John Robertson, owner and builder of the Golant Gaffer The GREEN BOTTLE on his sailing and boatbuilding background:
After a lifetime of racing, including two Olympics and two international team racing events, I turned to cruising in my late forties.
In our “Nonsuch 30”, we cruised for fifteen years including going down the Erie canal and Hudson river to a rendezvous around the New Port area. While on this trip we went into Mystic where I picked up the plans for “the Herreshoff Dinghy” plus the “How to Build the Catspaw Dinghy” arid I was hooked on small boat building. It became addictive.
Building the dinghy in our basement was great fun as I had the time and was interested in Herreshoff as my father owned one of the designs in the P class (18 tons). In addition, although I was in the insurance business, I always had the hand skills through my family.
After the above came a canoe mould followed by the canoe.
Then came the highspeed motor boat called the “Rabbit” designed by Ken Bassett.
After selling the above, I decided to build the “19’ Handy Billey” designed by Harry .—~ Bryan. This was a great success as we used it to cruise and Trent and Rideau canal system plus a visit to Lake Champlain.
By now I was retired and for some reason kept the “Classic Boat Magazine”, July 1998 which showed the “Golant Gaffer”. To me, it was like a mini yacht, and I knew it was fast just by looking at the picture.
Thus, with the time, I decided to go ahead which gave me a lot of pleasure. It turned out to be as I thought which is:
1. Fast in all breezes
2. Tracks well
3. Has a comfortable motion
4. Has a lovely profile
Being age 74, I wish to move on and possibly buy a small trawler called “RF-246” by Rosborough Boats in Halifax. Our plan would be to cruise in the Maritimes for a couple of years as our “Swan Song”.
More photos