Page 13 - AUG2025

August 2025
NEWFOUNDLAKELIFE.COM
Page 13
Alan, with years of experience as a custom home builder, might be seen milling, routing, and shaping the wood. Rose, skilled with pen in hand (she’s a calligra- pher), might be focusing on boat design. She manages the “office work,” as well.
Newfound Woodworks pro- duces “strip-built” finished prod- ucts and boat kits. Strip building involves gluing thin strips of wood together over temporary forms, “faired” and covered with epoxy and fiberglass forms. Some boats are made entirely this way, others are “hybrid”, a combination of strips and Okaume marine plywood. It is not hyperbole to say that strip building creates a beautifully dec- orative masterpiece. Additionally, by varying the different colors of western red, Alaskan yellow, and northern white cedar strips along the length of hull, deck,
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the United States. They have a special regard for their students. This is exemplified in the first launch of a student-completed boat. It is the student, not the mentors, who is honored with the boat’s first voyage.
Towards the end of my visit at the Woodworks, Rose spoke briefly about the emotional, perhaps even spiritual experi- ence one feels in the silence as one paddles a wooden canoe or kayak, about how the voyager can protect the environment while feeling at one with the nat- ural world. Then, as I was about to leave the Woodworks shop, I noticed what appeared to me as an unusually lengthy form for an unfinished kayak. I mentioned my interest in the length to Rose. She told me this work in progress would be her own kayak. She added that the unusual length would ensure a correct “balance” for her. Although she explained this in a matter-of-fact way, and probably meant nothing met- aphorical in her explanation, I could not help but feel the pres- ence of the cosmic “balance” so important in the lives of the Abenaki.
Captions: Alan Mann and Rose Woodyard, owners of New- found Woodworks; Alan and Rose prepare wood strips; the award-winning finished prod- ucts.
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and gunwale, the appearance of speed is enhanced. Some of the boats’ visual charm is elaborated with inlaid stencils depicting the symbols of the Indigenous peo- ples or of woodland creatures. Newfound Woodworks strip-built boats are recognized throughout the world as the preeminent ex- ample of wood boatbuilding. The boats have repeatedly won Best in Show at the National Boat Competition held in Mys- tic, Connecticut. Ironically, little known in Bristol, many New- found Woodworks watercraft ply the lakes and rivers of places as far away as Finland, Australia, and Chile.
Rose and Alan are not se- cretive about their award-win- ning work. They love to teach, to pass along their skills and in- sights. They have been holding workshops in Bristol and nu- merous other locations around
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