Another Mallette Lapstrake 14 has been found

Andre Cloutier of Ravenwood Canoes sends along pictures of an original Mallette International 14. Supposedly four were built around the Gananoque area of Canada before World War II with one known to be, at the present time, in the small boat collection at the Antique Boat Museum. This one has been stored under a cabin somewhere in the Canadian wilds, though it certainly looks like a good candidate for restoration. Unfortunately the owner has not been inclined to sell this Mallette.

I did a post a while back on Simon Watts building a reproduction of the Mallette with an intention of publishing plans at some point.

Some pictures of the current Mallette discovery.

Simon Watts building an oldie Royal St. Lawrence YC 14

Master boatbuilder (particularly in lapstrake) Simon Watts of Canada sends along some pictures of a pre WWII International 14 reproduction of one he bought back in 1955. From his email:

"Thought you'd like the latest photo on the I-14 I'm building in Nova Scotia. It's an exact copy of one I bought at the Royal St Lawrence Yacht Club (MontreaL)in 1955. The original was probably built (lapstrake) by W.J.Malette in Ontario about 1937. I suspect the lines were derived from Uffa Fox's Alarm. The old boat is beyond economical repair so I built new. The project will be featured in WB magazine (if I live that long) and I plan to publish plans and a building manual.It will be the sixth and final design in the Six Classic Boats series--you'll find it on Google. All good wishes,"   Simon

Simon asks for some information. Here is what my research has pulled up.

There were at least 15 International 14's registered as being built at the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club in the 1938 - 1939 time frame. I talked to Ian Bruce and he feels that they were probably built by the boatwright that Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club employed. (This was not unusual, particularly for the richer Canadian yacht clubs, to sponsor dinghy builds over the winter using their employees.) I also talked to Bruce Kirby and he remembers the first Montreal fleet as being home grown and not as fast as the Toronto Bourke 14's. As far as a Mallette 14, Emmett Smith of the Antique Boat Museum, who has one in their collection, has a record of only four Mallette's being built. My guess is this may be a Montreal copy of the Uffa RIP model that was introduced to jump start the International 14 in North America. It would be interesting for historical purposes to see the lines of the 14 as Simon has drawn up. They may give us a hint at the origin of this 14 design.

Pictures (Simon builds them upright, which I hear is the real way of doing a lapstrake boat):

If you have any more information about the Montreal 14's, add a comment to this post or drop Simon an email:

 simonawatts (with our good friends at) earthlink.net