Page 16: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2025)

The Path to Zero

Beating the [Wooden Hull] Drum

By Rik van Hemmen ven though there is still a substantial amount of wooden yacht construction and restoration out there, wooden hull construction has pretty much gone the

Eway of the mastodons.

To ? nd a new commercial wooden vessel project would be a quite a challenge.

Except if you happen to know Scarano Boatworks. Scar- ano Boats was founded by brothers John and Rick Scarano in 1986. They are located in an old waterfront fertilizer fac- tory in Albany, NY, and, too quietly, have built a variety of boats that boggles the mind. Their portfolio de? es description.

They have built USCG inspected passenger vessels, historic replicas, tiny experimental cruisers, private yachts, adventure schooners, head boat schooners, and billboard, hot tub, and solar hybrid electric drive catamarans.

Images courtesy Rik van Hemmen

Almost all the vessels built at Scarano were designed under the leadership of John Scarano. In an oversimpli? ed description, because they design, build, and operate boats, which is a unique

John mostly runs the yard, while Rick mostly runs their boat op- opportunity to look at the cost of boats over their entire operat- erations under the name Classic Harbor Lines. Classic Harbor ing life. To them a boat is a complete lifetime package. Not a

Lines runs about 12 USCG inspected sailing and power passen- sales pitch by a designer and a builder with a pro? t motive, to ger vessel in New York City, Boston, Newport, RI, and Key West. only pass the vessel to an Owner who will have to make the best

The vast majority of the Classic Harbor Line vessels were out what he has been provided. Moreover, they are completely designed and built by Scarano boats. While some look simi- unafraid to stray from the beaten path and to experiment. Their lar, all are original designs where the oldest vessel (a wooden experiments have run for over 30 years and the results are in.

schooner) is about 30 years old. The newest vessel, a 114 foot As long as custom wooden boats up to about 150 feet in passenger vessels that resembles a 1930’s New York City length, and properly designed and maintained, they are less ex- commuter is presently under construction in the yard. pensive over their life than aluminum, steel or composite boats.

The vessel presently under construction, I’ll call her Man- This may seem hard to believe, but let’s take a quick look at hattan III, is an evolution of Manhattan I and Manhattan II the construction of Manhattan III.

which are earlier aluminum passenger vessels that have a Manhattan III is a medium speed powerboat that will be similar retro appearance. carrying passengers in comfort and style.

However, the new vessel is being built out of wood instead She is douglas ? r epoxy strip planked on laminated frames of aluminum, and John has a very good reason for it. It is less with multilayer plywood bulkheads. She will be covered on expensive to build, more fun to built, and will cost no more the exterior with about 36 ounces of glass and her interior to maintain than an aluminum vessel. It will even be a little will be sanded and painted without further composite laminat- lighter than an equivalent aluminum hull. ing. It sounds conventional, but technology plays a signi? cant

John loves wood, but he is not sentimental about it. He sim- part in the construction. Since the entire hull is 3D modeled, ply knows that wood is better in this application and actually in the frames are laminated to a rough shape on easily devel- many other boatbuilding applications. John and Rick know this oped dimensions. Once cured, the rough frames are machined 16 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • February 2025

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