Here’s another look at a WoodenBoat School sailing “classroom” that recently had several of us guessing – incorrectly – as to what kind of boat she was. WBS descriptions and some on-line research have revealed a few of her wonderful secrets.
She’s named “Petrel,” apparently after the seabird of the same name. Many of you probably know a lot about those fascinating birds that like to stay far out in rough seas. But I bet that only a few of you know a lot about a “Crotch Island Pinky” – which is the kind of bird that “Petrel” actually is.
Here’s part of the informative WBS description of “Petrel”:
“The Crotch Island Pinky is a 26’ double-ended open boat with a ‘cat-ketch’ rig and internal ballast. The type was developed in [Maine’s] Casco Bay in the 1880s and built in Yarmouth, Freeport, and Harpswell, as well as on Crotch (now Cliff) Island, just a few miles east of Portland. These boats were the pick-up trucks of their day, used for fishing and freight during the late 19th and early 20th century. Fast and powerful, their “easily driven hulls” and ample sail area made for safe, efficient work and travel among the rocky shores of Maine and beyond.”
Other sources reveal that large and small wooden “pinky vessels” or “pinky ships” were popular in the Gulf of Maine in days of yore due to their seaworthiness in rough seas and, especially, their ability to sail well to windward.
The “pinky” design called for bluff (almost rounded) bows and very sharply tapered-down sterns. The boats reportedly got their strange nickname from those narrow sterns, which some thought looked like pinkies. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 28, 2025.)