The Newfound Wherry, which began in 2004 as a rowboat and now has an add-on sail package, was created by Michael Vermouth, the founder of Newfound Woodworks of Bristol, New Hampshire. The design went through several modifications of the sail placement and centerboard in 2007 but was laid aside in early 2008. When it was resurrected in the fall of 2022, I built the updated version—equipped with a daggerboard and a larger spritsail—with the help of the Newfound Woodworks team and the Chase Small Craft team of Saco, Maine.I bought the plans and complete kit provided by Newfound Woodworks. The kit came with a bundle of 18′ strips of western red cedar, northern white cedar, and Alaska yellow cedar for the hull; oak and ash for the tiller, keel, skeg, and daggerboard; a strongback and precision-cut forms; fiberglass and epoxy; varnish and hardware needed to build the boat. The plans consist of two 2′ × 3′ blueprints that clearly depict how the boat fits together, a 31-page step-by-step instruction book with dozens of detailed colored pictures. The large-format blueprints are generated by a computer-aided design program that provides information regarding spacing, angles, length, and specific assembly details. Building the hull upside down, the strips are laid from the sheer up to the keel, glued to one another and temporarily held in place with staples through to the forms.
Newfound Woodworks
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