It seems that every guideboat has its very own story. So it is with Sally’s boat. A friend of mine, Sally, mentioned that she had just sold her guideboat. My ears perked up and I asked her to tell me about it. She said that it was a small-sized guideboat that was the only build of a friend of hers. When I found she still had the boat I invited myself over to see it.
Here it is. It has been kept under a shed roof and is in fine shape.
Sally told me it was built by Richard Storm of North Creek, NY for his wife. He worked at the Gore Mountain Ski resort where he suffered a back injury. This rendered him partially paralyzed. He powered through his disability by building a pole barn and then this guideboat.
The boat is indeed a small guideboat measuring just under 12 feet (11’11”) with a beam of 37 1/2″. Here is friend Sally taking measurements of it.
One very odd thing about this boat is that it only has one rowing station. It is in the bow.
Note that the strap needed quite a thick extension piece above the gunwale to make it vertical. This is unusual since the gunwale should only need some minor planing to remove some of its upper surface to make the strap plumb.
The real oddity about this boat is the single rowing station, that being in the bow. It means that, to properly trim this boat, two people would have to go out together in it. Apparently this was the case since the builder built it for his wife and they would always go out for a row together.
This boat is one of the Raider class that I talked about earlier. Raiders were smaller guideboats that were used to get back into remote ponds and “raid” them. Here is a Parson’s built Raider that measures 14′ 3″.
Note that the Parson’s boat has two rowing stations just like its larger cousins.
Alas, the marriage broke up and Richard took the guideboat to Rapid City, SD. This was a mistake since the boat totally dried out in the low humidity there. Richard sent it back to the North Country where it was repaired by Bunny Austin to seal its many leaks.
Bunny Austin
Sally then took ownership of the boat and it has been living with her ever since. One further mishap with it was an errant pine bough that fell and punched a hole in the hull. Bunny was called upon again and repairs were made.
I built a lapstrake (not smooth skin) Buyce 12 footer. We built the hull at the Wooden Boat School and I finished her here in Indian Lake. She only has one rowing station and it is in the central boat.
Putting the sole rowing station amidships makes perfect sense. Sally’s boat had the sole rowing station forward. That means that the rower would always have to have a passenger in the stern to keep the boat trimmed.