|
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
1830's Craft A Hit at the Atlanta Boat Show
by Thomas Stinson
|
ATLANTA, GA: Eight bucks gets you into the Atlanta Boat Show,
a fair fee for the suspension of reality. For $420,000 more, you can take
home a 94-foot, four-bedroom Sumerset Houseboat, with a slide off of the top
deck and twin Jet Ski berths on the stern. |
|
Speed freaks will wonder about the mysterious
$6 million Soviet-built C003 – ostensibly a rescue craft that goes 150 mph –
sold to a
German investor by some bankrupt Russian general and on public display for
the very first time. The massive hydroplane Miss Budweiser is here, hoisted
menacingly above the floor like some crimson pterodactyl. |
|
Aisle by aisle, Building C at the Georgia World
Congress Center is crammed with this stuff, 500,000 square feet of every
possibility offered up by Fiberglass, sail and the combustion engine. And
after hours wandering the acres of fishing boats, bass boats, bay boats,
pontoon boats, fighting chairs, luxury yachts and dinghies, one is compelled
to flee the place for the quiet of the hallway. |
|
Which is where you find Steve Kaulback, sprinkled with
sawdust as he builds a wooden boat by hand. Not just any boat, but the
honorable Adirondack guideboat, a rare and elegant craft that simply isn’t
being built anywhere else anymore. |
|
The five-day boat show ends tonight, and surely no one
has answered questions from more curious people than Kaulback, a
reconstructed Vermont hippie who has found a career portaging this famous
vessel from the early 1800’s to today’s boat-buying public. |
|
"This was an historic boat," Kaulback said. "It ought to
have a chance to go into its third century. And that’s what we’ve been
doing. It’s some 160 years old, and it’s still about the fastest fixed-seat
rowboat ever made. People are walking away from here just scratching their
heads." |
| |
|
 |
| |
|
Do not call it a canoe, however.
The Adirondack guideboat dates back to the 1830’s when the Adirondack
region of upper New York State was growing into a touring and hunting
destination. The traditional canoe design did not fare well in the windy
and choppy conditions and native outdoorsmen began building these
sharp-ended craft with a tumblehome stem design (angled inward and
downward) so the boat would more easily slip past the wind. The boat
also needed to be lightweight, because the widespread lakes of the
region necessitated frequent portaging. |
|
A popular early version of the craft was created by J. Henry
Rushton, a Saranac Lake builder in the 1800s, whose design specifications
were first spread out before Kaulback in a life-changing moment in 1979.
|
|
After teaching printmaking at the Pratt Institute in New
York City, Kaulback fled to Vermont in 1972, where he dabbled ruthlessly. He
worked hand-pressing apples into cider at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill.
(indeed, as he takes a slight bow, for a few years Kaulback was known as
"Mister Cider.") He then took a woodworking course when eventually led to
home renovation work. A forthcoming marriage 25 years ago prompted him,
seeking steadier work, to set up his own wood shop outside of Burlington. He
just didn’t know what to build, at least until he encountered Rushton’s
designs.
|
|
"To me it was all about the aesthetics of the boat,"
explained Kaulback, bespectacled and graying but hardly seeming his 56
years. "I wouldn’t have built the boat if it wasn’t beautiful." |
|
The classic Adirondack guideboat is suitable for framing.
The hull is fashioned of strips of Western red cedar. The ribs and stems are
made of spruce and the deck, 8-ft long oars, gunwales and seats are made of
cherry wood. The whole craft is then sanded (and sanded some more) and then
covered on the exterior with nearly-invisible fiberglass, the interior of
the boat being coated with epoxy and the entire boat immaculately varnished
with Imron, a clear-coat from the auto-industry. The net result is stylish
enough that Vogue magazine just ran a piece about Kaulback and his company. |
|
Some people come to Kaulback’s exhibition as if entranced.
Chris and Mark Kaufman of Ansley Park, looking for watercraft for a new lake
house, never got to the show’s main gate, spending their time gazing at the
half-dozen boats Kaulback had on display in the show’s lobby. |
|
"The boat-making is very good…but the carpentry is
overpowering," Mark Kaufman said. "It reminds you of the old station wagons
with the wood paneling, and all the oldies you see on Lake Rabun. It has
that character." |
|
For others, the pull is even deeper. Steve Donohue
owned a plumbing business in Santa Fe when he picked up one of Kaulback’s
brochures during a fly-fishing vacation to Vermont. That was nearly five
years ago. "I went for a tour of his factory," Donohue recalled, "and an
hour later, I walked out with a job and I’ve been there ever since."
|
|
Donohue has been at Kaulback’s side
throughout the past week, bending and gluing the cedar strips to the
hull.
|
|
Expensive? You bet. Fully built, cedar
boats range in price from $11,600 to $14,600. Kits, which require from
200 to 300 hours to build, cost between $3,200 and $4,350. Kaulback also
designed and builds Kevlar versions of his wooden boats. Depending on
size, trim and wood selection, the Kevlar boats range in price from
$2,000 to $4,500. |
|
In the early years, Kaulback was lucky to
deliver 15 boast a year. Now with a shop filled with full-time
employees, they may turn out 200 boats per years, perhaps 30 to 40% of
them being sold via the Internet. (The President of Rolls-Royce bought
one of Kaulback’s cedar guideboats off of the Internet. When he stopped
in to visit Kaulback’s shop, he asked, "How has the web worked for you?"
Kaulback’s laughed and said, "Well….. we caught you, didn’t we?") |
|
So it is that you can buy a dock system at the boat show,
and boating jewelry too, after you’ve taken a class on "Crank Bait Secrets."
And, just in case, there are no fewer than nine finance booths set up in
Building C to facilitate boat loans |
|
The boom only re-proves America’s fascination
with boating, with 17 million recreational craft owned nation-wide.
Americans lavished $30 billion on boating in 2002, and that figure rose
more than 6% last year, according to Melisa Malone of the National
Marine Manufacturer’s Association, sponsor of the event. And, that was
in a slow economy. "See you on the water," says Kaulback, as we shake
hands and he waves goodbye as I head out into the cool night air.
Indeed, see you on the water. |
|