Sail Boston 2026 transformed Boston Harbor into a breathtaking maritime stage from July 11 to July 16, serving as a landmark event in the nation’s Sail250® celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the United States. Highlighting the festivities was the iconic Parade of Sail led by the historic USS Constitution, which escorted dozens of majestic tall ships and naval vessels from over 25 countries into the harbor channel. Throughout the week, hundreds of thousands of visitors gathered along the waterfront - from Castle Island and Fan Pier to the Seaport District - to tour the historic decks, take in evening fireworks displays, meet international crews, and enjoy live music and local food at the waterfront Sail Boston Festival.

The 34th Annual WoodenBoat Show, held in partnership with WoodenBoat Publications, took place along the historic waterfront campus of the Mystic Seaport Museum from June 26–28, 2026.
The three-day event celebrated traditional maritime craftsmanship, tool mastery, and classic boat design through a blend of stunning floating exhibits and intensive skills workshops.

The John Gardner Small Craft Workshop, hosted concurrently with the WoodenBoat Show by the John Gardner Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association (TSCA), took a distinctively hands-on approach to maritime heritage.
While the main show grounds featured pristine static displays and professional vendors, the TSCA workshop anchored itself at Australia Beach (just behind the John Gardner Boat Shop) with an active, community-driven focus under this year’s theme: “We Use our Boats.”

Key Elements of the Workshop

• Traditional Craft in Action: Rather than keeping vessels strictly on trailers or docks, TSCA members brought their own user-built and restored traditional small craft to the river. The goal was to maintain a continuous, living backdrop of classic small boats under oar and sail on the Mystic River throughout the weekend.
• The Free Boathouse Livery: In partnership with the museum, the workshop granted attendees free access to row and sail working replicas from Mystic Seaport’s permanent Small Craft Collection, allowing people to get a genuine feel for historical designs on the water.
• Early Morning "Cruises-in-Company": Before the museum gates officially opened to the general public on Saturday and Sunday mornings (at 8:00 AM), workshop participants gathered at Australia Beach for group cruises. Boats traveled either upriver past the highway bridge into the Mystic River salt marshes, or downriver past the Seaport Village and moored classic yachts toward Six-Penny Island.
• Peer-Led Skills Demos: Rotating 30-minute demonstrations were held daily at the TSCA tent. These focused on practical skills for small-boat handling and maintenance, including traditional sail rigging, the art of sculling, and hardware making.
• The "Conrad" Experience: In true, communal messing-about fashion, registered workshop participants had the unique opportunity to stay overnight right on the museum grounds, bunking in the pipe berths aboard the historic full-rigged training ship Joseph Conrad.

The workshop honored the legacy of its namesake, John Gardner—the legendary Mystic Seaport curator and technical editor who essentially catalyzed the modern traditional small craft revival. It served as a reminder that these historic designs are at their best when they are getting wet, being rowed, and being shared peer-to-peer.

Ben Ellcome and Maple Andrews shared the latest news from New London Community Boat Works (NLCB). The non-profit focuses on skills development for young people. NCLB's mission:

"We honor New London's maritime heritage by connecting the community to the sea through education, boat building, and pathways into the marine trades. NLCB is fostering pride, purpose, and a sense of place for future generations."   

Learn more about their activities at: https://www.nlcboatworks.org/

Ledyard Rowin's coach Russell Smith shared a picture of his young rowing team's recent trip to New York City to participate in a rowing regatta (below, left).

We also were able to view a nice plaque created by Cameron Taylor in memory of longtime JGTSCA member Rob Pittaway (below, right).

During Rob's time the Small Boat department was headed by the late John Gardner, an expert on small boat construction and restoration and a prominent figure in the national revival of interest in wooden boats. Today the mission of the Museum's John Gardner Small Boat Shop is "to study, teach and encourage the construction and use of traditional small sailing and rowing boats." (Museum website, 2020)  Rob was a member of the John Gardner Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association based at the University of Connecticut's campus at Avery Point, Groton. He was an avid sailor, of course, and his wife Louise shared his interest in all things nautical as curator for many years of Stonington's Lighthouse Museum.

Rob Pittaway, was the author of Building the Half-Model. He was a past president and trustee of the Custom House Maritime Museum in New London, CT. Here he shares a laugh with fellow trustee Russell DeMarco. 

To learn more about his book, see mcguirelibrary1998.omeka.net/exhibits/show/rob-pittaway-s-half-hulls--the/about-the-author

Robert Alexander "Rob" Pittaway was born Feb. 5, 1941, in New York City to Adelaide Lathrop Ketchum and Rudolph Alexander Pittaway. He died Aug. 11, 2025, at the Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London.

Rob grew up in Cambridge, Mass. where he attended the Shady Hill School and the Cambridge School of Weston. As a child, he was known for his sunny temperament and very blond hair. The family spent summers in Old Saybrook, where his mother called him "shiner" after the shiner fish in the Connecticut River.

He graduated from Colorado College and then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan where, influenced by summers spent learning to sail at a camp in Maine and family vacations in Westport Point, Mass., he studied naval architecture. He married Louise Davis of New York and they settled in Stonington, where he worked for the Mystic Seaport, mentored by John Gardner. In addition, he volunteered at the New London Customs House – and was a member of the Wooden Boat Club and the Formosa Yacht Club, where he was known for having consumed three hamburgers in a row.

Rob's passion was to design and create boats in many forms. At once a stickler to the rules of traditional design, he loved to experiment, and once made a square rowboat in his sister's apartment in Cambridge. He made small models out of whatever material was at hand and produced half models of sailing ships, some of which are on exhibit at the New London Maritime Museum. He designed the seaworthy Stonington Pulling Boat, launched to much celebration from Don's Dock in Stonington April 20,1980.

Rob was known for his humor, exactitude in all things, rich vocabulary, curiosity in understanding how things work, and his resilience in the face of the many health challenges that came his way.