At Sam Manning’s memorial service, we learned that his and Susan’s beloved dory HOPEFUL OUTLOOK in which they rowed daily around Camden Harbor needed a new bottom and we’re delighted that Rockport Marine stepped up and was able to do the job. RM’s Tim Watts, with Susan cleaning and painting daily, removed the tired old wood and replaced it with new oak, cedar, and pine—up to and including both garboards. The work consumed a little over three weeks and the boat was launched on Veterans Day, 2019. A boat-lovers’ landmark, the dory looks grand all painted up and berthed again at the foot of the boat ramp off Camden’s waterfront parking lot. Surrounded once more by a string of tied-together cedar logs, she’s already for winter ice—and for Susan and friends to go rowing.
Here are the progress photos:
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David Tew says:
In 1975, as Sam was building HOPEFUL OUTLOOK, Malcolm Brewer was building a series of his 15′ dories in his shop overlooking Sam and Susan’s Camden Harbor. We didn’t yet know that one was on order from my parents as a wedding present for me and my wife. We loved that dory and named it NATANIS for Arnold’s 1775 expedition guide to Quebec up the Kennebec River. neighbors let us keep it at their Kennebec River dock from which I rowed it to and from The Apprenticeshop in its earliest days when I worked there. I wish we still had it but we sold it when we moved out of state and away from the water. However, it’s been faithfully reproduced in bronze for the Fisherman;s Memorial in Boothbay Harbor where we returned to live and can see it any time we wish. https://www.google.com/search?q=fisherman%27s+memorial+boothbay+harbor&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjqnrSr5Z_mAhVkkeAKHRBjAM8Q_AUoAnoECBIQBA&biw=1187&bih=779#imgrc=GMXQngb4mE1X7M:
Alan Houghton says:
I enjoyed that – thanks for sharing the story. Alan H
Andy Reynolds says:
Just when I thought I was done, having looked at and studied the photos of the rehab of the bottom, I discovered the real treasure…the plans, including offset tables. But wait! It goes on, and on and on!
The inclusion of SM’s incredible diary of the planning, design, and building of the boat is the best tribute to the art and craft of Sam Manning. His legacy of an amazing level of care, craftsmanship and art directed at the creative endeavor of building a simple but iconic small craft is what I come here to find, thank you Maynard. I never met Sam, but feel like I know him through the artwork he created over the course of a life, well lived.