In the mid-1990s, WoodenBoat set up a display at a large sailboat show in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Most of the vendors at that show were manufacturers of boats built of fiberglass. Our display, on the other hand, showcased two small wooden boats: a finished Shellback Dinghy and another one under construction. The completed boat was painted white in a brushed-on gloss topside enamel. The unfinished boat began the weekend as a stack of plywood panels, and by Saturday afternoon it had the shape of a boat—with the usual pre-painting holes in need of filling, glue scars, and plywood appearance. It was shapely, but homely.