From 2016-05-17

Village Community Boathouse boatbuilders, Marcel Dejean and Rob Buchanan collaborated with volunteers from the Brooklyn community to build a boat in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The 14 foot New York Whitehall Gig, is to be completed by this Saturday and launched Sunday, May 22 in Dumbo Cove (Main Street Beach). If there is time, volunteer boatbuilders can take the new boat for a brief row in the cove. The boat is destined for Prospect Park Lake where it will join the Village Community Boathouse flotilla and will be available to row every Saturday this summer.

Read all about boatbuilding in Brooklyn Bridge Park in the The Brooklyn Eagle story by Mary Frost: A Boat Grows in Brooklyn

Click HERE for a link to information about the Free Public Rowing program in Prospect Park.

From BBP 4/2/16

Our boatbuilding project in Brooklyn Bridge Park began Thursday led by Rob and Marcel with local Brooklyn volunteers Karen and Ed Price followed by another rainy session on Saturday with local volunteers Tristan, Sally, Noah and Byron. Going forward regular sessions will be scheduled Mondays and Thursdays, 4-7 pm and Saturdays from 9-noon.

The room is a little on the cozy side so for now we’re going to limit the number of volunteers to five per session and see how that works. If you want to sign up for a volunteer slot, this link will take you to a signup sheet; for now, I’ve just listed dates through April 16. Marcel or I will confirm with you by email the night before each session. You can also just drop by and, if there’s room, join in.

99 Plymouth Street is in Dumbo, right under the Manhattan Bridge, and in addition to the community room and park offices also contains the new environmental education center–info and directions here.

Let me know if any questions, otherwise hope to see you at 99 Plymouth.

Rob
917 656 7285

From BBP 4/2/16

Noah and Byron securing the temporary frames to the strongback

From BBP 4/2/16

Tristan manning the screw gun

From BBP 4/2/16

By Sally Curtis
Sally, Ruth, Chris, Marcel, Matt & Harry braved the cold on Wednesday to put the first coat of green on the Wherry and spile, cut and scarf a third plank for the starboard side of the 14 foot Whitehall.

From 2016-01-21

Chris, Harry, Marcel & Ruth painting the Wherry pea green.

From 2016-01-21

From 2016-01-21

Ruth smiling while spilling

From 2016-01-21

Chris holding down the batton

From 2016-01-21

Marcel showing Harry how it’s done

by
Sally Curtis

From Boatbuilding13

Now that the cold weather is upon us and the rowing season is over, VCB invites volunteers to join us at the boathouse to help build and repair our well-used fleet. We have two building projects underway : The Tandem Annapolis Wherry, a kit boat from Chesapeake Light Craft that matches the one we built a few years ago. This boat has been extremely popular especially with our Prospect Park Lake crowd; The other project is a 16 foot Whitehall Gig for our Prospect Park Lake program. We are also undertaking a complete overhaul of Whitehall Rowing Gig “Notorious G.I.G” built in 2008 by Rob Buchanan and his Lang College students along with VCB community volunteers. Notorious has been our most popular boat maybe because of the name but also because she has a reputation for being a fast boat. In seven years of hard use, Notorious has had little or no maintenance or repairs. The plan is to strip off the old clear coat, fill all the holes and dings and then varnish and paint.

From Boatbuilding13

Ruth & Yee Gee painting the Wherry

From Boatbuilding13

Phil & Marcel planking the Whitehall

From Boatbuilding13

Sally sanding Notorious

From Boatbuilding13

From wherry

A box containing a Chesapeake Lightcraft Tandem Annapolis Wherry kit was delivered to the VCB boat shop this week. This will be the second Annapolis Wherry to join the VCB fleet. The Wherry is a two person sliding seat sculling boat- meaning each rower rows with two oars as opposed to our Whitehall Gigs which are propelled by longer sweep oars- one per rower and have fixed seats.

Our first Wherry was never given a name- we just call it “The Wherry.” Now that there are two, they must be named. Wherry #1 has proved to be popular with VCB’s college community rowers among others in Prospect Park Lake as well as at Pier 40. The absence of wind, waves or current on the lake makes for ideal conditions to learn sliding seat sculling. Our high school rowers who are considering joining college rowing teams are particularly interested. The wherry also comes with a cane seat, parasol and picnic basket which would add to the historic authenticity of VCB’s Brooklyn program.

The computer-cut okoume planks are assembled using stitch and glue construction- the glue being epoxy resin. Like our Whitehall Gigs, the Wherryies have a “wineglass” transom so they fit in easily with the rest of the VCB fleet.

From 2013-07-31

Annapolis Wherry #1- Prospect Park Lake