Summer 2019 LOCALadk Magazine 71
LOCALadk
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The Adirondack Guideboat: Its Origins, Its Builders, and
Their Boats by Dr. Stephen Sulavik
If you have any interest in the histor y and lore of the Ad-
irondack Guideboat, then you will enjoy this new book. It
was the author's wish, and almost life long pursuit, to in-
clude a complete histor y of the Guideboat. He unfortunate-
ly passed away suddenly in 2015. Thankfully, the task of
completing the book was taken on by Edward Comstock Jr.
and Christopher Woodward.
The book is in two parts, The Histor y of the Adirondack
Guideboat, which focuses in great details on the evolution
of the boat. The second part is, Guideboats and their Build-
ers. Dr. Sulavik was intent on including ever y major builder.
He shares with us a biographical look at each, and what was
unique and special about their boat. The book is filled with
color photos and rich illustrations.
Dr. Sulavik tells us in his own words why he wanted to
write this book.
This book has been written not only to tell the stor y of
this unique and admirable boat, but also to recognize and
celebrate the inventiveness of its original builders and
the singular culture of their time and place.
We asked new boat builder John Homer why the book is
so special to him, and what it has meant to his boat building.
"The book tells the histor y of the Adirondack Guideboat
in ways it hasn't been explained to me before, and answers
some questions I had wondered about. It also talks about
some of the boat builder's construction techniques, and
shows pictures of different characteristics each builder had
to help in identif ying who built the boat, due to the fact that
not all builders had what was called a builder's plate (name
plate)."
