By Bryan Boyhan

When members of the East End Classic Boat Society marched in the East Hampton Christmas parade two weeks ago, they showed off their latest creation: a 10-and-a-half-foot little gem they boasted took “1,000 hours” to build.

Well, it may not have actually taken a thousand hours, but clearly it was several hundred, said the society’s president, Ray Hartjen this week.

The Sunshine Tender, a confection of white oak and white cedar with apple wood highlights, will be raffled off this Saturday during the society’s annual holiday open house at its boat shop on Bluff Road in Amagansett.

Now in its 12^th year since incorporating in 1999 — its third year in the boat shop they constructed with the same attention to traditional building methods which they apply to their boats  — the society has re-created a handful of small boats, mostly skiffs, that its members have crafted by hand, often milling their own wood to meet the needs of each individual vessel.

Sitting in the mid-afternoon winter light pouring into the boat shop overlooking the dunes just off the ocean, Hartjen had his feet up on a table while the smell of fresh varnish drifted up from the tender sitting in the middle of the room. Members of the society have been working on perfecting the details of the boat for the past year. In fact they started on the boat just about 12 months ago, after finishing the Tom Bennett skiff they raffled last year.

“She’s such a good boat that some say she’s strong enough to be a lifeboat,” said Hartjen, looking pleased.

He conceded they were a bit delayed this year, about a month off their schedule, as four planks adjacent to the keel had to be replaced because they were not gained — shaped and cut so they wood fit flawlessly with the adjoining planks — properly. It is, admittedly, a learning opportunity for the volunteers who work side-by-side with veteran craftsmen.

The tender and the other boats the society has crafted over the years, are based on designs that can be built using traditional boat building methods.

The Sunshine tender uses plans from Maine’s Duck Trap Press by Walter Simmons, which were pulled from the boat first built around 1915. It is a design that is popular “down East,” and ideal for the often choppy waters around Maine’s harbors.

“If you went to the port in Camden, Maine, all along the dinghy dock you would see boats like this,” said Hartjen. “The people of Maine cherish the value of a wooden boat, as opposed to these Clorox bottles we see so often down here.”

Outside the door to the boat shop lay planks of flinch cut Atlantic white cedar, rough and waiting to be trimmed and shaped by members who will work on the next boat, as yet to be decided. The tender is crafted by such wood, its planks steamed and shaped to form the gentle curve of its hull, white oak bent to form its ribs. In the basement of the shop hung a pair of knees cut from apple tree limbs and drying after just having been varnished. The branches from where the knees were cut lay splayed on a table upstairs.

“We’re interested in working more with apple,” said Hartjen, noting the tree’s natural bends are ideal for some parts of boat building. Also, it is very dense.

With the Sunshine tender it adds strength to an already sturdy little vessel.

It features a three-part skeg, with the stern post fastened to the skeg through a mortise and tenon joint.

“There’s a pretty hefty stem, too,” said Hartjen, pointing to the bow of the boat and the two-inch thick piece of white oak protruding up.

The overlapping planks of its lapstrake hull are not only glued, but also riveted, using traditional square copper nails. Hartjen points out the rivets pass through domed roves instead of washers. The nails are then cut and peened to be smooth and flush with the rove.

The tender is just one in a line of boats the members have made in recent years. They built the Bennett skiff last year, based on a design by a turn-of-the-century Amagansett boat builder, and had built a Bevins skiff as part of a family boat building workshop.

“Jim Ritter actually found a woman who owned an estate with a small pond on it,” said Hartjen. “She donated $1,000 for the boat.”

“We even built an Atkins skiff in my backyard,” said Hartjen.

All have been raffled to help support the society’s work at the boat shop. Hartjen notes the society welcomes new members who have a love for wooden boats and a desire to learn the craft.

Visitors to September’s HarborFest in Sag Harbor may already be familiar with the Sunshine tender. Nearly completed, the boat was on display on Long Wharf where members of the EECBS showed off a collection of the boats they have re-created or restored, and where they sold raffles for the tender. Already there are about 2,000 raffle tickets sitting in a drum in the society’s boat shop.

As a bonus, the Sunshine tender can also be modified and become a sailboat, with a tiller and daggerboard. In fact the mast step is already installed.

“We would be happy to be commissioned to do the work for the conversion,” Hartjen smiled.

Raffle tickets are still available at $5 each, or a book of five for $20. The drawing will be held during the open house this Saturday, December 17, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the boat shop at 301 Bluff Road, Amagansett (behind the East Hampton Town Marine Museum).

Visitors can also view a Beetle Cat, a 12-foot gaff rigged sailboat that was restored this year by members of the Society and a Herreshoff 12.5 built in 1921, donated to the Society and scheduled to be restored over the next year. Rowboats and sailboats in the Society’s collection will also be on display.

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