update: Sold – “Winer” Abaco Dinghy 4′ model
Our neighbor Winer Malone has just completed a 4′ framed Abaco Dinghy Replica.
SOLD $1,000 You may contact him directly @ 242.366.0311
“Winer Malone (born Nov 1, 1929), the last of a great generation of Bahamian wooden boat builders, single handedly crafted over 200 Abaco dinghies in his lifetime. Ranging from 10-14 feet, his boats were hewn from memory without the use of power tools, jigs or templates, and from trees he cut himself on the Abaco Islands.
Malone’s Abaco dinghy is open-hulled, single-masted with a small “banana board” supporting the top of the sail. “Scooting joyfully under sail across harbors and bights, Abaco dinghies are distinctive at a distance. Even at anchor they display a corky energy. Their design is as traditionally perfect for their intended use as is the Native American canoe.”
Before the advent of outboard motors in the 1950s, Bahamian dinghies often provided the sole means of transportation for fisherman, farmers, and visiting families, as well as the occasional smuggler and rum runner. If the wind died, a boat could be propelled with a single, long sculling oar off the transom. When fiberglass hulls finally supplanted wood construction in the 1960s, Malone’s Abaco dinghies remained in strong demand, primarily from American sailing enthusiasts.”
References
Baker, Christopher P (2001). Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Footscray, Victoria 3011, Australia:
Collins, E (2005). Winer Malone and the Abaco Dinghy, Maple City, MI: Good Harbor Publications.
Winer Malone, Cover Story, (1997), Wooden Boat Magazine, Issue 135, March/April;
Dodge, S (2005), Abaco: The History of an Out Island and Its Cays, 3rd edition, White Sound Press.