LOCALadk Magazine

32 Summer 2018 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Surrounded by tall pine trees and tucked away on a quiet road just outside the town of Olmstedville NY, is Hornbeck Boats, owned by Peter Hornbeck. I had driven four hours with my car loaded down with photography gear and was ex- cited to finally meet Peter. Ann, Peter's wonderful wife, met me first. She took my arm and led me off on a wonderful and thorough tour of the entire complex. As we made our way around the many buildings that make up Hornbeck boats, she made me feel right at home and ver y welcome. It was with great pride that Ann described in detail the pro- cess of building Hornbeck boats. She explained all the dif- ferent aspects necessar y to take a Hornbeck boat from start to finish. Forty-five minutes later, when we returned to the main building, we found Pete waiting inside. The office has the feel of a relaxed living room, with rock- ing chairs scattered throughout and pictures of Hornbeck boats hanging mingled with Pete's watercolor landscapes. Peter greeted me warmly and invited me to sit in one of the rocking chairs. "Let's talk!" he said. He is a passionate and engaging conversationalist with a lifetime-worth of great stories. He told me about his early employment as a youth working long hours for Buffalo Steel, and how his parents eventually decided to move closer to the Adirondack Park and the wilderness. His parents' choice to move the family is what opened young Pete's eyes to the wonders of nature and, in Peter's words, forever changed him. I was obser ving Peter seating behind a sprawling desk. He was holding a model of his original boat design, turning the model end over end. Peter's expression as he looked at the model impressed me as deep longing to be in the water with his boat once again. Hornbeck Boats was founded in 1971. Peter and Ann used seed money from their wedding to construct the first build- ing. In the 1970s boats were not as well built as they are to- day. " We would paddle in the morning and repair the boats in the afternoon," Peter said. His original boat was based on the design of the Lost Pond boat, made famous by boat builder John Henr y Rushton (1843-1906). Rushton built the first of several lightweight canoes for George Washington Sears, aka Nessmuk. Nessmuk's writing in Field and Stream helped popularize wilderness canoeing as well as create a demand for Rushton's boats. Rushton's famous Sair y Gamp weighs just 10.5lbs and is on display at the Adirondack Expe- rience, in Blue Mountain Lake. Peter also has a boat on dis- play there – the replica of the Lost Pond. The ultralight pack canoes that Hornbeck makes are typ- ically paddled with a double bladed or kayak paddle. Here in the Adirondacks they are popular for pond-hopping. The By William Cohea

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