The whitehall's get restored

[sarafina]

Read this the other day and thought it was an interesting story. The Whitehall boats were dorys that were used to shuttle cargo, crew and passengers from ship to shore.

Before there was a dock of the bay to sit on, before there was a Golden Gate Bridge, there were the Whitehalls - the wooden rowboats used to ferry cargo and sailors to the Barbary Coast.

Read more: SF Dolphin Club group keeps Whitehall boats afloat

[deckofficer]

Sara,

We used a boat called a Monomoy double ended oar boat (like the Whitehall) at California Maritime Academy, had (4) hoisted out of the water inside the boathouse. Classes started by boarding, manning the oars and taking orders from the coxswain.

[minaret]

When my wife and I met at a local boat building school many years ago, we built a whitehall. She received much good-natured razzing because she had to fit the whiskey plank three times. It was a tough shutter with a lot of shape, and every time she carefully fit a perfect plank, steamed it, and bent it in place, it would crack. Some of the hood ends took multiple attempts as well, a lot of shape in those hulls. They are a real joy to row. The one we built was donated to Center for Wooden Boats and has since been in many Wooden Boat Festivals as a proud display of local traditional boat building.

[hummingway]

I'd love a Whitehall! If only I could figure out how to lift it on deck! There's a couple people who build them on Vancouver Island where they have a long history. The wood ones are extremely expensive. There is someone who does them in fiberglass in which case they're just very expensive. I'm told they sail quite well in addition to being excellent row boats.

[sarafina]

Yer problem isn't the whitehall is too big... It's just that ya need a bigger mother ship!

[hummingway]

And deeper pockets.