Great Machines: Hiawatha on the Hudson

Robert Farago

06/02/2004

The Adirondack Guideboat
I  have clambered aboard some of the world’s most extreme powerboats, but I have never felt as much fear getting into a vessel as I did when lowering myself into an Adirondack Guideboat. Central to my trepidation was the temperature of the water supporting the 16-foot cedar hull—it was only a few degrees above freezing. One wrong move—easy to make when positioning your body in a 72-pound boat with a 39.5-inch beam—and I could have become an unintentional member of the Polar Bear Club.

Luckily, David Rosen, co-owner of Adirondack Guideboat, had a firm grip on the guideboat’s polished cherry gunwales. As I found my balance, pushed off, and began my first tentative strokes, I realized that even if my wintertime New England rowing adventure was insane, at least I had an excuse: I was in love. (Click image to enlarge)

“It happens all the time,” Rosen said later, in a decidedly warmer setting. “People see one of our cedar guideboats at a show and zone out. It reminds them of fishing with grandpa at the lake or a little boat they made when they were kids.”

The Adirondack Guideboat also reminds people of a canoe—which it is not. Although both vessels have a roughly similar shape, a guideboat’s hull sits much deeper in the water than a canoe’s. The guideboat’s less prominent profile reduces its susceptibility to side winds, and the lower center of gravity—occupants sit approximately 8 inches lower than they would in a canoe—also increases overall stability. In anything other than a fast-flowing river, a guideboat has an unassailable edge over its more famous cousin.

Backwoods boatbuilders developed the guideboat’s unique design in New York’s Adirondacks in the 1830s. They created the craft for hunting and fishing guides who plied the region’s innumerable lakes and rivers. A guideboat had to be light enough to be carried over treacherous portages, stable in rough weather, capable of accommodating two men and their supplies, and quick enough to travel from a camp to distant hunting grounds and back.

Actually, “quick” doesn’t quite cover it. As I gradually got the measure of the guideboat, I could easily believe Rosen’s claim that his company builds the world’s fastest fixed-seat rowboats. The guideboat leaped forward with each stroke, its prow cleaving the murky waters of Providence Harbor, R.I., with sublime grace and effortless efficiency. No wonder guideboats have won the Blackburn Challenge, a 22-mile open-ocean rowing race around Massachusetts’ Cape Anne, for six years running. (Click image to enlarge)

That said, a cedar Adirondack Guideboat isn’t all about speed and stamina. Most owners enjoy their boats on lazy summer days. They report that the experience becomes a family tradition, the boat a treasured family heirloom. And it should be—the company builds just 10 cedar guideboats per year. The 16-foot version costs $12,800, complete with 8-foot cherry oars. Let the memories begin. 

Adirondack Guideboat
866.425.3926
www.adirondack-guide-boat.com