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I found an old copy of Howard Chapelle's The National Watercraft Collection on the $2.00 rack at the local used bookstore. In it I saw the following photo of a catboat in Gloucester harbor. Needless to say, the sail caught my attention. This photo is most likely of Aqua Pura, a waterboat that supplied the Gloucester fishing fleet with fresh water. These boats were commonly catboat-rigged and could carry about 150 barrels of water in a wooden tank located under the deck amidships. The water was discharged into fishing schooners' water barrels via a hand-operated pump and a long hose, both of which are visible in the photo. In 1850, one waterboat operator in Gloucester sold $7,700 worth of water to the fleet at ten cents a barrel. Aqua Pura measured 36' in length and 11.4' in beam. She was crewed by a single owner/operator who painted advertisements for local merchants on his sail. Some of the waterboats carried a limited number of 50 - 100 lb cakes of ice covered in sawdust as well. Chapelle gives the hull lines and deck arrangement here: I just finished building Corel's kit of the Shenandoah, and this will be my first scratch build. The reason I want to build this craft is a bit nostalgic. My dad was a watchmaker who had a family-run jewelers in Southern California. I grew up in the shop. My dad and grandpa and brother all repaired watches, while I repaired clocks and did engraving and simple jewelry repairs. If you look at the sail in the photograph, you'll see an advertisement for a jewelers. I lost my dad last January and miss him pretty badly. I'd like to build this boat and put him and his shop up there on the sail. I may make some other changes to the text as well. That's why I'm calling this build a fictitious waterboat. I'd also just plain like to try my hand at scratch building. I've been watching other people's work and it looks like fun. I guess we'll see. I have very little idea of how to go about this, other than that I'll be attempting a plank-on-bulkhead version of the hull. I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions. Thanks for reading! Steve
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