Fish and Chips at Spaulding

Last November, a group of a dozen or so kids launched the product of the first youth boat building program: the 12-ft Norwegian pram named Guppy. Last Saturday, the second such pram was launched on what would have been Myron Spaulding’s 104th birthday. Work on Lightly Salted — which was named after the team’s favorite snack: Kettle Chips — began shortly after Guppy‘s launch, and the kids were not only mentored by adult boatwrights, but graduates of the first youth boat building program. "They were a lot better than we were," noted Sausalito’s Annarose Leff, 13. We’re betting that the next crop of young boatbuilders — who will be working on a 16-ft lapstrake boat originally designed by Myron Spaulding, and updated by Tom Wylie — will be saying the same thing about Annarose.

For more on the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center and their youth program — which is run in cooperation with 4-H and Big Brothers/Big Sisters — go to www.spauldingcenter.org.