop.