PERSEVERANCE (left) and GRACE (right)
Photos by Wilssa
Since 2021, Traip Academy, the public high school in Kittery, Maine, has run a boatbuilding class conceived and funded by the Wood Island Life Saving Station Association (WILSSA), also in Kittery, Traip Academy, and Lowell’s Boat Shop of Amesbury, Massachusetts. Using original plans from the 1920s, 72 students have built two identical replicas of 19′-LOA, 5′2″-beam U.S. Coast Guard transportation boats. The six-oared boats are planked with marine plywood and pine on white-oak frames. The classes, led by Graham McKay of Lowell’s Boat Shop and Susan Johnson of Traip with help from Peter Stockless and Tony Lee, took students through all aspects of boatbuilding, from lofting to launching, working with both traditional hand tools and modern power tools. The class has since built a Banks Dory and is currently working on a CLC kit and a batteau.
PERSEVERANCE, the first of the two USCG boats, was launched in 2022, and GRACE followed her in June 2023.