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The
Hippest Accessory for a Weekend Power Outing?
An Old
Fashioned Boat
by
Robert Sullivan
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Who would have imagined, in this day of plastic, banana-shaped kayaks and
hysterical Jet Skis, that the Adirondack guideboat would be the boat of the
moment? Steve Kaulback did, and the idea hit him that day when - after
leaving Brooklyn, where he taught at Pratt, to get back to nature in Vermont
- he experienced one for the first time. "I literally stepped out of the
boat and said, "I am going to be a boatbuilder"
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Now a Vermont-based craftsman, he designs what he
calls, "Floating sculptures," his modern rendition of the nineteenth-century
classic. Meticulously constructed out of strips of cedar and planks of white
pine, touched with cherry, they are simply works of art. The $14,000 price
tag for the best Kaulback has to offer confirms this. (Though there are also
less expensive versions, ranging from $2,000 to $4,000).
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Katie Ford, President of the Ford Modeling
Agency, knows beauty when she sees it. Katie owns one of Steve’s 12-ft
boats. Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, owns two of
Steve’s boats; and John Cheffins, the President of Rolls-Royce, owns one of
the top-of-the-line cedar guideboats.
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A cross between a rowboat and a canoe, the
guideboat looks like something out of a Thomas Eakins painting. And it
really moves, too. At the Wooden Boat show, in Mystic, Connecticut,
it’s oars beat an outboard motor. Taking it out for a ride myself, I could
row upstream while feeling as if I were floating down. |
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Recently I flew across the continent, from New York to
British Columbia, measuring America at 35,000 feet by the places I would
love to row an Adirondack guideboat. First, of course, there was the Hudson,
then the Mississippi, then the Flathead and then the Columbia.
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Their website offers a 17-ft version which has
enough room for three, along with their gear, and in which you will sit on
natural cane seats with a cherry backrest. Or you could get a little
packboat, which Kaulback originally designed for his daughter. With any of
their boats, the problem is always the same, once you get in, you won't want
to get out |
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About
the author
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