When Dick Vermeulen was six years old, his parents bought an 8′ wooden sailing pram and signed him up for lessons. It sowed a seed that would grow through the rest of his life. “My parents had a cottage at Green Pond in northern New Jersey. We summered there from 1951 to 1961. It was idyllic. Our cottage was a five-minute walk from the lake and there were kids everywhere.” Once he had learned to sail, Dick says, “I spent most of my weekdays out sailing and exploring the lake. The feeling of the power of the wind in your sheet hand, the little twitches on the tiller when changing course…I had total independence to go anywhere I wanted.”On weekends at Green Pond, there were sailing races and Dick won some in his pram, but when he was 10 his father bought a Sailfish and “racing got more competitive and was open to adults. My father and I would wax the bottom of the Sailfish before each race. I weighed about 70 lbs at the time and the heavier adults could never keep up in the lake’s light winds, nor get up on plane when the wind increased.”

Pygmy Osprey Standard kayak with paddlePhotographs by Dick Vermeulen

Dick’s first Pygmy kayak was the Osprey Standard, a popular kayak among paddlers of all experience levels. He built it in 2011 and still paddles it off the coast of Maine. Its cambered deck suits his size-13 feet.

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