John Homer is a good friend of mine. We met while I was an interpreting at the Museum for Allison while as she built traditional guideboats in the Museum’s boat shop. John, although not a native Adirondacker, possesses all the characteristics of one. He is creative and resourceful and not afraid to do things he has never done before. A local magazine, LOCALadk, recently published an article about him that I will reproduce here. The article is entitled “I am LOCALadk John Homer of North Creek, Owner: Adirondack Rowboats Paddle and Oar”. Here is John as he appears in the article.
About two weeks ago I toured John’s shop. I found it spacious and full of all sorts of projects. John is indeed a creative fellow. Here is a general view of his shop.
The article about John in LOCALadk reads as follows:
“A passion for the rich history of the Adirondacks’ and a desire to learn more about it, eventually introduced John Homer to Adirondack guideboats. John soon visited the Adirondack Experience in Blue Mountain Lake and spent hours in the boat museum where he studied the lines, the technique, and the craftsmanship, (used to build guideboats) and knew he wanted to use his woodworking skills to build a boat with similar qualities. He followed down a path that that has allowed him to follow, learn and ultimately build boats he has come to love.
After serving his country for 22 years on active duty in the Army (many thanks for serving, John), and having been stationed at Fort Drum, NY, John and his family moved to the Adirondacks. He built his first boat in 2008 after buying half of an antique guideboat which was used to help teach himself how to build his own.
He also had some help and advice along the way from several well-known Adirondack boat builders. He is forever grateful for the knowledge and expertise each shared with him. The boats John has built are not, however, true Adirondack guideboats because he has made some modifications to them. He refers to them as Adirondack row boats. Here they are:
(I feel john is being a bit modest claiming that his boats are not Adirondack guideboats. He has evolved that craft into yet another beautiful creation. He is following in the footsteps of Willard Hanmer, guideboat builder in the 40’s and 50″s. Willard recognized that he had to use mechanical assists whenever possible to make a guideboat as economically as possible. It is good to see that the old art of building a guideboat is not static but has blossomed!)
Aside from the boats themselves, John makes canoe paddles and oars as well as oarlocks.
John works with Hornbeck Boats and creates all the oars they sell for for their rowing boats. At Hornbeck, he also works on finishing the hull of the boats once they are pulled from the molds. This stage of the process involves working with wood for the backrest and seats. A privilege I am sure he is humbled by is applying the telltale red stripe along the hull that has become a trademark for Hornbeck.
John also designs and makes his own hardware for part of the oarlocks. He does this using the same time-consuming and tedious procedure called sand casting. This is a metal casting process in which sand is used as the mold material. The sand is held in a metal box, cape and drag, which John fabricated.
This path eventually led John to the Adirondack Canoe Classic, or as most people refer to it, “the 90 miler”. Like its name implies, this is a 90 mile paddling (or rowing) race over 3 days. John participated in his first race in 2009, with a boat he built himself. He has raced 7 times now and enjoys rowing the race in a boat made with his own two hands. He has competed solo as well as with friends. (John told me of one 90 miler where the winds reached gale force. The waves in Raquette Lake were whipped up to four feet high. John said he had to look up one moment to see his friend in the bow and then down a second later to see him as each wave passed them by.)
The perfect Adirondack day for John would be to get up early and spend it in his guideboat/rowboat, fishing and exploring some remote pond or lake, where it’s quiet and peaceful.
If you are in the market for this type of hand-built boat, visit John’s website www.adkrowboats.com or check out his Facebook page : Adirondack Rowboats Paddle and Oar.”
John did make a beautiful oar and paddle bag for me as shown below. He is also making a carrying yoke for my guideboat Showboat.
Next time we plug the leaks in an old guideboat.
o