After two years of painstaking restoration, we are proud to present the “Before” and “After” of the 1890’s Gas Engine and Power launch. Truly it has been one of the finest projects we’ve had the honor to restore and thereby preserve a piece of marine history. The gilded age launch, formerly known as Virginia, started as a naphtha-powered vessel built by a wealthy and well-connected east coast family, and was named for the wife of the owner, Virginia Stuart Mackay-Smith. From the glories of entertaining members of east coast high society such as the Vanderbilts, to the more mundane life of delivering mail on Moosehead Lake in Maine, she has passed through many hands and has endured as one of only a handful of launches with a sloop bow from this era. We wish her and her new owners many more years of gliding along in elegant style.
For a more detailed images of the restoration, please see the previous blog entries.
-
- Day one – August 2018
-
- Helm with hide-away control panels to preserve the style of the boat
-
- Our wizard of all things technical, Brian McDermott, who figured out how to install 21st century technology into a 19th century hull.
-
- Out the Door – August 2020
