Gerald Trumpp, a retired automotive engineer from the upper Rhine valley in southern Germany, is a canoeist. For 30 years, he has owned an Old Town Scout canoe that he has paddled on local waters and across the border on French rivers. Sometimes he ventures out alone; sometimes he is joined by his wife, Petra, and their dog, Dipa. Before 2017, he had never built a boat—he’d thought about it, but never put those thoughts into actions. Then, in a boatbuilding class in Berlin, he built a stitch-and-glue canoe and was hooked.As retirement approached, Gerald dreamed of building a bigger boat and cruising down the Danube. In 2020, still seeking boatbuilding experience, he bought a Chesapeake Light Craft Northeaster Dory kit. Within a week, he recalls, he had the boat stitched together. “The kit was precise, and it was nice to build,” but it would be three more months before it was finished. “We wanted it clear-finished inside and out, and that took a lot of sanding.”

CLC Northeaster Dory at the dock with its sails up.Photographs by or courtesy of Gerald Trumpp

The Chesapeake Light Craft Northeaster Dory was the first boat Gerald built at home, and was the boat in which he and Petra learned to sail.

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