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Grand Marais resident Mark Morgan built this spiffy sailboat over the fall, winter and spring and will show it at the North House Folk School Wooden Boat show this weekend. Photo courtesy of Bill Hansen
A casual breakfast conversation between former Scout leaders led to Mark Morgan’s boat-building hobby. A hobby that led him to spend the last ten months constructing a 20-foot-long, six-and-a-half foot-wide sailboat that will be shown this weekend at the North House Wooden Boat Show.
From Roberts, Wisconsin, the retired 3M Engineer and his wife have lived in Cook County for the past seven years.
“After our kids had grown up, a bunch of us Scout leaders continued meeting for breakfast, and one day one of them said he would like to build a canoe. We thought that was a great idea and we found people who knew what they were doing to help us,” Mark said, adding he enjoyed the process so much he never quit. And since then, he has handcrafted 20 canoes and three kayaks. But this was his first sailboat.
“I started on it last September and worked on it almost every day since,” he said. The boat’s first emersion into the water happened last week on Lake Superior.
When asked if he knew how to sail, Mark laughed, “No. Not really. I’m learning how to sail. I volunteered as a deck hand on the Hjordis a few times, but I have a lot more to learn about sailing.”
Mark’s sailboat is fashioned from marine plywood, cherry, and mahogany, and the mast is made from Cook County White Pine from North House Folk School instructor Peter Henrickson.
The sturdy little craft was built at his house near the Pincushion Mountain trails. He and his wife have a ski/hiking trail running through their property, which is handy. “We enjoy cross country skiing, hiking, canoeing, and camping,” Mark said.
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