I've had my eye on this sweet little catboat docked off the rear of Floyd Norton's boathouse for the past couple of weeks. I ran into Floyd at Depot Market yesterday and was glad to have a chance to inquire about it. According to Floyd, this boat was built by our own Manuel Swartz Roberts in his shop - now Old Sculpin Gallery - that happens to be diagonally across the street from where she is now berthed. Floyd says, "She's right where she belongs, back home." Floyd also told me that the boat was donated to the MV Preservation Trust (full Vineyard Gazette story: link). He also shared boyhood memories of climbing down into the boats as Manuel was building them and gathering up the wood shavings. "He'd give me a pot of copper paint and a brush - I thought I was really something."
Old Sculpin Gallery, the former home of Manuel Swartz Roberts' boat-building shop. The wide wood floor of the gallery still has the worn spots - in the shape of a boat - that reveal where Manuel's main work area was.
