Help Wanted
In our July issue, Editor-inChief Jason Y. Wood put forth a problem he was having in his Logbook, “Pale Gray Mornings.” Cursed with the luck of discovering a beautiful, wooden, 34-footer from 1970 named Chewink that had been put up for sale, Wood faced that age-old predicament—how to buy the darn thing. He put out a plea to readers for help and advice. What he got was encouragement, warnings, and just about everything in between. Jason,
I think the Chewink you are talking about was my uncle’s boat—he designed it and built it in South Bristol, Maine. Chewink was a family name and my uncle was not happy I used the name also—my Chewink has passed 110,000 miles, with a family circumnavigation (in 1987) and two trips out into the Pacific. She was a Hood design built by myself at my yard, Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding. My uncle’s Chewink was also owned by Craig Stevens, for whom we built a motorsailer called Ranger. That was the name of a wonderful Crocker design I grew up on.
The only other boat I know named Chewink was a lobster boat owned and kept by the Forbes family in Hadley’s Harbor, in Gosnold, Massachusetts. Long story short, there is a lot of soul and luck in the name Chewink. Jason,
glad to read that you fell for Chewink. The boat once lived in Camden, Maine, and was often the committee boat for the Yacht Club. Then she was sold to Craig Stevens, who lived some in Brooklin and left her in my hands (at the WoodenBoat School) when he spent a summer abroad in the late ’80s. I quite enjoyed her looks and spent some time tooling around on her. But that was when she had dual engines and was a bit of a mess mechanically. I think Craig did
— Cabot Lyman Owner, Lyman-Morse
Boatbuilding Thomaston, Maine
good work on her, and I know he was very pleased with how she ran after the rebuild.
— Ben Ellison Senior Electronics Editor, Power & Motoryacht Camden, Maine 2000, Duffy 37, Gizmo What kind of a wife would deprive her husband of love like that? Quite a nice looking boat!
— Ed McKenna York Harbor, Maine 30-foot Grady White Bimini 306, I have no idea of your financial state, but I can guess why you are drawn to that boat. I have long held that a great percentage of post-World War II boaters envision themselves at the helm of an 80-foot Elco, throttles wide open, triple unmuffled Packards bellowing behind them, and the Stars and Stripes snapping overhead. So, unless you have a million bucks available for PT 728 (no, it’s not an Elco) go ahead and get Chewink and live the dream.
Big Missy — Michael K. LeClair
Victory, New York
The friggin’ thing is made of wood, enough said.
— Tom Noonan Falmouth, Massachusetts
1987, 27-foot Albin,