New Boat Launch

We are launching our newest boat, a 29-foot whaleboat! Built by student boat builders from Addison Wayfinder Experience and Middlebury Union High School, this project has been so exciting to watch come together. The morning will feature brief remarks before we parade the boat down the Basin Harbor and launch it!

Boat building at the Maritime Museum is an important half of our Champlain Longboats program. Each winter and spring, local students join us in the boat shop to build a boat to add to the Museum’s fleet. And in the spring, summer, and fall local students and schools row in our youth rowing league – practicing weekly after school to participate in seasonal races in Vermont and around the region. We normally build pilot gigs in our boat building program, however this year is a special year and our boat building students have gotten the unique chance to learn how to build a whaleboat, a traditional wooden rowing and sailing rig.

Learn more about Champlain Longboats and support this important program here: Champlain Longboats Boat Building and Rowing.