These 76-foot racers were designed by the late Joel White and built at his Brooklin Boat Yard and at Rockport Marine, both in Maine. Beautiful things, they are meant to establish a racing class for a few serious sailors with deep pockets. At the other end of the scale were many designs of one- person kayaks that you can put on the top of even a small car and be on the water quickly, simply and at a minimal cost. A wooden kayak or canoe can be lighter than a plastic one, no small consideration when you re lifting it to the top of your old Chevy station wagon. Kayaks came out of nowhere a decade or so ago to become the boat of choice among thousands of people.
Wooden ones run the gamut from the strikingly beautiful to the merely utilitarian.
The full range was on display at the show. Part of the appeal of a wooden boat is that the ambitious can build one. Fiberglass and metal are too complicated for one-off construction, but anyone having a rudimentary acquaintance with hand tools can learn to build a simple wooden boat. If you need some help, there also were schools at the show, offering everything from weekend and weeklong classes to degree programs that take a year or more to complete. People who love boats the way they used to be could gaze longingly at a 1948 Matthews 38-foot sedan cruiser, a 1962 MacKenzie Cuttyhunk bass boat, a 1925 William Hand Picnic Cruiser, or the 1915 sardine carrier, Grayling.