17′ Rangeley Lake Boat

“The Rangeley Boat is a distinctive American sporting boat that has been in use on the Rangeley Lakes of Maine for well over 100 years, and was well known to past generations of fishermen for its numerous excellent characteristics. It was not limited to the Rangeleys, for by 1900 it was in common use by fishermen on the Belgrade Lakes, on Sebago Lake, and on other lakes in western and southern Maine.” from Building Classic Small Craft, Vol. 1 by John Gardner.

This Rangeley was designed by the Newfound Woodworks. It is based on offsets from the John Gardner book, Building Classic Small Craft. The original Rangeley boats were cedar lapstrake construction with ribs on the inside. Our version is cedar strip-built with epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth providing strength and protection.

This version of the Rangeley is 2′ longer and 2″ wider than the Rangeley 15. This provides a longer hull length and more capacity. If you are normally fishing or spending time on the water with more than one person in the boat, this would be the version for you. Many Rangeley 17’s have been built for Row Trolling in Wisconsin, where you can’t use a motor to troll for muskies and you want enough room for two rowers.

The Rangeley Lake Boat is featured in Susan Van Leuven’s book, Wood Strip Water Craft. Read John Michne’s review of this book.

About Our Kits

All of our kits are created as we get orders. Please email us (info@newfound.com) with your name, address, telephone number, and shipping address (if different) and we will email a quote that includes packaging and shipping costs. A “kit” can include everything or just certain items. If you just want strips, email us with the pertinent name and address, the design you are building and we will email a quote. We mill all of our strips here at our facility in New Hampshire to the highest standards after air drying the cedar. If you pick up at our shop, of course there is no shipping charge. We will shrink wrap your materials so that they are impervious to the weather. A kit can be picked up with a vehicle that you would normally use to transport your canoe or kayak.

The Rowboat Pre-Kit Includes:

“Woodstrip Rowing Craft” by Susan Van Leuven, “Cedar Strip Boat Building” DVD, “Applying Fiberglass and Epoxy ” DVD, and Strip Building Notes. This informational package is intended to give you a variety of instructional and reference materials that you will need to build a boat and is an especially good primer if you have never built with cedar strips and fiberglass. You can get the Pre-Kit first and then decide on a specific rowboat design.

The Rangeley Kit Includes:

Plans, Construction Notes, a CD of rowboat construction pictures, Coved and Beaded 6′ to 10′ Northern White Cedar Strips, About 30% Full Length Western Red Cedar Strips, Solid, pre-milled Mahogany Outwales, Scuppered Mahogany Inwales, Spanish Cedar Thwarts and Stern fan seat parts, Seat Hardware, Ash/Spanish cedar Stem Laminations, Deck Material with pre-formed coaming, oar blocks, Spanish Cedar transom materials, Fiberglass, Slow Cure, Low Viscosity, Non-Blushing Epoxy, Epoxy Application Supplies, and Varnish. CNC cut mold Forms for rowboats are NOW INCLUDED IN THE KIT PRICES. All mold forms now include Clamping Grooves for Stapleless Construction.

If you have built a strip boat before and are confident in your skills, you could build the complete boat from the kit package without purchasing the Pre-Kit.

E-mail us with your complete address and the design you are interested in and we will quote shipping and packaging costs.

Pre-Kits

If you haven’t built a stripper before and aren’t sure about the process, you may want to get a Pre-Kit first. This includes our “Cedar Strip Building” DVD, “Applying Epoxy and Fiberglass” DVD, and Susan Van Leuven’s book, “Wood Strip Rowing Craft“.