Follow the Journey - "Schooner" Debuts

I recently ran into author Tom Dunlop, at Bunch of Grapes, where he was unloading a large box of his newly-published book Schooner.  As he was cracking the covers open (to add a few signatures), you could smell the fresh ink of the exquisite photographs by the amazingly, talented Alison Shaw.  Tom was beaming. An accomplishment that has been over ten years in the making, and well worth the wait.

The story of Schooner takes you on the journey of Rebecca, the artfully-built, wooden boat by Nat Benjamin and Ross Gannon (a pair of boat builders who have been likened to "rock stars" in the wooden boat world).  Rebecca is the largest wooden vessel to have been constructed on Martha's Vineyard, since the days of Abraham Lincoln. In the time-honored tradition of this dying art, Gannon & Benjamin's boat-building passion is more the process of a fine artist tending to his sculpture, than of fabricating a vessel that will actually have a purpose.

Beautifully-chronicled prose and visuals.  Another fine publishing presentation by Jan Pogue, at Vineyard Stories.

...as a side note, there is a noteable review on the Old Salt Blog which also mentions that Rebecca is now for sale.


Photos:  © Alison Shaw