Beginning with the childhood summers spent in the bays and marshes of Westport, Massachusetts, Bob Baker loved boats. Even as a child, he would find old boats and, often as possible, bring them home with him. Out of practical experience and careful observation, Bob arrived at his own remarkable technical and aesthetic understanding of watercraft.Bob was an artist and a craftsman of the highest order, and his interests and talents are evident in his work. As Jon Wilson of WoodenBoat Magazine wrote, "Bob loved things traditional, and taught others to love them, but was not bound by tradition . . . His unfailing eye for proportion and detail was thus the object of considerable admiration for all who knew him. His subtle touch was in evidence everywhere around his shop, his house, his boats , and in the numerous designs he created."
When Bob Baker died in 1983, he left a legacy of extraordinary work - beautiful boats and boat designs, models, carvings, and a large collection of photos, sketches and plans. In many instances, Bob's work captured and illumined the vanishing craft of wooden boat building.
Bob spent his life with boats, sailing them, drawing them, restoring them, and, whenever possible, taking lines off them. His plans and drawings are a reflection of his love and understanding of design and of the sea. They are also a reflection of the ongoing commitment to Bob's work carried by his family.
The boats plans (no kits available) are grouped into five building categories: easy, basic intermediate, intermediate, intermediate-advanced and advanced based on size and complexity of construction. Please note that prior boat building experience is assumed for all of these categories. Some plans do NOT include construction plans.
Read more about the life of Robert “Bob” Baker (1927-1983) in a biography written by his widow Anne “Pete” Baker (1929-2011), in Robert H. Baker - A Legacy of Small Craft. The book should be available through Amazon beginning September 2014.
Download Individual Design PDF File:
Many of Robert H. Baker plans now available through Mystic
Seaport Collections: Ship Plans Department. To order plans listed here, please
contact Mystic Seaport:
(unless otherwise noted on the plans list or in the catalog)
http://www.mysticseaport.org/research/requests/
http://www.mysticseaport.org/research/collections/ships-plans/
If you do not find what you are looking for in Mystic’s Ship Plans Collection
please contact them directly at
collections@mysticseaport.org or call (860) 572.5360 or (860) 572.5367
Also available at Mystic Seaport Collections are all of Robert Baker’s papers,
photographs, additional plans, and other related information.
E-mail contact for questions about Bob, Baker Boat Works or to share stories:
E-mail: Baker Boat Works