Local vessel makes final berth in Mystic Seaport

A vessel built on the Vineyard joined the country’s largest maritime museum.

Late last month, the Mystic Seaport Museum’s watercraft operations committee unanimously voted to induct the Sheldrake, a 19-foot gaff sloop designed by Nat Benjamin and built by Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway in Vineyard Haven, into the Connecticut institution’s permanent collection. The vessel will be a part of the museum’s Wells Boat Hall, and featured in the “Wooden Boat Revival Neighborhood,” according to a press release from Gannon & Benjamin. 

“We are honored that Mystic Seaport Museum has accepted Sheldrake into its permanent collection. We are grateful for the recognition, and delighted that one of our favorite boats will be represented in America’s finest maritime museum,” the Island boatbuilders said in the release. The release also states that the addition of the Sheldrake into the collection was a “meaningful recognition of the enduring work of Gannon & Benjamin — and of Benjamin’s lifelong dedication to the art of wooden boat design and building.” 

The world-renowned boatbuilders have called the Vineyard Haven waterfront location home since early 1980. While the duo that founded the boatyard, Benjamin and Ross Gannon, retain ownership, they handed the reins of the daily operations to the next generation of leaders at the organization last year. 

The Sheldrake was built in 2015 for Steve and Maureen Corkery of Shelter Island, N.Y., who commissioned the vessel the same year. The Corkery family also owned two other boats built by Gannon & Benjamin, a 2021 bella named Daybreak and a 2025 canvasback named Lucky Duck. 

“She was built by G&B the same year, and sailed by the Corkery family until old age required them to reluctantly give up a long and inspiring life on the water,” Benjamin told The Times. 

Benjamin said the vessel is “traditionally built,” with “white cedar planking fastened to steam-bent white oak frames.” The stem, backbone, and rudder are made out of white oak and black locust. The raked transom is built with wana, a tropical hardwood from Suriname. The vessel has no auxiliary motor. 

“Sheldrake is nimble and quick, and a joy to sail,” Benjamin said. “We would love to build another.” 

Dana Hewson, former vice president of watercraft preservation and programs, and the Clark senior curator for watercraft, was quoted in the release as highlighting the marine railway as a “highly respected yard” that has built many “beautiful, high-quality, high-performing yachts of a variety of sizes.”

“They have been true to a style of building that has all but disappeared in our times,” Hewson said. “All of this [was] made possible due to the knowledge and experience of the principles. I have heard there is a movement afoot to preserve their yard along the waterfront. In the past, the collection has included representative boats of significant designers/owners/builders, and I suggest that be done in this case.”