A group of students at De Bootbouwschool in the Netherlands built the schools 114th boat—its seventh Catherine.Photographs by Bert van Baar

This group of students at De Bootbouwschool in the Netherlands built the school's 114th boat— and its seventh Catherine.

Bert van Baar runs De Bootbouwschool (The Boatbuilding School) in an old navy yard in Den Helden, a canal-laced city on the coast of the Netherlands. The boats he and his students have built over the 20 years since the school’s founding are mostly traditional, open, lapstrake boats for oar and sail, though not, as you might expect, inspired by Dutch designs. Bert has a fondness for what he calls “the American Style,” and among his favorites is the Catherine design, the boat detailed in Richard Kolin’s book, Building Catherine: a 14-foot pulling boat in the Whitehall tradition. Bert describes the Catherine as “sleek, tender, and gracious, and builds like a miracle.”
Like its predecessors, the 7th built by the school, took shape over the course of a nine-day class.

Like its predecessors, this Catherine took shape over the course of a nine-day class.

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