From Tuning the Gunning Dory

VCB volunteers, including students from the New School Mariners Class, high school and college community rowers joined forces with community boatbuilders to roll over VCB newest boat in the making. The boat is a Chamberlain Gunning Dory based on a drawing of a 19′ dory by John Gardner, a famed Mystic Seaport boatbuilder. The hull is finished but there is still lots of work to do on the inside- inwales, risers, seats, foot stretchers. Then we have to sand it, paint it and name it. The New School contingent who worked on the dory as part of their Mariners Class have proposed that she be named “Gold Rush.”

Community Boatbuilding & Repair sessions will continue through the winter on Wednesdays at 3:00 pm and Sundays at noon. All are welcome. Contact Rob Buchanan or Sally Curtis at [email protected].

From September 10, 2014

The Village Community Boathouse (VCB), an all-volunteer non-profit located on Pier 40 in Hudson River Park, is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of a new 27-foot Whitehall gig named after Pete Seeger, the celebrated folk singer and clean-water activist who died last winter at age 94. The public is invited to a short christening ceremony at noon on Sunday September 14, followed by a free community rowing session open to all. As part of the launch, and afterward, musicians Jeff Turrentine, Lenny Fox and Brendan Malone will perform and lead sing-alongs featuring a number of Seeger’s best-known songs.
Whitehall gigs are long wooden rowing boats whose lines are based on those of traditional 19th-century New York Harbor watercraft. Built by students and community volunteers, powered by four oars, and steered by an experienced coxswain (or skipper), they are “zero-carbon-footprint” vessels perfect for exploring our region’s largest public commons: its harbor and estuary. Pete Seeger was familiar with these boats, and once rowed in one on a 1999 visit to Pier 40, and his organizing and boatbuilding endeavors (including the sloop Clearwater) have been a tremendous inspiration for VCB members. An annual boathouse tradition is to row 35 miles up the Hudson to Croton Point Park for the Clearwater Festival, where we also offer free public rowing sessions.
Pete Seeger will join a family of about 30 similar Whitehall gigs built and housed by a half dozen boating organizations in New York City, up the Hudson, and around New England. In the spirit of maritime hospitality and friendship, groups cooperate for racing and other events.
VCB was formed in 2007 with the mission of expanding public access to our urban waterways, introducing the public, especially young people, to the joys of rowing and sailing, and advancing the environmental stewardship of the estuary. From April to November we offer free community rowing, as well as high school and college programming, in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. Over the winter, we offer free community and student boatbuilding programs. New volunteers and participants are always welcome!
For more information and/or directions to the boathouse, visit our website (www.villagecommunityboathouse.org)

From Sheer Plank On

From BNY510

Here are some shots of the Benjamin Banneker Rowing Club assembling a 15-foot Whitehall rowboat at Building 92, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Museum and Visitors Center. The boat is roughly based on plans for a “New York Whitehall” that was built at the Navy Yard 150 years ago and is described in Howard Chappelle’s “American Small Craft.” Once finished and painted it will be used in VCB’s Prospect Park Lake rowing program this summer where families can take free boat rides, see their craftsmanship and learn more about the historical significance of this vessel.
The New York Whitehall was part of the Brooklyn Boat Builders Bash at the Brooklyn Navy Yard where students from Benjamin Banneker Academy and VCB volunteers invited the public to help sand and paint the hull. The event was a celebration of locally-made boats, community boathouses and Brooklyn’s proud nautical heritage.

From Boatbuilding 3-6-11

Click on the link to see a video featuring our own Rob Buchanan:
Building Whitehall Gigs Video

From January 19, 2014

It’s starting to look like a boat as plank #3 was glued onto the portside. The portside plank was used as a pattern for starboard plank #3 which will be glued in place on Wednesday. We had some new volunteers who worked with Dave Clayton on the gunning dory.