16' Welsford Navigator Yawl (2016) - PUFFIN

Puffin is a scratch-built John Welsford Navigator. It’s the second boat I ever built. The first was a kit from CLC. I had no tools and, with the exception of the CLC kit, almost no woodworking experience prior to building this boat. It has a hinged hollow birdsmouth main mast. All the blocks and tackle are hand made with elm cheeks and lignum vitae sheaves. The rigging is all 3-strand New England Ropes traditional look and is hand-spliced and served. The decks are hand-laid white oak. The sails were sewn by me on my daughter’s $100 singer Fashionista sewing machine. I designed and sewed the asymmetrical spinnaker to represent the flag of the city of Milwaukee. Her color scheme is black, white, and buff, and was inspired by a trip to the Atlantic Puffin colonies in Iceland. She’s a dry and nimble little craft that I use mostly on Lake Michigan and the surrounding inland lakes.