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Saturday 23 April 2011

The Cortez Melonseed


Max told you of the Melonseed Nancy Lee from Indiana. There is a development of this diminutive 13 foot duck boat in Florida designed by Roger Allen. It is called the 16 footer, but is actually 15.5 feet long, over-all.







Mick Wick, who is the publisher of the quarterly journal of the Traditional Small Craft Association and an avid Melonseed fan, sent me some photos of himself defeating all comers in a recent race celebrating the sixth Great Florida Gulf Coast Small Craft Festival in a borrowed Melonseed, YeeHaw.



Mike is busy building his own Melonseed, so we've invited him to check in when he's done.



The next set of photos are of the Marshcat Comfort belonging to Doug Oeller, a friend of Mike's, also entered in the same "race".

A bit larger, it is another modern adaptation of the traditional shallow draft hunting and fishing designs from the Delaware River Basin, just south of New York City.














If you'd like to know more about these historic gaff rigged "duck boats" please visit the Traditional Small Craft of New Jersey and the Delaware River Basin.

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