17' Penbo Utility (1962) - CHELSEA

I’ve always been enamored with lapstrake runabouts since I was a kid. Mostly, I attribute this to the many glorious afternoons that I spent with my folks exploring the islands of Muscongus Bay in such a craft. Some 20 years later, in the late 80s, my neighbor invited me down to his barn to show me an old wood boat that he had just acquired. As I walked around the boat taking it all in, he described to me that it was built by a local outfit in Rockport Harbor and it was called a Penbo. I was immediately taken by the somewhat funky lines, mostly because they reminded me of my granddad‘s old boat on Muscongus Harbor. Several years later, and quite by mistake, I discovered an old Penbo for sale in a nearby town. Naturally, I had to go take a look, and I discovered that it was in a serious state of neglect, sitting on blocks with nothing more than a tarp over it. Still, I gave him $250 and dragged that boat home with me.
After about a month of gutting all of the rotten parts out of the boat, a good friend (who was the composites director at a local boat builder) replaced the rotten plywood running surfaces, and created a glass/epoxy pan on the inside of the boat, and also laminated a glass/epoxy layer on the running surfaces and up about 6 inches beyond the chine. Around the same time, I met a very talented shipwright who had come over from the Isle of Wight, and he replaced all of the rotten frames and strakes, and completely refitted the interior and deck of the boat. I revised the original seating to a “wraparound” layout, redesigned the windshield and slightly changed the original sheer of the boat as well. The folks at Custom Coatings did a beautiful job refinishing the topsides with Awlgrip, and below the waterline with a ceramic bottom paint.
After the first couple of seasons, we also fashioned spray rails that transitioned into a down-turn at the chine, which gained about 400 RPM, and did a much better job of keeping the water under the boat and providing lift.
I’ve had the boat for almost 25 years now, and she’s like an old family friend.