Our Books Schooner

Schooner

Building a wooden boat on Martha's Vineyard
Author: Tom Dunlop
Photography by Alison Shaw

Schooner takes you through the construction of Rebecca of Vineyard Haven, a 60-foot wooden schooner designed and built by one of the few boatyards in the United States devoted exclusively to the design and construction of traditional, plank-on-frame wooden boats.

WoodenBoat magazine calls this book “a feast for the eyes and the mind.” It will appeal to craftsmen, boat lovers, and those who love beautiful things made by hand.

Charlotte puts you once again in the extraordinary boatyard, the Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway. Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin established the boatyard in 1980 to design, build and maintain traditionally built wooden boats. In the process, so clearly defined in Schooner, they transformed Vineyard Haven harbor on Martha’s Vineyard into a mecca for wooden boat owners and enthusiasts. In Charlotte, Nat builds a 50-foot gaff rigged schooner for use by his family and friends. Through close observation of the everyday activities of the boatyard, the film emerges as a meditation on tradition, craftsmanship, family, community, our relationship to nature, and love of the sea.