If you have been following my blog posts you know that I was offering to sell one of my guideboats. This was the latest of those that I have built and it is named Thankful after the wife of builder Caleb Chase. Caleb created the Queen Anne, the guideboat owned by my friend Susan and the boat that I have reproduced three times (a fourth is on the way).
It is hard to part with anything you have spent hundreds of hours creating. As with many traditionally built guideboats, the Thankful was called a work of art by many who saw it. Indeed I was quite proud of her and sometimes wondered how I was able pull it all together into such a beautiful object. Although I loved Thankful it was time to turn her over to others to enjoy. My hope was that someone would take possession of her who had the same passion for these boats that I do.
I need not have worried. Jon is the perfect new owner of Thankful. He grew up knowing the Adirondacks and guideboats and is determined that his children will have the same experiences. He was quite sensitive to my having to part with something that I had invested so much of myself into. Best of all Thankful will not be relegated to a stale “display” in someone’s Adirondack Camp never to see the water again. Jon will see that she is on the water often.
So the day arrived when Jon came to take Thankful to her new home. Here she is about to be put on top of Jon’s car.
Here is Jon tying down Thankful.
By now Jon and I are good friends.
And off goes Thankful and her new owner. She will stay in the Adirondacks in a camp among the Fulton Chain of lakes.
Next time; Thankful is re-launched.
Are names usually – or sometimes on the sides of guideboats?
Good question, Fred. Guideboat historians wish they were given names. It would make it much easier to tell who built them. During the late 1800’s when there were as many as 70 guideboat builders in the Adirondacks there was no attempt by builders to name their boats or otherwise identify who built them.
The Grants kept track of the boats they built using a “talley” board system. For each year of production it gave the date built, dimensions, weight, and the customer’s name. The boats were not named, at least by the Grants.
The Pryun’s named Anna Pryun’s favorite guideboat the Queen Anne. However, nowhere on that craft was it identified as such.
I have named each of the guideboats I have built by placing a small metal nameplate inside the gunwale up by the bow. I do it just so that as time passes people will know where it came from.