Ray Speck, Classic Whitehall

One of the advantages of going to the school is to be able to have the privilege of listening to Ray Speck talk about wooden boat building. This week Ray stopped to by to give us a slide show presentation on building a 14 foot Whitehall. The pictures and commentary were extremely detailed, so much that if you paid attention closely, I think you could build the boat.

Whitehalls are the iconic American pulling boat. They are a specialized form of wherry.

They emerged in New York City and, possibly, shortly thereafter in Boston in the 1830's. It is thought the name derives from Whitehall Street in New York City, though no one is sure.

The boats were usually used under oars and occasionally sail as fast harbor ferries and the boat used to take harbor pilots out to meet inbound sailing ships. They have a fine reputation as fast, easy-rowing vessels.

Most Whitehalls were carvel-built with white oak planking on an oak backbone with oak frames. (Carvel planking means that the planks butted up against each other, edge to edge).

Famously, John Wesley Powell used Whitehalls (built in Chicago for him) for his first trip down the mighty Colorado River in 1869.

Mystic Seaport has several fine sets of plans available for classic American Whitehalls. www.mysticseaport.org

The client for whom we built this boat wanted a Boston bow and a New York stern (characterized by it's fine "wineglass" shape).

Master Boatbuilder Ray Speck and the students in the 2007 Traditional Small Craft class joined the two iconic shapes on the loft floor, a challenging assignment, then, as the client wanted, built the boat as a lapstrake vessel to those revised lines. (Lapstrake planking overlaps, like clapboards do on a house).

Under Ray's supervision, the students built the boat of western red cedar planking on a white oak backbone and white oak frames. The transom was mahogany