I think I was about 24 years old. I lived in a rented house on the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Walking home one day took me along the shore of Lake Union with its numerous docks of floating homes; "houseboats" we called them. They were really houses built on huge logs and in fact the floating home you see in the movie "Sleepless in Seattle" was one of those I passed one the way home. I saw a sign over a dock. It read "Wooden boats for rent." So I went to take a look and I met Dick Wagner the owner of the business. Dick lived in a houseboat and had a fleet of very esoteric wooden craft you could rent by the hour. These included Beetle Cats, Norwegian lapstrake sailing skiffs and dinghies, one Concordia sloop and several lapstrake Whitehall rowboats. It looked like heaven to me and pretty soon I was a very regular customer of Dick's. I eventually rented the houseboat next to Dick's and I would watch the rental business when Dick was out of town or busy with other things.

I was cruising the lakeshore one day in a Whitehall and taking a look at the old S&S boat Dorade that was hauled out a Vic Franks. As I rowed past I was called over by Leon McKintyre, the professional crew of Dorade. I remembered Leon, I had sailed on Dorade a couple of times when I was in high school. "Let me see that boat," he said. I rowed over. He looked at the Whitehall. "Didn't anyone ever teach you how to row? Get out and I'll show you how to row."

It's good to row right. One day I rowed from the houseboat all the way to Mercer Island, about 10 miles roundtrip. On the way home I had the wind on the stern and it was beginning to kick up pretty good, so I stood up, unzipped my parka and spread it out like an REI, XXL square sail. I made a good 2.5 knots this way. It was better than rowing and the Whitehall tracked as straight as an arrow.

If you want to row and you don't want a wherry or a shell, the Whitehall is the ultimate rowing weapon. To begin with they look really good with a sweeping sheer and a beautiful wineglass transom. I suppose you could build them without lapstrakes or simulated lapstrakes, but they look best with lapstrake construction or molded simulated lapstrakes. The taper of the lapstrakes exaggerates the sweep of the sheer. The Whitehall has no rocker to the keel so it tracks well and this is critical for serious rowing. The entry is hollow and the run is fine. They are good sea boats and reasonably stable.

Harold Aune at Whitehall Rowing and Sail in Victoria builds beautiful Whitehalls and he has just introduced this new model that he designed to take up to three rowers. You can get the new model with a sailing rig with spritsail and bowsprit. The bowsprit allows you to carry a Genoa or you can tack a smaller jib down to the stem for heavier weather. You can fit rowlocks (that's what I call them, not "oarlocks") for three rowers or you can have two sliding seats. The advantage of sliding seats is that you get more of your body into the stroke and increase the effective rowing horsepower. It's like riding your bike with real biking shoes with clips on the bottom that allow you to get power on the back stroke. Once you get used to a sliding seat you feel inefficient without it.

The slippery hull form of the Whitehall makes it a good sailing boat. Maneuverability suffers due to the long keel but you wouldn't short tack a Whitehall anyway Ð you'd row. A daggerboard helps the boat get to weather. This Whitehall weighs 400 pounds and has enough beam to give it good load-carrying capability. The L/B is 3.9.

I see one of Harold's Whitehalls in my future.