GLBBS Never Let Winter Get in the Way!

The first-year students had just finished their second major project, The Garvey; with a six-inch draft, an ideal boat for active duty  in the Les Cheneaux Islands!  The original design was by Willits Ansel of a 19-ft. x 7-7ft. Garvey-style workboat that was built at the Mystic Seaport Museum’s shipyard and used to move and assist larger boats in the Museum’s collection.  It is a flat-bottomed scow with a small outboard engine set in an internal engine well.  Using traditional constrution, it is heavily built as befits a workboat.  It has a large towing bit and lifting spars.  Our version is shortened to 16 feet.  An added touch, handsome but practical is the heavy rope for gunnel protection.  Commissions are available for the 2014-15 term.  Contact Pat Mahon for pricing.

The first major project was building a replica of an original Petoskey Boat Company 14-ft. rowing boat owned by John Young of Petoskey that his grandfather had bought in the 1930s.  In active use on Douglas Lake by three generation, it finally became a bit too leaky to trust, so was put away as a family artifact.  In commissioning the building of an exact replica, Mr. Young provided the school with an excellent opportunity for the students to not only build a fine wooden boat but to learn about preserving the extensive heritage of wooden boat building in northern Michigan.  The began by trueing up the boat…taking off all the lines and lofting (full scale drafting)…to accurately reproduce every detail including the woods used, hardware, oars, finished, etc.

The original Petoskey Boat Company was founded in the mid-late 1800s, later to be bought out b y business partners L.R. Merrill and J.S. Burnham in 1901.  They considerably expanded the facilities, employing 15-20 skilled wooden boat builders, and crafting a variety of rowing, sailing, and power boats at 150 to 200 in number a year.  Their largest boat was teh 80-ft. steam-powered passenger boat, contracted by A.L.Hamill in 1906 to be used for the Inland Water Route from Cheboygan to Topinabee.  Of course, history eventually took its toll, and the business faded away in the 1950s.  In the early 1990s it was reopened under the original name by a local boat builder and vintage automobile restorer, Jack Gardner, who employed several craftsmen to restore wooden boats and build new ones until around 2000.  Although no longer an active concern, the respected name remains on record.