THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509200217
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Come duck-hunting season, Charlie Seidel will be floating blind.
Nothing's wrong with his vision. It's just that Seidel has built a boat to sneak up on the birds.
Seidel launched his 12-foot ``sneak box'' last Friday at the Virginia Marine Science Museum, where he and two other men, also volunteers, had spent 18 months building the boat as part of a working exhibit.
``It would probably only take a month if someone worked on it everyday,'' said Seidel, a retired Navy chief petty officer, volunteer and resident carver. ``We just worked on it one day a week.''
George Loeb and Jim Givens helped Seidel build it. Made from cedar, it is designed to hold one person. It has a 4-foot beam and weighs about 200 pounds. The mast, the tiller and the oar locks, all detach and are stored below deck once the sneak box arrives at its destination.
The cedar glistened in the morning sunlight, its surface varnished to a glassy finish. That, said Seidel, will be short-lived.
``It will be painted duck-boat drab,'' he said.covered with grass once it reaches
The sneak box, though little-known currently, has a glorious history. The boat was first designed in 1843 in New Jersey. By the 1870s, the design had become so popular that the boat was being built and sent all over the world.
``People now don't realize it, but sailing was a very popular sport before football and baseball appeared,'' said Seidel.
Seidel had built two other boats for duck hunting, two sneak boxes and a sharpie. The sharpie has a pointed stern and bow and looks like an oversized canoe or kayak, said Skip Dore, a friend of Seidel's and a museum volunteer.
The launching of his latest craft took place at the museum boat ramp. Seidel and Loeb hoisted the yellow sail and headed southwest on Owl Creek. An 18- to 20-knot northeast wind aided the half-mile shakedown cruise to the museum deck. A chorus of cheers from museum workers and visitors greeted the arrival. Coming back was a different story. Seidel rowed.
Dore pointed out that the sneak box design was the forerunner of many popular sailboats. The moth, the fin and the laser are all descendants of the sneak box.
``I got the design for this boat from plans I found in Mystic, Conn.,'' said Seidel. ``A man named Perrine, who was an early sneak box builder.
``This is a true American boat, a piece of Americana,'' said Seidel, as he and his fellow sneak box boatwrights hauled it onto Dore's trailer.
Seidel plans to use the boat for recreation as well as hunting. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY EDWARDS
Charlie Seidel rows the 12-foot ``sneak box'' he built to the boat
ramp at the Virginia Marine Science Museum.
by CNB