Take a MALONEY ROWBOAT Home
Build a Gig Harbor Classic
Gig Harbor BoatShop at the historic Eddon Boatyard
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Build a 12’ Maloney rowboat with Gig Harbor boatbuilder Bruce Bronson. In eight 3-hour sessions at the historic Eddon Boatyard you, or you with one or two family members and/or friends, will build a Maloney Rowboat ready to take home for finishing.
Find out what's happening in Gig Harborfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Dates: Eight Wednesdays Next available start date: June 19. Call or email for future dates
Time: 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm (Eddon Boatyard 3805 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor).
Cost: $895 members / $995 non-members
Materials included
About the Maloney Rowboat
Harry Maloney built his slender flat-bottom rowboats in his over-water shop outside the entrance to Gig Harbor in the early to mid 1900’s. The word back then was that Harry Maloney “had the best cedar boats in the country.” “Which they were,” said veteran Gig Harbor commercial salmon troller Ralph Mortensen in an interview some years back. Ralph’s dad bought one for Ralph when he was just five years old, because “they were easiest to row and the safest” boat around. Ralph remembered that he rowed it at every opportunity from Gig Harbor up West Pass to Sunrise Beach to go fishing.
Boatbuilder Bruce Bronson’s relationship with the Maloney Rowboat began in the late 1950’s at the family waterfront home near Kopachuck. He remembers his older brother, who later rowed for the University of Washington Husky Crew, regularly rowing their Maloney boat from Kopachuck, across Henderson Bay to Minter Creek, up the beach to Penrose and back home to Kopachuck – an over ten-mile route. Years later Bruce disassembled the Maloney, made patterns of every piece, reassembled the boat and subsequently built a half dozen Maloney boats. Bronson says, “They are the best rowing, most easily driven flat bottomed skiff ever.”
The Gig Harbor BoatShop with boatbuilder Bruce Bronson, look forward to adding a new chapter to Harry Maloney’s legacy by perpetuating the Maloney boat story with you and your family or group.