Peapod From North Haven

Alton Whitmore built this boat at North Haven, Maine, about 1929 for a local fisherman. John Gardner bought her in 1966 and in 1985, after he and Bill Mills built a copy; John gave her to Mystic Seaport. His chapter in Classic Small Craft You Can Build describes the Whitmore building process, commonly used for both peapods and small transom-stern ten­ders on the Maine coast. It is like the old Whitehall method, where the sheer­ strake, the binder, and the interior structure go in the boat before she is planked.  Like most lobstering peapods, she has a heavy oak plank keel that needs to be steam-bent to take the required amount of rocker. Her layout is set up for fishing: she’d be bow-down without a load, stern-down when you reversed direction for stand­ing up and push-rowing to work lightly among the rocks. She has an inch or so less sheer and a bit flatter deadrise than the peapod John Gardner modeled.  From 87 Boat Designs by Ben Fuller.

WSP.7.124