Cottrell Boatbuilding – All in the Family

Host Rich Hilsinger and the OS Media film crew head to Searsport, Maine to pay a visit to the shop of Dale Cottrell and his family who have been building boats here in Maine since the 1970’s. The Cottrells feature both traditional plank-on-frame construction, as well as the more modern glued lapstrake plywood and epoxy method of building boats. Their customers can choose from a number of elegant small open boat designs – Whitehalls, wherries, Chaisson dory tenders, dinghies, yacht tenders, daysailers, in addition to custom boats. Each boat is handcrafted with the utmost attention to detail.

The episode opens with Dale sharing with our viewers the origins and history of the company and we also hear from Lynn Cottrell, the matriarch of the family who wears the hats of bookkeeper, business manager, advertising director, customer relations executive, and guardian angel. We’ll watch as Dale and son Ben are busy putting the finishing touches on a beautiful glued-lap Catspaw Dinghy and some of the steps involved in the ongoing construction of a glued-lap Chaisson Dory tender, both built with high quality mahogany marine plywood planking and solid wood transoms, backbones, and interior parts. They will explain why the glued-lapstrake method is forgiving enough to make the process practical and satisfying for first-time builders and if done correctly results in a tight hull. Both Dale and Ben offer good advice couched in encouraging language throughout the episode. And as in any efficient boat shop, innovation comes into play with the design and creation of homemade tools and jigs and the Cottrells have plenty to share with the viewer. Anyone contemplating building a fixed-seat lapstrake pulling boat may just find the motivation and inspiration to get started after watching this informative, enjoyable episode.