New Boat!

Family purchase: a 1927 Dawn 38’ cruiser, in need of moderate repair. This boat is the last of her kind, for the most part, and was in need of rescuing over on Lake Champlain. Not that this was a charitable acquisition; she has lots of potential and we’ll have a lot of fun with her. Dad will be going over later this month to put in a few new floor timbers and garboard planks. 

The Dawn Boat & Ship Company was a builder of stock cruisers and yachts in the 1920s, competing with Elco and others. Their yard was in the South Bronx, on Clason Point. At the time a lot of recreational boat traffic went past there, between New York City and Long Island Sound. The 38 was designed by Louis Kromholz; Charles D. Mower (designer of the Number Boats) also did design work for Dawn. Two 38s remain that I know of, but the other is actually 42’. Rozzy, as its called, had 4’ added to the stern at the factory. You can see Rozzy in “The Guide to Wooden Powerboats” (1998) one of those Maynard Bray/Benjamin Mendlowitz picture books. The picture at the top of the page is from an ad in Motor Boting from February 1928. I found it poking around in the ABM archives, but it turns out I had this one at home, too. I didn’t find much coverage of the company from the time, but it needs further research. If you want to know more, there is an article about Dawn Boat & Ship in issue 151 of WoodenBoat Magazine.

I went to see the thing this past weekend while I was in New York, and it is a big boat. We didn’t take the time to uncover it (sorry) but I did crawl all through it with a flashlight. It’s a project. So, wish us luck, and hopefully we’ll get you out in it later this summer or next.

Apologies to the many people I have advised over the years NOT to buy big wooden cruisers in need of repair.