Noank Pulling Boat

The Noank Pulling Boat is an open-water shell design by Nick Schade. The design has enjoyed a long development; we got to row a version of it in 2014. Now it is available as a complete kit, or in the form of full-sized plans for scratch-builders.

If you're looking for a sleek, fast sliding seat rowing boat that may sometimes be used in choppy waters, this is a great choice. At 18' long it's a reasonably compact package compared to a traditional shell, but has the waterline length for a real turn of speed. Meant for reasonably experienced rowers, the hull is slack-bilged and slippery. A shallow skeg aft provides ample tracking even while surfing.

The Noank Pulling Boat doesn't have the volume for a second rower or passenger, but a single crew could pack quite a lot of camping gear into the watertight compartments at the bow and stern.

The interior has been designed around this excellent drop-in sliding seat unit.

Built of cedar strips, this will be a stiff and light wherry, and a head-turner, too.

Designer Nick Schade writes:

"Noank is a village on the coast of Fishers Island Sound in Connecticut with a long tradition of boat building. I first visited Noank as a young child to go sailing on my uncle's hand built wooden sloop. At that time there were still hulks of wooden schooners moldering into the shore front. Now Noank is best known as the location of a restaurant offering a fantastic hot lobster roll, just hot lobster, melted butter and a toasted bun. What better way to earn those calories than to row up to the restaurant dock in a beautiful wooden pulling boat?

"The Noank Pulling Boat grew out of my desire for a fast, efficient rowing boat that could handle the chop of Fishers Island Sound. I wanted something elegant and easily driven. The Noank has two roomy storage compartments in the ends that offer plenty of reserve buoyancy or capacity to load up for a extended camping tour..

"Strip-building offers a great way to make a lightweight hull with an efficient shape in the water. I opted to rig it with the Piantedosi Row-Wing drop-in unit as a well-engineered, reliable system, instead of expecting DIY builders to to successfully build the equivalent by hand and still achieve the requisite stiffness and solid construction."

Our strip-built and hybrid kits ship with 50% Western Red and 50% Alaskan Yellow cedar bead-and-cove strips. Photos on our website and printed materials may show patterns and accent strips with walnut or other materials. Optional walnut strips are available and can be shipped with kit orders.